How does God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will work together? This is a core question since apart of free-will, man would be but an automaton or robot.

• How can God be Omnipotent (all powerful) and we still have free-will to perform in accord or not?
• If God foreknew men would crucify Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23), and He knew of all the future miseries and failures of mankind that would follow his followers; why have man at all?

From the human perspective, many issues are difficult to fathom. We have to look at them from God’s perspective. In the end, the Biblical events we read really do not end in failure. Granted, God knew how events would turn out negatively, and yet, He foresightedly used those events to accomplish His will. When considered in light of the overall scheme of things, these events were not failures. Despite giving man free will, permitting man do just about anything he wanted, God accomplished what He wanted, that’s the amazing part! E.g., God knew Jesus would be crucified and that it would liberate the believers among mankind from Sin and death. That’s the “wisdom of God” and as you will see, He always outsmarts Satan. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 3:19, “He (God) taketh the wise in their own craftiness (cunning).”

Now, consider the 400 years that here concerns the pagan Amorites and Israel. It demonstrates God’s plan in accord with His fore-knowledge. Here, the LORD foretells what will occur as seen by the word “shall.”

¹³And he (the LORD) said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land (Egypt) that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; ¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they (the children of Jacob/Israel) come out with great substance. ¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Gen. 15:13-16

Remember, God as creator of the earth had promised “the land” to Abram’s “seed” (Gen 12:7, etc.). This above, concerned the nation Israel that had not even been born yet, spoken a decade before Isaac’s birth, and many decades before the births of Jacob and his 12 sons, the fathers of the 12 tribes. God gave Israel a 400-year-long opportunity to multiply numerically while in Egypt, while He let the Amorites reach their sin limit in the land of Canaan, Israel’s promised land. Israel started in Egypt with Jacob and about 70 others (cf. Exodus 1:5) but Israel was some two million strong when she came out of Egypt. By allowing the 400-year period of Israel’s servitude in Egypt:

1) God proved, to the Israelites, the Amorites, and other nations, that He was justified in evicting the pagan Amorites and;

2) He gave Israel 400 years to multiply so they could be greater in number to take “the land” of the Amorites. That is why God put up with the Amorites for so long. They had not yet reached their sin limit, “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full;” (Gen. 15:16); Israel had not yet attained her population.

The Foreknowledge of God and Man’s Free Will

The best example of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will operating together is how Israel responded to Jesus of Nazareth when He offered Himself as King/Messiah.

“Him (Jesus), being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye (Israel) have taken, and by wicked hands (of the Romans) have crucified and slain:” Acts 2:23.

There is no question about it, God foreknew Jesus Christ’s rejection, betrayal, and crucifixion. Before creation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit had already agreed that God the Son, Jesus Christ, would die for the sins of all of mankind.

¹⁴  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: ¹⁵  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

On the other hand, all three Persons of the Triune Godhead foreknew of man’s rebellion, how the Satan-controlled “the princes (leaders)” of Israel would conspire with Satan controlled “the princes (authorities)” of Rome to kill Jesus (Psa. 2:1-3; Act 4:23-28).

²⁷ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, ²⁸ For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Acts 4:27-28 (KJV)

God revealed to the Old Testament prophets the information that was already determined in eternity past. “But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). The Old Testament prophets wrote about a suffering Messiah, centuries before Calvary; Psa. 22 and Isa. 53 are two of the clearest examples of this. Luke amplifies this:

⁴⁴ he (Jesus) said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. ⁴⁵Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: ⁴⁷And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:44-47

So, there is God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will operating together to bring about Calvary’s crosswork. Man wanted to rid himself of Jesus Christ and thus he conspired to murder Jesus Christ. But then, after Calvary, and especially through the writings of the Apostle Paul’s thirteen epistles (Romans through Philemon), God revealed the benefits of Calvary (cf. 1Corinthians 2:6-14), how that it was the means whereby man’s sin debt could be paid. God did not force Jesus Christ on those who rejected Him, and yet, He used the results of man’s free will— that is He used the rejected Messiah’s shed blood to pay for our sins. This is the wisdom of God.

He took all this into account, and actually outsmarted Satan. Satan thought Christ’s death would hinder God’s program and plan for creation, but God had another design in mind! (see 1 Cor. 2:6-8).

⁶Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: ⁷But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery (secreted plan of God), even the hidden (concealed) wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: ⁸Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Cor. 2:6-8

The “would not” if they knew they were executing God’s eternal plan of redemption for all mankind. They would have preferred one still alive Jesus of Nazareth… rather than… the crucified Lord’s life multiplied to His life in every believer.

The Old Testament prophets also talked about the healing and teaching ministry of the Messiah/Christ (Isaiah 35:4-6; 53:4; 61:1-2). Jesus Christ had to come to earth and be incarnated in order to fulfill those verses; performing miracles, and teaching the doctrine that those miracles communicated. Had Jesus Christ not come, He would not have fulfilled the verses that needed to be fulfilled in order to validate God’s Word. Those hundreds of verses needed to be fulfilled, and they were fulfilled at Christ’s First Coming/Advent.

Ultimately, Jesus Christ had to die. There was no other way to pay for Israel’s sins, and there was no other way to pay for our sins. Jesus Christ had to die, and God simply used the wickedness of man to bring it to pass (see Psa. 2). This is evident in N.T. Hebrews 10:4-14 which quotes Psalm 40:6-8:

⁴ For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. ⁵ Wherefore when he cometh into the world (the Messiah), he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: ⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. ⁷ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. ⁸ Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; ⁹ Then said he (the Son), Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first (covenant of Law), that he may establish the second (covenant). ¹⁰ By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:4-10)

The only way that man’s sin-debt could be paid is if God Himself would die (only He was sinless). God’s righteousness had been offended, and only God’s righteousness could be offered to compensate satisfy that sin-debt. That is why God became a man: He needed blood to offer and make atonement for the sins of man. Man wanted to kill righteous Jesus Christ, and so God used man’s ill intentions to bring about His will after all. Now, Jesus’ shed blood is the means whereby God will one day reconcile all of heaven and earth to Himself (Colossians 1:20) today, Satan has corrupted heaven and earth (Job 15:15; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 6:12).

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:23-28, how God in His foreknowledge gave up Jesus Christ to go Calvary’s cross to shed His sinless blood to pay for our sins:

²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ²⁴  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ²⁵Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; ²⁶To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. ²⁷Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. ²⁸Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:23-28

When we come by faith alone in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for our sins, we can receive the righteousness of God Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can be accepted of God, have a home in heaven, play a role in God’s restoration of creation to Himself, and many other benefits. God saw these, the end results of Calvary, and that is why He let it fall out like that. See, in the overall scheme of things, neither the Amorites extended stay nor Calvary’s crosswork were failures.

How the Bible defines ‘free will”:

In the beginning, Adam and Eve were fully blessed of God. Sin, suffering, and death were unknown. God’s only commandment was:

¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16-17

When Satan attacked mankind, he singled out the woman. After craftily asking Eve if God really said not to eat of every tree, Satan observed Eve depart even further from the truth.

² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may ‘eat’ of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:2-5

Notice above that Eve neglected the abundance God gave her and Adam. She omitted “freely” from “freely eat,” ignoring the free will God gave her. God of course is the ultimate free will. Adam and Eve were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-28), but she was misled to believe that she could have a better position (“as gods” Gen. 3:5). Once Adam ate, they lost that perfect image identity, and all its provisions. They exercised their free will and chose wrong. God certainly didn’t cause them to do right, otherwise they would not have failed. He certainly did not cause them to do wrong, God does not cause anyone to sin! It was their free-will choice, and they chose to ignore God’s will. God did not force them to do anything.

Here, Luke 7:29-30 is another passage that describes the free-will of man.

²⁹ And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

According to the Holy Bible, again, God’s will can be rejected and the Pharisees and lawyers did reject it, this is free will. They did not want to be water baptized, they did not want to repent, they did not want to confess their sins like Moses instructed Israel in Lev. 26:40-41 when under God’s fifth course of chastisement, and they did not want to be a “kingdom of priests” (Exo. 19:5-6), so God did not force them. If they wanted to die in their sins and go to eternal destruction; God valued freedom to the extent that He let them make their choice. They did not want to submit to God’s righteousness—they were content with their self-righteousness in religion (cf. Rom. 10:1-3).

What Jesus said to the Jews in John 5:39-40 is very enlightening: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. ⁴⁰And ye (the Pharisees) will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Did God choose these people not to have eternal life? Not at all.

Contrary to the Calvinists’ claim that say that God chooses some people for heaven and others for hell, these Jews simply did not want Jesus Christ. They did not want salvation from their sins. They refused to have Jesus Christ. We see this amplified here in Jesus’ words.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would (or willed) not! Matthew 23:37

They didn’t want Him to gather them, so He left them alone in their spiritual ignorance and left them on their hell-bound course that they preferred!

One more clear passage about free will should suffice, describing of the horrors of Daniel’s 70th week:

¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish (Gk., apollymi, are to be fully destroyed); because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

The Bible says these people willed not to receive God’s love or have anything to do with Him, they chose to stay lost and on their way to eternal destruction; so, He gave them over to the lie of the Devil. The verse above is in the context of the time of the Antichrist, during the future events of the seven-year Tribulation.

The fact is that God has “FOREKNOWN” every believer from “before the foundation of the world.”

The key to correctly understanding the age old question of predestination is found in this word “foreknow” in Rom. 8:29 (below). If you “foreknow” something, it does not mean you predestined or caused it to happen. In the case of the salvation of the lost, God ‘foreknows’ exactly who will respond to the hearing of the gospel “in faith” and who will not.

“(Concerning members of “the body of Christ”) whom he did “FOREKNOW,” he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29)

“(Paul to Christians) According as he hath chosen us in him (in Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should (thereby) be (counted as) holy and without blame before him in love: Ephesians 1:4

“(Peter to Israel’s believers) elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification (the setting apart) of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1Pet 1:2)

The fact is that the Lord Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. The all-knowing Lord works in the lives of those whom He has “foreknown.” He works to set the circumstances and situations that provide the ‘foreknown ones’ an opportunity to “hear” the “gospel of Christ” and it will touch their hearts. He foreknows exactly who will respond in “faith” … to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.

When the Spirit enables a man to see that he fails to live up to God's holy law, man will despair of himself, recognize his need of the Savior. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), the “Prince of Preachers,” said this;

“... the Holy Spirit comes and shows the sinner the cross of Christ, gives him eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve, and says, “Look to yonder cross. That Man died to save sinners; you feel you are a sinner; He died to save you.” And then the Holy Spirit enables the heart to believe, and come to Christ.”

His Spirit speaks into our hearts through the circumstances of our lives, causing us to ponder the important matters of life; or perhaps while reading a Bible verse or reading words of truth that may gained by an article — any time the true “gospel (good news) of the grace of God” is made known there is the potential and also the “power of God” present to kindle saving “faith” in them.

The Lord is always beckoning the foreknown ones to come to Him… by His Spirit speaking into their hearts, individually. Every foreknown lost person will hear “the gospel” and respond in “faith.” In that way He increases or enlarges the number of members of “His body” that He might be expressed for eternity.

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:28-29