March 30: Following His Guidance.
HIS FOREKNOWLEDGE.
"From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He."--John 13:19
When it comes to guidance in a particularly difficult process, we look for the most knowledgeable and well-informed guides. For example, as my parents went through cancer treatments, we looked for experts in their specific fields: doctors who could give accurate diagnoses and prognoses. Even though no human being is omniscient, an informed forecast of the possible outcome and progress of the disease was of the utmost importance.
God has complete foreknowledge of the future. Furthermore, He has communicated to us the great events of redemption history ahead of time. In this way, God has revealed His sovereignty, and His pre knowledge throughout the ages. This principle is explained in Isaiah 48:3-6. These verses make plain God's pattern of revealing major redemptive events before they happened, so that when He acted, His people would recognize that it was He who had acted. Jesus spoke in similar terms, and His foreknowledge was another proof of His divine identity and of His submission to a prior plan. Before these events happened, He spoke of His own sacrifice and the one who would betray Him (see John 13:18, 19). The purpose of this foretelling revelation was to help His disciples to believe in Him as the great "I am" (Greek ego eimi; verse 19), as they surveyed the events in retrospect. Barclay explains: "Jesus knew what was happening. He knew the cost and he was ready to pay it. He did not want the disciples to think that He was caught up in a blind web of circumstances from which He could not escape. He was not going to be killed; He was choosing to die. At the moment they did not, and could not, see that, but He wanted to be sure that a day would come when they would look back and remember and understand." * We can definitely entrust our circumstances, and our future, to the One who, with complete foreknowledge, chose to die for us. He knows our past, present, and future. He knows what is to come hereafter and has already revealed that He is coming back for us! Hallelujah!
My Response:______________________________________________________
* William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol.2 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 143.
HIS FOREKNOWLEDGE.
"From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He."--John 13:19
When it comes to guidance in a particularly difficult process, we look for the most knowledgeable and well-informed guides. For example, as my parents went through cancer treatments, we looked for experts in their specific fields: doctors who could give accurate diagnoses and prognoses. Even though no human being is omniscient, an informed forecast of the possible outcome and progress of the disease was of the utmost importance.
God has complete foreknowledge of the future. Furthermore, He has communicated to us the great events of redemption history ahead of time. In this way, God has revealed His sovereignty, and His pre knowledge throughout the ages. This principle is explained in Isaiah 48:3-6. These verses make plain God's pattern of revealing major redemptive events before they happened, so that when He acted, His people would recognize that it was He who had acted. Jesus spoke in similar terms, and His foreknowledge was another proof of His divine identity and of His submission to a prior plan. Before these events happened, He spoke of His own sacrifice and the one who would betray Him (see John 13:18, 19). The purpose of this foretelling revelation was to help His disciples to believe in Him as the great "I am" (Greek ego eimi; verse 19), as they surveyed the events in retrospect. Barclay explains: "Jesus knew what was happening. He knew the cost and he was ready to pay it. He did not want the disciples to think that He was caught up in a blind web of circumstances from which He could not escape. He was not going to be killed; He was choosing to die. At the moment they did not, and could not, see that, but He wanted to be sure that a day would come when they would look back and remember and understand." * We can definitely entrust our circumstances, and our future, to the One who, with complete foreknowledge, chose to die for us. He knows our past, present, and future. He knows what is to come hereafter and has already revealed that He is coming back for us! Hallelujah!
My Response:______________________________________________________
* William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol.2 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), 143.
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