by Jared C. Wilson
God's love for his children is grounded in the eternal reality of his very self. It is predicated on nothing but the purity of his very nature, the endless-both-ways love he both has and is.
Paul helps us ponder it this way:
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." - Romans 8:29
I note that Paul does not say "for what he foreknew." In other words, it is not as if God looked through time, saw you would be an asset to the organization and so chose you. He was not scouring the future for good apples for his prospective bushel.
Christians, God did not choose you based on what he foreknew you would do or be. He did not survey your good works and clear you for incorporation into the body of his son. No, none of us would qualify that way. We cannot be good enough, smart enough, or doggone it, likeable enough to earn credit with the three-times-holy God.
Paul says "for those he foreknew." For whom he foreknew.
Certainly God has a prescient foreknowledge. He is perfectly omniscient; thus, he knows all things, including things that, from our vantage point, are yet to be. But the foreknowledge spoken of in Romans 8:29 is a relational foreknowledge. He knew you before there was a you. And he predestined you to be conformed to the image of his Son.
Apart from your works, despite your sin. He saw it all. And he wanted you. He chose you.
This means that God's loving intentions for you began before the foundation of the world. From eternity past, he has loved you. Which means he will not stop. For eternity future, his love is yours, never to wane, never to be revoked.
It is not what you can do for him that he wants. He needs nothing. It is you yourself that he wants. You the unlovable. You the weak lover of him. He loves you with a boundless, free, and gracious love. He always has.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16
Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/he-loved-you-before-there-was-a-you