Romans 11:2: God Has Not Rejected His People Whom He Foreknew.

Romans 11:2
[2] God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? (ESV)

As wayward as the people of Israel had become they had not been rejected by God. In the previous verse Paul raised the question as to whether or not God would reject his people. No way! In this verse Paul continues to show us why God will not reject his people. He gives us a beautiful word here: foreknowledge. We should probably look at what it means.

What is foreknowledge? We know that God exists outside of the confines of time and space. While it may be hard for our finite minds to fully grasp we can still believe that God in some way knew us before we were even born. He knows the end from the beginning. Ephesians 1:4 reminds us that, "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

If God knew us before the foundation of the world it begs the question, "What was his "knowing us" based on? Many people think that this means that God looked down the portal of time and saw that we would choose to follow God and so he chose to "know us" based on our choice. There is a problem with this view. It trades God's sovereignty for man's will. Does God submit to man's will?

A better view of this concept of "foreknowledge" is that God looked through the portal of time and saw us in our wicked, sinful condition and chose to love us! Romans 5:8 says, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God sovereignly chose to love the people of Israel. He chose to sovereignly love us. He does not reject those whom he has loved.

God loves you. He loved you before you ever returned his love. He will not stop loving you. Take a moment and praise God for his amazing, eternal, love.