As J I Packer put it God "knows and foreknows, all things, and His foreknowledge is foreordination; He, therefore, will have the last word, both in world history and in the destiny of every man."
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary says "God’s foreknowledge is much more than foresight. God does not know future events and human actions because He foresees them; He knows them because He wills them to happen. Thus God’s foreknowledge is an act of His will." (
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Foreknowledge Based on Foreordination - God's foreknowledge, according to the Scripture teaching, is based upon His plan or eternal purpose, which embraces everything that comes to pass. God is never represented as a mere onlooker seeing the future course of events, but having no part in it. That God has such a plan is the teaching of the entire Scripture.
Foreknowledge (
4268)(
prognosis from verb
proginosko from pro = before + ginosko = to know) literally means to know beforehand. God's foreknowledge means not only that He knew beforehand but that He also planned beforehand (cf. similar idea in
Ex 33:17;
Jer 1:5;
Amos 3:2;
Matthew 7:22;
7:23 [note]). As used of God, the word prognosis means foreknowledge with a purpose that can never be frustrated.
John MacArthur on prognosis - Significantly, the word appears here in the instrumental dative case. That shows that it was the means by which Christ's deliverance to His enemies took place. Yet, mere knowledge cannot perform such an act. Foreordination can act, however, and that is the New Testament meaning of prognōsis. (MacArthur NT Commentary - Acts)
The natural human tendency is to believe that God's foreknowledge simply refers to His foresight, the idea that He knew beforehand. In a discussion of God's foreknowledge regarding election, Dr MacArthur explains why men equate foreknowledge with foresight.
Click here (select Chosen by God - Part 2 - Scroll down to heading entitled "Man's Decline").
John Phillips - The death of Christ was foreknown of God in a past eternity. When God acted in creation, He also acted in redemption. Jesus is described as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (
Rev. 13:8). God knew that, given a free will, man would sin; that His holiness would demand full payment for that sin; that His love would provide a free pardon for that sin; that in the fullness of time the Father would send the Son and that the Spirit would prepare His body; that God would become incarnate in Christ; and that, in the end, man would murder Him. All that was foreknown and taken into account by God's determinate counsel. (Exploring Acts)
Steven Cole - Peter shows that Jesus was not killed because He was a victim of His enemies. He was killed because God predetermined before the world began that Jesus would die as the Savior of His people.
Isaiah 53:10+ prophesied, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.” And so rather than invalidating Jesus as Lord and Messiah, His death actually validated Him, since it was a fulfillment of God’s eternal decree. (
The Sermon that Launched the Church)
David G. Peterson remarks, “God’s foreknowledge (Gk. prognōsis) means more than his ability to anticipate the future. It is another way of talking about his determination of events in advance, according to his own plan.” (The Acts of the Apostles)
Now we see the mysterious juxtaposition of God's sovereignty (His predetermined plan and foreknowledge) and man's responsibility (culpability in this case). So while God set the plan of redemption in motion even "before time began" (
2 Ti 1:9NET+), men are still held responsible for their volitional (willful) choices.
You nailed to a cross - First Peter incriminates the Jewish listeners! Talk about bold confrontation! Can you imagine the audience beginning to squirm? Now of course they did not physically, literally nail Jesus to the Cross, but they made it possible by crying out to Pilate, "Crucify, crucify Him!" (
Lk 23:21+) even though Pilate thought Jesus was innocent and sought to try to release Him (
Lk 23:22,
23,
24+).
By the hands of godless men - "By the hands of" is Hebraistic for "by means of." Next, Peter incriminates the godless Gentiles, aka, the pagan Romans, especially the Roman soldiers but also by implication Pontius Pilate (cf
Acts 4:27).
from precept austin