1 Peter 1:20

20. Foreordained Rather, foreknown. In itself the word means nothing else. St. Peter, in his speech on the Pentecost, speaks of Christ as “delivered by the determinate counsel (or decree) and foreknowledge of God,” (Acts 2:23;) but here he speaks only of the foreknowledge. Most assuredly it was the purpose of God, framed before the creation of the world, to save men through Christ’s voluntary sacrifice; but it is not so stated here, nor was there occasion for it. Evidently the apostle is replying to a supposed objection, that this redemption by Christ is a new thing a remedy that, after ages of sin and woe, suddenly came into the mind of God; and, to the confirmation of believers and confusion of sceptics, he meets it by saying that God had known it all along, even from eternity, as he also foreknew man’s fall and wretchedness. Christ was, in the mind of God, foreknown and certain as the lamb of sacrifice, although but lately made manifest to the sight and knowledge of men in his incarnation. This fills out the contrast, and furnishes perfect stability for faith.