The Divine foresight.
"Before the world began." This is one of the glories of the gospel. It foresees all events in history, and provides for all the necessities of a being who is born to be redeemed.
I. THERE ARE NO AFTER-THOUGHTS WITH GOD. Our vision is imperfect. Our plans miscarry, because we have not taken in all aspects of the future. Sometimes our provision for that future is too limited; sometimes it is ill adapted, and we say, had we foreseen, we could have avoided disappointment, disaster, and defeat. All the future lies clearly before the omniscient gaze of God. "The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world."
II. GOD'S PURPOSES ARE REVEALED IN HIS PROMISES. ]Not before the earth began, but before the world began—the world of busy men and women; the world of toil and strife, of sin and sorrow, and the developments of guilt and grief. Then it was that God declared that "the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." This involves all. Sin would have involved death; but the eternal life which St. Paul speaks of here was the gift of God in the incarnate Savior. "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."—W.M.S.