God foresaw who would respond to his offer of salvation in faith. “Foreknow-ledge” has covenant implications. Foreknowledge indicates that God freely chose to set his covenant love on certain individuals before the creation of the world, and foreordained that those whom he foreknew would come to salvation at the appointed time. So Peter uses the same word when speaking of Jesus Christ being “foreknown before the foundation of the world” (v 20). God the Father was in intimate relation with Jesus,