Relational Foreknowledge: Balancing God’s Sovereignty and Love

By Kristian Klepes

Predestination is one of the most challenging doctrines for pastors to teach, for it is hard to balance God’s sovereignty and love. Many believers feel caught between two extremes: a deterministic view that bases God’s sovereignty on a version of free will that can choose only sin at the expense of God’s love, and a prescience view that bases God’s love on free will at the expense of God’s sovereignty.

Wesleyan theology insists on striking the balance found in Scripture — one that preserves God’s sovereignty while also honoring God’s love, thereby reflecting the relational heart of God.

The relational foreknowledge model seeks to articulate this balance with greater biblical clarity. It argues that God predestined the elect based on His relational foreknowledge of who would humble themselves by His prevenient grace in response to His searching of our hearts. This model integrates two biblical themes — the God who searches hearts and the God who saves the humble — with the time-tested Wesleyan Arminian account of predestination.

Model Summary: Predestination and Prevenient Grace

At its core, distilled into a sentence, the relational foreknowledge model teaches the following:

God predestined the elect based on His relational foreknowledge of who would humble themselves by His prevenient grace in response to His testing of our hearts.

The model’s main elements are as follows:

God searched every human heart before creation because He knows the end from the beginning (Romans 8:27–29; see also Acts 15:7–9, Jeremiah 17:5–14).
God tested all hearts to see who would be willing to humble themselves before Him (Revelation 2:21–23; see also John 2:23–25, 1 Samuel 16:7).
Prevenient grace enabled humility, which is a heart posture instead of a work because humility consists of the cessation of resistance to God’s mighty hand of prevenient grace (1 Peter 5:5–6; see also James 4:6–10, Proverbs 3:34).
Once people humbled themselves, God saved them by revealing Jesus Christ to them (Matthew 11:25–26; see also Luke 18:14, 2 Samuel 22:28).
Those who were saved by God became the elect — predestined according to God’s relational foreknowledge and sovereign will.

“God predestined the elect based on His relational foreknowledge of who would humble themselves by His prevenient grace in response to His testing of our hearts.”

Searching hearts is the mechanism of election; humility enabled by prevenient grace is the condition of election.

Biblical Foundation 1: God’s Foreknowledge Is Relational

Romans 8:27–29 — Before Paul teaches that God predestined those whom He foreknew, he immediately identifies God as He “who searches our hearts.” This means that God’s foreknowledge is not abstract prescience, but the result of His relational searching of human hearts. Thus, God relationally identified those who would humbly love Him in response to His call, and He predestined those very people to become conformed to the image of His Son.
Revelation 2:21–23 — Jesus proclaims that He is the One who searches hearts and minds of people to repay everyone according to our deeds. The context of His proclamation deals with how He gave Jezebel time to repent of her immorality. As the One who searches hearts and minds, Christ repays everyone according to whether we were willing or unwilling to repent.
John 2:23–25 — John defined exactly how Jesus knows mankind. Jesus knows mankind because He knows what is in all people. By knowing what is in all people, Jesus knows the secrets of every person’s heart. When Jesus foreknew the elect, therefore, He foreknew the secrets of our hearts.
Acts 15:7–9 — When Peter stated that God accepted the Gentiles, he deliberately referred to God as the one who knows the heart. This means that God accepted the Gentiles on the basis of knowing their hearts and not discriminating between the Jews or the Gentiles. God purified the hearts of the Gentiles by faith.
Acts 16:14 — The Lord opens people’s hearts to be responsive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lydia humbled herself by God’s prevenient grace to become a worshipper of God. When the Lord saw Lydia’s humble heart posture, He opened Lydia’s heart to the gospel and saved her.
Jeremiah 11:20 — The Lord Almighty tests the heart and mind. The context of the Lord’s status as the One who tests the heart and mind is that it is part of His righteous judgment. The Lord is the righteous judge because He bases His judgment on His tests of the heart and mind.
Jeremiah 17:5–14 — The Lord proclaims that He is the one who searches the heart and examines the mind to reward each person according to what our deeds deserve. The context of Jeremiah 17:5–14 is that the Lord makes a distinction between people who turn away from Him and people who trust in Him.
Jeremiah 20:12 — The Lord Almighty is the one who probes the heart and mind. The context is that this probing is how the Lord examines the righteous. This probing also determines how the Lord executes His vengeance on the unrighteous.
1 Chronicles 28:9 — The Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and thought. The context deals with how the Lord will empower those who seek Him to find Him and how the Lord will reject those who forsake Him. As such, the Lord searches every heart and understands the difference between those who seek Him and those who forsake Him.
1 Chronicles 29:17 — Our God tests the heart and is pleased with integrity. The context is that the Lord likes it when His people willingly give to Him. Accordingly, He evaluates people’s hearts for integrity, to test whether we are willing to give to Him.
2 Chronicles 6:28–30 — The Lord alone knows the human heart, and thus He forgives and deals with everyone according to all they do based on that relational knowledge.
Psalm 7:9 — The Lord is the righteous God who probes minds and hearts. The context is that the righteous God makes the righteous secure and ends the violence of the wicked. As such, He differentiates between the righteous and the wicked by probing their minds and hearts.
Psalm 26:2–3 — The Lord examines one’s heart and mind. The context is that the Lord tests us and tries us not by passive observation, but by examining our hearts and minds. This examination of the heart and mind is also connected with the Lord’s unfailing love and faithfulness.
Psalm 44:20–21 — The Lord knows the secrets of the heart. The context is that God would discover whether people forgot His name or worship a false god, because He knows the secrets of the heart.
Psalm 139:23–24 — The Lord searches us, tests us, and knows our hearts. The context is that the Lord searches and tests hearts to see if there is any offensive way in us. If we pass the Lord’s tests, the Lord leads us in the way everlasting.
1 Samuel 16:7 — The Lord looks at the heart when selecting people. The context is that the Lord specifically looked at the hearts of David and his brothers in deciding to reject David’s brothers and accept David. This shows that the Lord does look at the human heart, rather than abstract things, when He makes His decisions.

Biblical Foundation 2: Prevenient Grace Enables Humility

Matthew 11:25–26 — Jesus proclaims that it pleased the Father to reveal these things to those like little children instead of the wise and learned. The context is that Jesus had just rebuked several towns for refusing to repent despite seeing Him perform most of His miracles there. Thus, Jesus proclaims that God’s will is to reveal His Son Jesus Christ only to those with childlike humility.
Matthew 18:3–4 — Jesus clarifies that to be like a little child is to humble oneself. The context is that unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of God. Thus, this implies that the prevenient grace of God enables us to change and become humble like little children.
Matthew 23:12 — Those who humble themselves will be exalted, but those who exalt themselves will be humbled. The only way we can be exalted by God is if we humble ourselves before Him.
Luke 10:21 — Luke confirms Matthew 11:25–26, where Jesus proclaims that it is God’s will to reveal His Son Jesus Christ only to those with childlike humility.
Luke 14:11 — Luke confirms Matthew 23:12, where Jesus says that all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Luke 18:14 — Jesus elaborates that humbling oneself before God results not just in exaltation, but in being justified before God. Thus, once one preveniently humbles oneself before God, then God justifies and exalts that person.
1 Peter 5:5–6 — We are to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. It is God’s mighty hand — the prevenient grace of God — that makes humbling oneself possible. If one humbles oneself by yielding to God’s mighty hand of prevenient grace instead of resisting God, then God gives saving grace to that humbled person. This provides context for Ephesians 2:8–10. Salvation is by grace to the humble through faith, not a result of works. Humility is not a work, because it is the heart posture enabled by prevenient grace that receives saving grace.
James 4:6–10 — God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. James confirms Peter. God conditions salvific grace on humility. This passage and 1 Peter 5:5–6 also provide context for Romans 9:16–18 by defining those whom God wants to show mercy to and those whom God wants to harden.
Proverbs 3:34 — Both 1 Peter 5:5–6 and James 4:6–10 quote Proverbs 3:34. The Lord mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed. No one can be saved without the favor or the grace of the Lord. Humility, thus, is required for the Lord to intervene and save people with His favor.
2 Samuel 22:28 — God saves the humble, not the haughty. The Old Testament explicitly says that God conditions salvation on humility. To connect this with Matthew 11:25–26 and Luke 10:21, God saves the humble by revealing His Son Jesus Christ to them.
Psalm 18:27 — God saves the humble but brings low the haughty. Again, the Old Testament explicitly says that God conditions salvation on humility. Once more, to connect this with Matthew 11:25–26 and Luke 10:21, God saves the humble by revealing His Son Jesus Christ to them.
Psalm 25:9 — God teaches the humble His way. This provides significant context for John 6:44. In John 6:44–46, Jesus says that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them, that those who hear and learn from the Father will come to Him. Thus, the Father draws people by using prevenient grace to enable people to humble themselves, then He teaches those who humble themselves, and He brings them to Jesus.
Isaiah 66:2 — The Lord says that the ones He looks on with favor are those who are humble. This anticipates how God would reveal His Son to those who preveniently humbled themselves before him.

“The only way we can be exalted by God is if we humble ourselves before Him.”

Conclusion: Unifying Scripture’s Teaching

By grounding predestination in God’s relational foreknowledge and His sovereign will to reveal Christ to the humble, this model unifies Scripture’s teaching from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Relational foreknowledge is God’s ability to search and test people’s hearts from before creation for the willingness to humble themselves before Him.

Humility is not a meritorious work, but a heart posture that makes people able to receive God’s saving revelation of Jesus Christ to them. This model gives the church a way to speak about election that is faithful to the gospel, consistent with Wesleyan theology, and deeply hopeful for all people.

“Humility is not a meritorious work, but a heart posture that makes people able to receive God’s saving revelation of Jesus Christ to them.”

Pastors can teach this with confidence. Churches can embrace it with clarity. Believers can rest in the God who searches hearts and reveals His Son to all who humble themselves before Him by His prevenient grace. +

Kristian Klepes is a Northeastern Seminary student and a lawyer who lives with his beloved wife, Liz Klepes, in Rochester, New York. He is also the author of the book “Is Jesus Christ Really in My Heart?” which explores the context of 10 biblical passages about Christ in you and concludes that Christians can experience revival in Christ, if we practically realize that Christ’s presence really lives in us through the Holy Spirit. His second book, “How the LORD Is One: Defined by the Law and Revealed in Christ,” was recently released by WestBow Press and is also available through Amazon. This new book shows that the Law defines how the Lord is one as a compound unity of God, the Angel of the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord who brought Israel out of Egypt; and how this Old Testament foundation aligns with Christ’s revelation of how the Lord is one as a complete unity of the Father, the Son, and the glory of the Holy Spirit. As a scholar, he published an article in the Canadian American Theological Review titled “The Paraclete: Christ’s Replacement or Christ’s Connector?” in which he located a new chiasm supporting the view that the Holy Spirit connects us on earth with Christ in heaven by bringing His presence to abide in our hearts. He is currently working as a lawyer at Philippone Law Offices until he graduates from seminary to become a pastor, God willing.