God Knows Us

Rom 8:29-30  "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
This verse has been the foundation for theological debates for centuries.  At its core are two seemingly contradictory doctrines.  On one side is this doctrine of Free Will and on the other is the Sovereignty of God. While it would be impossible to do either of these doctrines justice in this space I will attempt to give a summary of each position.
The doctrine of Free Will in essence states that we have the power through our will, mind and emotions (the soul) to make choices conscious or unconscious that lead to actions.  God created us with a Free Will because He yearned for love and loyalty and these are choices that are not possible without Free Will.
To put it another way, I remember watching the movie AI about a robot child with a computer for a brain that if you said certain words in a certain order then this robot child would love you forever.  I remember thinking that the whole premise of the movie was flawed.  While the robot would exhibit  behaviors that would be seen as love, they would be devoid of actual love because the robot did not have a choice in the matter.  How many times have we heard that love is a choice.  For love to be a choice we have to have the ability not to choose it. That is Free Will. However, Free Will in a vacuum, in the absence of a divine being quickly turns into fatalism. 
On the other hand is the Sovereignty of God that states that God is in control and that everything that happens is subject to His will.  This doctrine would seem to say that we have no choice in the matter.  If this is so then we serve a God that is arbitrary who has already chosen those who will die and those who will live forever with His Son.  Are you with me so far?  Let me muddy the waters somewhat.  If He isn't sovereign then He is not in control and He becomes a mere bystander.  Both can't be true.
I think the following article brings the two views together:
Divine Prescience. — Infinite wisdom must include a perfect knowledge from eternity of all existences and events. A complete history of the universe through all time must have always been perfectly cognized by the Divine Mind.  (from McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
The point that our starting verse makes is that God is not limited in time and space as we are. Therefore He moves freely in it and can foreknow who is going to make a choice for Him.  Those that He knows will trust Him have a plan laid out for their lives for the glory of God.  God has a plan and that plan cannot be thwarted by human decision, however we can choose whether or not we participate in that plan.  If we choose not to be a part of His plan then He knows it and has made provision for it and His plan moves forward through another vessel. 
The point is that predestination does not preclude choice; it anticipates choice.  That God knows that we are going to choose Him does not mean that He causes it to happen, it means that He knows it will happen and puts everything in place so that it moves His plan forward.
A big part of that plan is our transformation into the likeness of Christ.  When we make the choice to surrender our lives to Christ a process begins that causes us to reflect His glory.  Make no mistake, the change in our lives is to bring Him glory.  Our identity gets added to the collective Body of Christ so that others may see Him through us and decide to follow Him also.  We are made for His glory.  We join in with our brothers and sisters who have preceded us and we are forerunners for those that are yet to come.  We become a part of the universal Church both seen and unseen.  Together we cry Holy, holy, holy is He who is and is to come.  We are His witnesses.  When the Apostle Paul says that "those he justified, he also glorified" it is by association with Him that the glory comes as we share with Christ in His inheritance.

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