‘Who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.'
And this act of redemption was not some last minute action made in despair. For the coming of Christ as the Lamb to be slain was foreknown before the foundation of the world. That is, it was planned and entered into by God before the beginning of time. Even before He created the world He faced up to the cost of redeeming His own (compare Acts 2:23; Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:29), and knew in experience what it would involve. Thinking in terms of the Passover, He set apart the Passover Lamb before the foundation of the world. ‘Before the foundation of the world' was a phrase that Peter had heard on the lips of Jesus when He had said to His Father, ‘You loved me before the foundation of the world' (John 17:24).
And its manifestation was planned so as to occur at ‘the end of times' for our sakes who through Him are believers in God. This is a reminder to us that while to us two thousand years may seem a long time, to Him it is simply ‘the end of the times', ‘the last days' (Acts 2:17). Compare ‘God -- has at the end of the days spoken to us in His Son' (Hebrews 1:2), ‘once now at the end of the ages has He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself' (Hebrews 9:26). Compare also how Paul writes of believers as those ‘on whom the end of the ages has come' (1 Corinthians 10:11). Pentecost and what followed is seen as commencing the consummation of the ages.
‘For your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.' And all this was done ‘for your sake', that is, for those who ‘through Christ are believers in God Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory'. It is because of the coming of Christ, and because of His manifestation to us, and because of His resurrection and His taking His place in glory, that we have come to believe in Him. And it was all God's foreknown, actively worked out purpose from the beginning, and all carried through by Him, so that our faith and hope might be in God and in His mighty working.
‘And gave Him glory.' Compare ‘the God of our fathers has glorified His Servant Jesus' (Acts 3:13; compare Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:12. See also Acts 7:55-56). This was the glory which He had had with His Father before the world was (John 17:5).