20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
In our world, when things seem so unreliable and unpredictable, it is good to know that the LORD is a long-range planner. Before creation, before the Fall, God knew His ultimate plan for Himself in Jesus. Sin did not take God by surprise; His plan included it and how that sin would be conquered. Jesus’ death was not an afterthought; His death was the central theme. In turbulent times it is good to know the LORD has not lost sight of us and of His world. He has already seen the beginning and the ending. He knows how it turns out, because He is moving it toward His goal. Along the way there are things that grieve Him, that hurt His heart. He could eliminate those things, but those things demonstrate that we have the ability to choose. We can choose to serve and worship Him, or we can serve to rebel against His authority. Without that choice, we would just be robots, mindlessly droning through the world. Worship would just be part of our programming, part of our software. We could no more change our programming than keep Windows from getting virus infected and crashing. We would just move whatever direction our programming told us to move. What kind of worship would that be? It would be like your child who apologizes to their sibling in that tone of voice that you know they don’t really mean it. And if they don’t mean it, it doesn’t mean anything. The same with worship; it must be freely given for it to have meaning. Coerced worship is not worship.
The Arnold Journey 