Two thoughts (both wrong) often crop up in the believer’s mind. The first is that this sin is really the one that will put us beyond reconciliation. We kind of accept Jesus died for our sin, but we wonder whether this particular one might just put us beyond his reach. He couldn’t possible forgive this one. If only he knew this was coming he would never have accepted me in the first place.

In truth, this sort of thinking is more like the accusations from Satan. The Devil loves to tempt us into sin and, when we fall into it, loves to get us thinking that Jesus will never have us now. But you won’t find anything in the mouth of Jesus or anywhere in the pages of scripture that come close to ever suggesting this is the case.

In fact, the truth is that Jesus knew you would do this particular sin before he died for it. As God, in eternity past with his Father, Jesus chose a people for himself and he took great joy in choosing them. He knew all about them, he knew how they would sin, he knew what they were like and he chose them nevertheless. He went to the cross not only knowing who he was dying for, but what he was dying for.

None of your sin takes Jesus by surprise. He knew you were going to do it even before you knew you were going to do it. He paid for it at the cross knowing you were going to do it long before you did it, before you knew you were going to do it, before you even existed to know anything at all! Jesus knows all about you and your sin. He knows exactly what he is getting into when he said, ‘I want them’. He knew the sins he was paying for and he paid for them. Not just some of them, or the worst of them, but all of them.

What that means is there is no sin you can commit that will remove you from the love of Christ if you truly belong to him. The sign that you truly belong to him is that you repent. But if you are a repentant believer, Jesus is sat with his Father reminding him as our advocate that this is just another of those sins that he has already paid for at the cross. It was a sin they both knew was going to be committed by you, which was paid for 2000 years ago and which didn’t put them off choosing you in the first place.

That is the essence of what Paul says in Romans 8:38-39. If nothing in the whole of creation – not even angels or demons – can separate the elect from the love of God, and your sin is definitely something that exists in creation, then none of it can separate you from God’s love either if you truly belong to him. In a sense, it was forgiven even before you did it. Jesus paid for all your sin on the cross and none of it takes him by surprise. none of it stops him from loving you or counting you as his.

The second similar thought that often crops up is that Jesus doesn’t really understand my circumstances. That he doesn’t quite understand what we are having to face if we are going to be faithful. After all, he never had to face the very specific thing we think is particularly heinous. But just as Jesus is not taken by surprise by any of our sin, he is not taken by surprise by any of our suffering for his sake either.

Jesus knows precisely what he calls his people to. His general answer to his disciples – and seemingly the answer to the Hebrews – is that his suffering was much greater than ours for our sake. But Hebrews is also clear that Jesus has suffered like us and understand our weaknesses. He knows exactly what he has called us to. He doesn’t lack understanding or knowledge of what he is asking of us and doesn’t ask us to do anything that he hasn’t been through before us in greater measure.

Again, if God knows all things, then just as no sin takes Jesus by surprise neither do any of the consequences that often attend our faithfulness. One of the clear lessons from the book of Jeremiah is that sometimes we will suffer specifically because we are doing what God asks of us. And when God asks us to do it, he isn’t ignorant of the suffering that will come nor is he blind to it. Suffering is not a sign God has abandoned us. Suffering is not a sign that he has forgotten us. It is not a sign that he doesn’t like us anymore. Nor does it catch him by surprise, as though if he had thought about what he’d asked of us a bit more, he probably wouldn’t (in hindsight) have asked us to do it. No! Jesus knows exactly what he asks of us when he says ‘follow me’ and he knows exactly what will happen if and when we do exactly that. That’s why the gospels have Jesus’ warnings to count the cost and weigh up whether we think it is worth following him given the grief it may cause it at times.

Of course, if we really believe the promises of God and we really do have faith in Jesus and his promise of everlasting life, the grief caused by our faithfulness will pale into insignificance against the weight of eternal glory. We will make a smart choice if we are convinced that Jesus really is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but by him. But Jesus knows what he asks of us as his disciples. He knows what we’ll have to bear. He isn’t taken by surprise by any of it. And just as he died for all the sins he knew you would commit even before you did it, he chose you to be his before the foundation of the earth and committed you to faithful obedience – knowing precisely what that would entail – because he wants to spend eternity with you.

Let us not suggest that Jesus has no idea about our sin or suffering. He knows all of our sin and has paid for it in toto. He knows all the ways we will suffer for his sake and calls us to endure nevertheless, knowing just how hard that may be, because there is greater glory to be had. If God knows all things, then he knows these things and he knows his people and he know precisely what he has paid for to win them as his own and he know precisely what it will take to see them safely to glory. He knows.