(3) The age of this promise. “Before eternal times.” (a) This is not merely before the times of the world, or (b) before the world began, (c) but really in the eternity past; because the reference is not to the covenants of Adam or Abraham, but to the covenant of redemption in Christ before the foundation of the world (2 Tim. 1:9–11). The apostle does not merely say that the promise of eternal life was the result of a Divine purpose fixed from eternity, but that it was made from eternity to believers,