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Note from Lee: This article was inspired by a recent
personal bible study that prompted me to do a word search for "choose"
and "chosen". The results are by no means exhaustive nor
does it include ALL the passages that speak of God's election of
His people but these passages do reveal some interesting facts about
the process. Hopefully they will cause the reader to dig deeper
into this subject.
Who
Chooses Who?
Some New Testament passages that indicate God is more than a
hopeful bystander in the process of one's salvation?
Popular Christian language today says, "You must choose to
accept Jesus Christ and make Him your personal Lord and Savior."
While I agree that submitting to Christ is indeed the most intelligent
and eternally rewarding decision a person could possibly make, the
idea of "making Christ your Lord" by choosing or electing
him to that position is not exactly biblical. Jesus does not need
to be MADE Lord - Jesus IS Lord. We can acknowledge his Lordship
in our lives by obeying Him or we can suffer the consequences of
our disobedience. But either way, He is Lord of all things and all
people.
As Americans, living in a Representative Republic, we take pride
in our ability to freely choose our leaders. However, a king is
not elected - he is king by right of birth and/or by conquering
his enemies. According to the bible, Jesus is not president of heaven.
He was born a king! He has conquered the enemy of all men: the grave!
He holds the power of life and death over ALL people and He does
not need for any one to elect Him to office. In fact, the bible
quite clearly says that it is God who does the electing. It is Christ
who will judge all mankind. He alone decides who will be His subjects
for all eternity.
I often get into conversations with people who earnestly believe
they have chosen to follow Jesus of their own free will and by THEIR
CHOICE, they have obligated God to save them from hell. God was
HOPING they would someday come around but His hands were tied until
they decided to add "their part" to the redemption process.
They took their "faith" - something they argue ALL men
naturally possess - and they wisely chose to put it in Jesus allowing
God to enter into their heart where previously he had no access.
I do not deny that this is how our conversion experience "feels".
It FEELS like we genuinely and independently desired to seek God
and to choose Jesus and to receive the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that
no GENUINE believer feels as if he or she were coerced or tricked
into believing in Jesus. This IS our fleshly experience - at least
it was mine. I heard the Gospel and decided to give my life to Jesus.
It was MY choice! I made it myself. No one forced me into it. I
am not a robot that I should be forced to love God. I love Him with
ALL of my heart, mind and strength because that is what I want to
do!! But why was it so easy for me to believe and others refuse
to submit to the authority of Christ. What was so different about
me?
It wasn't until I actually began to READ THE BIBLE that I discovered
that it was God who FIRST chose ME before the world was created
- and not because of anything I had done because I hadn't done anything
yet!! Some people would argue that God - who knows all things -
knew that I WOULD believe someday and based on my "foreseen
faith" He elected to save me (I thought that way for a long
time). According to the bible, God DID foreknow that I would believe
but more than that, HE DECREED that I would believe and be saved.
Then HE set about doing the work of bringing it to fruition by providing
a Savior in Christ Jesus, filling me with God-given faith to believe
and sending the Holy Spirit to draw me to Him. The only thing I
contributed to the equation was a pile of rotten sins to lay on
the head of Jesus while He was dying on the cross.
The bible says that GOD elected to save me for HIS purpose and
HIS pleasure; knowing that he would receive glory for accomplishing
such an impossible feat - namely: saving a wretch like me!! HE called
me by name, quickened my dead spirit and gave me the faith to believe
the Gospel - something which I did not have naturally! That saving
faith, given out of His mercy and grace, combined with hundreds
of God-ordained details in my life - like the time and place of
my birth, my family, my life experiences and human influences, etc.
- all insured that I would be brought to the place of repentance
and salvation just as God decreed. He did not do all this against
my will, but rather, HE CHANGED MY HEART AND MADE ME WILLING.
I chose God because he first chose me (and I thank you for
that, Lord! You are NOT a divine rapist as some would accuse You.
You are my Savior and my Father and I love you!!)
The problem is that our prideful flesh would love to take some
credit for at least PART of our salvation i.e. "Jesus did His
part on the cross, I did my part by making Him Lord and Savior."
But the Word of God gives ALL glory TO God for the salvation of
His people and it declares that man is utterly wicked and incapable
of pleasing God. Our flesh thinks that WE were some how better or
smarter than others; that we were wise enough to seek God. But the
Bible says NO ONE seeks God.
The point I am trying to make (perhaps unsuccessfully) is that
IF you have decided to follow Christ, it is ONLY because God has
decreed that you would. Rather than trying to take credit for being
wise or for being a "seeker", you should get down on your
knees and thank God that He chose you to be saved. Stop trying to
take glory from God and give HIM the credit that is due.
I do admit that our fleshly experience is different than the process
that is described in the the bible. So I guess the REAL choice we
all must make is this:
Will you believe the Word
of God or will you believe your fleshly experience?
THAT choice IS yours!!
PART II: Wrestling With The Text
Choose (chooz)
v. To select from a number of possible alternatives; decide on and
pick out. To prefer above others. To determine or decide.
Chosen (cho-zen)
v. - Past participle of choose.
adj. - Selected from or preferred above all others. One who is the
object of another's choice; one who is given preference.
n. - An exclusive group of people. Apart from the unchosen.
To help illustrate the difference between the active verb "choose"
and the passive adjective "chosen", we will look at the
analogy of an adopted child.
An orphaned child may choose to be adopted yet she lacks the
ability and the power within herself to become chosen. She can
not adopt herself nor can she force an unwilling couple to choose
her. In her natural state as an orphan, she IS unchosen. Unless
someone chooses to adopt her, she will remain unchosen with no
means to make herself otherwise.
But if a childless couple chooses to adopt the little girl then
it is by THEIR choice that she becomes chosen - she is now preferred
by that couple "above all other children". She now IS
chosen - not by HER will or by something SHE did but by the will
and the choice of the adoptive parents. They chose THAT PARTICULAR
GIRL to love and to call their own (which hopefully she will come
to appreciate as she matures). Even if the child should resist
at first, the adoption process is initiated and completed by the
will of the parents. At no time was the couple under any obligation
whatsoever to choose the girl. They have the ultimate freedom,
power AND ability to choose to adopt her alone... or to adopt
every child in the orphanage... or to adopt no one at all!
Jesus is God's ONLY begotten Son. The rest of us must be adopted
into the family... and God does the adopting. We are ALL God's creation
but we are NOT all God's children.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again
to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by
him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with
our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children,
then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed
we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in
his glory. - Romans 8:15-17
In order to "receive a Spirit of sonship" (a sign of
adoption), the spirit must first be given to you: How can you receive
a gift that has not been given?. Obviously, it must be given by
God, who is the Father. But it is also obvious that not every man
calls God "Father". They do NOT have a spirit of sonship
and so we must ask, "Why not? Why do some NOT receive this
Spirit that cries 'Abba, Father' and testifies to our spirit that
we are children of God?"
Logically, if you do not have the Spirit of sonship, it is because
1) it was not given to you or 2) it was given to you but you did
not receive/accept it. In the first case, it is God who chooses
to give the Spirit to a particular person and by that Spirit they
are adopted. In the second case, God gives the Spirit to EVERY man,
woman and child on the planet but then He passively waits for THEM
to choose to accept it - never really knowing who He has adopted
until they show up in heaven.
Contrary to "pop-culture" Christianity, the bible says
in many different ways that it is GOD Who chooses His people and
by HIS choice, they become Chosen or Elect. Common sense would tell
you that in order to BE Chosen, you must be chosen BY SOMEBODY.
You can not choose to be chosen. No matter how you slice this thing,
it still comes up the same:
God chooses and
we are chosen!
But don't take my word for it. Here are some passages that seem
to support this idea:
For many are invited, but few are chosen. - Matthew 22:14
If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.
But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has
shortened them. - Mark 13:20
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones,
who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
- Luke 18:7
Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?
Yet one of you is a devil!" - John 6:70
I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen.
But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread
has lifted up his heel against me.' - John 13:18
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed
you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father
will give you whatever you ask in my name. - John 15:16
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. - John
15:19
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus
began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles
he had chosen. - Acts 1:1-2
Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us
which of these two you have chosen" - Acts 1:24
But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man [Paul] is my
chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and
their kings and before the people of Israel. - Acts 9:15
He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom
God had already chosen - by us who ate and drank with him
after he rose from the dead. - Acts 10:41
Then he said: "The God of our fathers has chosen you
to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words
from his mouth." - Acts 22:14
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. - Romans 8:33
So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by
grace. - Romans 11:5
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who
has been a mother to me, too. Romans 16:13
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in his sight. - Ephesians 1:4
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according
to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with
the purpose of his will... - Ephesians 1:11
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles
the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. - Colossians 1:27
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience. - Colossians 3:12
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you...
- 1 Thessalonians 1:4
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the
Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief
in the truth. - 2 Thessalonians 2:13
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who
are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit
the kingdom he promised those who love him? - James 2:5
To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been
chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ
and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
- 1 Peter 1:2
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises
of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
- 1 Peter 2:9
She who is in Babylon [Rome], chosen together with you,
sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. - 1 Peter 5:13
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome
them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings-and with
him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers. - Revelation
17:14
Now
I am no great theologian but even I can see a pattern here:
God chooses, we are chosen!
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