Did God choose us, or did we choose him? This is the question at the heart of the topic of predestination.
Are those people who are chosen by God so naturally attracted to the gospel message that we don’t actually get a choice? The Bible tells us that before the creation of the world, God chose his people to be holy and blameless in his sight. Out of love, God decided in advance that we would be adopted as his children through Jesus (Ephesians 1:4-5). The Bible also tells us that God knew, loved and appointed those who were to be his people before creation (1 Peter 1:1-2).
God decided in advance that we would be made like Jesus, and He called us, justified us, and glorified us (Romans 8:29-30). Jesus himself says that no one can come to him unless God the Father enables them (John 6:65 & vs 44; John 10:25-28). In addition to this, the Bible also shows that God chooses only some to be his people. An example of this is that He chose to love Jacob, but not his twin brother Esau – and this was not because of anything good or bad they had done, it was simply his purpose (Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:6-13). At the same time, we see that God wants all people to be saved, come to a knowledge of the truth, come to repentance, and not to perish (2 Pet 3:9, 1 Tim 2:3-4). From these Bible passages, it would seem that God chooses us.
Or is it purely up to us to decide by ourselves to choose God or leave him be? Because the Bible also shows that humans have freedom of choice; we can choose God, or not (Matt 23:37, John 7:17).
God chose us.
We choose him.
Both are equally important, and equally true. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.
What do you think?
To make a comment, click the speech bubble to the right of the title of the post (above).
The Rev 