No Gift We Have Not Been GivenSample

Chosen

This passage should make you feel special because it tells us that God chose you. God chose you before the creation of the world. Before God created anything else, in eternity past, you were in the mind of God. More importantly, you were in the heart of God. With a heart bursting with tender compassion for you, God predestined you to be adopted as his own child. If this doesn’t make you feel special, nothing will. 

I know that there are lots of questions about God choosing us or predestining us. It is one of the great mysteries in the Bible. Let me clarify a few points:

• The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign in salvation. God chooses us or elects us to be saved.
• The Bible also clearly teaches that we have free will and that we must believe. We are not puppets or robots. We are responsible for responding to God and putting our faith in Jesus.
• There is mystery surrounding how the sovereignty of God and the free will of man fit together, but it is only a mystery to us, not to God. Why would we think that the infinite God would tidily fit inside our little theological boxes?

Embrace divine sovereignty and human responsibility. While a guest lecturer at Calvin Seminary, R.B. Kuiper compared this mystery to a pulley:

I liken them to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to one and not the other, I go down. I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God’s election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings regarding “whosoever will may come” and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece.

Despite the mysteries, here is the main point: God chose you. He chose you because you are incredibly special to him.