Chosen by God?

The usual question when it comes to being chosen by God is why would He choose some and not others? From experience and from Scripture, I get the idea that when God calls someone to faith in Him, that call is irresistible, yet Jesus says many are called but few are chosen. Israel was called as a nation, yet they failed in that calling and the Lord turned to the Gentiles. Yet if humans can say no to God, then how can God be sovereign? Who are we to control our own destinies? I cannot resolve this puzzle, yet today this passage added a dimension not thought of before; Jesus was also chosen. . . .  

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4–10)

From this passage, those ‘chosen’ are ‘in Christ’ because Christ is chosen, just as we who are in Christ are righteous and justified. It is not our own righteousness but His. That is, like the pages in a book, I am in Christ. Or like the hand in a glove, He is in me. That union with Christ by faith and by the grace of God grants me the status of being chosen. It is not about God standing in the heavens and picking this person and not that person but a description of those who are in Christ.

In other words, being the elect or chosen is not a description of how I got there but a description of where I am. This explains the phrase ‘many are called but few are chosen’ in that God calls people to Himself yet only a few who are invited are actually in that kingdom of Christ and called His family.

This idea has holes in it too. However, I’m content with it. The NT uses the term “mystery” for several things including the gospel, what has happened with Israel, the fact that some will not ‘sleep’ but be changed, the will of God, how marriage depicts Christ and His church, that Christ is in His people, and several more truths about God’s doings. My nature is to love AND solve puzzles, yet faith tells me to simply believe what God says even if I cannot unravel it. One of those puzzles is that some believe and some do not.

PRAY: Lord, there are people who decide that all will eventually believe, or that no one goes to heaven against their will, or that only those who say yes to the calling will get in. . . all trying to simplify what You say is a mystery. All I know for sure is that God chose You and that You chose me. I cannot understand that choice except that “You chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; what is weak in the world to shame the strong; what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in Your presence.” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29, personalized) This humbles me, but I am content to be humbled and that You are glorified.