There are many Biblical doctrines that I really grapple with. I think this is by God's design. He wants us to pursue Him and seek Him fully. And since He made me, knit me together in my Mother's womb, He knows I love a good mystery and I have the personality to seek out the harder things that I don't understand. Maybe not at first. I tend to sit back and meditate on things a bit before trying to dig in and analyze. But analyze I do! I didn't set out in life to be analytical. Sometimes I think life would be so much simpler if I would just accept things at face value and never question, never dig, never want to know.
One such doctrine is divine election. The doctrine that is clearly evident if you read Scripture much at all. This is the teaching that we didn't choose God, He chose us. And knowing the depravity of our human hearts, our self-focused nature from birth, I can see how we would naturally be unable to choose to lay down our life and follow Christ. This has to be a supernatural event. Something that isn't conjured up in our own will and mind.
Oh my goodness I know I'm treading on controversial ground here. This is a hotly debated, and often dividing point within the Body of Christ. I hate that we divide over secondary doctrine. I don't fully understand that if all of us within the Body are being taught by the Holy Spirit, in humbleness and sincerity, how we can come up with different views on doctrine, but that's a topic for another blog! In all honesty, even within my own mind, I'm divided on this topic myself. I can see both points of view in Scripture. And since I know that God is Just, and Holy, and Righteous, and Loving, and His ways and thoughts way above ours, I know that His Word is right, and my understanding is limited. I fully submit to that!
I believe with all my heart and mind that God is Sovereign. There is nothing that happens in all of creation that isn't seen by Him, that isn't "allowed" by Him (not that He causes things to happen, but He has control of the boundaries), or that anything comes as a surprise to Him. He knows the beginning and the end. Because He is sovereign and knows beginning from end, He knows whom of us are His. That doesn't release us of all reliability though. There is plenty of Scripture that shows man also has a role in this. All you have to do is go to an online tool such as www.biblegateway.com and type in the word "chose, or chosen" and you'll see both sides.
The point of this blog today is to show a couple of things. 1) The Christian faith is not a blind, put your brain on the shelf faith. You can spend your entire life digging, reading, researching, and exploring Scripture (and you should!) and God will lead you down amazing paths of knowledge. 2) We in the Body should be able to debate, discuss, and explore these types of hard truths together without dividing. Oh how Satan loves to divide us! And 3) I'd love to have anyone who reads this blog who has done some in-depth study of the doctrine of divine election to chime in. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has grappled with how to harmonize the truths of being chosen by God AND (notice, not versus) man's responsibility to choose life eternal.
Here are just some of the Scripture reference of God's choosing us.
Jesus called his disciples and chose 12 whom he named apostles (Luke 6:13); you did not choose me but I chose you (John 15:16); I have chosen you out of the world (John 15:19); I know the ones I have chosen (John 13:18); I chose you and one of you is a devil (John 6:70); show which of these two you have chosen (Acts 1:24); Jesus gave orders to the apostles whom he had chosen (Acts 1:2); greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord (Rom. 16:13); Paul is my chosen instrument (Acts 9:15); chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4); we know he chose you (1 Thess. 1:4); God chose you from the beginning for salvation (2 Thess. 2:13); God chose the poor to be rich in faith (Jas. 2:5); make your calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10); those with him are called, chosen and faithful (Rev. 17:14); God’s purpose in choosing (Rom. 9:11); God made a choice among you (Acts 15:7); God has chosen the weak and foolish things (1 Cor. 1:27); a remnant chosen by grace (Rom. 11:5); chosen according to the foreknowledge of God (1 Pet. 1:1–2); God chose the low-born, despised and non-entities (1 Cor. 1:28).
Day, C. A. (2009). Collins Thesaurus of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
For those who'd like to listen to a great question and answer session about this topic from John MacArthur, you can do so here: Doctrine of Election Question & Answer Session with Dr John MacArthur
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