TRANSFORMING LOVE (GOD CHOOSES YOU)

CHAPTER 1

YOU ARE Predestined and Chosen by God

To be His

“God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4)

         

GOD CHOSE YOU

God chose you to be his very own. This is the point the relationship with God actually begins.

As said prior, predestination says God is the “only” one who determines what will or will not happen in “all things” pertaining to life (Ephesians 1:11).

The relationship starts the moment God chooses you in the predestined status. It is important for you to know that God chose you; you didn’t choose Him (John 15:16)!!

He chose you with the intention of bestowing upon you everlasting love, multiple blessings, miraculous mercy, unlimited favor, amazing grace, and supernatural privileges.  

GOD CHOSE YOU

God choose you. “…in him… [You] having been predestined according to the plan of [God] who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

It is God’s sovereign right to predestine all things according to His plan; including choosing you to be his very own.

God is the creator and owner of all things and people. It is God’s world.

We cannot reduce everything God does into a small box of human knowledge in order to satisfy our need to understand all of God’s rights and sovereignty.

God’s people live by faith and humbly accept some of God’s truths “by” faith. As mentioned before, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:33-34).

GODS WAYS ARE LOFTY AND HOLY

Also, God has said, “… your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…..as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts…” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

God’s standards are lofty and holy. God’s ways and thoughts cannot be demoted just to satisfy or justify some selfish intellectual need to understand all “….the [depths] of the riches…of [God’s]….wisdom and knowledge….” (Roman 11:33-34).  It is not possible and many of God’s “…ways [are beyond]….finding out…”

God’s word affirms that you were predestined by God to be one of his chosen people….just like Israel in the Old Testament.  ^“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV).

God said about Israel, “You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God “has chosen” you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be “his people,” his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

PREDESTINATION VIEWS

The biggest dilemma for this topic (God choosing YOU) may rest on three views of predestination.  First, predestination (includes salvation’s all-inclusive invitation “for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4) = God’s will).

Second, predestination (includes select election “…he chose us (the elect) in him before the foundation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4-5) = based on God’s will too).

Third, predestination (includes foreknowledge “…those whom he foreknew he also predestined…” (Romans 8:28-30) = (based on man’s will).

Does God invite all or elect people based merely on his own divine “will” or does God elect people on his “foreknowledge” based merely on “the will” of man in regard to salvation?

Here’s a quick review: A). Predestination is based on whoever believes or calls on the name of the Lord being saved (Romans 10:4, 13). B). Predestination is based on a few select people God elects for salvation. C). Predestination is based on those who would choose salvation and God had a foreknowledge of it. 

Whether your view is one of the three or a combination of them all or something altogether different; God remains sovereign in predestination and has a role in all views.

Most Christians believe that God’s will be “done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Predestination is based on God’s sovereign will.

Like Jesus, Christians are here on earth “….to do the will of him that sent [them]…” (John 4:34). It is for God’s predestined purpose that you have been sent and chosen to do his will.

A common practice for Christians would be to surrender or submit to God’s will; who gives them “..all things pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Jesus said to God, “…..yet not as I will, but as You will…" Therefore, what difference does your view or opinion of God’s predestination methods matter?

As a believer, a righteous attitude echoes, “God, “….your will be done…” and not mine (Matthew 6:10). Further, for believers, the consensus of righteous attitudes would agree that, “…whatever God wills”, right?!

The motto of believers, in other words, would mirror this truth: “……if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that…..” (James 4:15).

My point and the bottom line, for this discussion, is that…….God chooses YOU!! And you are God’s predestined choice.

Many of God’s holy ways are foreign to sinful man and man can’t expect to understand all of God’s supernatural actions or his supernatural will.

Most believers concur with God when he says, “…neither are your ways my ways…..[and]…as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than yours” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

I am okay with God’s sovereignty over predestination. Predestination is another debatable concept, or doctrine, or theory made complex or complicated by man.

What matters is that YOU are chosen by God and that you “…..[were] predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11b).

All I want you to get in all of this is that God chose you “…before the foundation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4)

EPHESIANS 1:11

In a nutshell, my nutshell, predestination simply says that God is the “only” one who determines what will or will not happen in “all things” pertaining to life “…..having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11b).

Pray about a greater understanding of “predestination” if you like. I am not an authority on this subject. Ask God to reveal which view to follow if it’s important to you.

TRANSFORMING LOVE will not debate which view is right or wrong. The main focus is that God chose you before the foundation of the world to be in a relationship with Him.

God is sovereign and omniscient. However, whatever “predestination” view you choose you are still called to respond by faith to God choosing you, in Him, through Christ.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12).  

The bible says we love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Therefore, it is possible that you also choose God because he first chose you?

God chooses you, through Jesus, and draws you to himself (John 6:44). While drawing you, like Lydia, God opens your heart to respond to his choosing you (Act 16:14).

Can you make yourself worthy, deserving, meriting of God’s selection of you? The answer is unequivocally “NO” and “NO” to any other similar questions.

There is only one way to be chosen and that’s if God chooses you. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;” (John 6:44).

DEUTERONOMY 7:7

And the only criterion for His choosing you is based on his love for you and NO other reason. “Jehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7). 

                    You met no special criteria for being chosen, yet God’s love pointed YOU out. Again, the bottom line is that God chose YOU

This is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of  "Transforming Love" BUY IT HERE!

Dr. Pensacola H. Jefferson