The Chapel - Rediscovering God Changes Everything.

A theological debate rages over the doctrine of election.  Does God predestine (elect) how we will respond to him or do we have free choice?  Both sides of this debate cite verses to marshal their argument, and perhaps we could talk about it another day.  But for this Hard Question, we will trace out in broad sweeps what both sides agree on.

We get our English word “election” from a Greek word meaning “to choose” or “select,” but the idea spans both testaments. The issue revolves around God's freedom to do as he pleases as he reveals his plan of salvation.  The bottom line is this: He chooses as he will.

God chose to make this universe in the first place, and to endow his first people with freedom.  From their offspring, he chose to bless the line of Seth, not the other siblings, which becomes apparent when we see that Noah was a direct descendant.  In Noah’s family, God chose to bless Shem, not his brothers, whose line we trace to Abram.  Later named Abraham, he was chosen as the sole family line through which God would launch a plan to bless the whole world.  From then on the pace picks up.  God chose Isaac, not Ishmael, and Jacob, not Esau, as the line through which the plan would be launched.  Jacob’s sons became the leaders of twelve tribes, collectively known as Israel, the chosen people.  Levi was the sole line for the priesthood, and Judah as the only legitimate royal line, through which would come the world’s righteous Ruler.

God chose the time and place to bring the Savior to earth, and chose to speak exclusively through him.  He chose that salvation would then proceed to all peoples, not just Israel.  God chose to work through a new community of Jew and Gentile, the Church, based on faith in his Son.

It boils down to this.  Whatever free choice we do have, we don't have any at all when it comes to the shape of God's plan of salvation.  He chose to do it through a family, then a nation, and then a descendant of that nation.