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Meaning of Chosen & Elect
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As per theistic determinism (and Total inability of human will) we now understand that both Reform Tradition and TULIP refer to the Chosen and the Elect as individual Believers selectively Chosen and Elected by God unto salvation by way of God’s unconditional atonement and irresistible grace that He Sovereignly and Wilfully predestined before the foundation of the World.
God foreknew all that shall come to pass even before creation itself. Thus, God chose us before we chose Him. God chose that all men and women should have the opportunity, the ability to come to salvation by the means and method that He alone provided. Therefore, one cannot deny that they were chosen unto salvation. While this is a truth revealed throughout Scripture that reveals the character of God, some have taken an abundance of passages out of Scriptural context (out of the context of God’s character) and used them as proof text that God has chosen / elected to save some and not all. Such teaching is a false Gospel.
WHO IS CHOSEN?
Upon request, I will make available my word study on each and every instance and variation of the words “Chosen” and “Election”:
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G1586 |
eklegomai |
Verb |
To choose, select, choose for oneself |
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G1588 |
eklektos |
Adjective |
Derivative of G1586, The chosen, select, elect |
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G1589 |
ekloge |
Noun |
Derivative of G1586, The choice, selection, election |
as it pertains to Priests, cities, Ministers, People and Apostles. Thus, it covers every instance and every verse that both Reform Tradition and TULIP use as proof-texts for their doctrines.
In this summary however, I will limit the topic of Chosen and Election as it pertains to:
- The Jews
- Christ
- Christians
In each case we will look at “Who” God has chosen or elected, “How” God has chosen or elected and for “What” purpose God has chosen or elected them, after all, our God is a God of purpose.
GOD’S CORPORATE CHOOSING OF ISRAEL AS HIS PEOPLE
When we hear the term “God’s chosen people”, most believers and unbelievers will immediately think of the Jews. Scripture after all makes no secret that the Jews were and are to this day, indeed God’s chosen and beloved people.
GOD’S PURPOSE FOR CHOOSING OF ISRAEL AS HIS PEOPLE
Scripture also makes no secret of for what purpose God chose the Jews:
- God was fulfilling a promise to Abraham.
- God wanted Israel to serve as a model nation.
- God chose that from the Jewish nation would come a blessing for all nations. Salvation through Christ!
- God chose the Jews to be a paradigm of something that was yet to come. A new covenant!
According to Scripture, there was a time when the Jews stood before God. A time when God brought the Jews out of Egypt and when He established them as a nation, as a people for Himself. God made multiple covenants with the Israelite nation, the likes of which had not been offered to any other nation. Yet, although a mystery at the time, in God’s fulfilling His promise and blessing upon Abraham, all people of the world would be blessed. Genesis 12:2-3: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.
God provided the Israelites with His Holy Laws and Commandments. They were God’s Holy Priests, chosen by God to perform sacred services in His temple. God gave them solemn promises that they would be established at the head of all nations in the end days. The Jews were nothing less than the “People of God” and they held a position of honor in the sight of God, above all other nations. God had chosen the nation of Israel as His People and had given them revelation of Himself. God chose Abraham by His favor and for His purposes, and in that favor and those purposes God chose that all of Abraham’s offspring would become a “people chosen unto God”.
HOW ONE CLAIMS CITIZENSHIP TO THE JEWISH NATION
But by what means / method did God choose HOW an Israelite, a Jew became of “a people chosen unto God”? Some will claim that it was by keeping the covenant of circumcision, but circumcision was an outward sign of the covenant and in and of itself did nothing, for had a Gentile been circumcised, the Gentile would be neither a Jew nor one of the Chosen. Therefore, we know that although circumcision was a part of the covenant, the method that God had chosen was physical birth, the act of being born into or adopted into the Israelite Nation, and all else followed that. Therefore, God’s choosing was a corporate choosing of the Jews as a Nation.
HOW ONE CLAIMS CITIZENSHIP TO THE CHURCH
Here in lies he greatest significance, and one that Reformists and Calvinism have failed to understand and that is the paradigm between the choosing of the Jewish Nation as a people unto God in its foreshadowing of the Church as a nation, as a people chosen unto God. For if we apply this same question as to HOW one becomes a Christian, becomes one of the elect, the answer would be the same in so much that one needs to be Spiritually “Reborn”, John 3:2-12: “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit”.
THE PARADIGM OF CITIZENSHIP INTO A CHOSEN PEOPLE
The method in which God chose for a Jew to be a people chosen unto God is by birth into the Jewish Nation and it is by the same method that God chose for a Believer to be a people chosen unto God, by rebirth. into a new nation (The Church) chosen by God 1 Peter 2:9: “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”. Now compare 1 Peter 2:9 to Exodus 19:6: “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel”.
Election of Believers comes AFTER their rebirth, into the nation of Christ’s Church and thus after Salvation. This should not be a difficult concept to understand and to test, after all just as it was always in God’s Will and plan that the Jewish Nation would be His chosen People, so too has it always been God’s Will and Plan that those reborn “IN Christ”, the people who are “IN Christ”, are of one race, one holy nation, one “IN Christ’s Church”, and that they shall be His Elect. Ephesians 5:31-32: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church”. 1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”. John 17:20-23: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me”. 1 Peter 2:4-6: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, [5] 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. [6] 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”.
GOD’S PURPOSE IN CHOOSING US
Ephesians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”. The chosen object is “us”. This raises the question, who is the “us”? For the moment lets set that question aside and uncover the purpose which “us” were chosen. Was this verse claiming that before the foundation of the world, God chose certain people to be saved? The answer to that question is NO, for the verse does not say “He chose us to be in Him”. This verse does not state that that the purpose of God’s choosing was for certain individuals to be placed in Christ and thus saved, but rather it states the purpose of God’s choice which is “… that we should be holy and without blame”. In other words, certain individuals were chosen to be holy and without blame before the Holy God. At first glance, being holy and without blame may seem synonymous with being saved, but many people were made holy apart from salvation such as Aaron’s sons, the Levites including Korah and the nation of Israel. Thus, the purpose God expressed in Ephesians 1:3-4 is that certain individuals will be made holy under the covenant of the law and will be separated out from all other classes of people unto God. Having separated the purpose from this verse it should now be easier to figure out WHO the identity of “us” is. As earlier noted, the verse does not read that “ … He chose us to be in Him”. It should be very clear that the chosen are “us” that “He chose in Him”. The “us in Him” are the people who have already been saved through faith in Christ. This verse clearly states that God selected people who are in Christ (WHO & HOW) and for the purpose (WHAT or WHY) that they should be Holy and without blame.
IT WAS ALWAYS GOD’S PLAN AND PURPOSE
From the very beginning God had chosen those in Christ, both Jew and Gentile to be Holy and without blame, so that they might be heirs of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ. Ephesians 3:8-12 reveals the glorious purpose which God accomplished in Christ. Thus, this interpretation is consistent, remains intact and progressively throughout both the Old Testament (LXX & Hebrew) and the New Testament. The chosen is not used to speak of individuals chosen for salvation but instead those who are already saved and in Christ, that they were chosen from before time itself to be a people Holy and blameless to God.
Note: The word “Chose” as per Strong’s Concordance reference of Thayer’s definition of the Greek word “eklegomai”, G1586 includes: “of God the Father choosing Christians, as those whom he set apart from the irreligious multitude as dear unto himself, and whom he has rendered, through faith in Christ, citizens in the Messianic kingdom: (James 2:5) so that the ground of the choice lies in Christ and his merits only“
Regardless of personal standing before God the whole nation of Israel was counted as God’s elect. While it is true that there were many righteous people in the nation, it is also true that there were also many ungodly people. The nation contained both Godly and ungodly Israelites, but as a whole they were the chosen people of God. Thus, in the case of Israel, being one of God’s Elect, it was not synonymous with being made righteous. God did not choose them for salvation but chose them to be his people. As God’s chosen people they were often treated as if they had had an abundance of excellent qualities. For many Generations outside of birth and adoption, circumcision was the primary requirement among the chosen and the covenant. However, in the prophecy of Isaiah 65, a change was foretold where from the elect consisting of the whole nation of Israel to a new elect consisting of only a particular group of people:
- Isaiah 65:9-12: “I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there. 10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me. 11 But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny, 12 I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.”
The profits revealed that much of the nation had long forsaken the Lord and continually chose the very things he hated. For this reason, they, as a nation, would fall from being God’s elect. There would be a new elect comprised of people who sought God. In other words, God would take as his people only those who sought after him. He would no longer be God to those who first took him, even though they were descendants of Abraham and circumcised. Isaiah’s prophecy indicated the significant and profound change. For many generations, God had been the God of stiff-necked people who were continually rebellious against Him. Isaiah foretold that this time it would end, and God would be the God of a humble people who were of a contrite and repentant spirit.
- Isaiah 66:1-2: “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word”.
For a person to be one of the Elect in the day which Isaiah foretold, they would need to be a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Not merely a physical descendant, but one who had the same Faith as Abraham and of the humble and contrite spirit. Simply put Isaiah spoke of a day when only those who had true hearts before God would be God’s elect, these would be a new people of God. Notice how Isaiah did not say that God would choose certain people and as a result, they would become humble and contrite. If that had been the case, then the nation of Israel would not have been a stiff neck and rebellious people, for God chose them. Instead, Isaiah plainly declared that God would look upon the people, he would show abundant kindness to those who had a humble and contrite heart, they would be his chosen people, his elect.