DID YOU CHOOSE GOD OR DID GOD CHOOSE YOU? 

You did not choose Me, but I chose you. —Jn. 15.16 

Ancient mariners had a fear of what has come to be known as the dilemma of Scylla and Charybdis. According to Greek mythology the beautiful goddess Scylla was changed into a hideous monster when a rival goddess poisoned the pool in which she bathed. Scylla threw herself into the sea between Italy and Sicily and became the dangerous rocks that sailors feared. Opposite the rocks was a treacherous whirlpool called Charybdis. It took an able pilot to steer a ship between the pitfalls of Scylla and Charybdis.

The question I pose in this essay requires us to sail between the Scylla of God's sovereignty and the Charybdis of human responsibility. Disaster awaits us if we interpret Scripture in such a way as to neglect either God's initiative (identified in Scripture as calling, election, predestination) or man's response to that initiative in terms of faith and obedience.

Have I already presumed your answer to the question of whether you chose God or God chose you? Your answer is both, of course, for God certainly chose us, as the Scriptures make clear, and we chose Him in that we responded to His call. But my question is intended to suggest that the answer is not that simple. The question of God's election must remain a mystery. While it defies any ready answer, we must realize that the crucial truth is that God chose us. It is his grace toward us, predestined even in eternity, that really matters. Yes, of course, we make a response, but even this falls within His sovereignty. This means that we steer closer to Scylla than to Charybdis.

Illustrations can sometimes clarify profound truths. The best I have heard relative to this question came from a Presbyterian minister who believes both in God's election and man's freewill. It is like standing before the door of salvation, he observed. On the door is inscribed "Whosoever will may come" and that includes people of all races, all nations, all colors. Once one enters the door of salvation he looks back at the other side of the door and sees the inscription "You didn't choose me, I chose you."

So maybe the answer to our question is something like I chose God but only because he first chose me. We might even venture to say that God chose (decreed, predestined) that we would choose Him. But before we venture further let us call the apostles and even Jesus himself on board to help us sail between the Scylla of God's sovereignty and the Charybdis of human responsibility. What saith the Scriptures? 

    Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Rom. 8:29-30) 

    Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sorts through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Eph. 1:4-5) 

    To the exiles of the dispersion, chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. (1 Pet.1:2) 

    The elder to the elect lady and her children. (2 Jn. 1) 

    To those who are called. beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. (Jude 1) 

    If the lord had not shortened the days, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. (Mt.13:2) 

This testimony from both Christ and his apostles is sufficient to establish the fact of God's election of his chosen ones, even before the foundation of the world. It is a question of whether God's call or election is absolute or conditional. Notice these passages that point to the Charybdis of human responsibility, which show that God's grace and man's faith go together. 

    But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. (Mt. 6:33)

    Ask, and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened unto you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Mt. 7:7-8)

    He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. (Jn. 3:36)

    If one loves God, one is known by him. (1 Cor. 8:3)

    I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it' lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Cor. 9:26-27) 

When one notes the many action verbs in the New Testament, such as seek, ask, knock, believe, obey, run, love, he can only conclude that God's gracious call is conditional. While Paul is the one who said so much about God's call and election, he realized that he had a response to make, a charge to keep, or even he, after preaching to others, could lose the prize, as 1 Cor 9:26-27 indicates.

This means that we are to cooperate with God," as it were, in order for our calling and election to be sure. Rom. 8:28 demands such a conclusion, especially when read in the New English Bible, which gives proper place to the Greek word sunergei (work together): "in everything, as we know, he cooperates for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose." Paul here refers to the calling, but in reference to God and man cooperating. God first loves us, but we are to return the love. God in his grace gives us the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we are to believe and obey it.

It is remarkable that those who say the most about the verbal inspiration of the Bible are often the ones who insist upon an absolute predestination, apart from any human initiative. And yet they are the first to dismiss the apostle's word sunergei in Rom. 8:28, an inspired word that shows that God and man cooperate in the holy calling. Only human tradition keeps one from seeing what Paul clearly states in this passage.

Another illustration may help. Let's say you offer me a ride to Houston in your new Cadillac. You have "decreed" and "predestined" the trip. It is certain, even predetermined, that you and the Cadillac are going to Houston on a given date, and you "call" me to go along. I trust you. I accept your invitation, and so I am "called" to go to Houston. I am seated comfortably and securely in the Cadillac, and I am cooperating in that I am doing what a good passenger does. But that does not mean that it is an absolute predestination, for I can open the door and leave the car if I am fool enough to reject your grace. If I remained in the car and arrived safely in Houston, it would be foolish for me to contend that I earned it or worked for it. The fact that I cooperated makes it no less the case that it was only by your grace that I arrived in Houston.

There is Alexander Campbell's illustration. A father and son standing onshore see a ship in distress at sea. The father sends his son to rescue the passengers. Extending his oar to the perishing people, the son urges them into the boat. Those who accept his offer not only climb into the boat but assist in rowing to safety.

By no logic could it be argued that they saved themselves or that they deserved it. It was only the goodness of the father and his son that they were saved, and yet it was conditioned upon their responding to the grace proffered.

Our call or election is in Christ (Eph. 1:5), who himself was predestined from eternity to be our Savior (Acts 2:23). In accepting him we are in union with him and with what God has ordained for him (Rom. 6:5). So, our security is in him and we will be in heaven with him if we remain faithful. But as in the ride to Houston ,if I am foolish enough to renounce my faith in Christ and take up a life of sin, I have forfeited my security. While we can be fully confident that that will not happen to us, the Bible makes it clear that it can and does happen in some cases. Paul's language in Gal. 4:8-9 persuades me that he would approve of my Cadillac illustration: 

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements of the world and become slaves all over again?

Could a case be any clearer than that the Galatians were once in bondage to false gods but turned to the true God and were thus known (loved) by Him, and then "turned back again" and once more became slaves? They were safe and secure in the "Cadillac," but left it.

We have a hint in this passage that foreknowledge means to fore-love, that God loves us before we love Him. This is confirmed by 1 Cor.8:3: "If one loves God, one is known by Him." Several passages, such as 1 John 4, make it clear that knowing and loving mean virtually the same thing.

So, the answer to our opening question is that God is the Great Initiator or "the Hound of Heaven," and it is He who first called us, fore-loved us, and extended to us His free gift of salvation. This is the grace of God, but it is not irresistible grace as the Calvinists would have us believe, for men do resist it. Those of us who choose God, or love Him who first loved us, accept His grace. "By grace are you saved through faith," as the apostle puts it in Eph. 2:8.

This points up Jesus' assurance to his disciples, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." The disciples, of course, had a choice to make, and it was to follow Christ. But the choice was possible only because God had first chosen them.

What manner of grace is it that loved us and called us even in and for eternity! — the Editor