Did God Choose Me Because He Loved Me or Love Me Because He Chose Me?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | At DesiringGod.org, we believe in the sovereignty of God
00:00:08.000 | and we believe it because we see it in scripture.
00:00:10.760 | And not only do we believe in God's sovereignty
00:00:13.520 | over all things, but we celebrate it.
00:00:16.560 | And we also field important questions
00:00:18.240 | about what all this means for our own lives today.
00:00:22.320 | Today's question is short and simple,
00:00:24.780 | but it's pretty profound and it comes
00:00:26.180 | from a podcast listener named Zena, who writes this,
00:00:29.320 | "Pastor John, did God elect me because He loves me
00:00:33.440 | or does He love me because He elected me?"
00:00:37.160 | How would you answer Zena?
00:00:39.120 | - Like so many questions, this one almost answers itself
00:00:44.120 | as soon as we define our terms,
00:00:48.520 | or as soon as we, in this case,
00:00:50.320 | clarify what these two questions mean.
00:00:54.360 | In fact, the reason I think this question
00:00:57.320 | is worthy of answering is precisely to clarify the terms
00:01:02.320 | because if the terms are given certain meanings,
00:01:07.560 | very wrong teachings can emerge.
00:01:10.440 | For example, someone might ask the question,
00:01:13.160 | did God elect me, that is, choose me for Himself
00:01:18.160 | because He loves me, assuming that God saw something
00:01:24.360 | lovable in me and then was inclined to me on that basis,
00:01:29.280 | and then because of that inclination towards me
00:01:33.240 | and my peculiar value that He recognizes,
00:01:37.480 | He chose me as part of His family.
00:01:40.080 | Now, that would be a dreadfully wrong picture.
00:01:45.080 | God is surveying humanity and all the people out there
00:01:49.100 | to see who's worthy of His adoption,
00:01:52.960 | people who have the necessary qualifications
00:01:55.000 | to be chosen out of a fallen and condemned humanity.
00:01:58.440 | That's not the picture of the New Testament.
00:02:01.760 | And as soon as we clarify that,
00:02:03.200 | the answer starts to become clearer.
00:02:04.920 | Or someone might ask, does He love me
00:02:09.520 | because He elected me, assuming that God in His choosing
00:02:14.520 | is somehow emotionally neutral or indifferent
00:02:21.700 | and that His choice of us is at the very beginning
00:02:25.400 | maybe begrudging or without any heart or any joy,
00:02:29.000 | and then only after He has collected His elected ones
00:02:33.480 | with no delight in the election,
00:02:35.760 | He somehow comes to love them because He elected them.
00:02:40.320 | That too, it seems to me, would be a dreadfully wrong
00:02:44.120 | impression from the New Testament.
00:02:47.080 | So let's look at a few passages
00:02:50.760 | to see if we can get clarity from the words of Scripture
00:02:55.340 | about the relationship between election and love.
00:02:59.320 | The picture of election of God's people
00:03:01.240 | in the Old Testament goes like this.
00:03:03.560 | Deuteronomy 7, 6, following,
00:03:07.680 | "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people
00:03:12.680 | for His treasured possession
00:03:16.240 | out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
00:03:19.400 | It was not because you were more in number
00:03:22.800 | than any other people that the Lord set His love on you
00:03:27.800 | and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
00:03:33.240 | but it is because the Lord loves you."
00:03:37.040 | So Moses mentions election and love,
00:03:41.320 | but he doesn't prescribe or describe a sequence.
00:03:47.560 | And in fact, it reads as though the terms
00:03:51.080 | are almost virtually interchangeable.
00:03:54.480 | The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people, why?
00:03:59.480 | It is because you were loved.
00:04:05.280 | That is, He chose you.
00:04:07.120 | You can't force a temporal sequence out of the phrase,
00:04:15.200 | "Set His love on you and chose you,"
00:04:20.200 | any more than you can make a temporal sequence
00:04:23.160 | out of the statement, "I made my vows to you
00:04:26.560 | and I married you."
00:04:28.360 | In choosing them, He loved them.
00:04:30.960 | In loving them, He chooses them.
00:04:33.880 | His loving was His choosing.
00:04:35.600 | His choosing was His loving.
00:04:37.560 | Now, if I'm on the right track here,
00:04:40.880 | let's see if that's confirmed in the New Testament.
00:04:44.800 | 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4 says,
00:04:48.640 | "We know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you."
00:04:53.640 | As if perhaps seeing that they are loved
00:05:00.400 | is evidence of a prior election.
00:05:04.640 | But then it flips in Romans 11, 5,
00:05:09.000 | and we read, "So too at the present time
00:05:12.080 | there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
00:05:17.080 | As if, perhaps, election came from a prior act
00:05:23.880 | of grace or love.
00:05:27.040 | Or we read in Ephesians 1, 4,
00:05:30.240 | "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world
00:05:33.920 | that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
00:05:38.040 | In love, He predestined us for adoption
00:05:42.640 | to Himself as sons."
00:05:45.200 | So it looks essentially the same.
00:05:48.040 | In election, He predestined us,
00:05:52.280 | and in love, He predestined us.
00:05:56.080 | Or chapter 9, verse 11 to 13,
00:05:59.440 | we read about the election of Jacob over Esau
00:06:03.720 | before they had been born, done anything good or evil,
00:06:07.200 | and nothing in either of them
00:06:10.720 | to attract God's preference of one over the other.
00:06:15.360 | And so it goes like this,
00:06:16.800 | "Though they were not yet born
00:06:18.440 | and had done nothing good or bad,
00:06:20.720 | in order that God's purpose of election might continue,
00:06:25.720 | not because of works, but because of Him who calls,
00:06:29.520 | He was told, 'The older will serve the younger,'
00:06:32.280 | as it is written, 'Jacob I loved.'
00:06:36.160 | But Esau I hated."
00:06:37.880 | So the words, "Jacob I loved,"
00:06:40.600 | it seems to me to stand virtually in the place of,
00:06:44.760 | "Jacob I chose before they were born
00:06:47.440 | or had done anything good or evil."
00:06:50.080 | One more text, and I think this one provides a phrase
00:06:54.720 | that may help us get the balance we need
00:06:58.120 | in relating these two important realities
00:07:01.120 | of love and election.
00:07:02.120 | Here's Romans 11:28.
00:07:05.240 | Paul says about the Jewish people,
00:07:07.440 | "According to the gospel,
00:07:10.000 | they are enemies for your sake, the Gentiles' sake.
00:07:15.000 | But according to election,
00:07:18.600 | they are loved for the sake of their forefathers."
00:07:22.400 | Now the phrase, "According to election, they are loved,"
00:07:27.400 | says being loved accords with election.
00:07:33.440 | It doesn't say which comes first or which causes the other.
00:07:37.560 | It simply says they accord, they fit together perfectly.
00:07:42.560 | They always go together in accordance.
00:07:47.240 | So my conclusion is that election is the act of God
00:07:52.240 | as He foresees a fallen world of undeserving sinners.
00:07:59.640 | And for Christ's sake, I say that on the basis of,
00:08:03.240 | Ephesians 1:5, "For Christ's sake,
00:08:06.400 | He sets His love on some in total freedom,
00:08:11.000 | guided only by His hidden counsels."
00:08:15.760 | And I can't see any warrant in the Bible
00:08:19.960 | for separating sequentially God's love for
00:08:24.960 | and His choosing of whom He will save.
00:08:30.040 | There's no election that is not loving,
00:08:34.020 | and there's no primal initiating loving that is not electing.
00:08:39.020 | To say that electing is not based on loving,
00:08:46.240 | which is what I'm arguing we should not say,
00:08:49.000 | to say that electing is not based on loving
00:08:53.360 | protects us from the possible misunderstanding
00:08:57.000 | that we are chosen because of something lovely in us.
00:09:00.800 | And to say that loving is not based on electing
00:09:05.800 | protects us from the misunderstanding
00:09:09.720 | that God's choosing was somehow heartless
00:09:11.880 | or emotionally neutral.
00:09:13.960 | And to say both of these should fill every child of God
00:09:18.960 | with both a sense of utter unworthiness
00:09:25.880 | and utter amazement that God took delight
00:09:29.520 | in making us His own.
00:09:32.000 | - Amen, may God work these truths deep into our hearts.
00:09:37.080 | There's such an infinite depth of awe here
00:09:39.520 | to uncover throughout the years, throughout the millennia.
00:09:43.120 | Thank you, Pastor John and Zena.
00:09:44.360 | Thank you for the simple but really thoughtful question
00:09:47.400 | that you sent in to us.
00:09:48.240 | It's short and simple and clear and to the point.
00:09:52.720 | Super helpful.
00:09:53.920 | Thanks for listening and making the podcast
00:09:55.440 | part of your day and a part of your commute.
00:09:58.160 | I know a lot of you listen to or from work.
00:10:00.960 | And three times a week we publish.
00:10:02.520 | And you can subscribe to our audio feeds
00:10:04.040 | and search our episode archive.
00:10:05.320 | And even reach us by email with a question
00:10:06.840 | you may be facing about how God's sovereignty
00:10:10.080 | relates to your life.
00:10:11.160 | You can do all of that through our online home
00:10:13.480 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:18.200 | Well, marriage is a precious gift from God.
00:10:21.140 | But when does marriage move from being a precious gift
00:10:23.960 | from God into a false god, an idol of personal security?
00:10:28.960 | It's a really important question.
00:10:30.880 | And it's a sharply worded question from a listener
00:10:33.360 | who lives in France.
00:10:34.340 | And it's on the table Friday when we return.
00:10:37.400 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:38.280 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:10:40.440 | A long time author and pastor, John Piper.
00:10:42.920 | We'll see you then.
00:10:43.880 | (upbeat music)
00:10:46.460 | (upbeat music)
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