(upbeat music) At DesiringGod.org, we believe in the sovereignty of God and we believe it because we see it in scripture. And not only do we believe in God's sovereignty over all things, but we celebrate it. And we also field important questions about what all this means for our own lives today.

Today's question is short and simple, but it's pretty profound and it comes from a podcast listener named Zena, who writes this, "Pastor John, did God elect me because He loves me or does He love me because He elected me?" How would you answer Zena? - Like so many questions, this one almost answers itself as soon as we define our terms, or as soon as we, in this case, clarify what these two questions mean.

In fact, the reason I think this question is worthy of answering is precisely to clarify the terms because if the terms are given certain meanings, very wrong teachings can emerge. For example, someone might ask the question, did God elect me, that is, choose me for Himself because He loves me, assuming that God saw something lovable in me and then was inclined to me on that basis, and then because of that inclination towards me and my peculiar value that He recognizes, He chose me as part of His family.

Now, that would be a dreadfully wrong picture. God is surveying humanity and all the people out there to see who's worthy of His adoption, people who have the necessary qualifications to be chosen out of a fallen and condemned humanity. That's not the picture of the New Testament. And as soon as we clarify that, the answer starts to become clearer.

Or someone might ask, does He love me because He elected me, assuming that God in His choosing is somehow emotionally neutral or indifferent and that His choice of us is at the very beginning maybe begrudging or without any heart or any joy, and then only after He has collected His elected ones with no delight in the election, He somehow comes to love them because He elected them.

That too, it seems to me, would be a dreadfully wrong impression from the New Testament. So let's look at a few passages to see if we can get clarity from the words of Scripture about the relationship between election and love. The picture of election of God's people in the Old Testament goes like this.

Deuteronomy 7, 6, following, "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you." So Moses mentions election and love, but he doesn't prescribe or describe a sequence.

And in fact, it reads as though the terms are almost virtually interchangeable. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people, why? It is because you were loved. That is, He chose you. You can't force a temporal sequence out of the phrase, "Set His love on you and chose you," any more than you can make a temporal sequence out of the statement, "I made my vows to you and I married you." In choosing them, He loved them.

In loving them, He chooses them. His loving was His choosing. His choosing was His loving. Now, if I'm on the right track here, let's see if that's confirmed in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4 says, "We know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you." As if perhaps seeing that they are loved is evidence of a prior election.

But then it flips in Romans 11, 5, and we read, "So too at the present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." As if, perhaps, election came from a prior act of grace or love. Or we read in Ephesians 1, 4, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons." So it looks essentially the same. In election, He predestined us, and in love, He predestined us. Or chapter 9, verse 11 to 13, we read about the election of Jacob over Esau before they had been born, done anything good or evil, and nothing in either of them to attract God's preference of one over the other.

And so it goes like this, "Though they were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, He was told, 'The older will serve the younger,' as it is written, 'Jacob I loved.' But Esau I hated." So the words, "Jacob I loved," it seems to me to stand virtually in the place of, "Jacob I chose before they were born or had done anything good or evil." One more text, and I think this one provides a phrase that may help us get the balance we need in relating these two important realities of love and election.

Here's Romans 11:28. Paul says about the Jewish people, "According to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, the Gentiles' sake. But according to election, they are loved for the sake of their forefathers." Now the phrase, "According to election, they are loved," says being loved accords with election. It doesn't say which comes first or which causes the other.

It simply says they accord, they fit together perfectly. They always go together in accordance. So my conclusion is that election is the act of God as He foresees a fallen world of undeserving sinners. And for Christ's sake, I say that on the basis of, Ephesians 1:5, "For Christ's sake, He sets His love on some in total freedom, guided only by His hidden counsels." And I can't see any warrant in the Bible for separating sequentially God's love for and His choosing of whom He will save.

There's no election that is not loving, and there's no primal initiating loving that is not electing. To say that electing is not based on loving, which is what I'm arguing we should not say, to say that electing is not based on loving protects us from the possible misunderstanding that we are chosen because of something lovely in us.

And to say that loving is not based on electing protects us from the misunderstanding that God's choosing was somehow heartless or emotionally neutral. And to say both of these should fill every child of God with both a sense of utter unworthiness and utter amazement that God took delight in making us His own.

- Amen, may God work these truths deep into our hearts. There's such an infinite depth of awe here to uncover throughout the years, throughout the millennia. Thank you, Pastor John and Zena. Thank you for the simple but really thoughtful question that you sent in to us. It's short and simple and clear and to the point.

Super helpful. Thanks for listening and making the podcast part of your day and a part of your commute. I know a lot of you listen to or from work. And three times a week we publish. And you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our episode archive. And even reach us by email with a question you may be facing about how God's sovereignty relates to your life.

You can do all of that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, marriage is a precious gift from God. But when does marriage move from being a precious gift from God into a false god, an idol of personal security? It's a really important question. And it's a sharply worded question from a listener who lives in France.

And it's on the table Friday when we return. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. A long time author and pastor, John Piper. We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)