MrWonder's Bible Chat

Did God choose you or did you choose God?

Pastor Jan D vanderMerwe.

www.covenantnet.com

Does it really matter who chose who or what?
Does it really matter whether God chose you "
" or whether you chose God?
Yes, it does!
But I thought that because God is almighty, He decides everything!
Does not the Bible say "

... just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
--- Eph. 1:4

" and does it not also say "

For whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
--- Rom. 8:29

Yes, it does,
" and it also says very plainly that "

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness,
but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
--- 2 Peter 3:9

But nowhere does it say that God chooses for us,
or that God decides for us
Not at all¦!
For although God wants everyone to receive salvation,
God gave man a freewill and a free choice
and thus God cannot and does not make the decision for us
but says to us very clearly

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;"
--- Deut. 30:19

God chose that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.
God decided that we should be conformed to the image of Jesus.
God desires that not one person should perish or go to hell.
but
whether we decide to be holy,
whether we want to conform to the image of Jesus,
and whether we decide to go to heaven or to hell,
that choice is ours and ours alone!

It is only the devil who wants to confuse the choice.
For he knows that if we fail to choose what God has planned for us,
we stay under his influence of death and destruction.
Therefore God says to us, be sure to CHOOSE LIFE!