The Chosen?

Like it or nor, the concept of "the chosen" is throughout the Bible. From Adam (easy choice ... the only guy around at the time) to Noah to Abraham to Jacob and the entire nation of Israel all the way to the New Testament and "the elect," it is everywhere and unavoidable. Israel is rightly represented as "God's chosen people" and Christians are righly represented as "God's elect" (another word for chosen) and it's just the way it is. Regardless of our distaste for the concept of "predestination," it's in there. And because it's a distasteful concept, some Christians are inclined to dismiss it. One told me, "If that doctrine is true, I should just go join the KKK because 'We're the chosen and we're better than anyone else.'"

I get it. It's understandable. It's even very human. If I'm chosen in anything, it makes me special ... doesn't it? Well, yes, in almost every application you can imagine ... except this one. As it turns out, the biblical doctrine of election, Old Testament and New, includes explicit disclaimers. In Deuteronomy Moses told Israel, "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" (Deut 7:7). God didn't pick Israel because they were just great or because, darn it all, they were just so cute. He didn't pick them because they were, deep down, so lovable. No, God described them as "stiff-necked" (Exo 32:9; Exo 33:3; 2 Chron 30:8; Acts 7:51). He had an entire generation die in the desert for their refusal to follow Him. Israel wasn't chosen because they were special. They were chosen because they were not. The same is true of New Testament believers. We aren't chosen because of anything special about us. Paul said, "Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth" (1 Cor 1:26). He said that God "has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). That's special, isn't it? But he goes on to say, "We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Cor 4:7). That is, much like Israel, God hasn't selected us because we are special, but precisely because we are not. He chose us -- Israel and believers today -- to demonstrate His glory and power carried around in clay pots. "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor 1:28-29).

Scripture is abundantly clear. Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide ..." (John 15:16). We are only special insofar as we are His workmanship. We best display His power and glory by being plain, not special, ordinary, and, yet, used by Him. We are the chosen, but the moment we think that makes us something special is the moment we become useless because He chose us "so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor 1:29). So, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" (Jer 9:23; 1 Cor 1:31). And don't go embarrassing God by thinking you're just so wonderful that God couldn't have done without you.