Rubbed the Wrong Way

We like God. Well, we believers, at least. We're fans of Jesus. Why else would they call us "Christ-ians"? Jesus is our friend. And I'm really not intending to sound as sarcastic as this might sound. We really love the Father and the Son and the Spirit. But ...

Paul complained in Romans 7 about his own conflict between the mind and the flesh. "For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members" (Rom 7:22-23). In this body, while we wait for the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:23), we have conflicts with what we love -- God and His ways -- and what our flesh loves. Until this life ends.

This is why, despite our very real love for Christ, we can sometimes contradict Him. For instance, 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, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you" (John 15:16). "What?" you ask. "No, we don't contradict that. We believe that." Really? You believe that you did not choose Him, but He chose you? This whole idea grates on us. "Of course we chose Him. Isn't it our choice of Him that gave us our salvation, our justification by faith?" Sure, we are justified by faith and not by works, but according to Scripture we were chosen before we chose Him. According to the Word of God, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4). "Well, yeah, sure," some might say, "but that's because He looked down the corridors of time, saw that we should choose Him, and chose us." Seems reasonable, sure, but according to Scripture God's choice "does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Rom 9:16). God, in fact, is quite adamant. "He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills" (Rom 9:17-18).

Oh, that really grates on us. "Are you saying that it was not my choice that got me saved?" No, of course not. I'm not saying that; the Bible is saying that (e.g., John 1:12-13). "Are you saying I had nothing to do with it?" No, of course not. God enabled your choice and you made it. God gave you the faith and you exercised it. God gave you the will and the ability (Php 2:13) to believe and you did it. But you didn't originate it.

It is aggravating to the flesh. We like to think we're more significant than that, more capable, more "in charge". We're so sure that when Jesus says, "You do not believe because you are not among My sheep," we unconsciously turn it around and put "among My sheep" as the effect rather than the cause: "You are not among My sheep because you do not believe." No. According to Christ, you have to be "among My sheep" before you can believe. According to Christ, "called" precedes "believe" and our faith is a gift before we exercise it (John 6:64-65; Php 1:29; Rom 12:3; 2 Peter 2:1; Acts 3:16). In order that there be no room for boasting (Eph 2:9) and that God gets all the glory (Rom 9:22-24), Scripture makes it clear that He calls before we respond and He does so "in order that God's purpose of election might continue" (Rom 9:11). We are not the point -- God is -- and, for us humans, that can really rub us the wrong way.