God Chose You Before You Chose Him
Audio Transcript
John 10:26: “You do not believe because you’re not of my sheep.” Not the other way around. It’s not, Because you do not believe, therefore you’re not part of my sheep. It doesn’t say that. He says, “Because you’re not part of my sheep, that’s why you don’t believe.”
“If you have faith, it’s because God chose you for this before the foundation of the world.”
So John says, “Being in the book of the life of the Lamb that was slain, being in the book keeps you from worshiping the beast” (Revelation 13:8). Luke says, “Being ordained to eternal life brings you to belief” (Acts 13:48). Jesus says, “Being part of my sheep is why you believe.”
In other words, God’s choice of who will be rescued from rebellion and wrath in Christ is not based on foreseen faith. If you have faith in this room, or watching this video, if you have faith today in Christ, and are thus united to Christ, it is because God chose you for this before the foundation of the world. That is not, in my judgment, an ambiguous teaching in the Bible.
What I mean by gospel depths is that both the central event of the gospel — death and resurrection of Jesus — and your union with that risen Christ was accomplished in the mind of God before he created the world.
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