So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy… So then he has mercy on whomever he wills.
—Romans 9:15-18
Did you know that God chose you? Sometimes we get so caught up in our decision to accept Christ that we forget the deeper truth Scripture states plainly: “We love him because he first loved us.” Before you ever reached for God, He reached for you.
Paul puts it bluntly here: salvation “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” It’s not by natural birth or human effort that we’re placed into the family of God. It’s by new birth, and that new birth takes place by the sovereign choice of God in our lives. Before you were born, you were in the heart and mind of God, and He set His love on you.
I know that raises hard questions, questions people have debated for two thousand years and won’t settle this side of heaven. “Why me?” Honestly, I don’t know, and neither do you. At some point we have to let God be God. When you consider all His attributes, His love, His power, His holiness, it’s sheer pride to think we could fit Him into a box of our understanding.
But hold this in balance, because Scripture holds it in balance. The sovereign choice of God and the moral responsibility of man run side by side through the Bible, like two rails of a track. Both are true. God chooses us, “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” Jesus said. And yet we must also choose Him. The same Bible that says God elects also pleads, “whosoever will, may come.”
Here’s the picture I find most helpful. Imagine a door. On our side it reads, “Whosoever will, may come.” Anyone may walk through by faith. But once you step through and the door closes behind you, you turn around and see written on the other side: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” It’s a matter of perspective. From where we stand, we freely come; from where God stands, He has graciously chosen. Both are gloriously true.
And don’t miss the central word in this passage: mercy. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” Election is not about God being arbitrary or unkind. It’s about mercy, God reaching down to people who deserved nothing and lavishing grace on them. You and I are not saved because of our goodness or our righteousness. We are saved because God, in mercy, set His love on us.
So if you wonder whether you’re among the chosen, here’s the answer: come to Jesus and settle it. D. L. Moody used to pray, “O God, save the elect — and then elect some more!” There are no limits to the grace of God and no boundary to the power of the blood of Jesus. He will save all who come.
BEFORE YOU CHOSE GOD, HE CHOSE YOU IN MERCY, GIVE HIM THANKS, AND IF YOU WONDER, COME TO JESUS AND SETTLE IT.
