I Chose Jesus (but He Chose Me First)
Understanding the relationship between man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty.
Nearly a decade ago I was spending time with my then-girlfriend (now my wife); we were talking about our future—what our plans were, where we wanted to be, and so on. Then the conversation turned to the future in general—how technology was going to look in 20-50 years, and so on.
Then, out of the blue, I said words that changed my life forever: “What if Jesus returns while we’re still alive? What if I’m not living right?”
I decided to follow Jesus, give my entire life to Him, in that moment. I chose Jesus. He became real to me.
Some Reformed folk will read that last sentence and become uncomfortable. They will retort, “You didn’t choose Jesus!” To be honest, I understand the feeling. As one who is Reformed, I am increasingly uneasy about the self-centered, me-first language we use when talking about our salvation and the Christian life. Much of evangelicalism places too heavy an emphasis on man in order to “save” free will at the detriment of God’s sovereignty. That’s a mistake.
But I also am uneasy about the opposite side. The side that says we didn’t choose Jesus; the side which responds with an over-emphasis of sorts on God’s sovereignty; the side that neglects to acknowledge the real, human choices we make. There are pitfalls on both sides we must be cognizant of.
So, the question arises: Did we choose Jesus or did He choose us?
The answer: Yes.
We Chose Jesus
The Bible is painstakingly clear: real people make real choices, and one of those real choices is trusting in Christ.
We must not cower from what Scripture teaches about our choices. If you are a Christian, it is because you decided to follow Jesus. You, as a person, made that decision—a decision you are responsible for. And others are equally responsible for not making that decision.
It is simply unbiblical to convey that humans did not choose to follow Jesus. Any idea to the contrary doesn’t tell the full story. Jesus commands numerous times in the Bible for people to repent of their sins and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15, for starters). This is a biblical command for people to choose, to follow, to make a decision. If people didn’t make a genuine choice, these commands wouldn’t make sense.
John Piper said in an episode of “Ask Pastor John”:
You have free will when your will is the decisive cause of your choosing Christ. And the word decisive has the same function as ultimate. There may be many causes that influence your choosing Christ. But for you to be free, in this definition, the decisive cause — the one that finally decides your choice — must be your will, not anyone else’s will, including God’s….You made a choice. Your will was active and necessary. Your choice was real. That is not the question in the debate.
We choose to follow Jesus or not. It is our responsibility. As Piper noted, our will was active; and not only active, but necessary. At a point in all our lives, we all made the decision to trust Jesus. That was real.
Jesus Chose Us First
Even though our decision to believe upon Christ was, in fact, our decision, we only did so because Jesus chose us first (John 15:16). In fact, Scripture is abundantly clear that God chose us to be in Christ before He created the world (Ephesians 1:4). Our salvation—our election—was based on God’s sovereign, loving, gracious choice. Nothing more, nothing less.
This means we cannot boast, not even a little bit, about making the decision to follow Christ. The only reason we did so was because Jesus set His love and affectionate on us first. In a very real, biblical sense, we wouldn’t have ever believed in the gospel if God had not chosen us in Christ to be His children.
As R.C. Sproul in his book Chosen by God:
To be sure, a human choice is made, a free human choice, but the choice is made because God first chooses to influence the elect to make the right choice. The basis for God’s choice does not rest in man but solely in the good pleasure of the divine will.
This is what many don’t understand, intentionally or not. Those who accurately hold to Reformed theology don’t believe humans are robots, that we’re all being drug along by God’s predetermined will and have absolutely no will at all. That’s simply not true. We have wills, they are just fallen and enslaved by sin (Ephesians 2:1).
Humans are more than capable of making a real, genuine choice to believe upon Jesus Christ. The problem, however, is our wills are enslaved by sin before salvation. Our sin problem is pervasive to where it affects all of our being: physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, etc. There is not one part of us that is not effected by sin. Therefore, we need the grace of God to even believe! (Yes, regeneration precedes faith.)
All of Grace
There is so much more that can be said on this topic, but only so much should be said in a blog post. Here’s the bottom line: our salvation is all of grace. We made the choice to follow Christ, yes, but we only decided to do so because Jesus came for us first. If God hadn’t chosen us out of pure, sovereign grace, we would’ve never come to Christ—nor would we have wanted to.
Salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9). Our decision to follow Jesus, though genuine, only happened because God decided, according to His will, to act.
When you’re wrestling with this question—Did I choose God or did He choose me?—I pray you take a second to pray. Pray for guidance, for wisdom, for clarity. Pray for objective eyes when reading Scripture. If you do that, I believe your answer will be “both.”