Yes, God chose, and what He chose was a people in Christ. Election in the Bible is God settling, before the world began, that His family would include the Gentiles alongside Israel. It is never a hidden list you might have been left off.
The Grace Answer
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Paul wrote that sentence to comfort a church, and somewhere along the way it became the sentence that keeps people up at night, wondering whether they were among the chosen at all.
Start with where Paul puts the choosing: in Him. The same sentence goes on to say He “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” Christ is the chosen One, and the family is chosen by being in Him. Paul calls this “the mystery of His will,” and two chapters later he says what the mystery is: “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.” That’s what God settled before time. His family would not stop at Israel’s border.
So the object of election is a people, and you belong to that people the way everyone in it does, by trusting the Son. None of this makes God passive. You didn’t find Him by being wiser than your neighbor. The gospel reached you before you went looking for it, because God moved toward you first. Election is His initiative, and it’s good news.
But what about Romans 9?
Romans 9 is the strongest chapter for the other reading, and serious Christians in the Reformed tradition read it as God choosing individuals for salvation. It deserves a careful hearing. Paul opens the chapter grieving over Israel and asking whether God’s word has failed. His examples are about how the promise travels. “The older shall serve the younger” was spoken to Rebekah about two nations in her womb (Genesis 25:23). “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated” comes from Malachi, centuries later, about Israel and Edom. Paul is showing that God is free to carry His promise through the line He chooses, apart from ancestry or achievement.
Then read where the argument lands. By the end of chapter 9, Gentiles who never pursued righteousness have attained “the righteousness of faith.” Chapter 10 throws the door open: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Chapter 11 says those now in unbelief can be grafted in again. Romans 9 through 11 is one argument, and it ends in mercy wide enough for Jew and Gentile alike. That is where we land: Paul is tracing how the promise reaches a people, not drawing up a list.
There is room for humility about how God’s foreknowledge and our faith fit together, and believers who love Christ differ on it. There’s no room for the fear that you might be on the outside. You don’t have to search yourself for evidence that you were chosen. Look at the One who was. Jesus said it to a crowd that would soon be walking away from Him: “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” If you’re coming, you’re welcome.
The Scriptures
Talk It Through
For a small group, a friend across the table, or your own journal.
- When you hear that God “chose” people, do you hear good news or a quiet worry that you might not be one of them? Where did that worry come from?
- Paul says what was settled before time was that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs. How does it change the question to read election as a family being formed in Christ rather than a list being drawn up?
- Jesus told a crowd that would soon walk away that He will by no means cast out the one who comes. What would it look like to rest on that instead of searching yourself for proof?