To The Staff of Journey Community Church
I don’t usually spend much time on verses and/or passages on election and predestination. I have done my research and have come to a settled place where I know the arguments and passages favored by the two main sides of the topic, but have found what I believe to be a biblical position to rest (which happens to be somewhere in the middle). I am ok with not knowing the definite answer because it is a discussion believed by scholars to be outside of the “core/essential” beliefs of our faith, and God is totally sovereign and trustworthy so, however he has worked it, I am assured of his goodness towards us. And to be frank, this response is the result of some hurt and disunity I experienced from engaging certain people in discussion on this topic in the past. So, once I found my stance and prepared myself for pastoral leadership in any conversations that might arise, I began spending less time on the passages in my personal devotion.
But this morning I was struck by a passage in Romans, starting at the top of chapter 9. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s a section all about God’s election of his people, particularly discussing Israel’s state with God since they largely missed and denied Jesus as the Messiah. As he discusses Israel’s position before God, Paul makes a parenthetical statement that says, “God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling,” Romans 9:11. You know those moments when a sentence or phrase in Scripture just resonates deep within your chest? This was one of those for me.
Avoiding every step of the rabbit trail I took in studying and researching this passage, I ended up at a devotional by the great author and lover of Jesus, Andrew Murray, titled True Vine, where he discusses John 15:16 (also on election/God’s choosing us): “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
About this verse Murray says:
“Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.” And with what view does Christ say this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of fulfilling their destiny… In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power in prayer in Heaven. What confidence the thought that He has chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual call to the deepest humility and praise, to the most entire dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us; this is the pledge, He will do all in us.
Two avoid getting too longwinded (too late!) and too lost in the weeds, Andrew Murray is observing that:
God’s election enables us to know our purpose (God’s purpose for us) and find certainty of fulfilling that purpose (our calling).
God’s purpose, as stated in John 15:16, is that we bear fruit that abides and have power in prayer.
This blew me away. Rather than the pettiness and slander I have witnessed in some discussions on the topic of election, Murray reveals that one of the blessings of the doctrine of election is that we know our calling in life (fruit bearing and powerful praying) WILL be accomplished by God because he chose us. God cannot be thwarted, stymied, stopped, diverted, or prevented from accomplishing EXACTLY what he plans for our lives. His choosing of us is not based on anything we’ve done or will do, because “he chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4), meaning before we had any chance to prove ourselves worthy or unworthy. Even more, God’s perfect knowledge enabled him to know everything we would ever do, good bad and ugly, before he said “Let there be light,” and he STILL chose us, and never changed his mind.
I was just thinking about you all. How ridiculously thankful I am for each one of your personalities. How wonderful all of your strengths are. How beautiful your weaknesses are. How amazing it is when all of that comes together as we labor for the kingdom alongside each other, running full speed in our strengths, using them to bolster and round out each others’ weaknesses, and scorning any pride or shame that could come from our interdependence on each others’ gifts and skills. Because if God has chosen us, then we KNOW that we will bear fruit and have power in prayer at and through Journey Community Church.
So, in alignment with God’s words through Ed’s message this last weekend, I challenge us to ask the Holy Spirit to move in our lives and our church, taking us to another level, another dimension, another gear of fruitfulness and prayer. We have been elected, called, chosen for this purpose, and God will not fail to fulfill his purposes. I can’t wait to see what he unleashes in and through us and the Journey family.
Much Love,
Chris