We not only receive the blessings and favor that come from being chosen and adopted, but we also receive the responsibilities and opportunities. Because we are God’s chosen ones, we should live like it. It should change how we live because of who we belong to, whose family we are in, and what our new identity is now in Christ.

A couple years ago, my wife and I visited the Grand Canyon. It’s a sight to behold, whether at sunrise when the dawn slowly lights up the cold canyon, during the day as its scope can be appreciated, or at night when countless stars fill the sky.

We enjoy hiking, and even though it had recently snowed, we wanted to descend into the canyon. (It’s estimated that only five percent of the more than six million annual visitors go below the rim.) The path along the canyon’s rim is a peaceful place to enjoy the view, but you get to behold the sheer size and beauty of the canyon in a whole different way when you walk down into it. Your eyes are caught by the layers of rock, each offering its own shade and color. You feel your smallness and the canyon’s enormity beneath the rim’s surface. After a couple miles, especially when slowed by trekking through snow and ice, you look up thinking you’ll be further into the canyon only to realize it’s bigger and deeper than you imagined. But whether it’s looking down from above or scanning the canyon from inside, the more you see the layers within the canyon the more in awe you will be of the Grand Canyon as a whole (and its Maker).

When I think of these stunningly layered rock formations, it reminds me of words and truths in Scripture. Whether it’s a metaphor like God is our refuge (Ps. 46:1), or a doctrine like our redemption through Christ’s sacrificial death (Eph. 1:7), or a word brimming with meaning, like being “sealed” by the Spirit (Eph. 1:13), there are layers to these truths. They are theologically loaded because when an author uses one of these words or images, there’s a richness and complexity underneath that he draws upon and has in mind. The more a reader knows the Scriptures, the bigger and more beautiful a word becomes to them. The layers within a biblical truth are part of its loveliness.

To use a quick example, in Galatians 4:5, Paul says that in Christ we “receive adoption as sons.” The word “sons” has a rich background. One of my professors in college, Dr. Trevor Burke, wrote an entire book called The Message of Sonship. Adam, Abraham, and Israel were all to be God’s sons, someone chosen by God to reflect God and His kingdom in the world, receiving both the blessings and responsibilities that come with the role. Jesus is obviously the true and perfect Son, and we become sons of God only by being in the Son. When Paul uses the term, he also has his Roman historical context in mind. Often a person—which could be a man or woman—who was not a biological child would be adopted as an heir (and so much is in that word too). Wrapped up in “adoption” is the Old Testament background, Paul’s historical context, what it means to be heirs, and the richness of salvation in Christ that makes us sons and daughters of God who receive the care, love, blessings, and responsibilities that come with such a status. It speaks to our newfound identity in a family, our role to fulfill as those who represent and reflect the family’s values and priorities, as well as our security and future inheritance.

The point is that many words in the Bible, like “adoption” and “sons,” contain strata of meaning and significance. These biblical words are not “simple” words that refer to just one idea or that have just one connotation, but they bring together several streams of thought into one pounding waterfall of a word.

This is true of words like “chosen” or “elect” in the New Testament. When we read about those chosen by God (Eph. 1:4) or His elect exiles (1 Peter 1:1), we can sometimes simplify a word and miss the layers of significance within it. Too often, when we read about God’s people being chosen ones or elect, we miss the theological beauty and practical significance of what is present in the words because we are too preoccupied with the questions we want answered, which might not be present in the word or passage itself. Much ink has been spilled in books and articles and a lot of airwaves in podcasts and sermons have been sent out covering what election or to be chosen means. My goal here isn’t to rehash old debates or to provide a full treatment of these words, but instead, I want to highlight a few of the theological and historical layers that undergird the meaning of “chosen” and “elect.”

The language of chosen or elect seems to suggest at least the following:

• God’s mercy and grace as the initiator and securer of our salvation
• God setting His favor and affection upon a people
• Their belonging to God through His covenant and with His full commitment
• Their calling to holiness as God’s people
• Their mission to represent and reflect God to the world.

Elect and chosen are deeply theological and covenantal words referring to God’s graced, treasured, called, sanctified, and sent people who belong to Him and exist for His purposes. There’s more to the word than that, and an author might have one of these connotations more in mind than the others when it’s used in a specific context, but to be “chosen” or “elect” carries these layers of meaning and significance. Like a park ranger pointing out the geological layers of a canyon, let me highlight five theological layers underneath the words chosen and elect.

1) God’s unmerited, undeserved, and sovereign grace in our salvation.

Who we now are in Christ, and everything we have in him, is solely due to God’s grace, initiative, accomplishment, and gift. To be chosen is to be graced, and to be graced is to be given something you neither deserved nor brought about. When an author used words like “chosen” or “elect,” they intended our first response be gratitude and awe because of God’s kindness and love. These words convey the pleasing aroma of God’s generosity, goodness, and grace to people wholly undeserving.

While in Genesis 11, mankind seeks to make a name for themselves and make their way to God in their own efforts (rejecting God’s prior commands to multiply and fill the earth rather than remain in one place), Genesis 12 begins a new chapter of the Bible as God chooses a man (Abraham) and a people from him (Israel) to bestow His covenant, promises, favor, blessings, care, and commission upon. While those at the tower of Babel want to make a name for themselves through their accomplishments and initiative, God calls Abraham to Himself and says He will make Abraham’s name great, He will bless and multiply Abraham, and He will use him to bless the nations (Gen. 12:1-3). This is the beginning of Abraham’s story and Israel’s story. There is no prior record of anything Abraham has done, sought, or asked for, and yet, God graciously chooses this man (and people) to accomplish His purposes in His world. Throughout Israel’s history, God reminds them that He chose them not because of anything He saw in them, since they were few in number and weak compared to others, but it was according to His plans to set His love upon them and His divine purposes for them to be His people (Deut. 7:6-8). It’s a testimony to God’s grace and mercy.

This same language is true in the New Testament when Jesus and his apostles talk about those in the Church who have been chosen by God. It’s not according to anything worthy in them or that they’ve done, good or bad (Rom. 9:11), but it’s according to God’s merciful and gracious purposes. Ephesians 1 emphasizes this uninitiated and undeserved grace of God, not just in calling those chosen by God (Eph. 1:4) but also in Paul’s repetition of God’s divine purposes:

• “in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose [or pleasure] of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (1:4-6)
• “according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” (1:7-10)
• “in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (1:11)

Paul repeats himself to elevate the grace and the glory of God because our salvation—and all the blessings we now have in Christ—have nothing to do with us and everything to do with God’s mercy, grace, love, kindness, purposes, and plans. The language of God choosing a people for Himself is meant to humble us and remove any ground of boasting in ourselves or of trusting in ourselves. This gospel should stir up great gratitude to God. We don’t earn it, pay for it, deserve it, initiate it, accomplish it, secure it, or keep it. God initiate, accomplishes, and fulfills the work of salvation toward sinners.

That means there is no self-made man in God’s kingdom but only those utterly dependent on God’s grace in calling, saving, and keeping them. We are not forging our own identity and working to secure our blessings, but we are children graciously blessed by the Father. I think it’s interesting that chosen and elect show up in so many openings of letters, meaning the apostles wanted Christians to connect their identity, their blessings, and endurance or assurance, not to anything in themselves but in who they are as a graced, chosen people—and all that this then entails (including in the following points)

Because we are God’s chosen people, we are a humble, graced, and grateful people.

2) God’s generous and free favor, blessing, and love upon a people.

All these points are connected as one magnificent theological rock and yet each individual layer pops on its own. The fact that we are graced people is closely and clearly linked to God showering kindness and favor upon a people. Passages that use language of God’s chosen ones, elect, or those He foreknows often sing out the blessings that are bestowed on His people.

Again, the blessing and favor is not only not because of anything in us—initiated, merited, or accomplished—but it’s inherently found in who we belong to and what we have in Him. By being chosen to be God’s people, we are blessed. We are blessed because we belong to the blessed One. Before Paul gets to us being chosen by God in Ephesians 1:4, he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Being chosen is the first spiritual blessing Paul mentions, but it all points back to verse three and how the overarching blessing is life with God.

Like the language of salvation or redemption, what’s in mind isn’t merely escape from hell and judgment, victory over eternal death, or even forgiveness of sins (though these are blessings), but both salvation and being chosen have in mind God setting His love upon us, entering into a relational covenant with us where He takes our care and welfare upon Himself, where He adopts us into His family (chosen and adoption are often linked, as they are in Eph. 1:4-5), and giving us everything we’ll ever need for life and godliness. There’s debate about whether “in love” from Ephesians 1:4 should primarily go with what precedes it (God’s election of us and for the purpose of our holiness) or what follows it (being predestined for adoption), but it likely connects both ideas, since our being chosen by God to be set apart to Him and our being predestined for adoption to Him are both rooted in and an expression of God’s steadfast love.

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