Every time Scripture highlights God’s choosing of some for salvation, it always has a practical focus. It’s never merely an ethereal idea to debate; rather, it’s always something shaping the way we live.

“Chosen people” is a phrase I hardly ever hear used in the church or Christian circles. Even in reformed churches who believe wholeheartedly the sovereignty of God in election, we tend to shy away from language that makes us sound better than others. And so we maintain the doctrine of election, but we don’t use it very often; we learn how to define and defend it Biblically without bringing it home to our hearts.

But yet every time Scripture highlights God’s choosing of some for salvation, it always has a practical focus. It’s never merely an ethereal idea to debate; rather, it’s always something shaping the way we live. Meditating on God’s election should move us in two directions: humility and exaltation.

Chosen: Lowly

In Deuteronomy 7:7 Moses strips away all possibility of God’s people being sinfully proud because they are chosen: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you…” He goes on to teach that God’s election is based in His love and faithfulness, not our worthiness or lovability.

Romans 9 makes the same point by drawing out the comparision between Jacob and Esau. Without explaining (or needing to explain) His choice, God declared, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The original story itself goes to great lengths to show that, by all worldly measures, Esau was the better man: older, stronger, more respectable, more manly. But God chose Jacob.

So Paul reflects on this in writing to the Corinthians: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” (1 Cor. 1:27) In other words, not only did God not choose us for our amazing qualities, he likely chose us because of our lack of amazing qualities.

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