Election in the New Testament: God Chose Us Before the Foundation of the World
Let's start with Ephesians 1:4–5, my favorite verses in the Bible, which is why I'm so passionate about this:
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
This verse is talking about how God chose us before there was anything we could even do, because we weren't even born yet and the world wasn't even created yet.
The passage continues:
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
So there it is right there for you: adoption.
God predestined us Christians for adoption to Himself, and He did it in love. He chose according to the purpose of His will, just because He wanted to, because that was His will to do it.
And so, it's not up to the children to be adopted, right? It's not up to the sons to say, "Yeah, I want to be a son." No, it's totally up to God. It's God who chose us. You know, that selection, that active choosing, was God.
Election in the Old Testament: God Chose Israel Because He Loved Them
Here's another verse. The verse we just looked at was from the New Testament. But I'm going to show you now, hopefully, that this is also in the Old Testament.
It's not as if the Old Testament didn't believe in that. No, the Old Testament totally believed in that, and the example is with the Israelites.
Now, if you know anything about the history of the Bible, you know that Israel, the Hebrews, right? The people of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Joseph, and all those people, they were God's chosen people, right? God had favor upon them.
If you think about the Exodus story, God totally divided Egypt and the Israelites because He loved the Israelites. He did not love Egypt. He loved the Israelites. He was for the people of Israel.
And so, you can see that there's a distinct choice there that God made.
This is from Deuteronomy:
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
So, there again, it's not as if God had to love the Israelites because they were so great and mighty. Actually, it's sort of the opposite.
God is saying, "You guys are weak and not even that strong, and not even that numerous, but I just love you because I do. And I choose you, and I'm going to take care of you to be My people."
Election Is Found Throughout the Bible
So, we see election in both the New Testament and the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, Ephesians tells us that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption according to the purpose of His will.
In the Old Testament, we see God choosing Israel as His treasured possession, not because they were great or numerous, but because He loved them.
So not only is election in the New Testament, but it's throughout the Old Testament as well.