John 15:16 (NKJV)”You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
When reading this passage, this phase “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” stood out for me. Thinking that God has chosen us. Not only has he chosen us, but the Bible continuous to say that he has appointed us. So, we are chosen and appointed.
It is like going of a job interview and afterwards receive a call that you have been chosen. Does this mean that you have the appointed? No, only once you have accepted the job offer the job is yours? The same principle applies here. You are chosen and appointed, but did you accept the job?
Deuteronomy 30:19 (ESV) “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live”
Ephesians 1:4 (ESV) ”Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him”
Revelation 3:20 (ESV) “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV) “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
Colossians 3:12-14 (ESV) “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
We were not chosen because we came; we came because we were chosen. Remember, job example, you can only accept the job once you have been chosen. Some principle you. You can only accept the offer once you have been chosen. Well, the good news is that you have been chosen. You just must accept.
“Revel in the wonder that you are a Christian because God chose you to be one. Your roots, as a child of God, are in eternity — in the infinite mind and heart of God. Your faith, and all its fruits, are God’s eternal gift.” – John Piper