Selection, Predestination, And Calling
SELECTION, PREDESTINATION,
AND CALLING
God's selection is related to His predestination and to His calling. Of the three, selection is first, followed by predestination and calling. Firstly, God selected us. Then He marked us out, that is, predestinated us. Both selection and predestina tion took place before we were born. Then at a certain point in our life, God came in to call us.
Ephesians 1:4 and 5 prove that God's selec tion and predestination took place in eternity past: "According as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blemish before Him, in love, hav ing predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleas ure of His will." Before the universe came into existence, God selected us and predestinated us unto sonship. We need to exercise our spirit in faith to believe this word written in the Scrip ture. On the day appointed by God, we were born. Eventually, also at the time appointed by Him, we were saved. Even though we may have had no intention of believing in the Lord Jesus, we came to believe in Him, because we had been selected and predestinated by God. This is the selection