MOST CALVINISTS TEACH THAT we did not freely choose to follow Jesus, but that we were constrained to respond to God by some irresistible compelling on His part. They say that it was by God’s choosing that we were picked out for salvation, and even try to prove it with verses like:
“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” (John 15:16).
However, this “being chosen” has more to do with the function and vocation of the apostles than with their salvation. Jesus chose the twelve from among the many who followed Him, and they in turn were eager to leave all for His sake.
The meaning of chosen here would be similar to that in John 6:70, where Jesus says, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” If Jesus had chosen Judas for eternal life, how could the text say, “Satan having entered into him” (Luke 22:3)?
He had chosen Judas and the other eleven as apostles, not elected them as believers, otherwise Jesus would also have saved Judas; so this choosing referred to their specific ministry and service for God, rather than to salvation itself.
The Bible clearly refers to Jesus as the One supremely chosen by God the Father: “Behold My Servant, Whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles” (Matt 12:18).
Obviously, this chosenness has nothing at all to do with the certitude of Jesus’ eternal destiny! This passage refers to the special redemptive mission He was destined to accomplish, leaving heaven’s glory to live here on earth and then make atonement for the sins of the whole world.
In Acts 22:14, when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, he gave a significant account of what Ananias had said to him after his conversion experience. Ananias spoke of God having chosen Paul to know God’s will, to see the Just One, and to hear the voice of His mouth.
This is certainly to do with God having chosen him for apostleship, not to the salvation experience itself. God had chosen Paul for a particular ministry, and he would become a witness to all men revealing what he had seen and heard, transmitting instruction to the churches as led by the Holy Spirit, and thus creating outstanding pages of divinely inspired Scripture.
Dudley Ward, Programmed by God or Free to Choose? Five-Point Calvinism under the Searchlight
