What does Paul mean when he talks about God choosing us in Ephesians 1:4, and what does Peter mean in 1 Peter 1:2 when he says that believers are ‘the elect’?
This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding entitled ‘The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God’.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4)
. . . to the elect . . . According to the foreknowledge of God the Father. (1 Peter 1:1–2)
I believe in God's election. God always takes the initiative. My salvation was not a scheme I thought up and proposed to God and asked would he possibly consider saving me. I am saved because God took the initiative, and he chose. He didn't choose according to my good works. He had other reasons for choosing the type of people—he chooses the weak of this world and not many mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27). When a young man proposes to a young woman it is commonly thought that he takes the initiative. The theory is that the gentleman proposes to the lady—he chooses her! That doesn't mean she has no choice. She has to choose him as well, and she can say 'No'. God chooses therefore.
As to your particular passage in Ephesians 1:4 it is not saying that God chose us to be in Christ, but God chose us in Christ. In choosing Christ, God chose everybody who would be in Christ. How you get to be 'in Christ,' is something that many Scriptures will tell you.
And, yes, according to 1 Peter 1:2: 'elect . . . according to the foreknowledge of God'. Quite so. We must be careful before we make the deduction that God's choice means that he passes other people by. As it is often pointed out, Christ himself is the chosen one of God, and that does not imply that God passed by others. God really wants us to be saved, and when we get saved we discover that it is God's choice—his pre-choice. That doesn't mean that he doesn't want some people to be saved. That wouldn't be true. Scripture says that he wishes all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
