JOHN 6:70-71
70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.
It’s a mind-bogglingly, astounding truth that GOD chose me; that He chose you, a born again disciple of Christ. Foregoing all notions of GOD’s sovereignty and the free will agency of man that seems so hotly debated these days between Calvinists and Arminianists.
On whatever basis GOD chose us, the fact is He did. Were I GOD, I wouldn’t have chosen me – not me. I offer nothing of value to GOD, no usefulness, no virtue or faithfulness that would please Him – to say nothing of a single shred of righteousness to impress Him with!
Nevertheless, He chose us who are saints, according to His grace.
And while some resent this idea that GOD chose some but not others, none of us knows who He will choose – it could be that one who resents this idea: if they were to humble themselves and receive Christ, and become a child of GOD – they would discover that they were chosen after all because all are welcome to the Kingdom if they will receive Christ (JOHN 1:12-13).
It's fascinating to me who the LORD Jesus didn’t choose as His followers: not a religious expert in the bunch. Not a single wealthy entrepreneur either. Not among the bravest or brightest even.
Consider these 12 prior to their spiritual rebirth (where they finally receive the Holy Spirit post-Calvary at the Resurrection; JOHN 20:22). They were in constant need of correction, redirection, rebuke, lessons in humility. It seems the thing they loved to argue about the most was who among them would be the greatest (MARK 9:34;LUKE 22:24).
“I don’t see any of you walking on water! And you know, I get divine revelation from the Father!”
“Typical for a big brother to boast so much, but I don’t know anyone who brings more people to Jesus than me!”
“The LORD isn’t coming to any of you for advice, like He did me!”
“I’m the one that Jesus said would remain until He returns – goes to show I’ve got the most important job coming!” And so on, and so forth…
Suffice it to say that He didn’t consider any qualifications on their part in His selection process after He had prayed to the Father all night (LUKE 6:12-13).
He chose those who I believe were immensely disqualified in their own right, but those with whom He could work with: the weak, the foolish, the unlearned (1 COR 1:27). The only exception was Saul of Tarsus who was scholastically, impeccably learned, ecclesiastically wise, strong in his conviction and fidelity, but even in his case, he was deeply humbled and broken over the fact that he persecuted the church of GOD (1 COR 15:9).
“All we like sheep have gone astray…” (ISA 53:6); these critters aren’t at all known for their intelligence. They seem to have an innate need for a shepherd. And in our ‘sheepness’ the LORD had compassion on us:
MATTHEW 9:36
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
We have all of us gone our own way (ISA 53:6) rather than GOD’s way, being adversarial in our sin nature, governing our own lives in pride, even arrogance, disallowing our Creator His rightful place as LORD. We were like little devils running around and doing that which was right in our own eyes – regardless of how it looked to GOD (“If He doesn’t like it, too bad, it’s MY life!”)!
Yet by His grace, He transformed adversarial devils into adoring disciples! He saved us because He loves us! And now that we’re saved, He has prepared a destiny for us that we wouldn’t believe if He told us (which is probably why there is so little in the Bible about our eternal Home?). Those in Christ have been predestined, according to GOD’s foreknowledge:
EPHESIANS 1:2-7
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…
The Eternal GOD Who created space, time, matter, energy, the fundamental dimensionalities of reality that extends far beyond the perceivable has peered down the corridors of time and has foreseen all whose hearts would willingly bow before His majesty and surrender their lives to Him as their LORD, restoring in a sense, His right to rule over their souls just as He does already over all of creation.
Having seen our choices, He then bases our destiny on them long before we ever existed because we are the chosen of GOD.
An analogy I like to use to demonstrate this:
Let’s say I was watching a football game live. The following day I’m watching it again with a friend, and I make a wager that number 14 is going to make a touch down in the first quarter. He accepts the wager (not knowing I’ve already seen the game) and he loses his money because I had the advantage of knowing what would happen ahead of time!
I did nothing to affect number 14’s decisions to run right, then left, dodge over a member of the opposing team. He made those decisions strictly on his own; I simply knew in advance that this was what he was going to do, and having that knowledge, was able to coordinate my will and gain some money.
GOD’s foreknowledge doesn’t predetermine a person’s will, His foreknowledge is intimately aware of future events that play out independently of His sovereignty, and yet by His sovereignty, He predetermines a future for such who receive Jesus as LORD and Savior (ROM 8:28-30; 1 PET 1:2-5).
Now about Judas – it was prophesied that the LORD would be betrayed (ZECH 11:12-13; MATT 26:21-25; JOHN 13:21-27). Does this mean that Judas had no say in the matter? That he was fated to fulfill this role as the traitor of Christ and it was beyond his control to do so?
Or was it that GOD simply understood the future events and managed to use this knowledge to fulfill His own purposes, just the way that I (in the above analogy) used the knowledge I had to get me a few extra bucks in my wallet.
It was prophesied that Christ would be betrayed, that He would be crucified (and He didn’t inspire those who invented crucifixion, just to that His Son’s hands and feet would be pierced; PSALM 22:16), that He would be more marred and ruined than any man so that He couldn’t even be recognized as human (ISA 52:14).
For details on the Cross of Christ, which is the ALTAR of the ALMIGHTY check out this article: Part ONE and Part TWO.
GOD the All-knowing, All-wise One sat outside of time, inhabiting eternity (ISA 57:15) took careful notes on all that would happen, weaving His own sovereign will in the mix, and foretold of these things via His inspired prophets so that we would know for certain that this Book is the Book of books, the exclusive truth source in this world, and that which it tells us of Jesus of Nazareth is the truth: that He is GOD made flesh, the Word Incarnate, Whom the Father has made both LORD and Christ (ACTS 2:36)!
Not only was Judas a devil (adversary) but he was also possessed of Satan (JOHN 13:27), but even here, Satan couldn’t surprise GOD if he tried. There is no ‘chess match’ between him and His Creator, he is outmatched!
Thus evil has no chance of an ultimate victory: GOD holds all the cards. And any who would position themselves as a devil (such as the anti-Christ and the False Prophet and any common variety unrepentant sinner) will meet the same fate as that fallen cherub (MATT 25:41)!
The Lake of Fire, Gehenna, the Second Death:
REVELATION 20:10
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Next time on JEWELS From the GOSPEL of JOHN: HATING THE TESTIFIER – JOHN 7:1-7!
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