JOHN 6:67-71 “CHOOSE THIS DAY”

67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

God is sovereign in all things, yet he requires human beings to make an intentional choice to acknowledge and obey him. No one is exempt from the challenge to make a choice. There are no passive citizens of the Kingdom. Even the Twelve, who have all chosen to leave their previous lives and literally follow Jesus, are given the opportunity to affirm or deny that choice based on present circumstances. Their answer demonstrates a faith in Jesus as who he proclaims himself to be rather than any special understanding of what he has said. By faith we follow Jesus and through that faith relationship his truth is revealed to those who follow. The Disciples will come to know the content of their faith and the truth of their confession after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Yet even though Jesus chose each of them, one of the Twelve will choose to betray him to those who will kill him.

Only God truly knows the balance between his sovereign will and our free will. We are to understand that God is absolutely sovereign, because he has revealed himself as such in Scripture. But at the same time he created us to be in a loving relationship with him. On one side of the love-equation, there is no love where there is no opportunity for the object of one’s love to reject the lover. On the other side, there is no reciprocal love if the object of one’s love cannot voluntarily choose to love the lover. When it comes to living a Christian life, we would do best to follow the example of the Twelve. Daily we need to concentrate on choosing to obey God as a manifestation of our love for him, while trusting that through that love-relationship he will reveal to us a greater knowledge of him over time.

Lord Jesus, grow my faith in you by making me intentionally face the choices that challenge my relationship with you every day. Let me see the challenges as opportunities to grow in my knowledge of you so that I might trust and obey you more fully. Deliver me from a mindless sense of complacency through which I might miss the wonders of your presence in my life. Amen.