My New Book: You Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You

Do we choose God or does God choose us? It is a simple question. It’s an important question. What it is not is an unanswered question.

I have found clarity about my own faith, and answers to ambiguity that kept me from freedom and joy in the experience of it, by revisiting this basic question of how that faith began. That is, how do you or I, how does anyone, come to believe the strange message of the gospel? And why? I have written my new book, You Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, to give words to the answers I have found to these questions. More significantly, I’ve written my book to explore the words that have already been given.

The book’s title comes from the words of Jesus in John 15:16. As the book details, various New Testament passages either assume or directly state the point that the believers in Jesus Christ were chosen to believe. We have faith because God has given us faith.

This is an odd idea to many. It is troubling to some. We live in a culture that emphasizes the agency of the individual. Christian groups frequently assume belief in Christ must begin with the individual’s choice to believe. This book specifically argues against that idea. We are broken creatures, unable to bootstrap our belief in this way. We cannot see the divine truly, we cannot choose the divine for what it is, we cannot believe in the lordship of Jesus or the truth of his resurrection, unless the divine first grants us the capacity to do so and enters into us to awaken that capacity.

And all throughout the world, God is doing this.

He is choosing people who are then able to choose him, transforming people by renewing their minds.

And he is doing so for a reason. I argue that this, too, has been made plain. Our eyes are opened for the sake of a cause—the “how” of our salvation connects to the “why.” Thus, my book presents the case that our faith is chosen by God, but then I move beyond that argument in order to take up an even larger idea. There is more at stake than just a doctrine, or giving credit where it is due. What is at stake in recognizing God as the author of our faith is nothing less than the power, promise, and purpose of that faith.

I have written and published two prior books that deal with scripture or theology. But in many ways, this book feels like it is my first. The other two books advance ideas almost any Christian reader would welcome: namely, the Ten Commandments are a rich text and the existence of God is logically apparent. (About my books.) This book is different from those two. It elevates themes from scripture that others minimize. It offers ideas with which some who believe will disagree. It is also the most personally meaningful of the books I have written, sharing some of the ideas out of scripture that I have come to most deeply treasure.

Next: Here is the book’s table of contents.