Being called vs. being chosen
Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah replied, “Here I am! Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). It is a commendable thing to be willing to serve the Lord. Indeed, every Christian should have this desire deep within themselves, whether in long-term overseas missions, short-term missions, our local communities, or even our own church. Acts 1:8 speaks of witnessing (a) in Jerusalem, (b) Judea, (c) Samaria, and (d) the borderlands.
But Jesus narrows the field in Matthew 22:14, when he declares, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Jesus said this in the context of the wedding feast. The king had called the people to attend, but they were unwilling to do so. So the king had his servants go out and gather everyone, both BAD and GOOD, to come in (Matthew 22:10). Don’t miss this: he rated both good and bad.
But the following verses show us that something was required. A man did not have the right wedding attire. Now this couldn’t have been something he should have brought. He had been called off the streets, and even he might have been a terrible sinner. The wedding dress was something that had to be PROVIDED by the king for his guests to wear, but this man does not accept it and uses it.
The man was thrown out of the wedding, into the dark, where there was crying and gnashing of teeth. We immediately thought that he was sent to HELL, but the comments say that this is not true. It is Hebrew terminology for being truly sorry, repentant, and grieved, like ‘pouring ashes on your head’. Doesn’t mean he was doomed.
We have all been given the wedding garment
Paul asks, “What do you have that hasn’t been given to you?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). The answer is NOTHING. We have nothing in ourselves.
We all receive ALL things from our Father, in our marriage to his Son. We are both bad and good – depending on our judgment of what is bad and good – formed in our minds from the forbidden tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If I don’t lie, curse, steal, cheat and lie, and you do, So I’m better than you. Or vice versa.
But the fact is that without the wedding coat provided by the Father for the wedding banquet, we are excluded, even if we are ‘good’.
Being chosen does not depend on me being ‘good’
God wants us to be good and do good. I’ve said it a lot: Christians should do more good than everyone else, because of all that Christ has done for us, and the Holy Spirit within us. We should get it right!But being a Christian is not predicted that we do good!
It wasn’t our sin that kept us out of heaven and led us to hell. It was Adam’s sin that was imputed to us. Furthermore, it is not our obedience and righteousness (us doing good) that gets us to heaven. It is the righteousness of Christ. Read Romans 5:11-21. As Christians, we have his justice (II Cor 5,21).
A follow-up article to this will be: “Am I not called, Lord? Don’t you need me, Lord? Why don’t you send me, Lord?” I can’t make these snapshots too long or they won’t be ‘snapshots’. But to conclude this, we put on the new man, created in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). We put on the whole armor of God (by the way, each piece of armor describes an aspect of the gospel). Paul says that we ‘put on Christ’, as if it were a costume. Christianity is about what we have been given, what we RECEIVE. What you will see next is that we are all called, but few are chosen, for a very specific reason.