📜 Original Language

Greek: ἐκλογή (eklogē) — “to choose for a task,” “to call out,” “to select for a purpose.”

Hebrew Equivalent: בָּחַר (bāḥar) — “to choose, select, appoint for a purpose.”

❌ MISUNDERSTOOD: “Election” as Exclusion or Predestination

Like proōrisen (προώρισεν), the word eklogē (ἐκλογή) has often been mistranslated and misunderstood. For centuries, “election” has been read through the lens of individual salvation or divine favoritism, as if God hand-picked a few for eternal life and left the rest to perish. This view, while common, misses the heartbeat of the biblical story.

In Scripture, eklogē is not about exclusion — it is about purpose. God’s “choosing” is always for something: for mission, for blessing, for participation in His life-giving work. It is not an election from the world, but an election for the world.

🌍 The First Election: Humanity in the Garden

The story of election begins not with Abraham, but with humanity in Eden. God chose humanity to be His image-bearers — to receive His blessing and then reflect that blessing outward to the rest of creation. Humanity’s election was a vocation: to co-rule creation in wisdom and love, guided by trusting and learning God’s Wisdom (the Logos) of Agape love via communion with Him.

In the garden, God’s choice of humanity was not about privilege but about partnership. Humanity was chosen to be the means through which divine love, order, and flourishing spread throughout the cosmos. But when Adam and Eve grasped for wisdom apart from relationship with God, the chosen ones failed their calling.

Yet even in failure, God’s election did not end. His plan to bless the world through His human partners continued — He would simply begin again through another chosen vessel.

🌟 The Election of Abraham: Blessing to Bless

When God called Abraham, He was not abandoning humanity — He was renewing the original calling of the garden. “Through you,” He said, “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

Election, therefore, is always missional: God chooses someone (or some people) to receive His blessing in order to become the means by which that blessing flows to others. Abraham was not chosen instead of the nations, but for the sake of the nations.

🔥 Covenant and Promise: Abraham’s Deep Sleep

Most biblical covenants involve two parties — both making commitments to one another. But when God covenanted with Abraham, something remarkable happened. Abraham was put into a deep sleep (Genesis 15:12), and God alone walked between the pieces of the sacrifice. This act revealed that the covenant with Abraham was actually a promise, not a contract.

In a two-sided covenant, both parties must remain faithful. In a one-sided promise, God binds Himself to fulfill it, even when humanity fails. This promise meant that the blessing of all nations no longer depended on human pistis (trustworthiness) but solely on God’s (pistis and chesed) faithfulness.

🇮🇱 Election Through Promise: God’s Freedom to Choose

Once God bound Himself to Abraham through a promise rather than a two-sided covenant, the dynamic of Israel’s election changed. Unlike other covenants in Scripture — where both parties make commitments — this berit (covenant-promise) depended entirely on God’s faithfulness, not human reliability. Abraham’s trust (pistis) opened the door, but God’s unilateral commitment kept it open. That’s why, when the moment of covenant came, Abraham was placed in a deep sleep (Genesis 15:12). God Himself walked the path of fire, cutting the covenant with Himself. It was not a contract of shared obligation, but a divine promise guaranteed by His character.

Because of that, Israel’s election from this point forward could no longer be limited by human worthiness or trustworthiness. God was now free to call and use whomever He willed to ensure His promise of blessing for all nations would be fulfilled. That’s why He could choose Jacob over Esau, not because of merit or even any type of foreseen pistis but simply because the promise did not depend on human will or effort but on God’s mercy and purpose (Romans 9:11-16).

✨ Jacob’s Dream at Bethel: Promise Renewed

Like Abraham, Jacob also experienced this kind of one-sided covenant. In Genesis 28, as Jacob fled from his brother, he fell into a deep sleep at Bethel. In that sleep, God reaffirmed the same promise made to Abraham — that through Jacob’s descendants, all families of the earth would be blessed. Again, this was not a contract of mutual obligation but a renewed divine promise — God’s assurance that His redemptive purpose would continue through Jacob’s line, regardless of Jacob’s failures.

Thus, the line of promise passes from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, and through them to Israel. God remains faithful to His own word, ensuring that His purpose to bless all creation through Abraham’s seed cannot be thwarted by human frailty.

The pattern of election due to promise regardless of pistis (faithfulness) or goodness continues:

This pattern repeats throughout Israel’s story: Jeremiah is told that he was known and set apart before he was formed in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). David declares, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb… all my days were written in your book before one came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16), reflecting a sense of divine election that precedes personal choice, pistis (faith commitment) or achievement. Isaiah testifies that the Lord called him from the womb and named him before he was born (Isaiah 49:1). Paul later sees his own calling in the same light: “He who set me apart before I was born, and called me by His grace…” (Galatians 1:15).

However, this election had nothing to do with salvation of the individuals God was choosing. Paul himself did not see his salvific destiny as certain, instead he writes “I too run the race so as to not be disqualified.” And we see in Jonah that God can choose someone as prophet and insure they bring about a blessing to the nations all the while leaving doubt about the prophets own standing with God even at the end of Jonah’s story arc. This election is not to salvation and is regardless of human cooperation. God has promised to unilaterally bless Abraham’s seed in order to bring His blessing to the nations.

Each of these stories reveals the same truth — God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed was moving forward by divine initiative. Election was not about individual salvation or moral standing, but about God’s sovereign freedom to select instruments of His blessing so that His covenant-promise could reach its goal. Even when those chosen were unfaithful or unaware, the promise endured, because its fulfillment rested entirely on the unwavering love and purpose of God.

✝️ Jesus: The Elect One — Promise Fulfilled, Covenant Renewed

Through centuries of patient faithfulness, the promise carried forward — awaiting its embodiment in the One who would perfectly bear it.

At last, the promise reaches its fulfillment in Jesus — the Elect One foretold in Isaiah:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights” (Isa. 42:1).

He is the true Seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16), the true Israelite, the faithful human who embodies the original election of humanity — to receive the blessing and to become the blessing for all creation.

In Jesus, the one-sided promise given to Abraham finds its completion. Through His faithful obedience, the blessing has at last reached all nations. The Abrahamic task — to be the means through which God’s blessing flows to the world — has been accomplished. The age of promise has reached its goal in Christ; as Paul himself said, he was “one untimely born” (1 Cor. 15:8), the final participant in that old framework of promise-based election. From this point forward, election takes on a new form — no longer grounded in God’s unilateral promise to one family, but in a new covenant offered to all through the euangelion.

The euangelion (good news) proclaims not only salvation — liberation from the dominion of other kingdoms — but also the establishment of a new covenant written upon the heart by the Spirit (Jer. 31:33; 2 Cor. 3:3). In Jesus, God has done the overwhelming work: fulfilling the promise, bearing humanity’s brokenness, conquering death, and pouring out His Spirit to renew creation. Yet this covenant now invites cooperation — humanity once again walking with God as in the garden, trusting His wisdom and reflecting His love.

Therefore:

“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Eph. 1:4)

To be “in Christ” is to share in His election — to participate in His mission of blessing, reconciling, and renewing creation. Because of the multifaceted reality of who Jesus is, to be “in Him” carries several equally vital meanings:

1. To be in Jesus is to be in the Wisdom of God — to trust in His wisdom as humanity was always meant to in Eden.

2. To be in Jesus is to be in the Christ — the Anointed and Promised King — becoming citizens of the Kingdom that creation itself was designed for

3. To be in the Christ is to be members of the royal family, maturing in holiness through love so that we may be placed as mature sons and daughters, co-ruling with divine Wisdom and Love. Through this maturity, we bring forth the blessings of His agapē to all people and all creation.

Thus, in Jesus, election finds both its fulfillment and its renewal: the promise completed, the covenant established, and the path of agapē opened once again for all humanity.

✝️ Election Through Covenant: The Church’s Shared Calling

When the promise reached its fulfillment in Jesus, the true Seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16), something new began. In Him, the blessing promised to Abraham expanded to include all humanity — both Jew and Gentile — so that anyone could now share in the elect vocation originally given to humanity in Eden. But here the dynamic shifts again: what was once a one-sided promise becomes a new covenant (kainē diathēkē), offered to all yet requiring willing participation.

Through Jesus, God has once again marked out the path — the proōrisen horizon of love and maturity — but now He invites humanity to walk it with Him. To enter this new covenant is to give one’s pistis (trust, allegiance, faithful loyalty) to Jesus the Anointed King. It is no longer about ethnicity or lineage, but about participation and partnership. As Paul writes in Ephesians 1 and Romans 11, both Jews and Gentiles are now “grafted in” to the one olive tree, sharing in the same promise and purpose.

This is why the ekklesia (the Church) is not simply a new “chosen people,” but rather a chosen partnership — those who, by faith, accept God’s invitation to receive His blessing and become that blessing for the world. The call is open to all, but participation is covenantal: it requires walking the path of agapē, living the euangelion (good news) as loyal representatives of the Kingdom of the Logos of Agapē.

God has, through the fulfillment of the unilateral covenantal promise, done all the initiating work — marking out the path, fulfilling the promise through Christ, empowering us by the Spirit — but the covenant calls for human cooperation. To be among the elect in this new creation reality is to choose to walk in faithfulness with the One who has already chosen all humanity in love before the foundation of the world. Election now finds its fullest meaning not in exclusion, but in invitation: the call to share in God’s life and mission until all creation rests in the Shabbat of His agapē.

🌄 Word Summary: Eklogē

Literal Meaning: to choose, to call out, to select for a purpose

Biblical Function: God’s choosing of individuals or communities to receive and share His blessing

Theological Meaning: not exclusion, but participation; not favoritism, but vocation; not fate, but invitation into God’s ongoing mission of love

In Our Words: Eklogē means that God, before the foundation of the world, chose humanity to be His partners — to receive His blessing and extend it to the rest of creation. Even when humanity failed, God’s promise continued through Abraham, Israel, and finally through Jesus, the true Seed.

Now, through the new covenant, all who respond in faithful trust to His call share in that election — the vocation of love, restoration, and co-reign with Him in the Shabbat of His Kingdom.

✨ Closing Reflection: The Horizon of Promise and Participation

When we place eklogē (election) alongside proōrisen (the horizon marked out beforehand), we see the beauty of God’s unfolding design. Before creation, God lovingly set the horizon — a future of blessing, communion, and flourishing — and then He called forth partners to walk that path with Him. The election of humanity, and later of Abraham and his seed, was never about exclusivity but participation: a divine invitation to step into the pre-marked path of agapē. In this way, proōrisen names the purpose, and eklogē names the partnership. Both reveal a God who does not coerce history but lovingly invites creation into His story of promise. The path of election is, therefore, the path of Shabbat — a journey into the restful wholeness of the Logos of Agapē, where all things are intended to be and set free to be reconciled and made whole.