I didn't choose to believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the reason I can and do.
I didn't choose to believe in predestination, the Bible says God chose us and predestinates so I believe the word of God.
I didn't choose to believe in the Trinity, the Bible says these 3 testify as 1. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.
I didn't choose to believe 1+1=2.
So, in reality, we can't force ourselves to believe something, right?
Hi John-
I think I would say it differently. Here's my take:
The gospel is an invitation to interpersonal relationship with God through Jesus. Like all interpersonal relationships, one person has to first
reveal or disclose their personality. The second person then
responds by 1) trusting the self-revealing is authentic by 2) acting on that revelation/self-disclosure.
1) God always takes the initiative in relationship through self-disclosing his mind (including his knowledge of his own being), his will, and his emotions. Just look at every instance of God communicating with someone and God is the one who is showing what he is like. Hebrews 1:1 explicit about this self-sharing initiative. Hebrews 11 is a list of "call and response" by various people. Of course, Yahweh is not human so its even more important for Him to communicate his glory in a way we can understand. Best of all would be if he could actually step into our human experience...and that's Hebrews 1:2, John 1:14, etc.
2) But second, all authentic relationship requires trusting response/cooperation/participation. Anyone who has ever been blown off or rejected by someone else will recognized this reality. This is what "faith" in the gospel sense is: interpersonal trusting participation, not mental agreement to certain facts or doctrines. Those come after the relationship See for example, Hagar's "doctrine" in Genesis 16
after she meets Yahweh: "He's the God who sees me." She had met the angel of Yahweh who was kind to her in her weak state and had blessed her, therefore her theology had a new "doctrine": Yahweh cares about me personally". Based on this self disclosing, she
trustingly cooperates by returning to Sarah: that's "faith".
3) Since Jesus is Yahweh's
final (Hebrews 1:2) and
best self-disclosure ("If you have seen me you
have seen the Father") to reject Jesus's message and work (i.e. not to put your trust in God's amazing love - Romans 5:8) is
absolutely catastrophic. If you won't personally trust the God who dies for you,
nothing will entice you to know him ("Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"). To be relationally connected to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit is to have life (1 John 5:11a). The opposite is true as well (1 John 5:11b)
So to connect this to your comments:
- God's part: God always initiates by self-revealing, drawing us into personal relationship with Himself (John 6:44). So yes, we didn't choose him because we are incapable of interacting with him (he is an omnipotent, omniscient, Eternal Spirit) unless he chooses to show himself to us. That's how God's foreknowledge of us works. Our response is only possible because of his initiating love.
- Our part: We MUST respond with active, participatory trust (faith) in who he has shown himself to
be. Hebrews 11:6 tells us why: In order to please God, you have to believe he's real, and that overtures to know him will be rewarded. This is why faith is commended throughout the Bible. God is the supreme Good, so being connected to him in loyal trust is the definition of "righteousness". "Trusting" in our own works to save us points us to a false source of good (ourselves). The "righteousness from God apart from works" comes through active trust in God's final word about himself and his trustworthiness: Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We are free to trustingly cooperate or not. There is no such thing as real relationship without choice and God desires real relationship (think Garden of Eden: to trust God or not to trust God). This is why in the New Testament concepts like "peace with God", "ministry of reconciliation", "fellowship with God" are really meaningful. We are now "partakers of the Divine Nature" (2 Peter 1:4), actively involved in the life of the Trinity, the only source of life in all of reality. As such, that life flows through us more and more which is additional evidence that our trust in "the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" is well-founded.(2 Peter 1:8)
As a side note, this normal, everyday understanding of how human relationships work is the best solution to the faith/works conundrum as well as the "lose/not lose your salvation" and a whole host of other hobgoblins of the mind that haunt Christians.