“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another. John 15:12–17 (RSV)
Jesus has chosen us. We often would have it the other way round. I think of the invitations to 'ask Jesus to be my personal savior', which never quite worked. True, there was a sense of happiness, perhaps joy, that lasted for a bit, but then my old self would show up.
The old self would either undo all my good intentions or begin questioning the sincerity of my choosing. The point is well taken. I did not discover Jesus. He has always been there. His death and resurrection, thus salvation, had already taken place. It did not require my approval.
And the sin, my old self was very good at doing and recalling sin. 'How can Jesus love you when you have done this and that? He might forgive a minor sin or two, but these? Are you serious?' The old self would then play the trump card, 'You choose Jesus because you don't want to go to hell. Is that love?'
The notion of my choosing Jesus is backward. Jesus is clear about that, 'Apart from me, you can do nothing.' John 15.5.
The Good News is that Jesus is the One who chooses. He chooses us in our baptism, joining us to His death and resurrection. He chooses us to be the beloved child of the Father. He chooses to send the Holy Spirit that we might believe His promise.
Jesus chooses us. The old self is undone by Jesus' choice. Jesus chooses the sinner to begin their transformation into the redeemed child of God.