The Paradox of Choice

It is true nothing can separate those whom God chooses from Him.

It is those called and chosen who are in the battle, and nothing can separate those whom God has called because they, in heart, mind and soul, have somehow responded... bearing fruit unto eternal life.

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Yeshua who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 

“For your sake we face death all day long;    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Yeshua our Lord. 

- Romans 8: 33-39

What about those who 'believe' they know God, yet will be found to have been spit out and told they are unknown by the Almighty?

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name and in Your Name drive out demons and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’ 

- Matthew 7: 16-23

And what about those who deny Him despite having been given a glimpse at least once in their lifetime, either by hearing a testimony to consider, or seeing something supernatural, or other evidence?

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. 

- Romans 1: 18-32

In this last example, we see these also having a choice, just as the previous two examples also have a choice... to obey or disobey.

Did Adam, then, make a fateful choice when he decided to disobey the only "do not" of his day?

Read about that account in the first three chapters of Genesis.

What do we learn when speaking of Cain, Adam's first-born son?

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” 

- Genesis 4: 6-7

So we see that surely God has granted all people choice despite His knowledge of the future and the outcome of our choices.

God has surely made us having free will, yet our free will doesn't "save" us on its own or according to our own merit, but we do see how our choices may condemn us, as the choice to obey can continue to bear fruit according to God's grace.

Consider the fallen angel(s), who being made in perfection, were also made with choice... and they fell when they chose to disobey... and as Romans 1 exemplifies, they cannot see past their deceived state, much like some who have forsaken the Lord and His Way.

Let us find ourselves always repenting, always in humility, and always in gratitude to what God has provided us in the Lord Yeshua Christ:

At that time Yeshua, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 

“All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” 

Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” 

- Luke 10: 21-24