Rodrigo Abril

“Christ chose us “You did not choose Me,” Christ says, “but I chose you” (John 15:16). Such grace is beyond description. What were we, apart from Christ’s choice of us, when we were empty of love? What were we but sinful and lost? We did not lead Him to choose us by believing in Him; for if Christ chose people who already believed, then we chose Him before He chose us. How then could He say, “You did not choose Me,” unless His mercy came before our faith? Here is the faulty reasoning of those who say that God chose us before the creation of the world, not in order to make us good, but because He foreknew we would be good. This was not the view of Him Who said, “You did not choose Me.” We were not chosen because of our goodness, for we could not be good without being chosen. Grace is no longer grace, if human goodness comes first. Listen, you ungrateful person, listen! “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” Do not say, “I am chosen because I first believed.” If you first believed, you had already chosen Him. But listen: “You did not choose Me.” And do not say, “Before I believed, I was already chosen on account of my good works.” What good work can come before faith, when the apostle Paul says, “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23)? What then shall we say when we hear these words, “You did not choose Me”? We shall say this: We were evil, and we were chosen that we might become good by the grace of Him who chose us. For salvation is not by grace if our goodness came first; but it is by grace – and therefore God’s grace did not find us good but makes us good. Augustine of Hippo Commentary on John 15:16”
― Nicholas R. Needham, 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers