There has long been a grave misunderstanding—one that could even be called fatal—among many Christians regarding what it truly means to be “God’s chosen people.” Many assume that the moment a person confesses faith in Jesus Christ, they automatically become one of God’s chosen. As a result, many feel safe and secure, believing they are already acknowledged as His chosen ones. One cause of this misconception is the institutional validation by the church, which seems to give a kind of “divine stamp,” as though merely attending church is enough to make someone part of God’s chosen people. In reality, being one of God’s chosen is not determined by institutional recognition, but by God’s own acknowledgment.
This is the key truth we must understand and accept: whether or not a person becomes one of God’s chosen people depends significantly on their adequate response to the grace that God provides. A satisfactory response means that the value or quality of our response must meet God’s standard—not our own. In Luke 14:25–33, Jesus clearly teaches that anyone who wants to follow Him must first “count the cost.” In other words, being a true follower of Christ cannot be done without an awareness of the price that must be paid.
In Matthew 19, when Jesus encountered a wealthy young man who sought to inherit eternal life, He presented a clear and uncompromising condition. Jesus did not persuade him with promises of comfort or worldly benefit. Instead, He let the young man walk away, because he could not pay the price of discipleship. From this, we learn that the cost of becoming God’s chosen is nothing less than our whole life. “Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). Without the willingness to surrender one’s entire life, a person can never truly belong to God.
Anyone who truly desires to be part of God’s chosen people must be willing to risk everything. Jesus said in Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” This answer was His response to the question, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Jesus makes it clear that salvation requires struggle. To refuse to pay the price is to show that one does not truly desire to be among God’s chosen. Even the disciples, in Matthew 19:25, recognized the difficulty of being saved.
Let us reflect on this: in the early church, or in places where the gospel is not welcomed, to confess faith in Jesus Christ meant risking one’s life. There, the cost of discipleship was visible and tangible. However, in places and times where people can worship freely without risk, that cost often becomes invisible—and eventually forgotten, as if following Christ were a free endeavor. Yet although grace itself is free, the way we receive it is not. It requires total surrender and a lifelong struggle to live in accordance with God’s will.
Grace becomes cheap when salvation is treated as something that can be received without sacrifice. To be one of God’s chosen means to become an extraordinary person—not because of personal greatness, but because of the willingness to pay the price to live entirely for God. In the Old Testament, Israel became God’s chosen nation by birth. A male child born to an Israelite family would be circumcised on the eighth day and thus automatically counted among God’s people. But in the New Testament, this principle no longer applies. We do not become God’s chosen simply because we are born into a Christian family, or because our spouse is Christian.
This call demands faithfulness, courage, and a daily willingness to deny oneself. Ultimately, it is God alone who has the right to call someone His chosen—not because of a religious label, but because their life genuinely shows that they belong wholly to Him.