i wont go through the thread but this verse does not tell us WHY God chose them apart from the counsel of his own will.
His foreknowledge may or may not have been the reason but then again there may have been another reason - we just don't know for sure.I don't remember myself.
We know at least in part WHY He did - our hopeless and helpless estate.
That verse does not have to tell us why He chose them, other verses tell us why He chooses, and it is due to His great love and mercy for them and that His calling according to election might (will) stand.
Ephesians 2:1-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (
by grace you have been saved),
And v8 that faith is God's gift, ' a faith not of yourselves being the gift of God', is strengthened also by the 'For we are His workmanship' and also by Romans 12:3, God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. God has not given to the unsaved any faith.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Romans 12:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as
God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
So then our faith is not of ourselves, it has been gifted us by God. And this also agrees with the things Christ says in John 6.
Notice also the mention of flesh versus spirit, no one can come to Christ unless God authorizes it.
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
And this also agrees with what Christ says in Luke 10. That no one can know Him and God unless Christ wills that they do know Him. Newborn babes would be those God has made born again by His Spirit into His children, to them get revealed spiritual things of God. So then being born of God comes first, only then you can see- perceive with understanding the kingdom, only then can the Holy Spirit teach you and all who are taught by the Father and learn from Him come to Christ and are saved.
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All[g] things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
