He Gave: Why Following Jesus Is a Personal Choice We Must Make
Following Jesus is a personal choice we each must make.
From the opening words of Scripture to the final invitation of Revelation, the Bible is a story of choices. Some choices lead toward life, others toward death. Some draw us closer to God, others push us away. But woven through every page is this unchanging truth: God invites us to choose Him.
And at the center of it all are two powerful words that summarize the heart of the gospel—He gave.
A Story That Begins With a Choice
My own story with Jesus didn’t begin with deep theology or spiritual hunger. It began with a choice—actually, several of them.
A friend of mine chose to invite me to church. I chose to lie so I wouldn’t have to go. I had no interest in church, no desire to encounter God, and no intention of having my life changed.
But God is gracious like that.
Somehow, despite my resistance, I ended up going anyway. And that’s where everything shifted. I didn’t just attend a service—I encountered Jesus. And that encounter changed the direction of my life forever.
That’s why I believe this so strongly: following Jesus is a personal choice we each must make. No one can believe for you. No one can surrender for you. The invitation is personal, and the response must be personal too.
God Chose to Create – Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis doesn’t begin with an argument for God’s existence. It simply declares it. God already was—and then God chose to create.
That choice is staggering when you really think about it.
God did not create because He needed companionship. He was not incomplete. He was not lacking anything. God has always existed in perfect fellowship within Himself. And yet, out of love and purpose, He chose to create the universe—and eventually, He chose to create us in His image.
Creation itself testifies to the magnitude of that decision.
David Guzik from Enduring Word points out that our galaxy alone contains around 200 billion stars, and it takes 250 million years to complete one rotation. And that’s just our galaxy. There are countless others—spirals, clusters, shapes beyond our imagination—separated by distances so vast we can barely comprehend them.
And yet Scripture reminds us that God spoke it all into existence.
“Also, My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.” (Isaiah 48:13)
The God who flung galaxies into space chose to create humanity—and He did so intentionally. That alone should stop us in our tracks.
Humanity Chose to Rebel – Genesis 3:1–13
Creation was good. Very good. But then came another choice.
In Genesis 3, we find the moment that changed everything:
“…so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.“
This wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t confusion. It was a conscious decision to disobey God.
That single choice introduced sin, death, and separation into the world. And the consequences didn’t stop with Adam and Eve—they spread to all of creation.
The ESV Study Bible puts it plainly: their decision was willful rebellion, and it carried devastating consequences.
From that moment on, the Bible becomes a record of humanity wrestling with the weight of broken choices—and God pursuing us anyway.
God Chose to Give – John 3:16–17
If Genesis shows us the choice that broke everything, John 3 shows us the choice that began to restore it.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
God didn’t respond to sin with abandonment. He responded with generosity.
He gave.
God made the intentional choice to send His Son to suffer, to die, and to bear the penalty of sin—not His own, but ours. This was not a reaction fueled by emotion. It was a deliberate act of love.
John 3:16 reminds us that God’s love is:
- Universal – it extends to the whole world
- Sacrificial – it cost Him His Son
- Redemptive – it offers eternal life to all who believe
And John 3:17 deepens that truth:
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.“
God’s desire was never condemnation—it was salvation.
Romans 5:8 tells us that God demonstrated His love not after we cleaned ourselves up, but while we were still sinners. Love, at its core, is not just something God feels. Love is something God chose.
Saul, Ananias, and the Power of Surrender (Acts 9:1–19)
Acts 9 introduces us to Saul—a man making all the wrong choices for what he believed were all the right reasons.
He chose to travel to Damascus to arrest Christians. But on that road, Jesus interrupted his plans.
Blinded by light and confronted by truth, Saul asked a simple question:
“Who are You, Lord?”
At that moment, Saul didn’t yet recognize Jesus as Lord—he was simply responding with respect. But that encounter marked the turning point of his life.
God then called an ordinary disciple named Ananias to step into the story. Afraid but obedient, Ananias chose to go where God sent him.
Through obedience and surrender:
- Saul received his sight
- He was filled with the Holy Spirit
- He was baptized into new life
Paul chose to surrender. Ananias chose to obey. And the gospel advanced because both men responded to God’s call.
Jesus Is Already Lord—We Choose Whether to Surrender
We don’t choose to make Jesus Lord or Savior. He already is.
But we do choose whether we will surrender our lives to Him.
That choice confronts every one of us.
The Invitation Still Stands
So let me say it again—clearly and lovingly:
Following Jesus is a personal choice we each must make.
Some of us are like Saul—resisting, questioning, or even running from God. Others are like Ananias—called to step out in obedience and minister to someone God has placed on our hearts.
The question is simple: what will you choose?
God has already made His choice.
He gave.
Now the invitation is ours to respond.
