Question: What did the Lord mean when He said, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve ... ?" John 6:68-70

A good question from the bible.com app.

Jesus gave a warning parable for disciples and ended with:

For many are called ones, but few chosen ones (Matthew 22:14).

The calling to the disciples was to follow Jesus. And many are called. Then the Lord chose the Twelve for a specific purpose. He did know that one of the Twelve was going to betray Him, so that is a different case than the others. With the other eleven, He chose them with a hint of foreknowledge (Romans 8:29) knowing that they would also choose Him. Though He had some counsel with the Father and knew who to choose, it was still a delight to Him when the actual choice was made. As all are turning away and the response of these disciples was to instead choose Him back, His heart was refreshed: "Did I not choose you?" Who is doing the choosing here? It is the disciples. But who already did the choosing? The Lord. He chose them having some foreknown sense of their future choice. Foreknowledge does not mean that the will or choice is removed. It only means that what the choice will be is already known.

When that choice was manifested here by the response, "to whom shall we go?" His joy was made full. He said with a smile on His face: Did I not choose you? and now you chose Me back!

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