He Purchased a People

God does not choose a person, but a people.  He works with the individuals within that people.  But Scripture confirms that God does not choose individuals, rather, He chooses a people to be His own.  Certainly, God does chose specific individuals in history as representatives for His redeemed peoples: Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus.  But God chooses people not persons.

This is to say that election and predestination is not a personal ordeal, it is a community one.  It is a covenant matter.  God chooses to initiate a covenant relationship with a certain people.  This is the very essence of how God relates to man.

It's like a giant box of crayons owned by God.  Each crayon has a unique color and hue but apart from the rest of the colors it is useless, only capable of coloring monochromatically.  Understanding that we are a 'people' not autonomous individuals of faith will go a far way to reconciling this broken world and repairing broken churches.