ROMANS 9:1\u201313<\/b><\/p>\n
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad\u2014in order that God\u2019s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls\u2014she was told, \u201cThe older will serve the younger.\u201d Just as it is written: \u201cJacob I loved, but Esau I hated\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
(Romans 9:11\u201313)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Paul introduced the subject of predestination in Romans 8 in order to give us the true perspective on our suffering and security in Christ. Now he turns more directly to that subject and confronts the issue of individual election head on. I fought these verses very hard when I was a young Christian, but eventually I learned to follow the thinking of the apostle here.<\/p>\n
We might speculate that God elected Jacob and rejected Esau because He looked down the corridors of time and saw that Jacob would believe and be faithful, while Esau would not. Verse 11, however, completely eliminates this hypothesis. Paul explicitly says that God\u2019s election came before the twins had had any opportunity to do anything good or evil. Paul says that God did this to show God\u2019s purpose in election. In other words, God did this so that it would be abundantly clear that salvation is of His sovereign good pleasure. Salvation is of His divine predestination. It is of His mercy, which is His to give or withhold entirely at His good pleasure.<\/p>\n
The Rejection of Esau<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
When the Scriptures speak of God\u2019s \u201chating,\u201d it does not mean that God hates in the sense that human beings hate. Rather, we can paraphrase verse 13: \u201cJacob I favored, but Esau I did not favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some have sought to avoid this by saying that national election, not personal election, is in view here. This cannot be, because Paul is clearly speaking of two individual men. But even if national election were in view, it would still be election<\/i>, with God saving some and rejecting others. The point still stands: Salvation is based on God\u2019s sovereign election alone.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been discussing predestination for several days now, following Paul\u2019s line of thought. Is this a \u201chard thing\u201d for you to accept? God\u2019s sovereign election is not something we can ever completely understand, because it is something God alone can do. We must, however, bow the knee to what He has told us. If you have been resisting this truth, commit yourself to both additional prayer and study.<\/p>\n
For further study: Genesis 25:19\u201334: Malachi 1:1\u20135<\/i><\/p>\n
wednesday<\/p>\n
august<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROMANS 9:1\u201313 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad\u2014in order that God\u2019s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls\u2014she was told, \u201cThe older will serve the younger.\u201d Just as it is written: \u201cJacob I loved, but Esau I hated\u201d (Romans 9:11\u201313). Paul introduced … Continue reading “ELECTION IS GOD\u2019S PLEASURE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}