ROMANS 9:11\u201312<\/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<\/i><\/p>\n
(Romans 9:11\u201312)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The emphasis in this passage is on God\u2019s<\/i> purpose. The reason why the decision was made before the twins were born, before they had done anything good or evil, is so that God\u2019s purpose might stand. This statement is totally opposed to any kind of \u201cforeknowledge\u201d view of predestination, the notion that God based His choice on His foresight of man\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n
Not only had Jacob and Esau not done good or evil in space and time when God made His choice, but by implication they had not \u201cdone good or evil\u201d even in the mind of God. In other words, from God\u2019s perspective there is no personal good or evil activity that is taken into account here. His choice was made without regard to the goodness or wickedness of the men.<\/p>\n
Is this unfair? Obviously not. In the background of God\u2019s choice is the fact that all men are so corrupt, even in their nature, that none ever do anything truly good. \u201cThere is no one that does good, not even one\u201d (Romans 3:12). If God made His choice by looking into the future to see who was going to be good, He would choose no one because there would be none from whom to choose.<\/p>\n
Election Not Based on Man\u2019s Works<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The foreknowledge view also fails because it makes election based on man\u2019s good works. The semi-Pelagians argue that God elects those to be saved based on foreseen faith, but what is faith if it is not the greatest of human actions? The supreme good work is to place one\u2019s trust in Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself said, \u201cThe work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent\u201d (John 6:29).<\/p>\n
In the semi-Pelagian or Arminian view the final decision for our salvation ultimately rests upon a human choice, not upon a divine action.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
The doctrine of divine election is revealed for our comfort. Take some time today and make a list of all the comforting aspects of this doctrine you can think of. If you need help, look back over the previous lessons this month and last month.<\/p>\n
For further study: John 3:16\u201321; Romans 3:9\u201318; 2 Timothy 1:9<\/i><\/p>\n
wednesday<\/p>\n
september<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROMANS 9:11\u201312 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 (Romans 9:11\u201312). The emphasis in this passage is on God\u2019s purpose. The reason why the decision … Continue reading “THE BASIS FOR PREDESTINATION”<\/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-11009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009","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=11009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}