Devotional Romans 9: Sovereign Election and Faith in Christ Reflection on Romans 9: God's sovereignty, how to understand free will, and why unbelief or pride in works separate from salvation. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional Romans 9: Sovereign Election and Faith in Christ

Today’s devotional is found in the book of Romans, chapter 9, and this is what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter, Paul, through a letter addressed to the Romans, explains how God’s sovereign election works and why the unbelief of the Jews separates them from salvation through faith.

Observations

These were my observations:

1. God’s sovereign election. This is a topic that makes us human beings very uncomfortable. For being creatures with free will, we feel that we are free to do things without bearing the consequences. But when we become aware that God exists and that He is sovereign over us, we have a choice to make: either we submit to His Will or we oppose it. But both choices have consequences. What bothers us most is the realization that we are nothing before God. He is the Lord and He is the one in command. And even more so, because He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and good, everything He does is good and right because His nature is perfect (Genesis 17:1, Psalms 139:7–8, 1–4, and 100:5). Furthermore, He is the creator of the world (Genesis 1:1). That is to say, it is not He who must give account to His creation, but rather the opposite—we are the ones who must give account to Him (Romans 9:19–21). This fact is what raises the most doubts and questions. For if God made His covenant with Abraham and his descendants, shouldn’t all descendants of Abraham be saved by God’s promise? If God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, why are we guilty for our actions if His Will prevails in the end? These are important questions and surely we have all asked them at some point. First, God does not view lineage in the same way we do. When God said that Abraham’s descendants and the nations of the world would be blessed, He did not mean his natural descendants. Rather, He meant the descendants whom God knows have their hearts turned toward God and will keep His commandments (Romans 9:6–8, Genesis 12:2–3, and Romans 8:14). That is why God established Abraham’s offspring through Isaac and not Ishmael, for example (Genesis 17:19, 21). The same thing happened with the twins (Esau and Jacob) before they had sinned. For God said that the older (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob). Therefore, God confirmed His promise through Jacob (Israel) (Genesis 25:23, 27:29). Second, we are guilty because even though God’s Will prevails, we have free will to follow His Will or not (Joshua 24:15). For when it is said that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, we are not saying that everything we are going to do is already predestined. Rather, God is not confined to the dimensions in which we find ourselves (space and time) because He is not a material being (Genesis 1:1, John 4:24). God is immaterial, and being outside the dimensions of time and space, He can be everywhere and see the whole history of the universe in the present, in real time. That is, He can see all the decisions we are going to freely make throughout our lives right now in real time. For He can see our thoughts and the desires of our hearts (Psalm 139:23–24). Therefore, God does not need to give us explanations for what He does, and we do not have the right to judge God. For He is our creator and we are the creation (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, we are the ones who must give account to Him.
2. The unbelief of the Jews. God also told us through the prophets that those who were not considered His children will become so and will be justified by faith. Meanwhile, those who are considered His children will not, because they are clinging to the Law and believe they can achieve righteousness through their works (Romans 9:24–29). For to God, His children are those who keep His commandments and place their faith in His Grace (John 14:15, 21). Because they recognize that they cannot achieve salvation by their own hands, but rather through the gift that Jesus Christ gave us by dying on the cross for us (Romans 9:30–33). Therefore, they live their lives dependent on God and receive the Holy Spirit. And only with the help of the Holy Spirit can they progressively change their hearts, bear the fruits of the Spirit, and display conduct that is increasingly similar to that of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. For this reason, we should never think that we can attain salvation by our own hands, nor think that we are better than others by comparing the severity of our sins with theirs. For this is religious pride that blinds the spirit and causes us to lose sight of our total dependence on Christ for our salvation, just like everyone else.