Rom
9:1-15 (NIV) I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience
confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in
my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel.
Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the
receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the
patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God
over all, forever praised! Amen.
6 It is
not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel
are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's
children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will
be reckoned." 8 In other words, it
is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of
the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. 9 For this was how the
promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will
have a son."
10 Not
only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father
Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad — in
order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him
who calls — she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13 Just as it is written: "Jacob I
loved, but Esau I hated."
14 What
then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
"I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I
will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
NOTE: This chapter
of Romans has some very powerful statements in regards to election,
predestination, and choice. On one hand, Abraham's offspring are the promised
people with tremendous privileges, but that alone did not make them all God's
children, even being born of Isaac, as in the case of Esau's descendants. Later, Paul argues that only a remnant of the
entire people will be saved (vs. 27). So
the question, why Jacob and not Esau?
Neither were particularly godly growing up. It says that God shows mercy to one, and
implied, but not to the other. And later
Paul will state: who are we to argue since God did not even need to create us,
let alone to have to show mercy to us.
It is a tough section and it violates our human sense of right. Does
showing mercy to one group but not to another make God unjust? In a garden, often multiple seeds are planted
but then thinned out later. Is it unjust
to destroy the other plants, or to choose one plant over another? Of course, as far as we know, plants aren't
sentient. But what right do we even have
to exist, let alone to argue what justice is to our creator? But of course, the other side of the argument
is that no one is without mercy, even if there weren't born into special
privilege, like Israel, since Romans 1:18-20 has already argued that all men
are without excuse anyway (the evidence of creation is a form of mercy). I need to think about chapter 9 in
relationship to the entire argument up to this point. But I also just need to be thankful that God
had mercy on me.
No comments:
Post a Comment