Rom
9:10-16 (NIV) 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."
16 It
does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
NOTE: The point of
election is to disprove any thought that works is involved in salvation. God's showing of mercy has nothing to do with
us, that is, how we lived, what good works we have done, or anything that would
make us acceptable to God. God chose
freely to shower his mercy upon us. And
yet nothing here says that free will is still not involved. I do not believe that the fact that God's
mercy was shown to me saved me. I had to
respond to that mercy. God showed mercy
to Israel by selecting them from among all nation groups, and yet many are not
nor will be saved. In fact, verse 32
says that many stumble over a stone of "salvation by works," and
hence are not saved. So, the question is
then, "is everyone shown mercy or not?" Everyone I know or have met has been shown
mercy. And millions of others are taking
the gospel to faraway places so that others might hear of God's mercy. Everyone on earth has seen God's creative
works. But if some are not shown mercy,
there is no fault on God's part, since he could have chosen not to create them
as well. Does his mercy diminish because
he chose to create someone or he chose not to create that person? I say "no."
No comments:
Post a Comment