CoreIssue
02-03-2006, 09:56 AM
Quote:God's Sovereign Choice
1I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit--
The Holy Spirit does speak to our minds and hearts. But only when we listen and do not invent our own messages from him.
Quote:2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the 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. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![1] Amen.
Israel has been blessed in so many way. Chosen to represent God on the earth to the Gentiles.
But Paul is grieved by the way their have become prideful, self-righteous and feeling superior as he has been telling they saints at Rome. He is grieved how they see the Gentiles in comparison to themselves.
Quote:6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
Paul is distinctly recognizing here that all saints are saved by Christ who came from Israel and receive God's revelation through Israel. And all saints are brother's in Christ but not all brothers in Christ are Israel.
This one verse alone totally rejects Replacement Theology since Paul is declaring union in Christ of all saints, which is the Body of Christ, but distinction within that Body which is Jews and Gentiles in the covenant bodies of Israel and Church.
Quote:7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children.
Those who brothers in Christ are true children of Abraham before God.
Quote:On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."[2]
Abraham's covenant would be through his physical seed via Isaac. Through them the Abrahamic Covenant concerning the land and such would be fulfilled.
That is self evident and proven by the fact that there were saints in the OT at the time of Israel who remained Gentiles and had no place in the covenant work of the Temple and so on. Never entered the genetic line of Isaac.
It is also shown in the future New Covenant will be to the Houses of Judah and Israel and not to any Gentile.
Quote:8In 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.
But spiritually speaking it does not matter one's genetic lineage. All born-again saints are brothers of Christ and thus sons of God. And as brothers of Christ their spiritual father is Abraham through whom the promise of Christ came.
Jews who are not born-again are not brothers of Christ and thus not spiritual descendents of Abraham.
Quote:9For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."[3]
God made the covenant lineage through Isaac only.
Quote:10Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.
Abraham had another son, Esau, who was the older. But he was not the one chosen for covenant lineage.
Quote:11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger."[4] 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."[5]
God knew what Esau and his descendents would become. And they would not be lovers of God.
God knew Isaac an many of his descendents would become. And many would be lovers of God and tools for his use.
Quote:14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."[6] 16It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
Calvinist attempt to use this verse to declare salvation by predestination.
But it says no such thing. God knows how it will all go and he knows who will be proper tools and who will not. God has a Plan and he chooses who he will use how within the Plan.
Quote:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."[7]
God picked Pharaoh knowing what he would be and in his will made him might to show how God raises up people and destroys them just as easily.
Quote:18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
God forces no one to be saved or damned. But he gives what it takes for them to choose to be saved or become greater sins according to their own freewill.
Quote:19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?"
A very just question if Calvinism were true.
Quote:20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "[8] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
God can raise some to greatest and leave others to commonality. That is his right.
One familiar with making pottery knows that from the same clay one can repeat the same creation process over and over and every pot will turn out different due to its own nature. Thus some are smashed as hopelessly flawed and others cannot be used for the full purposes intended. Others turn out greater than their materials would seem possible.
God tells us he wants all to be saved. He will shape and make us the best we can be. Or he will drag us to destruction if we fight him.
This is the creation process being spoken of here. Shaping the materials to become what they will be according to God's Plan. Not creating us to be saved or damned.
Quote:22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction?
Who are the objects of God's wrath in the Bible? Those who reject him and harm his saints.
Quote:23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--
God shapes us and uses us to reveal his glory and mercy to us. He does so to give us the greatest glory and rewards he can bestow upon us.
But we have to see, accept and grow in him to receive it.
Quote:24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Again Paul hammers the Jews with these things are not for the Jews alone. They are for the Jews and Gentiles equally.
Quote:25As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"[9] 26and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "[10]
God chose the Jews to be his people on the earth in the flesh to reveal him to all the peoples of the earth so all could be his people in eternity.
Those who are not genetically of Isaac could become brothers in Christ and thus sons of Abraham spiritually.
Quote:27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
Remnant when used with Israel means those who remained faithful to God.
There have been and will be many genetic descendents of Abraham but only those who love God will be saved. Simply being a Jew is not enough.
Quote:28For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality."[11]
29It is just as Isaiah said previously:
"Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah."[12]
Israel failed many times in the past. But God always preserved a genetic remnant to carry on.
If those descendents had not been preserved Christ would never have been born and all would have ended up in Hell like Sodom and Gomorrah did.
And in the Trib 2/3 of the Jews will perish but God will again preserve a remnant, The Woman and 144,000, to fulfill his eternal promise to Abraham.
1I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit--
The Holy Spirit does speak to our minds and hearts. But only when we listen and do not invent our own messages from him.
Quote:2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the 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. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![1] Amen.
Israel has been blessed in so many way. Chosen to represent God on the earth to the Gentiles.
But Paul is grieved by the way their have become prideful, self-righteous and feeling superior as he has been telling they saints at Rome. He is grieved how they see the Gentiles in comparison to themselves.
Quote:6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
Paul is distinctly recognizing here that all saints are saved by Christ who came from Israel and receive God's revelation through Israel. And all saints are brother's in Christ but not all brothers in Christ are Israel.
This one verse alone totally rejects Replacement Theology since Paul is declaring union in Christ of all saints, which is the Body of Christ, but distinction within that Body which is Jews and Gentiles in the covenant bodies of Israel and Church.
Quote:7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children.
Those who brothers in Christ are true children of Abraham before God.
Quote:On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."[2]
Abraham's covenant would be through his physical seed via Isaac. Through them the Abrahamic Covenant concerning the land and such would be fulfilled.
That is self evident and proven by the fact that there were saints in the OT at the time of Israel who remained Gentiles and had no place in the covenant work of the Temple and so on. Never entered the genetic line of Isaac.
It is also shown in the future New Covenant will be to the Houses of Judah and Israel and not to any Gentile.
Quote:8In 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.
But spiritually speaking it does not matter one's genetic lineage. All born-again saints are brothers of Christ and thus sons of God. And as brothers of Christ their spiritual father is Abraham through whom the promise of Christ came.
Jews who are not born-again are not brothers of Christ and thus not spiritual descendents of Abraham.
Quote:9For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."[3]
God made the covenant lineage through Isaac only.
Quote:10Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.
Abraham had another son, Esau, who was the older. But he was not the one chosen for covenant lineage.
Quote:11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger."[4] 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."[5]
God knew what Esau and his descendents would become. And they would not be lovers of God.
God knew Isaac an many of his descendents would become. And many would be lovers of God and tools for his use.
Quote:14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."[6] 16It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
Calvinist attempt to use this verse to declare salvation by predestination.
But it says no such thing. God knows how it will all go and he knows who will be proper tools and who will not. God has a Plan and he chooses who he will use how within the Plan.
Quote:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."[7]
God picked Pharaoh knowing what he would be and in his will made him might to show how God raises up people and destroys them just as easily.
Quote:18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
God forces no one to be saved or damned. But he gives what it takes for them to choose to be saved or become greater sins according to their own freewill.
Quote:19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?"
A very just question if Calvinism were true.
Quote:20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "[8] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
God can raise some to greatest and leave others to commonality. That is his right.
One familiar with making pottery knows that from the same clay one can repeat the same creation process over and over and every pot will turn out different due to its own nature. Thus some are smashed as hopelessly flawed and others cannot be used for the full purposes intended. Others turn out greater than their materials would seem possible.
God tells us he wants all to be saved. He will shape and make us the best we can be. Or he will drag us to destruction if we fight him.
This is the creation process being spoken of here. Shaping the materials to become what they will be according to God's Plan. Not creating us to be saved or damned.
Quote:22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction?
Who are the objects of God's wrath in the Bible? Those who reject him and harm his saints.
Quote:23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--
God shapes us and uses us to reveal his glory and mercy to us. He does so to give us the greatest glory and rewards he can bestow upon us.
But we have to see, accept and grow in him to receive it.
Quote:24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Again Paul hammers the Jews with these things are not for the Jews alone. They are for the Jews and Gentiles equally.
Quote:25As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"[9] 26and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "[10]
God chose the Jews to be his people on the earth in the flesh to reveal him to all the peoples of the earth so all could be his people in eternity.
Those who are not genetically of Isaac could become brothers in Christ and thus sons of Abraham spiritually.
Quote:27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
Remnant when used with Israel means those who remained faithful to God.
There have been and will be many genetic descendents of Abraham but only those who love God will be saved. Simply being a Jew is not enough.
Quote:28For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality."[11]
29It is just as Isaiah said previously:
"Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah."[12]
Israel failed many times in the past. But God always preserved a genetic remnant to carry on.
If those descendents had not been preserved Christ would never have been born and all would have ended up in Hell like Sodom and Gomorrah did.
And in the Trib 2/3 of the Jews will perish but God will again preserve a remnant, The Woman and 144,000, to fulfill his eternal promise to Abraham.