Jacob I Loved

Today’s reading: Romans 9:1-24

“God chooses according to his own plan.” - Romans 9:11

No chapter in the New Testament is more wildly debated than this one. It is the pride of Calvinists and the cringe of Arminianists. (If you don’t know what those terms are, consider yourself lucky.) Much of those discussions are predicated on the fact that we can start to get our mind around the vastness of God’s intellect and plan. Which we cannot.

Ben Witherington helps us with this passage as a whole when he comments, “The quoted verse, then, may speak of God’s elective purposes, but the concern is with roles they are to play in history, not their personal eternal destiny. So when Paul speaks of Israel, his concern is with the history of God’s choices and historical purposes, not the history of a race.”

God has always worked within big picture history to bring about his plan. History is not random; it is intentional.

He does this to ensure that all individuals in their nations are given the opportunity to be saved by Jesus.