Romans 9

I haven't posted here for ages. This blog became, as they say, a statistic. The relevant statistic is that the vast majority of blogs are abandoned in the first year. Not surprising I suppose.

Last night we read Romans 9 in Bible Study. It's such a straight-forward chapter in some respects, that I'm surprised people have so much trouble with it. Why can't we just read it and accept what it says?

Something that strikes me is that Paul anticipates the counter arguments - "You'll say to me 'how can God find fault, for who can resist his will?'". Hey, that's exactly what I was thinking!

We can't resist God's will, and God's will encompasses minute details about our lives, including our salvation. That's that.

Philip Jensen - I don't know if he coined the expression, I've now heard it outside of Sydney circles - says that salvation is "100% God, and 100% us". I used to like this, because we have to be careful in some ways.

But I think these days I disagree. Not only is 100+100=200, but I just don't think it's true. We have no cause for boasting. God, in order to glorify himself, according to his great mercy, sovereignly implants a repentant spirit in us, without which we would never seek him, and with which we necessarily will.

So my actions, from the day I was born to the day I will die, were predetermined by God before the foundation of the world. Any lesser view detracts from the omni-everything of God. I am clay, or a sheep, or whatever else is unable to do anything but that which it/he is enslaved to or was intended for.

How can we get anything else from Romans 9?