Romans 9 is all about God’s sovereignty in election. It is explicit: God chooses. Not us. Not our deeds. Not our decisions. God. Paul answers several objections and leaves no doubt. He chooses “so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand” (Rom 9:11). “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom 9:16). Paul’s final argument is, “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” (Rom 9:21). God chooses—not out of caprice or randomness, but for His good purposes, apart from our actions or decisions.
That’s all well and good, but when we reach Romans 10, it looks different. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). Doesn’t that say we choose, we believe? If salvation comes by confessing and believing, how is it all God, as Romans 9 insists? And how do we know that all who are chosen will come?
This is why Scripture must be interpreted with Scripture. Look at Jesus’s own words: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). What initiates this coming—my faith, or the Father’s giving? Later He adds, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). Again, the initiator is the Father, not the believer. And the consequence is certain: the one drawn is the one raised. If the Father draws, the person drawn will come and will be raised on the last day.
Jesus’s discussion as the Shepherd is similar: “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:26–28). From believing to never perishing, the entire process is initiated and completed by God.
Paul says the same thing in Romans: “These whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom 8:30). Every verb is in the past tense—even glorified—because the entire chain is certain. From predestination to glorification, it is all God’s work, and therefore irrevocable.
Yes, we must confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts. Absolutely. But Scripture makes it clear that God initiates, carries through, and completes all of this. Do we confess and believe? Yes—because He ensures that we do. Both truths stand together. As Acts records, “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Not one was lost. Not one failed to believe. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36).
Yes, we respond with confession and belief because of His choice, not because of our will.
ReplyDeleteThe sheep behaved like sheep because they were created/chosen to behave that way, ;likewise the goats. Nowhere does it indicate that the goats can become sheep.
I've never heard a good explanation as to why these verses don't mean what they say.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I believe that the only way to begin the argument that it doesn't mean what it says is a prior commitment to ... some version of autonomy. "It can't mean that because it would diminish my free will in some sense."
DeleteWhich is crazy to me, to then also claim to believe the Bible. One of the many things I like about the Election view is that it answers for both the chosen by and the choose verses without pitting them against each other.
DeleteYou are right that there is so much Scripture clearly teaching God’s sovereignty in election to salvation and man’s responsibility within that plan. Once you see the Scriptures--and the teaching--you can’t unsee it.
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