February 2
Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”
Isaiah 55:8 says, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” Proof of the truth of that verse is found in Romans 9 and 10. Romans 9 is about election, predestination, and reprobation. Romans 10 is about human responsibility.
Most people believe these are mutually exclusive doctrines, that can never be reconciled. I must admit, that I have pondered from time to time how both can be true, but I rest in the truth of Isaiah 55:8. I am not God and I do not think like God, but I trust God implicitly. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to place these seemingly contradictory doctrines side by side in His Word, and that settles it. (I often hear people say, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” The truth is, God said it, and that settles it! Whether or not I believe it is irrelevant, and does not make what God has said any more true or any less true!)
From a human standpoint, many say that if God elects to salvation, then man cannot be responsible for rejecting the offer of salvation. The flip side of the coin says that if we are responsible for our salvation, then salvation must be by works and not God’s grace. That was the argument of Pelagius in the days of Saint Augustine. “Augustine answered, showing that these are not irreconcilable doctrines. Predestination and personal responsibility are two mutually supportive truths that need always to be held together, as Paul clearly does in Romans. When we do understand them, we see not only that they must be held together, but that the first is actually the solution to the second.” (Boice)
Boice explains the progression like this: “first, human responsibility; second, the perverse exercise of human responsibility in rejecting God; and third, salvation by God’s sovereign grace. Predestination could be described as ‘God’s secret weapon,’ because apart from it no one would be saved.”
In our text we see that unbelief is what happens when the only working element in man’s relationship to God is human responsibility. Robert Haldane says, “We see what is the result, when God employs outward means to lead men to obedience, and does not accompany them with the influence of His efficacious grace.”
Over the next few devotionals, we will explore this text in greater detail. But I leave you today with Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” I’ve preached and/or attended many funerals. The one thing that I have always noticed is (the common denominator – if you will) that none of those dead folks ever responded to me or any one else. Dead people don’t do stuff! In our human condition of trespasses and sins, we are dead, spiritually dead. And just as physically dead people “don’t do stuff,” neither do spiritually dead people “do stuff.” Without the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, spiritually dead human beings continue being spiritually dead human beings, and the only thing spiritually dead human beings can do is reject Jesus Christ.
I thank God that before the foundation of the earth was laid, He chose me. (Ephesians 1:4-6, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”) Had God not chosen me, I (a spiritually dead human being) would never have chosen Him.
Thank you God for loving me, sending your Son to die for me, and choosing me, an unworthy sinner!
Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.
In Christ,
Dan Todd
Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”
Isaiah 55:8 says, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” Proof of the truth of that verse is found in Romans 9 and 10. Romans 9 is about election, predestination, and reprobation. Romans 10 is about human responsibility.
Most people believe these are mutually exclusive doctrines, that can never be reconciled. I must admit, that I have pondered from time to time how both can be true, but I rest in the truth of Isaiah 55:8. I am not God and I do not think like God, but I trust God implicitly. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to place these seemingly contradictory doctrines side by side in His Word, and that settles it. (I often hear people say, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” The truth is, God said it, and that settles it! Whether or not I believe it is irrelevant, and does not make what God has said any more true or any less true!)
From a human standpoint, many say that if God elects to salvation, then man cannot be responsible for rejecting the offer of salvation. The flip side of the coin says that if we are responsible for our salvation, then salvation must be by works and not God’s grace. That was the argument of Pelagius in the days of Saint Augustine. “Augustine answered, showing that these are not irreconcilable doctrines. Predestination and personal responsibility are two mutually supportive truths that need always to be held together, as Paul clearly does in Romans. When we do understand them, we see not only that they must be held together, but that the first is actually the solution to the second.” (Boice)
Boice explains the progression like this: “first, human responsibility; second, the perverse exercise of human responsibility in rejecting God; and third, salvation by God’s sovereign grace. Predestination could be described as ‘God’s secret weapon,’ because apart from it no one would be saved.”
In our text we see that unbelief is what happens when the only working element in man’s relationship to God is human responsibility. Robert Haldane says, “We see what is the result, when God employs outward means to lead men to obedience, and does not accompany them with the influence of His efficacious grace.”
Over the next few devotionals, we will explore this text in greater detail. But I leave you today with Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” I’ve preached and/or attended many funerals. The one thing that I have always noticed is (the common denominator – if you will) that none of those dead folks ever responded to me or any one else. Dead people don’t do stuff! In our human condition of trespasses and sins, we are dead, spiritually dead. And just as physically dead people “don’t do stuff,” neither do spiritually dead people “do stuff.” Without the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, spiritually dead human beings continue being spiritually dead human beings, and the only thing spiritually dead human beings can do is reject Jesus Christ.
I thank God that before the foundation of the earth was laid, He chose me. (Ephesians 1:4-6, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”) Had God not chosen me, I (a spiritually dead human being) would never have chosen Him.
Thank you God for loving me, sending your Son to die for me, and choosing me, an unworthy sinner!
Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.
In Christ,
Dan Todd
