Does it take grace to "like" Romans 9?

I was listening to an excellent program by Dr. James White about Romans 9.
Towards the end he mentions that the only way a person would like this chapter is by grace because no natural man would ever like this concept.

Here is the youTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTxBftvqnM

There is also an mp3 on his website at aomin.org.

 

Forcing everything to be nations simply does not make any sense.

You should listen to Whites presentation.
It is hard to argue with.

 

This is certainly true.
And it is not because it is so hard to understand.
It is clear but it is hard to admit.
It is so natural to resist.

I resisted for years.

I never get non cals that act like calvinism promoted some sort of superiority.
Perhaps there are hyper calvinists that think they are better than others but no one that understands grace has any room to boast at all.

 

The context is clear, but it is clear in God's favor and not man's.

The interesting this is that all of the objections that man can come up with are answered in this chapter.

Why does God find fault for who has resisted His will?
Is that not the same objection that the free will crowd throws out all the time?
The "robot" objection?

?

 

I have an idea, lets go over this verse by verse.

Verses 1 and 2:

I don't think there is any dispute about these verses.

Next 3,4 and 5:

Notice the word Israelites. Not nations here. it is people, individual people who are Israelites.

They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. Talking about individuals here.

See.....it is not the physical, national heritage that it is talking about. Pretty clear.

No talk of nations here. They were chosen without any works of their own.
Whose purpose? Whose choice?

I am not sure what you would do to explain this away.

One of the most common objections to God's sovereignty and will.
If you raise this objection, your argument is with God and HIs word, not with calvinists.

Still think this has to do with individuals or nations?

Oops, there goes the free will of man right out the window.

The very purpose of Pharaoh was to be hardened to do the will of God.

Again we see one of the very common objections to the doctrines of Grace.
And the answer:

I need to go now but I will try to finish this later

 

My first encounter with biblical calvinism was when I visited a friends church which held to the LBC of 1689.
I remember just reading Romans 8 and not stopping at verse 28 but reading verse 29.
I could not believe it.
It actually said the word "predestinated"
I was dumbfounded.

I have never heard the last part of chapter 8 read in church, nor had I ever heard any part of chapter 9 that I could recall at the time.

 

It is important for context to read the preceding chapters as well.

There is simply no honest way to read chapters 8 and 9 from a synergistic point of view.

Even though the Apostle Paul clearly refutes the common objections, the same objections are still raised by Christians today.

 

Have you actually read it?
How can you possible say that chapter 9 is dealing solely with Israel?
It deals with individuals.
It clearly states that physical birth in the nation of Israel doesn't mean anything in and of itself.
Not all are Israel who are descended from Israel.

Do me a favor, please and give me a positive presentation on what you think Romans 9 is trying to say.