Zactly:
"for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand - Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
"For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
Individual election in a corporate setting of being IN CHRIST.
I’d think Cs would get tired of barking out this proof-text which is meant to teach the opposite of what Cs try to present. In context, Paul is addressing the Jewish error of their notion that all sons of Abraham are saved because of their inheritance of having the law, Paul is telling them their belief of pre-selection is false and that they need Christ! Unfortunately the Cs just don’t get it and are trying to hold on to the same old Jewish stronghold of resistance, holding on to their predetermined “rights”
under the law which Paul is rebuking.
The Cs just want to stop at their systemic interpretations but fail to see the bigger picture:
The C perception of predestined sonship fails along the same lines as did the Jew’s perception of Abrahamic sonship and they don’t realize there is a new system in town:
Mat 3:9-10
(9) And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to
our father:
for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
(10) And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
The teaching about Jacob and Esau came long after their death, you won’t even find God saying He hated Esau in Genesis because it’s not there – for a reason, the doctrines of unconditionally predestination because of being physical predestined descendants of Abraham, the same type of beliefs of the Cs wherein they miss the big picture are being put to rest by Paul. Election is only IN Christ and the C view of individual predestination is being revealed, for those with eyes to see, as not being the way to salvation.
It really does seem sometimes that the Cs are jealous about salvation just like the Jews, who fell into the false teachings of privileged predestination, were:
Rom 11:11
(11) I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but
rather through their fall salvation
is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
The Jews wanted a Law that they could rule by, rather than a God that
they must believe in, in similar fashion the Cs seem to want no choice in the matter and say they are unable to respond in belief unless predestined to do so.
The Cs serious need to understand that the opposite of God’s love would be not love. But God both hates sinners, and loves them. He is set against them in judgment but in love does not desire to destroy them. It is a truth that God has provided for election IN Christ for all. That is the true message of the Gospel of grace. May God forgive those who would preach His love and grace is limited to a specially privileged pre-selected few.