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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Romans 9-11 Chapter Nine: Message Outlines (Include Audio)

Romans 9:14-18 (1)

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
January 28, 2017
Humble, Texas
(Download Audio)

(025)

Thesis:   Does the primacy of divine choices automatically mean that The God is somehow "unrighteous"?

Introduction:   Thus far in our study of Romans 9 we have seen a primary "Love" thesis followed by a defense of the principles of "promise/faith" over the principles of "demand/performance". The first thesis argues that the message of the Gospel does not inherently indicate a "hate" mentality. However, the second thesis deliberately inserts a "hate" mentality: Jacob I loved but/and Esau I hated. This deliberate contrast forces Paul's readers to ponder the question of how God can be both "loving" and "hateful" at the same time. And the outcome of such force is an easy resolution: in any one on one situation, "love" provides benefit to those who are beloved even if they are enemies; but, technically, there has never been a true "one on one situation". God has always been a "trinity" without the possibility of "one on one" and since the creation of the universe of both angels and men that possibility has totally been ruled out. No one, not even God, can take any attitude or action that is not complicated by the reality that more than "one" will be affected. Therefore, every attitude and action is rooted in a deliberate choice to prefer one over another so that it will always be the case that one is "loved" and all others are "hated". Thus, the second thesis of the primacy of "promise/faith" over the principles of "demand/performance" is simply an argument that God has revealed how His creation will be governed: God will make promises and those who believe them will be rewarded with their fulfillments and those who reject them will be condemned to endure their absences.

This raises an immediate reaction among men who reject the primacy of God's choices over their own: this means God is unrighteous. It is this reaction toward which we turn our attention in this next set of verses.


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This is article #026.
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