Read Romans 9:19-21
If God chooses whom ever He wants and saves whom ever He wants then we might be tempted to cry out, ‘Then why does God still blame us?’ How can God judge us if He is making the choice? If God is sovereign and chooses us or doesn’t choose us and if we can’t resist the will of God, then how can He blame us?
In verse 20 Paul starts to answer these difficult questions. But be warned that the answer is more of a rebuke than an answer as such. He quotes Isaiah 29:16, 45:9. In the first Isaiah reference God charges the people with turning the ordered system upside down. They treat God as if He were the clay and they were the potter. We are told in 29:13 that they honour God with their lips but not with their lives. Their hearts are far from God. In the second reference the Lord
Paul’s humbling answer draws heavily on this background. He shows us that we have no right to talk back to God. If God is the potter and if we are the clay then what right do we have to demand an explanation of the potter as to why he made us the way He did? What right do we have to talk back to God? What right have we to demand anything from God, let alone an explanation? God can do whatever He pleases and we have no right to call Him to account.
We live in a world where respect is lacking and authority is questioned and possibly even hated. In our world respect has to be earned and often earned on my terms in ways that I demand. Automatic respect for positional authority is a thing of the past.
Thus we find it hard to fathom and to accept that we have no right to question God. We expect, even demand, that God would answer us and explain to us His logic and purposes. We seem to think that God owes us an explanation or at the very least, that He work according to our rules and our patterns of logic.
But human reasoning and human logic cannot explain the issue. God’s mystery and majesty are the answer. God will not be called to account by such arrogance. He will not bend to our will and He will not succumb to our demands.
God is God and we are merely human. One day it is our arrogance that will be called to account, not God’s plans.
Prayer:
Having read today’s passage and notes jot down various prayer points in each:
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¨ Pray that God would continue to grow us in our understanding of election and predestination. Pray that we would humbly sit under God’s Word and accept the Truth He has revealed to us.
¨ Pray that God would bring the elect to us so that we can preach the Word to them and see them granted repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. Pray that God’s Kingdom would grow as the Word is faithfully preached in your Church and that the called would respond to the preaching of the Word.
¨ Pray that those who preach in your church would be faithful and clear in their presentation of the Gospel.
Worshipping God means letting God be God and living comfortably and joyously with the way that He has chosen to make us.
1. Someone says to you that after reading Romans 9, he/she thinks that God’s judgement is unfair. How do you respond?
2. What confidence does the doctrine of election give you when you are evangelising?
3. What do you say to a non believer who demands that God explain His actions in election and predestination?
Intro: Facing the judgment of God is a horrible thing. We shouldn’t wish that judgment upon anyone. Even more so, we should do everything in our power to share the gospel with everyone so that they don’t have to face the judgement of God
Share together the people in your lives you would love to see come to Christ in repentance and faith.
Read John 3:16
What must a person do to receive eternal life?
What did God do?
Pray together for the people you talked about.
Intro: Facing the judgment of God is a horrible thing. We shouldn’t wish that judgment upon anyone. Even more so, we should do everything in our power to share the gospel with everyone so that they don’t have to face the judgement of God
Share together the people in your lives you would love to see come to Christ in repentance and faith.
Read John 3:16
What must a person do to receive eternal life?
What did God do?
Pray together for the people you talked about.
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