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ROMANS CHAPTERS 9 & 10 KJV WEB See previous page Rom 9,1-26 (219a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> God elects us through His sovereign will – The content of chapters nine, ten and eleven revolve around the nation of Israel predestined through the foreknowledge of God to crucify their own messiah at the beginning of the age of grace, and then come to faith in Christ at the end of the age for the purpose of leading a Great Endtime Revival. Act 2-23 says, "This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death." Peter's statement depicts both the will of man and the will of God in the death of Christ. In chapter nine we see Paul using pharaoh to show that God has predestined Israel to reject Christ, yet we don’t see anyone forcing their hand to nail Him to a cross. In many respects, predestination is a subject about time, more than about God imposing His will over man. Predestination is an active choice that God makes with mankind, choosing one person over another, but this is merely a perspective. There are other instances in Scripture that speak of predestination in terms of foreknowledge; He simply knew what would happen, which is vastly different from what Paul is saying, yet both depict realities that are anchored in Scripture. We must keep in mind the context of Paul’s argument, specifically that God overrides the will of man. Pharaoh virtually had no choice but to harden his heart, yet God still found fault with him, believing in his heart that his works were completely his own, not suspecting that God was using him as a puppet. What pharaoh did was predestined to occur, but at the same time there was an ownership of behavior regarding pharaoh that we cannot ignore, complete ownership of all his anger against God. So we really do have two things happening at the same time: God’s pre-destiny and man’s expression of it; the two of them cannot be separated, yet neither can we see them as a single entity. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,3-6; 37e Rom 9,1-3 (63h) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Sarcasm >> Ignoring the truth to convey the truth (123c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Spiritual affection >> Compassion >> Compassion is the emotion of the Spirit – The people Paul was describing endlessly tortured him, beat him and whipped him and had him thrown in prison for years, wanting him dead. He was speaking about the Jews, that if he could he would give them his place in heaven! Paul understood the Jews because he was a Jew who persecuted the Church. He would be standing right alongside them still squelching the gospel, had Jesus not reached out and saved him. He empathized with their unbelief and related to their bondage. Whether or not we understand our enemies we are supposed to love them, no matter what they do to us. Our enemies could be incomprehensible, yet God has called us to continue to act and behave in ways that would benefit them. There is one aspect of our enemies which we can always relate; we were once unsaved ourselves (Tit 3,1-7), in bondage to unbelief and to the darkness of evil that dictated how we lived, but God has called us out of darkness and has raised us with Him to a higher plateau, so that now we can make right choices that benefit even our enemies, this being the agreement of the new covenant: God treats us the way we ought to treat our enemies. (173h) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Unholy sacrifice (Penance) >> Offering sacrifice without God’s approval >> Sacrifice against the ways of God – Paul wasn’t devaluing his faith as though sacrificing it for something useless, such as in the story of Jacob and Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Esau essentially sold his conscience, and God interpreted his actions as thinking so little of his inheritance in a moment of weakness as to equate it to a bowl of soup. God’s judgment on Esau was that He made it a literal transaction, and God gave Jacob the blessing that was intended for Esau, the firstborn. If Esau wanted to sell his birthright, God would accommodate him, and the transaction occurred in the spiritual realm, but the transaction Paul wanted to make for his fellow countrymen was not possible, because this is not how the gospel is transmitted. See also: Patriarchs (Jacob and Esau); Rom 9-6; 210ib / 1Tim 4-1,2; 155e (188k) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Sorrow >> Grieving over your own loss >> Grieving over the loss of others Rom 9-1,2 (81j) Thy kingdom come >> Pray without ceasing >> For the Church KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9-1 (78b) Thy kingdom come >> Sincerity of heart >> Being honest >> Telling the truth – Verse one is quite a preamble to this chapter. Paul wanted us to know for sure that He was being sincere, swearing by his conscience that he was telling the truth, that he was willing to sacrifice his soul and the hope of eternal life if it guaranteed salvation for his countrymen. However, God is unwilling to sacrifice one soul for many, except in the case of His Son, and Paul is not the savior of the Jews. Although Jesus is the savior of the Jews, they still cannot be saved unless they believe in Him, because God is unwilling to violate the will of man for any reason. To believe in Jesus is to trust Him and love Him, for how could God save a people who hated Him? Moreover, if everything changed when we passed from this life to the next, then what would be the point of this life? (108f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Balance >> Conscience is the balance between God and man – “Conscience bearing witness in the Holy Spirit” is a useful definition of faith; it is how we relate to God. Paul disassembled faith into its component parts; the Holy Spirit alone does not represent our faith; He is God’s faith. Likewise, conscience alone does not represent our faith unless we use it to believe in Christ. So, when we attach our conscience to the Holy Spirit, we are able to believe in God through His faith. This faith comes from God through the Holy Spirit made manifest in our conscience, suggesting that having a clear conscience is essential for genuine faith. When God sends His Holy Spirit into our hearts and our conscience is grafted to His, we become conscious of God. (154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience – Paul had to start this chapter saying, I’m telling the truth; I’m not lying.’ This was the one and only time He said this. Jesus, who commanded us to love our enemies often said something similar, “Truly, truly I say to you….” Since neither Jesus nor Paul was a liar, it seemed unnecessary for them to use this type of expression, except that they were trying to build confidence in us that they weren’t lying, because apparently what they were about to say would be hard to believe. Rom 9,3-6 (37e) Judgment >> Judgment of God >> Jesus’ humanity >> He was part of the lineage of David – Paul dabbles in the genealogy of Israel, bringing to mind the patriarchs whom God used to establish faith in God, and then he took it to another level with a dissertation about predestination, implying that all these things were planned from the very beginning, and suggests that this was the reason Paul could save his kinsmen by trading places with them. Paul was selected from the foundation of the world to become an heir of the faith, and this blessing is nontransferable. See also: Predestination; Rom 9-6; 210ib Rom 9-3 (26e) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from Christ Rom 9-4,5 (210h) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Salvation is from the Jews >> The Jew first >> Jews lead the world to faith in Jesus – The mere mention of the Law and of temple worship represents the first five books of the Old Testament. The prophets spoke of God’s love for Israel, that if they repented their sins and returned to Him, He would preemptively forgive them, looking forward to the cross that would come later. When we look in the Old Testament for the promise of sending Jesus Christ for the propitiation of man’s sin, it is everywhere. For instance, the temple services were an illustration of His blood sacrifice. It is no wonder people believe in the Bible; it is self-evident. Paul is saying that every aspect of God’s purpose was executed through the nation of Israel. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this nation or fully appreciate what they have suffered for us all. Had God chosen any other nation to be his people according to the flesh, they would have followed the same path as Israel. Satan worked tirelessly against them for thousands of years, leading them into rebellion against God in effort to frustrate His plan, but through all His efforts the only thing he could accomplish was to fulfill God’s plan. Screwed-up Israel sacrificed their Messiah as the work of Satan, and God used that to judge him and to set man free from the penalty of sin. Rom 9-4 (36m) Gift of God >> Adopted >> We are adopted in the flesh – This short list that Paul provided stands for everything God has done with Israel over the millennia, yet it says that they too must be adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God, though they are God’s chosen people from the original vine into which all other nations must be grafted. This adoption means something different from grafting (which Paul will discuss in chapter 11). “Adoption” means children who were once not His children have now become His children. So whose children were they before they were adopted? Mankind as a whole, both Jew and gentile, every person born into this world from the beginning of time belongs to Satan; we were the children of the devil, so anybody who believes in Jesus is born-again, adopted from the family of Satan and into the family of God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil” (Jn 8-44); this makes it sound like those guy were really bad, but everybody is a child of the devil until they are saved—adopted is what “saved” means. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9,6-10 (151ba) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The Patriarchs >> Abraham >> Faith of Abraham Rom 9-6 (210ib) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Salvation is from the Jews >> Jews are believers >> Jew and Gentile believers are one flock with one shepherd – Paul chose a very interesting pair of brothers to illustrate his point about predestination. On the one hand we have God’s choice of Jacob selected while still in his mother’s womb, while on the other hand we have Jacob manipulating the circumstances in order to fit into God’s choice. Although he was born chosen for the blessing, he still had to steal it from his brother Esau. That is, he had to do his part to complete God’s choice of him, for had he not stolen the blessing, he would not have been heir to the faith. He was unaware that he would become part of the lineage of Christ, who would come to redeem Israel and the world from sin; he only knew he wanted the blessing because it was of God, and this is why God loved him over Esau. He was a man who sought after God’s heart, which was also said about David, but Esau did not. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,8-13; 36l / Jacob and Esau; Rom 9,10-13; 211c Rom 9-7,8 (33c) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Believers are children of promise – Paul announced that faith is the only determining factor of those who belong to God, whether Jew or gentile. This has always been true, though God raised up Israel to become God’s hammer to smash the nations and destroy those who were corrupting the earth. That is not to say that Israel was the only people whom God considered His children, for there were many people from other nations that feared God, and God respected and cherished their faith. The Old Testament teaches that gentiles of other nations were welcome to the citizenship of Israel to obtain all the rights of the children of Abraham, except the right to temple worship; they were not allowed in the temple. Other than that, they were welcome to all the festivals and celebrations, and they were welcome to the promises of obedience and warnings of disobedience, since they applied to the whole of mankind and not just to Israel. There were also people from other nations that remained in their respective countries who loved and feared God and He received them. So it was not just Israel who were considered the children of God even in the Old Testament, but those who believed in the promises of God and lived by His laws. Rom 9,8-13 (36l) Gift of God >> Adopted >> We are adopted by the Spirit – One of the best ways to view predestination is to portray it in terms of conception. When a man fertilizes a woman’s egg during sexual intercourse, the male and female chromosomes combine with each other in a completely random fashion to produce a fetus. We see randomness at work in the next child from the same parents being a totally different person. In direct contrast, Ps 139,13-16 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” It would seem that we would have to pick one of these two scenarios, since they appear mutually exclusive, yet equally they both make tenable points. We are in the fortunate circumstance of being born many thousands of years after David the psalmist wrote the above passage, so now we know much of the process through scientific advancements how conception actually works, and that model does not make room for God sticking His fingers in the process of making our unformed substance, yet the Bible very explicitly says He does. Therefore, the best way to view this dilemma of randomness versus God’s input is through His foreknowledge. That is, the psalmist was anthropomorphizing the process of conception as though God were personalizing each of us. However, we should keep separate "foreknowledge" and predestination in that they are different: one shows God merely acknowledging the circumstances, while the other shows God causing those circumstances. In this way we see the Bible treating the fact that God knows everything in advance as personally getting involved and being the change agent in everything that happens. Although randomness and foreknowledge are very real concepts, God does personally get involved on occasion. Case in point, Heb 10-5 says, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for Me.’” This is an example of actual predestination, which is defined as an event in which God exercises His will to accomplish something. According to the above verse, God reserved a body for Christ that He would use to die for the sins of the world. The fact that this was God’s seed that He planted in Mary makes the resulting child very special, and in that sense we recognize God’s personal input directing the conception of His Son. Jesus' body was more than a forethought in God’s mind, but a specifically created representation of Himself to all humanity. For God to personally create us, whether by mere foreknowledge or personalizing us is to concede that God intentionally makes fetuses that have physical and mental abnormalities and mutations, meaning that these people and adults are just as important to society as the rest of us. Then there is the question of the world before Noah's flood, why God specifically created so many people who were destined to rebel against Him. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,10-13; 30c Rom 9,10-13 (30c) Gift of God >> God knows our needs >> He is the source of our obedience – We see Jacob running after the blessing, but we also hear Paul saying that it doesn’t depend on the man who runs, but on God who calls. Therefore, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that God foreknew what he would do; that is, He knew the choices we make before we make them, even before He made the world (1Pet 1-2). When we look in the Scriptures, primarily in the Old Testament, we see God working with mankind on a limited basis, such as coming down and seeing for certain if the report he had heard about Sodom and Gomorrah was actually true (Gen 18-20,21), sending two angels to investigate the case. This is an indication that God deals with mankind on a highly limited basis. God can step back at any time from this human saga and look at the big picture in terms of foreknowledge and predestination, but that is not usually how He deals with mankind. We know that God knows everything from the beginning; knowing this helps us understand His infinite and eternal nature, but it does little to understand why He limited himself and became one of us when He sent His Son in human flesh. See also: Predestination; 211c (211c) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Gentiles included >> Gentiles steal the kingdom from Israel through obedience – This is an analogy where Jacob represents the Church and Esau represents Israel. In the Old Testament we see Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau through deception, but in the New Testament we see the gentiles stealing the blessing from Israel through obedience. Isaac loved Esau and wanted to give him the blessing, but Rebekah love Jacob. The time had come when Isaac was old and was about to die that he wanted to transfer the blessing to his firstborn, Esau. Isaac told Esau to prepare his favorite meal, and while Esau was away, Jacob’s mother prepared a dinner for Jacob to give to his father, telling him to impersonate his brother. His father was blind from age, so Jacob disguised his voice to sound like Esau and placed an animal coat on his forearm to imitate the hairiness of his brother. Isaac did not detect the deception, and after finishing his meal he blessed Jacob thinking it was Esau, so from then on the lineage of Christ would pass through Jacob, who became heir to the faith through deception. This is why we hear about "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." On the one hand, we have God’s choice of Jacob, but on the other we have Jacob manipulating the circumstances to fit into God’s choice. We see Jacob as a deceiver and manipulator, who stole both Esau’s birthright and Isaac's blessing, yet Paul's discussion is not about destiny but pre-destiny, not about man’s choice but God’s choice, and so the Church managing the gospel throughout the age of grace was God's choice. See also: Jacob and Esau; Rom 9-12,13; 151c / Predestination; Rom 9,11-26; 220b KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9,11-26 (220b) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined according to the sovereignty of God -- Predestination is summarized in this statement: God chooses us as we choose ourselves. Some people have a problem with the doctrine of predestination (and rightfully so, because it is a difficult subject). Although God knows the end from the beginning and at times predestines us to make our decisions, we no less have a free will. The ones who have the greatest problem with this view predestination as nullifying our will, which neither the Bible nor common sense supports. God does not make us do anything; He simply knows what we will do before we do it; that does not detract from our will one iota. Someone might say, 'If God knew certain people would not accept Him and they were ultimately predestined for hell, then why did God make them?' From that they actually accuse God of sin! God may well send them to hell, but they practiced unbelief in the character of God and committed the sins against Him and their fellow man that sent them there through no one else's fault but their own. Besides, who are we to tell God who and what He can and cannot make? Perhaps God has a purpose in eternity for hell, such as using it as a reminder for the elect as an example of the depth of evil that rebellion causes and the depth of grace that God has showered on us. If there were only two things we didn't understand about God, they would be infinity and eternity because of our vast limitations. We had a beginning and have an end in this life. It is these two things that greatly limit our view of God and His overwhelming wisdom; therefore, we should not jump to conclusions about God until we actually meet Him face to face. After they meet Him and still think He is evil and unworthy of their faith and service, then at least they will feel justified in eternity, while the rest of us understand His heart and enjoy His company and His creation forever. Thank you Jesus for the eternal lessons in the perils of sin. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,11-23; 19e Rom 9,11-23 (19e) Sin >> Mocking God Without a cause >> Uncontrollable circumstances – Egypt placed Israel in bondage to slavery because they were afraid of the Israelites. God was blessing them and they were increasing in number faster than the Egyptians, so they oppressed them as a preemptive measure to make them fear the Egyptians. God wanted the Egyptians to be deserving of their punishment for enslaving His chosen people, and the way He did that was to harden pharaoh’s heart so he would sin more and deserve all the punishment that He intended for him, until His fierce wrath was completely spent. The Bible says that God hardened his heart, still it was the actions of pharaoh that were the physical expression of that hardening. That is, it’s one thing for God to harden pharaoh’s heart, but it's another for pharaoh to respond with contempt to the miracles of Moses. Pharaoh did all these things that were written in Scripture, but had he been kind to Israel, he would have denied God's predestined judgment, yet Paul was making the point that we cannot override His sovereignty. Think of it this way, predestination is the flipside of God’s refusal to tamper with man's will. One the one hand, endtime prophecy is predestined to occur as it was written; and on the other, all the actions of pharaoh were the result of his own pride and massive ego that beckoned the judgment of God. So it was pharaoh’s fault that God's anger burn against him. God did not make pharaoh do anything, but he sinned on his own volition. In other words, the hardening of pharaoh’s heart was not an act of God only, but also the result of pharaoh's actions. God waited almost four hundred years for pharaoh to be born and then judged him for the entire duration of Israel’s slavery. The same will happen in the last days; God will unleash His fury on a single generation for the sins committed throughout the entire age of grace. See also: Predestination; 94g (94g) Thy kingdom come >> God’s perspective >> His perspective on the sovereignty of God – 2Pet 3-9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” How does this verse uphold the popular tenets of predestination? God knows the end from the beginning, but chooses not to work with us this way. Paul’s main point is that both human and divine perspectives are happening at the same time. See also: Predestination; 213i (108e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Balance >> God's sovereignty balances good from evil – When Paul claimed that we will appreciate heaven more because of hell, he really opened a can of worms! Sin exists apart from God, meaning He did not create it, meaning there is something in His creation He did not create, suggesting that all forms of sin represent a desire to be God, proving that the mystery of lawless is very much at work. God's ultimate goal for us is absolute freedom; therefore, He will let us experiment with sin, like picking up a lit stick of dynamite and then setting it down before it explodes. God could have made creatures that were incapable of sin, but then they would not have been able to comprehend His righteousness, which is one of His most prized attributes. We were made to have a relationship with Him, and this ironically is why mankind is capable of sin, for how could we know righteousness without knowing unrighteousness? Sin is defined as trading our relationship with God for something else, thus limiting our ability to relate to Him. (184d) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Darkness >> God controls darkness >> God hides unbelief in darkness (213i) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> Jesus owns you >> His will becomes our will >> We are God’s property – God has predestined every man and woman to heaven or hell, implying that God knew beforehand that millions of souls would not make it to heaven, so they accuse God of being evil for sending many to the eternal flames of hell, where the fire is not quenched and their worm does not die (Mk 9-44). In sharp contrast, man has made his own choices that have led him to either heaven or hell. Essentially, this reduces to a simple statement: God chooses us as we choose ourselves. I gave my heart to Jesus on June 16, 1979. Salvation is no different from marriage, for it is based on an oath, kneeling in a ditch next to my friend who had just been in a motorcycle accident, gurgling his blood, praying for God to save me. (My friend survived the accident only to later die a crack head.) Had I not experienced that moment or one like it, I could not have been saved. I literally felt His presence in my heart and since that day He never left me, and He never will. Therefore, I had to make a commitment to follow Jesus in order for God’s choice of me to be complete. Many are called, but not all respond, and for that reason they are not chosen. See also: Predestination; Rom 9-16; 116k (217b) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> No one can tell God what to do -- See commentary Rom 9,18-23; 202k (221k) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides from sin >> He hides behind unbelief Rom 9-11 (91i) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> God’s calling transcends the will of man >> We are called by God through His choice of us -- This verse goes with verses 24&25 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9-12,13 (151c) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The Patriarchs >> The sons of Abraham – Jacob and Esau were brothers who were unlike each other in many ways. Esau was the eldest, though they were born twins (not identical), with Esau exiting the womb first, but Jacob would change all that by the things he did. Note that he didn't obey the word of the Lord but acted on his own authority with help from his mother. As the story goes, Jacob made a pot of stew and Esau came home famished and considered himself as good as dead, and there traded his birthright. He came to the opposite conclusion of his grandfather, Abraham, according to what is written of him, “He contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old” (Rom 4-19). Hope against hope Abraham believed God, and for this reason he is the father of our faith. In contrast, Esau considered himself as only minutes from starving to death, and Jacob took advantage of the opportunity and asked for his birthright in exchange for a bowl of soup, and Esau agreed. Obviously Esau was not able to literally give Jacob his birthright any more than he could change their birth order or un-ring a bell, but Esau could despise his birthright, which he did, and as a result their birth order was spiritually switched in the eyes of God. Jacob showed great interest in being named among the early fathers of his nation that originated by faith in God's word. Abraham’s descendents didn’t receive the blessing from being firstborn; rather, the father spoke the blessing over his chosen son with an oath, who was always his firstborn son, except in this case. An outdoorsman, a hunter and gatherer, a provider for the family, Esau spent days, weeks and months in the wilderness alone. Much as Esau loved the creation, he didn’t love his Creator. He loved fields of flowers, the song of birds, the thrill of the hunt and the meat of wild animals, but he didn’t love God. Being firstborn was highly valuable, but Esau traded it for a bowl of soup, whereas Jacob considered it valuable because God said it was valuable. In fact, Esau was first born of the first born, not even Abraham or Isaac could boast of that, and now Jacob had received this honor through trickery. It was his reverence for the things of God that led to Jacob’s status as God’s first choice. He deems certain things important that remain true throughout all time, and Jacob sought to fit into God's value system. When it says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau, it doesn’t really mean that he hated Esau, but that God doesn’t particularly like or dislike anything; he either loves or hates with nothing in-between. See also: Jacob and Esau; Rom 9,1-3; 173h Rom 9,14-23 (41a) Judgment >> God glorifies Himself as the judge of all Rom 9,15-23 (186k) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> The reprobate >> God’s role in forming a reprobate >> Rejected by God Rom 9,15-17 (142c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Prophesy about evangelism Rom 9-16 (31k) Gift of God >> Gift of His grace >> Grace is the work of God -- This verse goes with verses 22&23 (82b) Thy kingdom come >> Three elements of prayer >> Direction (Attitude) >> What not to pray for (116k) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> His Grace in us is in vain without Him – Theologians have extracted man's will from the equation of predestination since John Calvin expounded his beliefs in the mid-to-late fifteen hundreds. His contribution to Christian theology was a travesty, single-handedly emasculating the protestant church probably more than anyone before or after him, causing many to lose faith because of his doctrine of "irresistible grace" and other similar ideas that caused passivity in people’s hearts who have adopted the attitude that their salvation and walk with God is not up to them but God to determine, seeing the human element as unimportant to the process of salvation. A more accurate view, that of Jacobus Arminius (Arminianism), whose influence came a few decades later, brings the human element back into focus and thus balances the subject of predestination. In contrast to Calvinism, God involves our will when we are saved, though we may be predestined to do so from the foundation of the world. That is, Calvin was not entirely wrong in many of his views, dubbing it “the paradox of free will.” However, it is only a paradox when we separate the will of God from the will of man. Rather, there is an amalgamation between the will of God and the will of man, suggesting there is no paradox between them, only apart from each other. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,19-21; 75e / Predestination (Calvinism); 2Tim 2,1-7; 115c (171b) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Vanity >> Vain effort >> Vain attempt to pursue God (173l) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s Religion >> Deeds that are not initiated by God >> Deeds that are not initiated by the Holy Spirit (227f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Depending on Jesus to have compassion >> Depending on Jesus to receive us KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9,17-23 (49c) Judgment >> Enemies of God’s righteousness are destroyed Rom 9,17-21 (213h) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> Jesus owns you >> We are his instruments >> We are clay in the potters hand Rom 9-17 (27c) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Condoning evil can bring a curse on your life – For 300 years Egypt was free to oppress the children of Israel, building up a mountain of sin that God would eventually judge with far greater severity than had He corrected the nation earlier. Had Israel become dependent on Egypt and offered themselves as slaves, that would have been one thing, but Egypt made them slaves from jealousy and fear that they were becoming more numerous than the Egyptians. Meanwhile, Egypt mistreated the Israelites while God ratcheted up Egypt’s judgment before He unleashed it on them. It says that pharaoh was about to let the Israelites go, and then God hardened his heart, incurring more condemnation on the Egyptians, so God could judge them to the severity that they deserved. At the same time bitterness was growing in the hearts of the Israelites against God, who left them in those circumstances, forcing His people to believe in Him under miserable conditions for a long time, until their hearts became hardened, becoming apparent in their walk with God through the wilderness. When He finally did arrive, it was impossible to turn their hardened hearts to faith as their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed. In the meantime, God was also waiting for the land of Canaan to become utterly corrupt so they would become worthy of His judgment when He was ready to use Israel as His hammer to purge sin from the land. So if God does not judge our sin right away, or the sin of a nation, it might not mean that he fancies us, but He could be waiting for our sin to increase for the Day of Judgment. (246g) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Demonstration of God’s kingdom >> God demonstrates His glory >> Demonstration of His power -- This verse goes with verse 22 Rom 9,18-23 (202k) Denying Christ >> Running from God >> Wicked men cannot approach the throne of God >> Goats are unsaved church attendants – If God were to come and try to tell us what to do, it would make us angry enough to want to kill Him, as they did to Jesus. If Jesus returned in the flesh, we would want Him to do whatever we told Him as our only terms of acceptance. That is, we would try to control God, because man likes to control everything, except himself. Since the world doesn't do what God has commanded in His word, how much more would they hate Him for telling man what to do in person? The question was, “Who resists His will?” and the answer is everybody on every level imaginable. No matter what God does He is wrong in the eyes of unbelievers; there is nothing God can do to please them. If he returned, they would be furious; if He didn’t return, they would despise Him, so no matter what He does man hates God and resists His will, so He just does what He wants. He doesn’t worry what man thinks of Him, knowing that sinful flesh is impossible to please, so He has mercy on whom He desires and hardens whom He desires; that way nobody resists His will. See also: God's substance is faith; Mat 9,27-30; 115g KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9,18-21 (154b) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> No excuse >> There is no excuse for rejecting the Father – Paul speaks for some who ask this question, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” rebuking the questioner for his ignorance saying, “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Paul is saying, ‘You don’t get to know the answer, though I'm going to tell you.’ Man resists God in the very questions he asks about resisting His will, like a criminal going to court about a crime he committed with the evidence is stacked against him; the judge hands down the verdict and the criminal sasses him on his bench. God bypasses the sinner’s comments just to end the case; otherwise He would spend the whole day dickering with the sinner. Since God has endued man’s railings against Him over the millennia, He will certainly not put up with him at the judgment. Rom 9-18 (185g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> God helps Satan in the mystery of lawlessness (231d) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> God’s grace is the mystery of godliness >> Having favor with God is a mystery Rom 9,19-21 (75e) Thy kingdom come >> Motives >> Being manipulative >> Questioning God’s judgment – Paul is finally adding the human element to the quandary of predestination, though many would say it does not belong there. If it didn’t, God could not have judged pharaoh, for what pharaoh did was his own doing; God did not make him do anything. Paul answered being unable to resist God’s will with another question: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Didn't Paul's answer demonstrate resistance to the will of God (v20)? To question God’s judgment is irreverent, showing a lack of faith and trust in one of God's core attributes, yet it is a valid question for man who is trying to understand God. The best example of questioning God with an evil motive is found by contrasting Mary, the mother of Jesus with Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Mary asked the angel, “How could these things be?” while Zacharias asked, “How [do] I know for sure?” These statements sound similar, but their motives were not. One asked a science question, how could Mary get pregnant if she never knew a man?” while the other blatantly doubted the word of God, showing contempt for the angel who spoke with him. The angel answered Zacharias, ‘Who are you to question my authority?’ which was Paul’s answer to those who would question God's judgment. Why did God find fault with pharaoh after he acted with hardness that He put in his heart? Paul's answer was that human will was involved. We cannot extract the human element from predestination and expect to derive the truth. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,24-29; 142b (96n) Thy kingdom come >> Having a negative attitude about sin >> Having a rebellious attitude Rom 9,22-29 (50dc) Judgment >> Last Days >> Jewish Led endtime revival >> Israel prophesied to restore the gentiles to salvation KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9-22,23 (31a) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> He favors the Church to spite the world (31k) Gift of God >> Gift of His grace >> Grace is the work of God -- These verses go with verse 16 (33l) Gift of God >> Believers are special to God >> He has given us all things (37a) Judgment >> The cross >> God judged the sin of the world through Christ – This is probably the most difficult passage in the Bible (Vs11-23), but if we can make sense of it, there is much to gain. By this we will begin to understand some of the deep things of God, such as His justice, and His sovereign authority over creation. Subjects like this the Bible states is unsearchable (Rom 11-33), so we will by no means reach the bottom of it, but we will scrape the surface and develop an introduction to the personhood of God. That should be enough to get us through this life. Everything about God is an extension of his justice, even his love, including the cross. God loved us before the cross, but He had to sacrifice His Son for the sake of justice. Somebody had to pay for our sins, and He determined that person would be Himself. He wasn’t going to let us rebel against His authority and get by with it; He had to exact payment, otherwise how could he invite us into His heaven or trust us? Jesus has paid the penalty of our sins; the judgment has been rendered, the sin covered and the issue resolved. All that remains between God and man now is His love, and it says He loves us as much as He loves His own Son, which itself is unfathomable. (46i) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Satan falls by his own wickedness – When Paul said that God has mercy on whom He desires and hardens whom He desires, and then asked the question, “Who resists His will?” he intentionally left out one important detail: the sin that man and angels have committed. God did not create evil; evil created itself through willing agents, which led God to create the punishment of hell. He knew these things would come to pass as the undesired results of creating living beings who are totally free. If His creation were not free, then evil would not exist; therefore, evil is linked to freedom. God knew evil would result from His creation, still His foreknowledge did not create evil. God is absolutely perfect, and evil seeks to replace Him, and since perfection is already taken, evil must take the position of imperfection. God determined that if anything should seek to replace Him, it must take the opposite of perfection. This is why evil is evil, and it is why evil always corrupts people, societies and nations. Evil is the opposite of God and God’s kingdom is predestined to succeed; therefore, whatever evil creates must destroy itself (See Rev 17-16,17). (54k) Paradox >> Opposites >> Contrast of two natures – The yin-yang concept is validated by these verses. You can’t have light without darkness, and vise versa. God existed forever in righteousness without evil, but we need evil to comprehend righteousness. To us light is a foreign concept; it must be contrasted with darkness for us to appreciate it. Much as we may want to deny yin-yang, being a product of eastern religions, God cannot just tell His people that He has mercy on them without pitting it against its counterpart. We will be able to look into hell as through a portal and see the punishment of fallen angels and man, depicted in Isaiah 66-24. God will point to them in hell and say to the redeemed, 'This is what the absence of mercy looks like.' If God did not have mercy on us we would be there too. Our salvation was paid for, not only by the blood of Christ, but also by the eternal damnation of hundreds of millions of fallen angels and people. Someone might look down on God and say that hell is really mean of Him; how could He conceptualize such a thing? Is He going to let all these people suffer forever just to make a point? God says yes! Hell completes the circle of God’s plan and purpose for mankind. Every man and woman who ever lived will either live with Christ in glory or showcase the absence of God’s mercy. Without hell we would not have a contrast for the grace and mercy we have been shown, and without contrast we couldn’t truly grasp the gift of God or how He feels about sin. Without knowing how He feels about sin, we would not understand how He fells about righteousness, justice and mercy. That is, we wouldn’t have the capacity to know God. Over the course of eternity God will continue clarifying these things, so we may understand them as He does and accept them. In this life, aspects of God’s truth seem coarse and abrupt. The only thing that really helps our understanding is the fact that those in hell have brought it on themselves. This particular standpoint seems difficult, because it tries to explain God’s sense of justice though it is incomprehensible. Paul didn’t delve any further into this, possibly because he reached his own limit or because he didn’t think it would help our understanding. We are simply to accept the facts for now, and God will bring the understanding as we are able to accept it. (58d) Paradox >> Opposites >> God endures the lost for the sake of the elect – In these verses we see God experiencing both sides of this perspective, both the human and the divine, by choosing to endure those whom He had prepared for destruction. It is mankind that suffers; what does God endure? In light of eternity and infinity God does not endure or suffer anything, unless He limits Himself to the finite and the steady grind of time. When God deals with us on our level, He suffers with us. Therefore, Paul is describing a God that experiences both the finite and the infinite at the same time. It says that He endures the lost for the sake of revealing the riches of his glory to His people, suggesting that He couldn’t have revealed His glory without an opposite example, meaning that the lost serve a purpose in God’s future design of eternity, referring to the yin-yang concept that describes how opposites harmonize the parent system. Darkness is defined by light. Without darkness light would have no meaning, so God created vessels of destruction to better show His mercy. This way He can point at those in hell and say, 'You are not down there because I chose you.' That is, we will reside in heaven, not through any act of our will, but purely through His gracious choice of us. This will be the prevailing attitude that will stand the test of eternity. All our efforts to be saved in this life will pale in comparison to God’s predestined kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. There is no such thing as God predestining those to either heaven or hell without responding as they were predestined, yet what evil they do belongs to them and not to God. In contrast, God is the author of our good works. (64c) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God has limited patience – God certainly has the right to make common sinners and honorable saints from the same lump of dough. Paul will explain what uses they have in God's overall plan of creation, which will answer his original question, “Who resists His will?” Sinners consider it a small thing that God endures them. Although He is infinite, He is limited in patience. Enduring the fallen state of rebellious human nature for thousands of years was a tremendous feat, perhaps one of God’s greatest achievements. The reason God’s patience is limited is that his sovereign lordship is infinite, which are opposites by definition, for to have infinite patience would undo his sovereignty. He allows himself a little patience, just enough to accomplish His objective, which is to create a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (Tit 2-14). It takes patience to endure the sinner who hates God and speaks evil of Him constantly, occurring around the globe, millions of people day and night railing against His throne. He is not being patient for their own sake, but for His own sake and for the sake of the elect. He intends to use sinners throughout eternity after He judges them to be tormented day and night by the fires of hell, which is the only place where they will recognize God’s sovereign authority over them. If He ever set them free, they might make a resolute promise to respect God’s sovereign authority, but they would inevitably revert to their rebellious ways that landed them in hell in the first place. God endures them in order to make known His riches and glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory. (126i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Patience >> The patience of God >> God is patient Rom 9-22 (20k) Sin >> Disobedience >> Rejecting the word (47d) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of destruction (224k) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The people of heaven >> Traits of people who don’t make it to heaven (246g) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Demonstration of God’s kingdom >> God demonstrates His glory >> Demonstration of His power -- This verse goes with verse 17 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9-23 (224i) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The people of heaven >> Traits of the people who make it to heaven Rom 9,24-29 (142b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Prophesy about the dispensation >> Gentiles are included – These verses show even more the distinction between the will of man and the will of God by choosing the gentiles over Israel because of their disobedience. The gentiles have been prophesied, hence predestined to become the children of God, and as a result they responded to the call. Prophecy was also spoken over Israel, thus they were predestined to reject the gospel of Christ. So does that mean God wanted Israel to reject Him? No, God did not force Israel to reject Him, but He knew they would, and in this way we can see that one of predestination's viewpoints is one of mere foreknowledge. God will never violate the free will of man, hence the reason for all the problems of the world. He has prepared a place of destruction for those who exercise their free will against Him, and He has prepared a place in heaven for those who use their free will to receive Him. If it were simply up to man Israel would have destroyed itself long ago. There were times in Israel’s past when they acted nearly as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah and deserved their judgment, yet they are still here by God’s choice. So we have the will of God and the will of man, two distinct entities, One who predestines man to behave a certain way, and the other who completes God’s choice. See also: Predestination; Rom 9,1-26; 219a Rom 9-24,25 (91i) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> God’s calling transcends the will of man >> We are called by God through His choice of us -- These verses go with verse 11 Rom 9-27 (92g) Thy kingdom come >> The narrow way >> What kind of trail is this? >> Gate is small and few are those who find it Rom 9-28 (40i) Judgment of Christ >> God’s word executes judgment by the Spirit Rom 9-29 (120f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> God passes over our sins Rom 9,30-33 (41fc) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Righteousness of (176d) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Zeal without knowledge (Spirit w/o the word) >> Conviction without commandment (201h) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Jesus is an offense >> Jesus offends the world >> Faith offends unbelief (205j) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> Faith versus works >> The faith of God versus the faith of men >> Faith is the law of righteousness KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 9,30-32 (58d) Paradox >> Opposites >> Gentiles seek wisdom, but the Jews have it; Jews seek righteousness, but the Gentiles have it – The gentiles who did not seek God attained Him, and God has made a church from them in the same way that God pursued Abraham and created a nation from him. The Jews sought the law after Moses, but failed to comprehend how it would help them relate to God. Not only is man unable to please God through the law, but Israel failed miserably to achieve even a semblance of the law in their behavior. By rejecting Christ they stumbled over the stone, causing a role reversal between the Jews and gentiles, who are now managing the oracle of God, and they are failing just as miserably as the Jews in keeping their doctrines pure along with their behavior. Israel’s disobedience throughout the centuries led them to reject their Messiah, which led God to pursue the gentiles. Now, instead of the Jews leading the gentiles into a relationship with God by faith, the Jews need to be restored to their own Messiah. The gentiles are not able to restore the Jews, which would be like the child telling the parents what to do. It has always been Israel’s place to lead the gentiles in things pertaining to God, so when Israel failed, only God can restore them, and God will do so according to his own predestined plan, for He has prepared a time when Israel will be restored, but until then, Israel will continue to flounder. Rom 9-33 (142a) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Prophesy about the dispensation >> The end times – Much of the Bible is prophetic, and much of the prophetic word of God is meant for the endtimes, so a large swath of Scripture is devoted to our generation, which to date is closer to the last days than any generation before us. _________________________________ ROMANS CHAPTER 10 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10-1 (210i) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Salvation is from the Jews >> Jews are believers >> Gospel belongs to the Jew first – Paul is talking about the Israelites again, saying they were unwilling to accept the fact that they crucified their own Messiah and too ashamed to believe in Him, but God knew they would do it, and for this reason He has not forsaken them, though they didn’t like being manipulated by Him. They need to understand that they did these things not only for the sake of all mankind, but also to demonstrate just how deep sin has penetrated into the human soul. It is a travesty that Israel went through all their hardships over the millennia only to abandon the salvation they suffered to achieve. Israel needs to understand that if God called any other nation to witness His glory and power, they would have done the same thing. (247h) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> God’s interests >> God is interested in the gospel – Man has underestimated the curse from the very beginning of time. We have serial killers that try to show us how deep the curse spans the human heart, and we have world wars I & II that testify against our lust for violence, but man is unwilling to believe the full scope of his depravity. He refuses to believe he is blemished, still thinking there is something salvageable about us without God's need to send His Son to die for our sins, but it is simply untrue. We are depraved from the inside-out, inciting Paul to say, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom 7-18), meaning that the Spirit of God dwelled in him, otherwise nothing that meets His standard. See also: Sin (omission of righteousness); Mat 24,45-51; 206k Rom 10,2-10 (205j) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> Faith versus works >> The faith of God versus the faith of men >> Faith is the law of righteousness – We could almost say that without Paul’s input none of us would understand the gospel. He made it absolutely clear that our works do not save us. Paul separated faith from works to show that faith is the active ingredient of our salvation, and the good works that follow merely act as evidence of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. John went a step further regarding our works and said that without evidence, our salvation questionable, and then James set the capstone and said that without the evidence of good works, our salvation isn’t real at all; we are just fooling ourselves. Although it is imperative to bring evidence to the table, it is our faith that saves us in the eyes of God. Rom 10,2-5 (1h) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> False burden >> Serving God in ignorance >> Not knowing His will – What should the Jews have known about God’s righteousness? We know it is about faith in Jesus Christ, but what about God’s old covenant righteousness for the Jew before Jesus came? The answer is in the example of Abraham. Paul spoke extensively about him in some of the earlier chapters of Romans, but spoke very little about Moses, because justification is better understood through Abraham. Nevertheless, the Jews had fixated on the person and ministry of Moses, thus overlooking Abraham, the founder of their nation. God’s righteousness for Israel was to live according to the example of Abraham, who believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. (21e) Sin >> Disobedience does not understand God – Referring to the Jew, their zeal was well in place, but their knowledge of the Old Testament was completely skewed. In the days of the Old Testament God sent prophets who spoke the word of God to Israel. They were expected to obey them as they would God and model after their father Abraham, who heard the voice of God as Israel heard the voice of their prophets. Abraham believed the word of God and did what he was commanded, but Israel did not, and their disobedience over the centuries led them to crucify their own Messiah. (175l) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Lack of knowledge (199b) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Frustrating the grace of God >> Frustrating Jesus >> Frustrating the Father -- These verses go with verse 16 KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10,2-4 (41h) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Seek His righteousness – The righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ is the same as Abraham's faith. God spoke to Abraham and said, ‘Move far away and live among a foreign people, leaving your family and take only your wife and possessions, and there I will make you a father of many nations.’ That was a lot for God to ask of Abraham, and believing in Jesus is no different. He did the will of God, knowing that somehow he would benefit. He not only became very wealthy living in the land of Canaan, he became wealthy by his descendants that never would have been born had he not obeyed the word of the Lord, since his wife was barren. Had he disobeyed, he would have died in obscurity, but everybody knows about Abraham because of his faith. Believing in Jesus exercises the faith of Abraham. The Holy Spirit is like the wind; we hear the sound of it, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going (Jn 3-8), and we follow Him. See also: Believing in Jesus is like the faith of Abraham; Col 2,9-15; 136g (174d) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Form of godliness >> Self righteousness >> Trying to please God by your own good works – The person who seeks his own righteousness apart from faith in Jesus Christ cannot please God. Most people know what they want, and they reserve their lives to do what they want, regardless of God’s will for them. This is the height of arrogance and suggests that pride is even more evil than the love of money if that were possible. God wants us to humble our pride and trust in Him. He doesn't want us accumulating a junk-drawer of works that we bring to the judgment in effort to appease Him. Something important as our eternal future we show no concern. Most people shoot from the hip in answer to questions about God, but these are the things we should dedicate our lives to understanding and live by them. (176c) Zeal Without Knowledge (Key verse) – Gal 3,1-3 says, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The Galatians got ahead of themselves in the their zeal for God. They wanted to walk in the spirit but didn't know how, so they simulated it in the flesh. Zeal without knowledge yields chaos, and knowledge without zeal yields arrogance. When we have both in equal portions, they balance each other, but balance does not come naturally. Half the Church focuses on salvation and ignores the power of God, while the other half focuses on the power of God and ignores salvation. There are only saved people and on one side and hardly saved people on the other, with almost nothing in between. The balance comes in learning from each other, which would cause us to unite that we may gracefully step into God's power of salvation together. (176d) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Zeal without knowledge (Spirit w/o the word) >> Conviction without commandment – An assertion of knowing the truth is intrinsic to all religions, but the Jews historically were apathetic and complacent with respect to their religion, so where did they get this so-called zeal? After Nebuchadnezzar deported them to Babylon for 70 years, they returned with a newfound fervor for God, but they did not subject themselves to His righteousness, because they were too busy worshipping their own zeal, as though zeal itself somehow granted them the truth. By that time they had forgotten what was important and so determined for themselves how to serve the Lord. They fixated on the Law of Moses, consequently ignoring the founder of their nation, Abraham, who was iconic to Israel's relationship with God. They did not pay attention to their own prophets (1Tim 4-16), and over the centuries migrated into heresy. After returning from Babylon and repossessing their nation for the next 400 years, they claimed to have learned their lesson, they thought they were healed from the evil ways of their past, until Christ came and showed them how wrong they were about everything, primarily that they still were not serving God in their hearts, and so they argued with Him and crucified their own Messiah. They allowed God’s word to mutate into self-deception until zeal became their new religion. What they believed didn’t seem to matter, only how strongly they believed it. Zeal became their new righteousness, so in their minds the stronger they believed the more righteous they were, but in the process they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. People can be zealous, but if they don’t obey the truth, they are still in their sins. (181a) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Rebellion >> Rebelling against God >> Rebelling against the authority of God – The Jews in Paul's day did not seek the righteousness of God, but sought their own righteousness based on the law. They thought that if they followed the law, they would find favor with God, but this idea was in error from the start. God didn’t give them the law for the purpose of justifying them but for the opposite reason, to show that their sin was utterly sinful (Rom 7-13). Israel began with Abraham, the father of their faith, whom God called over six centuries before He gave the law to Moses, and since then the Jews have distorted their Old Testament writings and concluded that following the law would find favor with God. It is probably something that is sown into the human genome, since gentiles feel the same way, that if they do good, God will accept them. There is a problem with that, though; if the opportunity to believe in Jesus is available and we don’t believe in Him, then what good is our works? Faith in Jesus Christ is the best thing we can do, and if we reject Him, it contaminates all our other works. Faith in Jesus Christ discriminates between seeking God's righteousness and seeking self-righteousness. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first act of righteousness that God accepts, and all other righteousness we do through Christ. Faith in Him sanctifies our good works. Rom 10-2 (185f) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> Having knowledge but not knowing God KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10-4 (44e) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Completed by God – Faith in Jesus Christ is the definition of God’s righteousness, whose cross was the predetermined plan of God, sacrificed by the hands of sinners. We who are unrighteous can look to this sacrifice of the only righteous man who ever lived as the propitiation for our sins, so that everyone who believes in Him adopts His righteousness as their own and be completely forgiven all their sins. Rom 10-5 (151d) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The Patriarchs >> Moses – Moses’ statement was one of defiance against anyone who would seek to be justified by his law. Instead, God wanted to create a nation of people who lived like Abraham who listened to His word. Abraham obeyed God’s voice, which is nebulous and vague compared to Moses' written laws, yet Israel didn't obey Moses either, though they fixated on his laws, primarily the Sabbath, believing that if they were alive in Moses day, they would have been his staunch supporters, but they disproved this by crucifying the Lord of glory (read John chapter 8). (173i) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Unholy sacrifice >> Penance of following the law (Legalism) Rom 10,6-8 (71k) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We have His seal – No one has the authority to condemn anyone to hell or to approve anyone to heaven. Paul said in 2Tim 2-19, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.’” This suggests that no one but God knows exactly who are His children, though we have evidence but no solid proof regarding the identity of our brothers and sisters in Christ. To claim that someone is going to heaven is to bring Christ down, that is, to belittle Jesus' need to sacrifice His flesh for sin. Likewise, to assume that someone is going to hell is underestimating the power of the cross to set the captives free. Paul is saying that the righteousness of faith does not pass judgment on anyone regarding their eternal destiny. It is crucial to know who are the true saints, and this will become especially true as the days grow dark and the hour draws near to Christ’s return, for the hour will reveal them. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10,8-13 (85i) Thy kingdom come >> Words of your mouth >> That are spoken in faith >> Will justify you – Paul paints a very simple picture of salvation. Our confession erases any doubt that we have obtained the righteousness of God through faith, for the work of God is not done in a corner. If we get rid of sin, then we get rid of the complications of life, and the one sin that is rooted in all other sins is unbelief, which is the very opposite of faith. (150cb) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Confessing Jesus – James added a warning to the gospel, that we should make certain our faith rises above mental ascent, a frame of mind that allows the unbeliever to think he believes when in fact he doesn’t. When we think about the simplicity of faith in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, it makes us wonder why everyone isn't saved. Ask someone who doesn't believe to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in his heart that God raised Him from the dead, and we will discover just how hard it is for some people to be saved. We make faith look simple to unbelievers, and they mock us for it. God made it easy on purpose, because He wants many people in heaven, and if he made it any harder, virtually no one would be getting saved. The gospel is something a little five-year-old child can understand; in fact, she has some of the strongest faith of anyone; she simply believes. The faith of a child is not based on ignorance; rather, it is a God-given ability that many adults trade for the tangibility of life. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mat 18-3), so God made His gospel very simple. We shouldn’t judge who is going to heaven and who isn't, because the process is so simple it is deceptive, being almost impossible for us to know for sure who really believes. (230j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> Mystery of the trinity >> Word of God is the mystery godliness Rom 10,8-11 (74d) Thy kingdom come >> The heart >> The heart is the location of man's truth Rom 10-8 (107c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Word of God creates faith -- This verse goes with verse 17. Having faith in anything but the truth is no faith at all. Faith without truth is like faith without works; it is dead; but faith in the truth produces the anointing in each person who believes the truth. Rom 10,9-11 (86b) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing is the result of the resurrection – When we get saved, God expects us to conform to the image of Christ, and if our faith is not leading us there, then it is time to question the validity of our faith, according to the saying, ‘Those who believe obey, and those who obey believe.’ Paul was teaching in these verses that if we really believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, it would change our lives. Salvation on its face is the simplest thing in the world, but because of our sinful nature and all our ambitions, ambivalence and anxieties, fitting the gospel into our lives is not easy. Some people don’t think obedience is necessary; instead, we should just believe and continue with our lives as we were, but if God doesn’t change our lives, then what kind of God is He; and if He really is a life changing God, then why doesn’t He help us believe in Him? This is where James asked, ‘Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? The demons also believe and shudder!’ (Jm 2-19). Keep in mind that Paul over the course of the book of Romans deliberately separated works from faith for the purpose of eliminating legalism from the gospel, but that does not mean works are not part of it. Presenting the gospel in this way he opened the door to licentiousness; the root word “license,” refers to having a license to sin. Paul considered it a reasonable risk so we would not fall into the same trap of the Jews, who sought to pin their salvation on their zeal, instead of on God through faith. Paul knew by example and by firsthand experience legalism's destructive potential, but he would not think any higher of the apostasy in the Church today, caused by removing obedience from our faith. Rom 10-9,10 (156i) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> Confessing Jesus is evidence of salvation – There is a difference between righteousness and salvation. The righteousness of God is how we relate to Him, whereas salvation is how we relate to the world. The Bible teaches that salvation is a lifelong process, that we are saved (sanctified) from this world. Paul tells us in Phi 2-12 to “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” and this working out our salvation pertains to our confession of Christ, being the opposite of denying Him (Mk 8-38). To deny Him is evidence that we are not saved, but confessing Jesus to the world is evidence of our salvation. Conversely, our faith is proof to God that we believe, but our faith proves nothing to men. We have already become saved in the mind of God simply by believing in Him, but our salvation is made complete when we can prove it in the natural realm by our confession of Christ. When the world sees that we are indeed saved, then our salvation is complete, but if God is the only one who knows we are saved, then maybe we're not. (205aa) Salvation >> Verses useful in evangelism Rom 10-9 (39a) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of Jesus Christ KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10-10 (41f) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Righteousness of faith >> Saved by grace through faith Rom 10,11-18 (142c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Prophesy about evangelism Rom 10-11,12 (225b) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> Equality in heaven Rom 10-12 (35d) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> No partiality with God’s generosity (51h) Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world >> No partiality among us with God (210ib) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Salvation is from the Jews >> Jews are believers >> Jew and Gentile believers are one flock with one shepherd Rom 10-14,15 (149g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Preaching the word to the world >> Sowing the seed – The word of God creates faith, and for this reason each child of God should be devoted to the Scriptures in nurturing his own faith, and also as an evangelist promoting the gospel in the world. Paul is talking about his own ministry that he conducted since his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, associating it with this discussion of our confession of faith, insinuating that everyone who is saved should be an evangelist in one form or another. We don’t all need to be like Paul and devote every waking moment to telling people about Jesus, but whatever ministry God gives us we should treat as holy to the Lord and perform it to the best of our ability and expect results from God. Rom 10,16-21 (202j) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Running from walking in faith >> Running from God through unbelief (217f) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God gives up on you >> After you refuse to comply (223j) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Miss God >> Missing the train >> Miss the invitation from God – Jesus told his servants to round up as many people as they could, and they said, ‘We have already done that.’ He said, ‘Go then into the highways and byways and invite the blind and lamb, whoever is willing and compel them to come that My house may be filled’ (Lk 14,16-21). The developed countries of the world have churches on just about every street corner, yet people don’t seem to have much faith. Jesus asked in Lk 18-8, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” This is a rhetorical question, and the answer is "No". If Jesus returned and found faith on the earth, it would mean people were still getting saved, and there would be no reason for Him to return. He would just wait and fill up his house until the period of salvation ended; then He would return. That is where we are today, and this is why people believe His return is imminent. We are standing on the precipice of fulfilled endtime prophecy. Since the developed nations of the earth cannot find it in their heart to believe in God anymore, when the Great Endtime Revival begins, it will therefore be found mostly in the undeveloped countries of the world; for just as the Jews rejected the gospel and God called the gentiles to obedience, so the developed countries of the world will reject the gospel, and it will swing to the undeveloped countries, among people who will receive the gospel and be saved. This time the Jews will believe, and they will head this global revival, which is the subject of the next chapter. See also: Great endtime revival; Rom 10-18; 50d / Harvest at the end of the age; 1Cor 16,1-12; 130f KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10-16 (19m) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unwilling to believe >> Spirit of unbelief – Jesus said about His own generation, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest,” referring to the onset of the gospel when many people got saved (Jn 4-35). Then there was the period of Reformation when there was a burst of faith, and people clamored to the gospel again, and now we seem to have gone back to our old ways with those who claim to believe are scarcely interested in their own faith, merely going to church to socialize. This is Christianity today in most cases. Jesus taught that when mankind no longer saw a need for God, the curtain would drop and the age of grace would close. (199b) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Frustrating the grace of God >> Frustrating Jesus >> Frustrating the Father -- This verse goes with verses 2-5 Rom 10-17 (79i) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word >> Practice listening to God’s word >> The word you heard perfects God’s work in you – There have been whole Faith movements that have risen from this verse. Some have brought truth to the Church, while others have brought error (1Tim 4-16). Those that error didn’t weigh what they taught with the Scriptures, but made up doctrines as they went along, which is nothing better than what other churches have done, creating whole movements that skewed from the gospel that Paul taught, being zealous yet without knowledge. Paul said that zeal without knowledge is like a hammer without a project; whatever we hit is probably not constructive. God has given each of us a project (Eph 2-10), and instead of aimlessly pounding on it, we are to take the faith that God has given us and construct the edifice of His purpose in our lives, a ministry that can heal people and help them believe in God. (106j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Means of hearing from God >> Through the Bible – Preachers often use this passage in their pulpits to encourage people to read their Bibles that it might increase their faith, yet we have all known people who have extensively read the Bible, though it doesn't seem to help them. Faith is like the dove that rested on Jesus' shoulder at His baptism (Mat 3-16). Faith, then, is a little more elusive than simply reading the Bible, for whenever we sin, it startles the dove and it flies away, and we don't know how to make it return. It is doubtful that the Church really knows the meaning of "faith". We can look up the word in a Bible dictionary, but its usefulness is limited. Also, we can read the Bible and still not know the truth, though we intuitively know that genuine faith is based on the Bible. So it seems that the quandary is how to attract the truth to ourselves, like attracting a dove on our shoulder? We put ourselves in a position where the truth becomes easier to believe! Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth; when we pray we are interacting with the Holy Spirit, so it would behoove us as students of the Bible to also become disciples of prayer, so the Holy Spirit can lead us into all the truth that is written in the Bible. (107c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Word of God creates faith -- This verse goes with verse 8. God wants us at some point to get beyond the words and understand faith the way the Bible teaches. Hebrews says it is a substance, and this substance comes from God; it is a gift as Jesus said, “The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world,” as it did to the Israelites. They would awaken from their tents and find manna everywhere. They would gather it and that would be their food for the day, and that is how they lived forty years in the wilderness. Faith is not something we should merely assume, since it is the very basis of our salvation. Paul is saying that if we don’t understand the Bible by the Spirit, then we don’t understand it at all. The Holy Spirit must be our teacher, as Jesus said. If we let Him teach us the truth from God, faith will grow in our heart, but a person can read his Bible till he turns blue in the face and never understand it from a lack of Prayer. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10,18-21 (108c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Balance >> Faith is the balance between truth and unbelief Rom 10-18 (50d) Judgmen t >> Last Days >> Jewish Led endtime revival >> Jews lead the world into revival >> Leading the harvest at the end of the age – Remember what Jesus said regarding endtimes, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mat 24-14). Missionaries have been trying to fulfill this passage ever since Jesus said it in attempt to bring about the glorious age of Millennium. We know these things will happen in the last days, since this was the context in which He made this statement, and it will happen just prior to His return, perhaps during the Trumpet judgments that are 3½ years long. This is in reference to the 144,000 Jewish witnesses, two of whom were mentioned in Rev 11,1-14. These 144,000 Jews will establish a worldwide revival that reaches around the globe, and they will begin their preaching in the developed countries of the world, where some will come to Christ but most of their preaching will fall on deaf ears. Then they will go to the undeveloped countries of the world and preach the gospel to them, and there they will get their response with billions of people coming to Christ. This is what Jesus indicated in his parable of the wedding feast in Mat 22,1-14. There will be a great ingathering just before He comes for his people, and after the Rapture occurs, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will commence. See also: Great endtime revival; Rom 10,16-21; 223j Rom 10,19-21 (24i) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Jews are envious of the gospel – Israel has always been God’s example of man; He wanted them to be a good example, but because they refused, He used them as an example of human nature under the curse of sin, and He has demonstrated through them what can happen to a nation when they rebel against God. Truth has become impossible to them. Man has been this way from the beginning, and God has been selecting out of the world His worshippers, which best explains the relationship between God and man throughout the ages, as Jesus alluded in Jn 4-23, “For such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” When it comes to spiritual truth, people are aware of it; the question is whether they are willing to admit it. God's Truth is different from all other forms of knowledge, such as mathematics; we either know the answer or we don’t; but with spiritual truth, it is a matter of admitting it. To this day Israel still denies that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, though they know it is true, they just refuse to admit it. One day Israel will confess the truth and return to their faith, and God will glorify Himself through the legacy of Israel’s rebellion, for in that day Israel will obey God through their regret of not confessing their sins earlier and manage the gospel, effecting a Great Endtime Revival that will daunt all gentile revivals, but until then, God continues to reach out to a rebellious and obstinate people. (142b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Prophesy about the dispensation >> Gentiles are included (222h) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Do not give what is holy to dogs >> God shares no intimacy with dogs >> God does not let dogs in His house Rom 10-19,20 (32a) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Grace >> God’s grace seeks man (117e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Let Jesus do the work >> Let Him work on you (211b) Salvation >> Jews and gentiles are being saved >> Gentiles included >> God gives the Gentiles Israel’s place – Paul was talking about the prophecy concerning Israel that they would reject the gospel of Christ because of their disobedient and obstinate heart, causing Paul to turn to the gentiles. Unbelief is one and the same with disobedience in that unbelief produces disobedience and disobedience snowballs into further unbelief. Throughout Paul’s Christian life he had been working with the Jews trying to get them saved and finding that they were very reluctant to believe in Jesus. At the onset of Paul’s salvation God spoke to Ananias who came to Paul’s aid and ministered to him after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus; God said to Ananias in Act 9-15, “Go, for he [Paul] is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.” Throughout Paul’s ministry he never stopped preaching to the Jews because he had a heart for them. He was a Jew himself, and for that reason he realized all the more that the gospel fit the Jews like hand-in-glove. The gospel was made literally for the Jew first. However, it was not made for those who had Him killed, chanting “Crucify Him!” They proved impossible to reach with the gospel, and now that his body had been sacrificed, there are still people like them chanting something similar, who find it just as difficult to believe in Jesus. To be both called and chosen is to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth. See also: Israel (Question of faith was never raised in the Old Testament); Tit 1-10; 171d (216k) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of God’s gift (219a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> God elects us through His sovereign will Rom 10-20 (120f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> God passes over our sins KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rom 10-21 (18i) Sin >> Twisted thinking >> Unable to distinguish between good and evil >> God’s purpose is evil – The gentiles started out happy to receive the gospel of Christ, and they ran with it for a while full of joy and unity. God blessed them, and it grew and flourished, but now 2,000 years later many false doctrines have been sown into the Church. We have the Bible in front of us and we can read an accurate account of God's word, yet it doesn’t seem to help, because of all our preconceived notions and false doctrines we have come to believe. Much of our interpretation of Scripture is in error. (21b) Sin >> Disobedient to the call – This description of the Jews has resulted from their poor treatment of the prophets, which led to turning against their Messiah and having Him nailed to a cross. Paul was making the point that there is a recurring theme of man being unprepared whenever God comes for a visit, and in the last days the Church will be just like the Jews, disobedient, obstinate and unprepared. The Jews turned their ears away from their prophets, and Christians have done the same to the Holy Spirit, refusing to listen to Him. Jesus reiterated seven times in Rev 2-7,11,17,29 and Rev 3-6,13,22, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Old covenant prophets had a new covenant relationship with God, who were given a glimpse into our future. These men heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, just as the Bible promises He will speak to us if we will listen, making us prophets according to the standard of the old covenant. Therefore, to reject the Holy Spirit is like being a disobedient prophet of the old covenant, and we know there were terrible consequences for their insolence (1Kings 13,11-34). See also: Church resembles Israel at the time of Christ; 49a (49a) Judgment >> Nations are destroyed >> Israel judged as an example for us – The gentile Church is turning rebellious and disobedient prior to Christ's return, just like Israel did at His first coming. Mat 22,3-6 discusses the Church’s rejection of Christ based on the mention of a wedding feast, God using the Jewish nation as managers of His Great Endtime Revival to step over the gentile Church to create a new people, who will become His true worshippers, whereas Rom 10-21 speaks of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah. God stepped over the Jews during Paul's day to elect the gentiles as stewards of His gospel during the age of grace, which means He could do it again, stepping over the gentile Church and electing the Jews to manage a global revival and calling other people to be His worshippers, because the current Church is unwilling. God will not be disappointed or rejected, nor can we foil God’s plan or fight against Him and succeed. Whenever we fight against God we condemn ourselves. The current gentile Church is following in Israel’s footsteps in that the Jews had completely misinterpreted their Old Testament Scriptures to the point that they could not recognize their Messiah when He came (Judaism and the Old Testament Scriptures have almost nothing in common). The same thing is happening to the Church today. Many of the belief systems that people have of the gospel do not even resemble the New Testament, so that the words He spoke to Israel back then apply to us today, “All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” See also: Church resembles Israel at the time of Christ; 21b / Rev 17,10-18; 3j (70h) Autho rity >> Sin of familiarity >> Familiar with Jesus in the Spirit (167i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil (Conspiracy) >> Carnality/Secularism (Mindset of the World) >> The carnal mind does not receive the things of God >> It rejects God (180i) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Rebellion >> Rebelling against God’s narrow way >> Rebelling against the will of God – Israel as a nation cannot teach the world by example how to relate to God, for their legacy is a people who have rebelled against Him. Israel’s attitude has been that God has chosen them apart from all other people and nations, as though they were inherently better than others and born in good standing with Him. However, since they are completely wrong about this, they have become devoid of true knowledge in regard to their actual position with God. They could have been an exemplar nation; instead, they showed just how deep the sinful nature spans the human soul. God glorified Himself through Israel as Paul said in Rom 5-20,21, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” God glorified Himself in their disobedience through the demonstration of His grace, so the more we sin the more God forgives us. In this way God has glorified Himself through Israel’s disobedience by practicing loving kindness to them and to us through them. The result was that God sent His Son into the world, and through Israel's rebellion they inadvertently sacrificed their own Messiah, which in God’s view was the sacrifice they had been practicing for centuries in the Levitical Priesthood in all their temple services. They didn’t know what they were doing, according to Jesus’ confession on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23-34). See also: Israel is exemplary of mankind; 202a (185l) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Unwilling to obey the revelation from heaven >> Unwilling to walk in God’s freedom (198c) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Man withers when he is in control >> Ungrateful (202a) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Man’s will over God >> Man is unwilling to walk in God’s grace – The most frustrating aspect of mankind is his overall attitude about God and how people have turned Him into a monster, accusing Him of all the sins that they themselves have committed. The Father threw all man's sin on Jesus while nailed to the cross, and now man is trying to do it again, claiming that He is somehow responsible for their own actions. Their logic is amazingly absent. Talk to people nowadays; they have possibly developed the most negative opinion about God of any people, having completely lost their fear of God, and it is largely to do with the apostasy of the Church. Just as Israel is God's example of man’s failure in the old covenant, so the Church is His example of man’s failure in the new covenant, only the Church has less excuse because we have more knowledge. Israel considered themselves better than anybody else, because God chose them from all the nations of the world, and the Church has copped very much the same attitude, surmising that God loves us so much that we can sin and get away with it. The mistakes of both Jew and gentile are based on arrogance, one on egomania and the other on hedonistic pride. The more knowledge increases, the more sin increases, and so the Church’s sin against God is worse than Israel’s rebellion. Therefore, we could just as well apply this verse to the Church. See also: Israel is exemplary of mankind; 180i / God tricked the Jews to crucify His Son; Act 28-28; 211b (235e) Giving (your inner self (Key verse) (235h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Giving (your inner self) >> Be liberal in your giving like God See next page