ROMANS 9:6-13 SOVEREIGN CHOICE Far beyond my ability to explain or even understand, is the wonderful truth of a sovereign God forming covenants with mortal man. Israel survives even today because of those commitments God has made with them through the patriarchs. As Paul addressed the Roman believers then to whom the nation of Israel would have been of no account compared to the Roman Empire, He uses the promises of God to assure them of the promise of God's election in reaching them with the Gospel. The same is true today. Israel seems too insignificant in size and population among the nations of earth to have the impact on world affairs that it does. The nation as an entity and influence is because of the election of a Sovereign God.
The same holds true when it comes to the saving grace of God. Not all of those who came from Abraham were chosen people. His other sons and daughters were his seed, but through Divine Sovereignty, it was Isaac through whom the covenant with Abraham was to be fulfilled. The promised miracle son of Abraham was the chosen one to bear the blessings of a covenant relationship. Rebekah had twins but it was the second-born, Jacob, that God in His sovereign will chose even before they were born.
We have no reason for pride or self-centered complacency because in God's sovereign choice, He elected us to be His children and to place as sons in His family. It is important for us to remember from the example of Israel, that being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world is not a cause for pride, but humility. No one is chosen because of heritage or of good deeds they may do. God in His goodness, grace and mercy has singled us out to be recipients of His blessing. This is because of His own sovereign will, not because of any merit on our part of any kind.
God who knows the end from the beginning of every nation, every event, every family unit and every human life, has through the Gospel and by His sovereign choice, planned out that which will fulfill His divine purpose. I rest in this fact gratefully - thankful that I heard and believed the Gospel. Thankful that the Holy Spirit led me to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. Now from this vantage point as one inside the door of God's blessings in Christ, I know that I am chosen to be one of His people by His own sovereign will. I am not an afterthought nor a mistake in His family.
There is much that I do not understand and really don't need to bother - With the fact that I am one of God's children by the will of my heavenly Father. To be a child doesn't lie within the choice of the one to be born. That is decided by the principle of life by which a child comes to be known.
When God in His sovereign, will designed a purpose and plan for me - That happened long before even the creation came to be. The blue-print of holy decision-making came from the design He made - That would best fulfill the eternal purposes Divine Persons together had.
I am sure at first Abraham must have wondered why God had chosen him. He was no perfect person and there was no special merit within - But a Sovereign God chose that individual man and instilled in him the principle of faith. As a result of that divine choosing, he left Ur for the promised place.
Isaac too was one of many who were born as Abraham's seed - But the promised blessings to all of mankind were not based on Abraham's need. It was the fact that God made a sovereign choice that "In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
The promise of the coming Redeemer was through Isaac, bringing blessing to us all.
Jacob wasn't a special person in himself, when in the womb he was chosen. Ultimately the nation of Israel blessed us, because through Christ, of his seed, the door opened To people like me when He gave His life as a ransom "in the fullness of time." And salvation has been given by a Sovereign Lord through no efforts of mine.
By the sovereign grace of the Eternal God, I have been brought into His blessed kingdom. And when the Gospel is proclaimed to people, it is God's sovereign choice that saves them. Yet I cannot say some are chosen to be saved and others are chosen to be lost - Because the method of God's choosing to save is to present to them the Gift that paid sin's great cost.
When people are brought to face their sin, then the Holy Spirit steps in to convict - And brings them to understand the awful consequences sin brings along with it. Sovereign grace presents the Lord Jesus as the only Savior from sin - The lost are found, souls are saved, when they personally trust in Him.
"Father, I am not trying to explain the unexplainable, but I am finding a special satisfaction and joy this morning in tracing Thy sovereign grace toward me. Deep in my soul today there is an excitement that considers the extent of Thy interest in me that began way in the past and brought me to faith in Christ. Now years after that happened, it is still fresh in my soul and even fresher in my daily experiences with Thee. How I would love to explain myself, but I have to leave that to the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus to explain to Thee what I really mean. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."