According to Paul in Romans 9, there is a great difference between God’s people and those who are not. One group is chosen, redeemed, and saved. The others are passed over, punished for their sin, and lost. What makes the difference?
Election, creation, fall, redemption, and consummation is God’s grand design. The Apostle Paul explains a great deal of it in Romans 9, 10, and 11.
Romans 9, 10, and 11 are extensibly about election, evangelism, and exaltation. “God’s purpose of election” (ref. 9:11) does not negate our responsibility to call on God for salvation (ref. 10:13) once we have been properly evangelized (ref. 10:14-17).
Our text at hand deals expressly with “God’s purpose in election” (vs. 11). It fits within a larger framework (Romans 9-11) that deals with election, evangelism, and exaltation.
Election, evangelism, and exaltation, this is what Romans 9, 10, and 11 are all about. We begin with chapter 9, which is primarily about election, but begins with vs. 1-5 with Paul’s passion for evangelism, especially for the people of his beloved Israel.
Election and evangelism are a seemingly contradictory pair of competing values. They are a peculiar paradox, an apparent antinomy. Is it God who chooses His own people to save forever, or do people make their own free and willing choice on the day they are forever saved?
God has made certain promises to certain persons, identified in this text as “God’s elect” (vs. 33). He will keep them, the promises and the people. And in doing so, He “will not slumber nor sleep” (ref. Psalm 121:4).
Foreknowledge is God’s choice, fore, long before, of certain persons to know, to have an intimate, personal, permanent relationship with Him, as Father and child (ref. John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Peter 2:9; etc).
God’s love is perfect. God initiates our love relationship with Him. His love, like Mother’s but higher, is unconditional, sacrificial, and permanent.
As Christians, we have a heavenly Father, and we are marked by His work. He redeemed us in justification, shapes us in sanctification, and will perfect us in glorification.
