Daily Devotional 11-11-2021
Rom 9:16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. The apostle now faces up to a serious theological problem. If God made promises to Israel as His chosen earthly people, how can this be squared with Israel’s present rejection and with the Gentiles being brought into the place of blessing? Paul insists that this does not indicate any breach of promise on God’s part. He goes on to show that God has always had a sovereign election process based upon promise and not just on lineal descent. Just because a person is born into the nation of Israel does not mean that he is an heir to the promises. Within the nation of Israel, God has a true, believing remnant.
Eph 1:4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. This is what is commonly known as election. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Notice first the positive fact of election in the words, He chose us. Then there is the positional aspect of the truth, in Him: it is in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus that all God’s purposes for His people are brought to pass. The time of God’s election is indicated by the expression, before the foundation of the world. And the purpose is that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. This purpose will not be completely realized until we are with Him in heaven, but the…
Daily Devotional 9-18-2021
Rom 9:8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. It is not physical descent that counts. The true Israel consists of those Jews who were selected by God and to whom He made some specific promise, marking them out as His children. We see this principle of sovereign election in the cases of Isaac and Jacob.
Daily Devotional 9-13-2021
Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. The basis for the command to destroy the Canaanites lay in God’s election of Israel. The word translated chosen means “to be chosen for a task or a vocation.” God had selected Israel as His means of sanctifying the earth. Thus, they were holy (set apart for God’s special use) and were His treasured possession. Since the Canaanites were polluting the earth, and since they might endanger Israel’s complete subordination to the will of the Lord, they either had to repent or be eliminated. And as stated, for 400 years they had refused to repent.
Daily Devotional 9-10-2021
1Ti 1:16 But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. In fact it was just for this purpose – that is, to demonstrate God’s plan to save sinners – that Paul himself was saved. As the worst of sinners, Paul represents the extreme example. If God was patient and gracious enough to save Paul, He is patient and gracious enough to save anyone. All who follow can look back at Paul as a prototype or pattern. The ultimate sinner became the ultimate saint; God’s greatest enemy became His finest servant. Somewhere between these extremes fall all the rest. In studying Paul’s pattern, Christians can therefore learn about themselves.