Verse: Romans 9
This is the nth time I've read Romans 9 and it is still a very confusing, outraging and mind blowing verse to me. It is always the same topic and question that comes to mind and somehow I never seem to find an answer to my main question. I have done some research on the internet but I do not like doing that, I prefer talking to someone I know than a random stranger I do not know at all. So I am still searching for answers but I need to put my thoughts down in order so I can make sense of everything.
Romans 9 seems to be talking about God showing His mercy on selected people and not everyone. I feel like Paul has gotten a glimpse of God's brain and it literally makes no sense because he can't understand what he saw or was told and neither can I. Like the whole thing makes sense but then it leaves me like "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT GOD!!!! IT'S NOT FAIR LET ALONE MAKES ANY SENSE". As I told myself it feels like I'm playing chess with someone and he told me the rules on how to play chess, but then all of a sudden in the game he moves his pond to the other side of my game and kills my king. I am left here utterly shocked because He says he is capable of doing that because it's His game and that's it. So I am a little bit annoyed about this chapter but I am more annoyed that I do not understand it..so here I go trying to understand this great riddle.
It all starts at verse 10 where Paul talks about Esau and Jacob. God decides to tell the mother before the kids were even born that he had rejected Esau and loves Jacob. At first you're like okay, maybe he saw something and decided to just inform their parents on how he perceive the two kids. Yet, the verse before that Paul mentions that God did not judge these kids based on their works (because they were not born yet). This just goes to show how God does not call people based on what they did or did not do but based on his goals and purpose.
Right there a little explosion happened in my head but I decide to read on.
Just to make matters worse Paul writes it down clearly in verse 15 that God chooses to show compassion whom ever he picks and shows mercy to whom ever chooses. Now, I'm a bit confused because it's like you think you misunderstood something in verse 10 but Paul is not stuttering here...God does not show mercy to everyone...he selects people. Futher on he just goes at it with examples of Pharaoh and how he hardens his heart and with a pottery guy. At this point I am asking if I have a free will? Is fate an actual thing? Does God create us with already deciding who is going to Hell and who is going to Heaven? Yet, I do not want to like challenge God because Paul also talks about that in the Bible. So my main question is "Do we have control of our life or are we just giving the illusion of we can make our own choices but God knows before we were made whether we would be saved or not?"
As a child I grew up believing that my life on Earth determines if I am saved or not. Yet, God can see the future ( Someone had just explained the chapter to me ... so I'm a bit calmer now) and know the decisions I will make which will make him know whether I will be saved or not. That is exactly what this person explained to me, with Jacob and Esau God also saw their future and what will become of them. Therefore what he was saying to Rebekah, their mother was a foreshadow of their future. Despite getting my answer, I will still post my questions because it was my morning devotion.
Why will God harden the hearts of some people and reject others? My understanding of this before I spoke to the person was God hardened Pharaoh's heart because through that God's glory will show. As to why he will reject others, I had no answer to that. What the person told me was that Pharaoh was in sin for a long time, he had held the Israel captive's before Moses ever appeared and that he was firm in his way. When someone is so firm in their sinful ways their heart will become sin and they can no longer be saved because their heart has been hardened. So when God hardened Pharaoh's heart it was because he already made his mind to continue sinning therefore God just used him for His glory. Esau on the other hand was rejected because God saw his future and knew it would lead him to God's rejections
Did God create Esau with the intention of making him bad? "[..] everyone has the ability to repent (if they want) Acts 2:37-41 applies to everyone. John 3:16 says WHOSOEVER. That's means anyone can be saved. God knows what the choices of man will be before we are ever born. But He does leave that choice to us."
Difference between called & chosen? In Matthew 22:1-14, God gives a parable of the Kingdom of Heaven. In that parable there was a group of people who we called to come to the feast and when the King came he saw among them a man that was not dressed appropriate for occasion. The man was kicked out and that is where the famous saying comes from "For many are called, but few are chosen". I understood from the parable that He reached out to the Jews and they rejected him so he gave the Gospel to the Gentiles. Him giving us the Gospel is him calling us and if we respond, accept Him as out Savior then we are called. The chosen are the one's who obey his Words (1 Peter 2:8-9) meaning when He comes to get his children the chosen ones will be ready and filled with His Spirit, they will be appropriate for the occasion because they spent their whole life for that one moment.
Do I have a will or does God determines everything for me? Yes we do have a will as seen in the Garden of Eden. He does give them both options and advice them to not eat from one of them. Humans having our own will made our decision and ate the apple. The same is for salvation, he died for us on the cross and is waiting for us to come to him and accept Him. He is not forcing us to do good or bad he leaves it up to us. Yet, he does see the future so he knows the decision we will make which gives him the right from the beginning to state whether we are rejected or loved. In studying this I found it on another blog that they explained "rejection" does not mean "hate". I find it important to just say that God does love everyone and he does not hate anyone but he hates the sin that we do. So in saying rejection he is not hating anyone he is just not hanging around us because he does not like what we are doing and we are constantly hurting Him.