Peter Barnes | Romans 9:10-13
SERMON NOTES
NOT BY WORKS BUT BY ELECTION
(Romans 9:10-13)
– Paul’s first example of election within Israel is Isaac and Ishmael (9:6-9); Jacob and Isaac constitute the second example.
1. God’s election stands.
– 9:10-12; As one woman told John Newton: ‘The Lord must have loved me before I was born or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards.’
– see Gen.25:29-34; 27:21-24; Esau’s rejection by God is not arbitrary but connected to his sin (e.g. Gen.26:34-35). Jacob begins life as a deceiver and a cheat, and God chooses him to become godly.
2. Election is contrasted to works.
– 9:11-12; it is faith not works in Rom.3:20, 24, 28 but here it is election not works.
– Jer.1:4-5; Gal.1:15; Augustine: ‘Good works do not produce grace, but are produced by grace.’
3. God loves and elects some, and rejects others.
– 9:13; from Malachi 1:2-3; ‘hate’ may mean ‘love less’ as in Matt.10:37-38 compared with Luke 14:26
– the extraordinary thing is not God’s justice to Esau but His mercy to Jacob
– Calvin: ‘Merits are worth nothing here; no dignity is regarded, for there is none.’