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Sin Leads to Wrath (Ephesians 2:3)

By Jeremy Myers
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Sin Leads to Wrath (Ephesians 2:3)
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/1088860393-redeeminggod-sin-leads-to-wrath-ephesians-23.mp3

Ephesians 2:1-3 explains the greatest problem humanity faces on this earth. Ephesians 2:3 reveals the root cause of this problem, and how it leads to the destruction of humanity. This podcast study explains all of this from Ephesians 2:2. Before that, however, we look at a question from a reader about Critical Race Theory.

Question about Critical Race Theory

I listened to your recent discussions of Critical Race Theory, and while I agree that there might be some concerns with CRT, since the goal is to get rid of racism so that all people can live in love and unity with each other, shouldn’t we accept and embrace CRT, or at least allow it to have a voice in our schools and churches? CRT is part of an overall conversation about race relations, and is therefore a good thing. Right?

Everybody wants love and unity among all people. I completely agree that love and racial reconciliation are taught in the Bible and are godly goals.

The problem, however, is that while CRT claims to work toward unity, forgiveness, and reconciliation, it actually does the exact opposite. The reason it fails is twofold.

First, in the attempt to achieve racial reconciliation, CRT demonizes one particular race, namely, white people. Love, unity, and reconciliation can never occur when one group seeks to accuse and condemn another group. Such behavior does nothing but amplify the division and strife. Reconciliation can only occur when all parties agree that we are all equal in God’s image, and are all willing to view and treat each other in light of this equality.

But secondly, CRT does not lead to love and racial reconciliation because it seeks to achieve unity and love between the races through law, and specifically, through hedging around the law. Hedging around the law always leads to the opposite of what God wants. Let me explain what this is before I explain how CRT does this.

Law-hedging, or hedging around the law occurs when people take the commands and laws of God, and in an attempt to help people obey those divine instructions, create a secondary set of laws to keep people from breaking the primary law.

I talk about this in my sermon on Luke 6:1-5 and the Sabbath law keeping. “Don’t do work on the Sabbath” becomes don’t walk a certain distance on the Sabbath, don’t spit, don’t light a fire, and don’t rub heads of grain between your hands.

We have similar law-hedging rules today.

Don’t lust becomes don’t let women be beautiful (which is doubly sad, because the women get punished for the sins of men). If we really wanted to put up a hedge around the prohibition to lust, we should gouge out men’s eyes … as Jesus suggested (Matt 5:29).

Don’t get drunk becomes “Don’t drink.” Oh, let’s hedge that one too: “Don’t even have alcohol in your house.” But we can hedge that one too: “Don’t even have alcohol in your town. Let’s have dry town.” During the Prohibition Era, our country tried to really hedge around this one by banning all alcohol in the country. You know how well that turned out.

So that is hedging the law. And hedging around the law always results in catastrophe. It always leads to the exact opposite of what God wanted. Rather than result in love, law-hedging leads to hate.

Why? Because as soon as you build a hedge around the law in an attempt to keep the law, you are now using a standard which is not biblical to judge and condemn other people. And this standard based on human traditions leads to criticism and judgmentalism of people who may be engaging in behaviors that God is okay with, but you are not, because you use the standard of law-hedging while God uses the standard of love.

This is how hedging around the law leads to hate.

And this is exactly what happens with Critical Race Theory. CRT creates a system of laws and rules intended to “force” people to “do the work of antiracism.” I found a great article from Krista Bontrager called “The New Legalism” which explains how this works with CRT. After talking about how the Pharisees hedged around the law in the days of Jesus so that they could actually do the opposite of what the law required, Krista says that CRT advocates are doing the exact same thing today. CRT hedges around the biblical instructions against racism, not to end racism, but to do the exact opposite!

Here is a bit of what Krista writes in the article:

I have become persuaded that Social Justice and Critical Race Theory ARE the holiness codes of our cultural moment. “Doing the work” of antiracism has come to comprise the accepted values, language, and moral code—not just in our culture, but in many of our churches too.

“Social Justice Warriors” act as the new Pharisees. They are standing by watching, willing and ready to point out others’ moral shortcomings according to their human traditions—their hedge laws. The clear message: obey their “laws” or risk being cancelled. Within the church (or Christian higher ed), the sincerity of your faith may even be questioned!

This popular graphic is used all over the internet to explain the new definition of “White Supremacy.” The actions and attitudes listed here indicate what makes a person “unclean.” Ideas such as “White privilege” or “color blindness” are the new “holiness code” or “hedge laws” that are put forward to help prevent us from participating in covert racism.

But the question is: does this complex list demonstrate how I MUST live out God’s law of loving my neighbor? I would say no. Showing partiality, using slurs, or hating my neighbor in my heart because of her ethnicity would violate God’s standards of justice (Gal. 5:20). This graphic implies little more than a bunch of “hedge laws” that are intended to tell me how I must obey God’s commands. There is nothing about White privilege or White fragility in the Bible. There are no commands in Scripture about decentering Whiteness or performing the works of antiracism.

BUT many Christian leaders are talking as if there are!

I am opposed to racism. Racism is evil and must be purged from the world. Racism does the exact opposite of what God wants or desires, and in fact, has no place in the Kingdom of God, but rather belongs to the kingdom of darkness and the rule of satan. We must all work to bring love, healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation to all the people of the world.

But CRT does not accomplish this. Like the hedging-laws of the Pharisees, the laws and regulations of CRT accomplishes the opposite of what it claims. It does not bring love or reconciliation, but instead only amplifies hatred, discord, and jealousy among people, and thus, creates more racist feelings and tensions. Do not be led astray by Critical Race Theory. It does not help in creating unity. Instead, follow Jesus into love, grace, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. These are traits of the Kingdom of God and these are the only way to restore unity and reconciliation to this world.

This all fits with what we learn in our study of Ephesians 2:3.

How Sinful Desires Lead to Wrath (Ephesians 2:3)

Ephesians 2 is all about the primary problem that humans face in this world, which is the problem of hatred, division, strife, and racism. Humans have always suffered from religious hatred, economic hatred, racial hatred, and cultural hatred. We use this hatred to accuse, condemn, and kill one another, and we do it all in God’s name.

In Ephesians 2, Paul describes this problem, shows what Jesus did to fix it, and then invites us to apply the example of Jesus to our world so that we can live in love and unity with each other. Ephesians 2:1-3 contains Paul’s description of the problem we humans face. We have already considered Ephesians 2:1 where were learned what the great problem of humanity is and how it leads to death, and then also Ephesians 2:2, where we learned that the accuser, satan, is behind this great human problem.

Ephesians 2:3 now shows how we humans have fallen prey to the lies of the accuser, and also shows how our actions lead to the destruction of humanity.

Ephesians 2:3. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Here in Ephesians 2:3, Paul begins by saying All of us also lived among them at one time. There are no exceptions here. All means all. You, me, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, everyone. Paul even includes himself in this. He says all of us. All of us at one time lived as the rest of the world lives, caught up in sin that leads to death (Ephesians 2:1) and under the control of the accuser, satan, which rules the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2).

Paul says next in Ephesians 2:3, that all of us were gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.

There are several things to note about these statements.

Sinful nature = Flesh

First, I am not fond of the term “sinful nature,” and it is not the best translation of the terms here that Paul wrote in the Greek. The Greek word is sarx, which is best translated as “flesh.” I argue in my Gospel Dictionary course that we do not have a “sinful nature” and should stop using that phrase. The biblical term is “flesh,” and it refers to the human tendency to use religious laws as a way to justify our violence against other human beings. It is “religious zeal carried out through religious violence.”

When Paul writes about “the flesh,” he is thinking the tendency of religious zealots to think that their faithful obedience to God’s commands (and more specifically, the manmade rules humans have constructed around God’s commands) puts them in better standing with God than others (cf. 2 Cor 10:3; Gal 2:20). This fits exactly with what we discussed above with Critical Race Theory.

Cravings = Lusts

Second, the term “cravings” could be translated as lusts. The word “lust” is a weighty theological word which reminds us of the three forms that sin takes … the lust of the eyes, the lust the flesh, and the pride of life. These are the three sins that Jesus was tempted with in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13), and are also the three sins that Eve was tempted with in the Garden (Genesis 3:6).

These cravings, or lusts, are closely related to desire, which Paul also mentions in this text.

Desire

Third, the word “desire” is a key term in Scripture, as it summarizes the basic source of all sin. As far back as Genesis 3 and Genesis 4, we see that desire led Eve to eat from the forbidden tree, and desire led Adam to imitate her actions, and desire led Cain to murder Abel (Gen 4:6-7).

I previously recorded a video about the importance of desire in understanding … pretty much everything … including sin, Scripture, and human society and culture. Watch it to learn more:

So when these three terms are properly understand, Paul is saying that all people on earth used to live according to religious zeal that led us to engage in violence against our enemies. We did this because desire caused us to want what others have and destroy those who were different from us. This is the way all of humanity lives, because we didn’t know any other way to live. Sacred violence runs the world, and we all use this sacred violence to get what we want and justify the violence we use in the process.

The end result of this sort of living is wrath. But what is wrath?

What is Wrath?

Paul says … like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

When most people read about “wrath” in the Bible, they think of the “wrath of God.” They think of God’s anger directed toward sinful human beings.

Punishment of God

But this is not what the Bible teaches about wrath. In fact, in Scripture, wrath does not come from God at all. Most of the time, when the Bible talks about wrath, it simply uses the word “wrath” as we see here in Ephesians 2:3, without any reference to God at all. There are a couple of texts in the New Testament that do indeed use the term “wrath of God,” but I am convinced that those references are not referring to the way God really is, but instead refer to the way some religious people think about God.

I know that’s a challenging idea, but let me put it this way. There are many Christians today who teach that God hates certain types of people. You will hear some preachers say “God hates Muslims,” or “God hates homosexuals.” When you hear a pastor say such hateful things, are you to assume that since a pastor says it, this is the way God really is? No! Instead, you are to realize that some people have really bad ideas about God, and our job as followers of Jesus is to recognize pastors who preach hate are not accurately representing God the way He really is. We are to refute such false teachers as not properly showing what God is like as revealed to us in Jesus.

So in the few places where the New Testament speaks about “the wrath of God,” those texts are not correct representations of what Paul thought. Instead, in those texts where Paul writes about the wrath of God, he is quoting some bad Christian teachers from his day who wrongly believed that God was wrathful. Paul quotes these bad teachers, not because he agrees with them, but because he wants to refute them. And that is what Paul goes on to do.

It’s called Epistolary Diatribe, and Paul engages in it quite frequently. Paul quotes someone he disagrees with so that he can go on to show how they are wrong. That is what is going on when Paul writes about “the wrath of God.” Paul does not believe that God is wrathful. Paul knows that God is not. Yes, wrath exists, but it does not come from God. I will eventually have an entry in my Gospel Dictionary online course on the word “wrath” which will explain more.

So what is wrath if it is not God’s anger directed toward humans?

Wrath is the devastating and destructive consequences of sin that fall upon humanity because we sin. Wrath does not come from God; wrath comes from sin. Sin bears its own punishment with it, and Paul calls it “wrath.” When we sin, there are natural consequences that result, and these consequences destroy, hurt, harm, kill, ruin, and damage humans, animals, climate, relationships, government, culture, society, economics, and every other aspect of this world.

Dead in sin Ephesians 2:1-3Wrath is a fire that destroys everything it touches, and the fire of wrath is sparked by human desire that leads to human violence.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand led to Word War I, which caused the mistreatment of the German people, which led to the rise of Adolph Hitler and World War II. One act of human violence led to the death and misery of millions. This is wrath. It is a contagion that starts with a spark and spreads to destroy countless lives.

Do you see why this is the greatest problem that humans face? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could end all the violence? Wouldn’t it be great if we could fulfill the desire of every beauty pageant model and achieve world peace? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could bring an end to wrath?

Ah, well, that is exactly what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. And that is exactly what Paul goes on to begin describing in Ephesians 2:4.

Summary of Ephesians 2:1-3

We humans do not function properly in our roles as God’s image on earth. Instead, we were subject to the ways of this world and to the lies of satan. This led us to sin according to our desire, resulting in our own mutually-assured destruction.

More succinctly still: Because we did not follow God in the ways of love, unity, and peace, but instead followed satan in the ways of desire, sin, and death, humanity is doomed.

Ephesians 2:1-3 has explained the greatest problem that humanity faces, which is the universal human problem of desire that leads to accusation and blame, which results in a contagion of death and violence. Most humans have absolutely no idea how to break free from all this violence. Our only solution is to have more guns and bombs than the next guy.

But Paul has a better solution. And it is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. And as Jesus showed us how to solve the problem of human violence, we as the church can show the world how to solve the problem also, which in turn, can start to bring an end to violence.

This is what Paul goes on to describe in Ephesians 2:4, where we pick up next time.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: critical race theory, desire, Ephesians 2:1-3, Ephesians 2:3, flesh, mimetic theory, Rene Girard, sin, sin nature, sinful nature, What is wrath, wrath

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What is the Gospel in Romans?

By Jeremy Myers
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What is the Gospel in Romans?
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/842818516-redeeminggod-gospel-02-the-gospel-in-romans.mp3

The gospel in Romans is the same gospel taught elsewhere in the New Testament. It is a message for both unbelievers and believers. Unbelievers should place faith in Jesus for justification and eternal life; believers should live a life of faith so that the power of God can deliver them from the power of sin in their lives.

This study is an excerpt from my Gospel Dictionary online course. This course considers 52 key words of the Gospel and thousands of biblical texts. The course contains over 100 hours Bible teaching. You can take the course by joining my online discipleship group.

Romans

What is the Gospel in Romans?

If Romans is Paul’s magnum opus on the gospel, we should expect his letter to contain a clear explanation about the content of the gospel he preached. And this is exactly what we find. If Galatians is Paul’s defense of the gospel, Romans is where he defines the gospel. But we must be careful to include everything within the gospel that Paul himself does.

From my own study of Romans, it seems that many stop short of including everything within the gospel which Paul includes in his letter to the Romans. Many want to stop at the end of Romans 5, or maybe the end of Romans 8, but a careful reading of Romans reveals that Paul’s gospel explanation carries all the way through Romans 16.

Paul begins his letter right away by talking about the gospel. He wants to tell his readers what his letter is about, and so from the opening statement in his letter, he indicates that he will be writing about the gospel of God (Romans 1:1). Romans 1:1 indicates that all sixteen chapters concern the gospel, not just the first three, five, or eight chapters. Romans 3 in context

The Gospel in Romans 1:1-5

In Romans 1:1, we read, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” The following verses explain what he was separated to.

First, Paul states that the gospel of God was “promised before though His prophecies in the Holy Scriptures” (Romans 1:2). In other words, the gospel was a topic of prophecy. But in Romans 1:3, he really gets into the content of the gospel. This gospel concerns “His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

As can be immediately seen, Romans 1:1-2 contains several elements of the gospel which are normally not included in typical gospel presentations. Not only does Paul’s gospel include Old Testament prophecy, but it also includes the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the fact that according to the flesh, Jesus was born of the seed of David. Though many teach that the Lordship of Christ is essential to the gospel, almost nobody today includes the descendancy of Jesus from David.

Thirdly, he goes on to write that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God (Romans 1:4). This can be understood in various ways, either as a reference to the deity of Jesus or to His royal kingship, but either way, Paul stipulates that he is thinking primarily of the power and authority Jesus received after the resurrection. Nobody denies that the resurrection is central to the gospel, though few mention the power and authority as the Son of God that Jesus received by the resurrection from the dead.

In Romans 1:5 Paul explains why he was separated to the gospel, and why he preached. He says that he preached this gospel “for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.” There are numerous ways this phrase “obedience to the faith” can be understood. The best option is that Paul is not primarily referring to initial faith in Jesus for justification, but the continual life of faith in Christ which results in obedience.

So Paul’s gospel in Romans is not simply to tell unbelievers how to receive justification and everlasting life. Paul’s gospel in his letter to the Romans includes this truth, but much more as well. Paul wants to emphasize how justified believers can live the life of faithful obedience to God, thereby escaping the temporal wrath of God in this life which comes upon us as a result of sin.

eternal security Romans 6:1

The Gospel in Romans 1:16-17

This idea is further seen in Romans 1:16-17, the key verses of Romans. The main point of these verses is that the gospel Paul preached is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

“Salvation” in the Bible is not primarily about how to receive eternal life, but is instead about deliverance from some sort of physical, temporal, or even spiritual calamity, we are led to look into the context for what kind of deliverance Paul has in view. And we need not look far.

Romans 1:16 itself indicates that whatever deliverance Paul has in view, it is deliverance for believers, that is, it is for people who have already believed. The deliverance in view is not for people who have not yet believed, but for those who have believed, both Jews and Gentiles alike.

And in Romans 1:17, we see a theme that reminds us of what we saw in Galatians, that believers should live their life in Jesus by faith. Going on into Romans 1:18 and following, Paul writes about how the wrath of God comes upon those who practice unrighteousness, and in Romans 2 Paul indicates that this wrath (which is not hell!) can fall upon anybody who practices unrighteousness, believer and unbeliever alike—for there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:8-11).

Paul does not want this temporal discipline of God to fall upon anybody, and especially not the believers in Rome to whom he is writing, and so He calls them in the following chapters to live their lives by faith in the Son of God. This is the idea he introduced in Romans 1:16-17, and which he expounds throughout his entire letter.

sin is not imputed in Romans 5

A Gospel for Believers

So in Romans, Paul is not teaching a gospel for unbelievers, but for believers. He wants to tell those who have already believed how to be delivered from the “wrath of God” coming against those who practice unrighteousness.

Paul’s gospel in Romans is a message about how all people, whether Jew or Greek, can escape the temporal devastation caused by sin in this life. And how does that occur? Unbelievers must believe in Jesus for justification (Romans 2–4). Believers must live a life of faith under the cross of Jesus Christ (Romans 5–8). But Paul’s gospel does not stop with chapter 8. He wants believers to live a life of faith, whether they are Jewish believers or Gentile believers. And so in Romans 9–11, Paul addresses some particular concerns that Jewish believers face concerning the wrath of God, the ingrafting of the Gentiles, and the future of the Jewish people as God’s chosen nation.

To be delivered from temporal wrath, it is critical to see that Romans 9–11 are just as much a part of Paul’s gospel as Romans 1–8. His gospel explanation does not stop at Romans 8:39, but is only half finished.

This is also true for Romans 12–16. Just as Romans 9–11 helps Jewish believers grasp the gospel as the power of God for delivering them from temporal wrath, Romans 12–16 similarly helps all believers (including Jewish believers) live in a way that will bring deliverance from temporal discipline. As evidence that the entire letter is part of Paul’s gospel, near the end of what he writes he reminds the Roman Christians that what he has written to them, though strongly stated in some areas, is so that he can be a faithful minister of the gospel of God (Romans 15:16, 19-20).

Even in his concluding remarks, he says something almost identical to what he wrote in 1:5, 16-17, that what he writes is the gospel which is for obedience to the faith (Romans 16:25-26).

So the gospel in Romans is the same gospel we have seen elsewhere in the New Testament. It is a message for both unbelievers and believers. Unbelievers should place faith in Jesus for justification and eternal life; believers should live a life of faith so that the power of God can deliver them from the power of sin in their lives. The gospel message in Romans includes a vast array of truths and ideas to accomplish these goals.

The Gospel DictionaryUnderstanding the Gospel requires us to properly understand the key words and terms of the Gospel. Take my course, "The Gospel Dictionary" to learn about the 52 key words of the Gospel, and hundreds of Bible passages that use these words.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: gospel, Romans 1:1-5, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 4, Romans 6, Romans 9-11, salvation, wrath

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God in Search of Man

By Jeremy Myers
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God in Search of Man

I am really excited about the podcast I am publishing this Thursday. We will be looking at Genesis 3:8-10 which is where Adam and Eve hide from God after eating fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

If you haven’t been listening to my podcast, make sure you don’t miss this one. It reveals something crucial about God. Something you don’t want to miss. Go subscribe now, and you will get it automatically on Thursday…

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Among other things, I talk about how God calls out in Genesis 3:10, “Adam, where are you?”

This is the question of God throughout all of human history.

Lots of people say that the Bible is an account of man in search of God. I see it differently. I see it as an account of God in search of man.

God did not leave us. We left Him. The division that exists between God and man is completely one-sided (our side). We abandoned Him; He did not abandon us.

god in search of manThe death of Jesus on the cross was not to reconcile an angry God to sinful and rebellious humanity. No, the death of Jesus on the cross was completely one-sided; it was to reconcile a fearful humanity to a loving God. God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:19); not the other way around.

Scripture is about what God is doing to rebuild that relationship and reconnect with us.

One of the other places we see this is in Luke 15, with the story of the shepherd who goes in search for a lost sheep, a woman who upends her house searching for a lost coin, and loving father who pines away looking down the road for his lost son (and when he sees his son returning from a long way off, he runs to meet him).

I also believe, by the way, that the Prodigal Son is Adam (and all of us in Adam). When the younger son goes and asks his father for his inheritance, this is Adam eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I believe that the wisdom that came from that tree is something God wanted to slowly impart to humanity over time in the midst of their relationship. But Adam took a short cut. He wanted the wisdom “Now” just like the Prodigal Son wanted his inheritance “Now.”

Anyway, if you haven’t subscribed to the Podcast yet, this would be a great time! Or if you have subscribed, but have missed several episodes, this would be a great time to pick it back up.

Someone who has been listening their way through the episodes recently emailed me and said that the podcast was “Genesis in a way I have NEVER heard it before!” That’s a good way of describing it. I enjoy teaching it, and I know you will enjoy learning along with me.

That might be an overstatement. Not all people enjoy my podcast. But even if you don’t enjoy it, at least you will be challenged …

Anyway, what do you think of this idea about God in search of man. It is not that He “lost” us. He knows right where we are, just as He knew right where Adam was. But God plays Hide and Seek in the Garden with Adam just as He plays Hide and Seek with us in our lives.

Why?

You’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out…

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God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: 2 Corinthians 5:19, anger, death of Jesus, Genesis 3:8-10, love of God, Luke 15, One Verse Podcast, prodigal son, sin, wrath

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3 Keys to Understanding Romans 9

By Jeremy Myers
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3 Keys to Understanding Romans 9

Romans 9 has been a battleground text for centuries. Calvinists and Arminians have hotly debated this passage since the days of the Reformation.

The Re-Justification of GodSince I am neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian, I want to offer my perspective on Romans 9 over the course of the next few posts so that people who are trying to understand what Paul is saying in Romans 9 about election, Esau, Pharaoh, and the potter and the clay. Note that all of these posts are drawn from the longer explanation in my book The Re-Justification of God.

When it comes to understanding Romans 9, there are three keys which I have found helpful in explaining what Paul is teaching in this text. Let us look briefly below at each of these three keys to understanding Romans 9.

1. Salvation in Romans

To begin with, we must recognize that “salvation” in Scripture rarely refers to receiving eternal life. “Salvation” does not mean “forgiveness of sins so we can go to heaven when we die.” The word simply means “deliverance,” and the context must determine what sort of deliverance is in view.

Most often, the deliverance is some sort of physical deliverance from enemies, storms, and sickness, or from some of the temporal consequences of sin (cf. Matt 8:25; 9:22; Mark 5:34; 13:20; Luke 8:48; 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jas 5:15; Jude 5; See “save, saving” in Vine’s Expository Dictionary, p. 547). This understanding of “salvation” is especially true in Romans.

salvation in romans

Most of the uses of “salvation” in Romans are in connection with wrath. It is not wrong to say that “salvation in Romans” is deliverance from wrath (Hodges, Romans).

So what is wrath?

Just as salvation does not refer to entrance into heaven, wrath does not refer to eternity in hell. Nor is wrath from God.

Though an imaginary objector to Paul does occasionally speak of “God’s wrath” in Romans, Paul does not understand wrath this way. For Paul, “wrath” is what happens to people (both believers and unbelievers) when they stray from God’s guidelines for proper living.

Today, we would speak of “consequences.” While someone today might say that a destroyed marriage is the consequence of adultery, Paul might argue that a destroyed marriage is the “wrath” of adultery. And as all who have experienced the damaging and destructive consequences of sin know, the fall-out from sinful choices often feels like wrath. Sin brings metaphorical earthquakes, hailstorms, raging fires, and flash floods into our lives, leaving behind large swaths of destruction. What better word to describe this than “wrath”?

So in Romans, salvation is deliverance from the devastating consequences of sin. This is the first key to understanding Romans 9.

2. Election is to Service

The second key to understanding Romans 9 is to see that “election” is not to eternal life, but to service. Just as God elected Israel to serve His purposes in the world, so also, God chose the Church for similar purposes. This understanding of election greatly helps us understand some notoriously difficult texts in Romans 9–11.

For example, Paul writes in Romans 11:17-21 that the elect branches were cut off so that non-elect branches could be grafted in, which in turn will lead to the elect-which-became-non-elect to be re-grafted back in and become re-elect. If Paul is referring to eternal life when he speaks of election, none of this makes any sense. How can a people or a nation whom God elected “to eternal life” before the foundation of the world go from being elect to non-elect and then re-elect?

However, this makes perfect sense when we recognize that election is not to eternal life but to service. God wants to bless the world through His people, and if one group of people fails in this God-given task, then God will simply find someone else to do it while He continues to lead the first group to fulfill His overarching purposes—albeit in different ways than originally intended. If this second group also fails, they too will be moved into an alternative role in accomplishing God’s will (Rom 11:17-21).

If necessary, God could raise up a people for Himself from rocks (Matt 3:9). In this way, when Paul writes about branches being cut off so others can be grated in which will lead to the cut off branches being grafted back in again, he is not talking about people losing and regaining eternal life, but about losing and re-gaining places of privilege and purpose in God’s plan for this world.

God’s plan of redemption started with Israel, shifted to the Gentiles, and eventually will reincorporate Israel so that “of Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36).

This idea really helps us understand Romans 9. Election is to service, so that God can elect even people like Esau and Pharaoh to service, and this has nothing whatsoever to do with their eternal destiny. 

election in romans 9

3. Election is Corporate AND Individual

The third and final key to understanding Romans 9 is that election is both corporate and individual.

There is a long-standing debate about election, regarding whether Paul is talking about corporate election or individual election. That is, when Paul writes about the election of Israel, or God’s choice of Jacob over Esau, is Paul talking about the individuals within Israel, and the individual destinies of Jacob and Esau, or is Paul referring instead to the national and corporate destinies of Israel (which came from Jacob) and Edom (which came from Esau)?

Usually, the battle lines over this debate are determined by whether a person is a Calvinist or not. As Calvinists believe and teach the individual election of certain people to eternal life, they are more likely to understand and explain Romans 9 in this light. Those who do not hold to Calvinism tend to interpret Romans 9 as teaching corporate election. Henry Halley, author of Halley’s Bible Handbook, is one such writer:

Paul is not discussing the predestination of individuals to salvation or condemnation, but is asserting God’s absolute sovereignty in the choice and management of nations for world functions (Halley’s Bible Handbook, 527).

So which is it? Is Paul talking about individual election or corporate election?

I believe that in Romans 9 Paul is teaching both corporate and individual election.

Since it is the purposes of God that determine who gets elected and to what form of service they are elected, then it is God who decides when He needs to call individuals and when He needs to call nations or groups of people to perform certain tasks.

Of course, even when election is corporate, it is true that God’s purpose for that group of people is carried out by individuals within the group, and so in this sense, we can say that even corporate election has an individual aspect.

On the other hand, the benefit to corporate election is that even if some individuals within the corporate identity do not contribute to fulfill the purpose of the corporate entity, there will be some within the group that will fulfill their purpose, thus accomplishing God’s purpose in election.

With these three keys before us, the difficult chapter of Romans 9 becomes much less difficult. If you want to read more, you can get my book, The Re-Justification of God.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, Romans 9, salvation, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election, wrath

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