The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

We are subject to authorities whether we like it or not. We don’t particularly like it, but it is a necessary part of our life. Many of us would love to be in authority, but can’t stand to be under it. Furthermore, we love to critique those who have authority over us, but are slighted when someone critiques us.

Governmental Authority

In Romans 13:1 Paul tells the Christians in Rome to be subject to the governmental authorities that are over them. Today, we may feel somewhat irked by this call, but we can’t even comprehend a statement like this in the context during which Paul was writing.

Romans was likely written around 57 AD which means that Nero was Caesar during that time. When he was leading in Rome he basically declared open-season on Christians. He would often put Christians in the coliseum and let lions loose for pure sport. One historian reports that on occasions Nero would light Christians on fire and use them as human torches to light his lavish parties.

Now, think about Paul’s words now. Be subject to Nero! If those people can be subject to a government that was degrading, torturing and killing them, then you and I can easily be subject to our leaders.

You may not like them. You may not agree with them, but you are called to be subject to them. This means you obey the authorities placed above you. So you pay your taxes. You obey the speed limit. You obey the law that has been placed over you. We are not to be looking for ways to avoid obeying our authorities. Nor are we to lash out against our authorities when we’re caught for  disobeying them.

All Authority is God’s Authority

This is not to say that God is subject to all authority, for He is not subject to anyone but Himself. This is to say what Paul teaches about authority:

“For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2).

Many would now have a few questions, for this truth is exceedingly troublesome when you think about it. All authority, every leader (good or bad) has been allowed to lead by God for nothing happens that He does not allow. Does this mean we should be obedient to a terrible dictator who is murdering people? Does this mean we follow and obey a leader that tells us not to worship Jesus or read the Bible? It is helpful to look  at authorities as if they were various courts. Much like the Supreme Court is above the  State Court and the State Court is above the local Courts.

The Bible is our highest court of authority and there are lesser courts, such as our President, the laws that have been placed over us in our country, state or city and county. Nothing is more preeminent than the highest court and if we are told to do something contradictory to what our highest court says, we are not to obey it.

Caution is Needed

You are first and foremost subject to God’s authority through the inerrant, authoritative Scriptures. Yet, you are still subject to the authorities over you. If God has placed them over you, then you are to treat them with respect, kindness and above all obedience.

While the Bible is your highest court of authority and if you are forced to do something that is against Scripture you have the responsibility to exercise civil disobedience, this does not mean you fight your government when it does something or supports something you don’t like or even might be contrary to Scripture.

This is exceptionally pertinent today as our government is moving ever closer to legalizing same-sex marriage. While we do agree that homosexuality is against what Scripture says (we also believe that gluttony and pornography are just as bad), we don’t fight our government or disobey it. Keep in mind that the very people you could be fighting against are the very people that you should be working to share the gospel with.

Honor

Sow honor to your leaders. Show respect. Show kindness and obey them! When you receive a ticket for speeding, don’t treat the cop with disdain and disrespect.

Some of you enjoy torrenting movies (illegally downloading pirated movies) and you need to stop.

Some of you are illegally downloading music.

There are so many ways which you and I are disobeying the authorities above us and we need to repent and change. Not only is the honor of the leaders above us at stake, but our own honor is as well. How can an dishonorable and disobedient Christian point to the savior Jesus?

No one will listen to you if you tell them to obey the God of the Bible and you can’t even obey the speed limit! How can a disobedient people tell people to obey? Your hypocrisy is not only going to bring you judgment, but it will ruin your mission and ministry.

For more information about this series click here.

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

Families can be complex, wonderful, stressful and crazy. Though everyone is related in some way in the family, everyone is different. Families are diverse. While this diversity is something to be celebrated and embraced, it is often something that causes strife, frustration and dissension.

The Bible often uses familial language when speaking about the Church. This is due to the fact that the Church is basically one big family. Brothers and sisters, family members living life in messy, complicated, rewarding community with one another. Just as families can be difficult at times, the Church can be as well. Yet, just like families, the church is, or rather, should be, marked by love.

Families Marked by Love

What is it that keeps crazy, messy and diverse families together? Love. It is the binding agent, the one piece of the equation that makes it all work. It may not be easy, it certainly is not, to live in community as a family, it is love that motivates us to do so.

Sadly, this is not often true. Stories of gossip, backbiting, lies and politics are easily found in churches of all sizes, styles and locations. In today’s world of urgent calls to mission the church has often elevated mission over love and in so doing have left a wake of disrespected and wounded people behind it. If the church can’t love people well, then it’s mission is no longer Biblical, profitable or helpful no matter how “cool” or compelling the church or mission may be.

One of the benefits of helping a church like us launch is that you get to affect our culture in a way that you would never be able to do in a larger church setting. You can help us make sure that we love as we should by joining us and loving others as you should.

This Family Serves the Lord

Obviously the family of God (the Church) is unique. It has a mission, a job an objective. The church is marked by love, but organized around the mission. This mission and objective causes complexities, difficulties and frustrations. Tension between members can grow and detract from the mission itself.

 ”Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:10-13).

Paul ties both loving each other and staying on mission together into one fluid thought. The reason he does this is because it’s important for us to remember that they go together. We cannot move forward with our mission if we cannot love each other well. How can we proclaim the loving gospel of Jesus if we’re unloving? How can we say we are loving to those around us if we never tell them about the Savior? You see, they go hand in hand.

Not Just for the Church

The reason this is important is because we’re not only to love those within the church, but also those outside. This is one of the ways we spread the gospel! Paul takes it a step further though, we’re not just about loving those outside the church, we’re about loving those who persecute us, hate us and fight against us!

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:14-16a)

The big idea is that we are to live in harmony. There are two extremes that people will often move towards:

1) Brock The Fighter. This guy doesn’t take crap from anyone. If someone is wrong, it’s his job to tell them so. Every theology, political stance or ideology is an opportunity to put on the gloves and pick a fight. This guy can usually be found at the state capitol handing out brochures informing people about the various legislation’s they should fight. He can also be found in the back of the sanctuary of a fundamentalist church with a King James Bible and furrowed brow waiting to ambush the preacher on his way out with all the things wrong with his sermon.

Is it wrong to fight for what you believe, no. We’re not telling you to be a coward, but we’re also to live in harmony with those around us, showing them love so that one day we might be able to share the gospel with them. How can you share the gospel with someone you just punched in the mouth over gay marriage? You can’t. Stop fighting, start loving.

2) Timmy the Coward. This guy hates confrontation. He’d rather everyone be happy, cordial and wear sweater vests. The last thing this guy wants is for people to fight over doctrine, Jesus or the Bible. He is often found sipping an Orange Mocha Frappe-chino, and the only strong conviction he has is that people need to be nice to each other. He’ll lead, he’ll never be someone who can start or serve in a ministry because he’s about as strong as a blade of grass in a windstorm. You won’t notice him anywhere in a congregation because, though he’s there, he’s dead weight and absent.

Is it wrong to call others to love each other? Of course not! We are called to love, but we’re not called to be cowards and hide away from any contention. To love and serve Jesus means that you will have convictions different from others. How can you share the gospel with someone if when they resist what the Bible says (and they will) you’re too afraid to tell them it is the truth and they should listen? Cowards can’t spread the gospel.

Love

So as Paul tells us, love others! Love those you are in community with. Serve Jesus and obey the Lord. Additionally, love, serve and bless those who hate you.

How are you doing loving those around you?

How are you doing loving your enemies?

Are you Brock the Fighter?

Are you Timmy the Coward?

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

Everyone, everywhere is worship something or someone at all times. This is the truth of human existence: at our core, we are all worshipers. The question is, “Who or what are you worshiping?”. To worship something is to place it in a position of highest authority, power or preeminence. Our objects of worship can be vast and diverse. They can be money, power, sex, pleasure, a spouse, a car, a job a zip code and so many other things they can’t all be mentioned here.

Christians have put their trust on Jesus and worship Him as God. Therefore, for Christians, there is nothing higher, more important or more preeminent than Jesus Christ. We worship Him alone. To be sure, we are still sinners and are likely to exchange the Creator God with created things, yet we are constantly called back to grace in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. There are two primary ways Christians worship Jesus: 1) Personally and 2) Corporately.

Personal Worship

Your body is an incredible instrument. It can be used for great evil or great good. It can perform numerous difficult tasks, feel innumerable sensations, react instinctively and work without you even knowing it. It is so complex that there are still parts and functions of your body that scientists know nothing about. The human body is one of the most intricate and complex designs in all of creation.

All bodies were made with the intention they be used for worship of the One who made them, though not all do. With our bodies we are more likely to worship the form of it, the pleasure felt in it or the prowess gained with it. Men worship the form of the body instead of the one who made it by staring at women in Yoga Pants or watching pornography. Women worship the form of the body by bending their lives to try and look or weigh the same as the bodies they worship. We all worship the pleasure felt in our bodies by seeking after substances, experiences or acts that make us feel good for the sole purpose of feeling pleasure.

Your body is made to worship the one who created it. Worshiping God with your body means you conform it to His will, not your own. The ways to worship God with your body are seemingly endless!

Corporate Worship

As we are called to use our bodies to worship the Lord God in Heaven personally, we are also called to worship God corporately. This is done as the church of God.

The church, the people of God, worship when they gather together. This is done through singing, observing communion, responding to Biblical teaching, serving as a body and many other ways. Often a Christians’ understanding of worship is limited to the context of singing songs as a gathered group. While this is part of corporate worship, it is, in fact, a small portion of what worship is in it’s fullness in the Church.

We must understand that worship is both personal and corporate. If we only worship personally and not corporately then we have missed what the Bible has called us to do as a people of God (the Church) which is to gather to worship. Additionally, if we only worship corporately and do not worship personally, we are hypocrites! We must worship personally and corporately.

The Enemy of Worship

There is an enemy to the worship that you and I are called to perform and this enemy resides within us. This enemy seeks to not to stop us from worshiping, for that is impossible, rather it seeks to change the object of our worship. It works within us to have us exchange the truth for a lie and worship created things rather than the creator God (Romans 1:22-23). The enemy is pride.

Pride tells us that we can worship whatever we want. We can seek pleasure, we have the freedom to do with our lives and bodies as we will. Moreover, pride plays a nasty trick, it subtly makes you the god of all. You will seek out things that will aid you in the worship of yourself. Things that make you feel good, things that make you seem better, powerful and strong. Though at times it may seem to be working to your advantage, something terrible is happening and is going to happen, for you are a terrible god.

Seeking to become god, you become enslaved to a spiteful, violent evil master who only wants to destroy you. While this life may have been nothing but pleasure for you, the next will be nothing but pain if you serve this god.

Therefore, you must fight this enemy and there is only one way to fight.

Worship

You fight your enemy by killing your pride which calls you to worship something or someone other than the God who made all things. You replace that which your sinful desire wants to worship with who the Bible tells us to worship.

This worship is simple, yet complex. Simply, we are to worship Jesus Christ as God. The complex part is, there are many ways you can do this.

• Worship personally by employing your body in your act of worship. This means, say worshipful things, thing worshipful things and do worshipful things with your body.
• Worship corporately by actually being a part of a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, disciple-making church. Christians are not meant to live outside God’s church.
• Kill your pride which seeks to make you the object of worship, which is the silliest thing to worship.

For more information about this series click here.

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

Sermon notes not available.

For more information about this series click here.

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

Notes not available.

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Paradox started as a small men’s group studying the Bible and theology together. Out of this group a church has begun to form and our commitment to hold men to the standard given to them by Scripture has not changed. We continue to call men to follow Jesus, pursue humility, purity and lead with strength, conviction and passion.

Yet, today we live in a culture that teaches the exact opposite to men and as a result we have a whole generation of young men stuck in adolescence, addicted to pornography, taking advantage of women and unable to lead themselves let along anyone else. These cowardly men are not the men the Bible calls us to be.

So we will gather together as men and find out what the Bible says about being a man. Any man is welcomed to join us as we gather to let the Scriptures cut, convict and challenge us. This is Paradox Men’s Basic Training. Put your pants on, bring a cup, leave your arguments at the door and bring your Bible so that Jesus can turn you into who you are supposed to be.

Details

When: Saturday April 28th 8:00am – 6:30pm.

Where: Fort Casey, Whidbey Island

Who: Men

Cost: $20 (to cover transportation costs).

RSVP: It is important for all those wishing to join us RSVP by either contacting us here or by registering on The City here.

For questions, please email info@paradoxbc.org.

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Easter Sunday is the biggest day of the year for the church. Millions of people who worship Jesus will gather to remember His victory over Satan, sin, death and the wrath of God when He triumphantly rose from the grave. We gather to celebrate Jesus.

At Paradox we want to see the entire city of Seattle worshiping Jesus. We are not ashamed of our God, nor of what it means to follow Him. So this year, we will be holding our Easter Sunday service outdoors, in plain view of the pubic.

It’s Easter on The Ave! During our one hour service hundreds of pedestrians and vehicles will witness and even hear about the good news of Jesus Christ.

We are praying for 40 people to join us as we worship Jesus.

Don’t fret, we know that Easter Sunday in Seattle is rarely, if ever, dry and/or warm. In anticipation of the weather we will have a large tent in place to keep you dry as well as outdoor propane heaters to keep you warm. So please consider joining us, inviting friends and family! Let’s spread the gospel in Seattle by making our worship of Him public!

Details:

When: April 8th @ 10:00am-11:00am

Where: The University Heights South Parking Lot 5031 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105

How to pray: Pray for 40 or more people to join us to worship. Pray for salvations as a result of the gospel being preached.

How to help: You can give to the mission to help us cover the costs of holding this important gathering. You can contact us and volunteer for the set-up or tear-down teams.

RSVP for this event here.

Questions about our Easter Gathering are welcomed. Please email us at info@paradoxbc.org.

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

The Bible is incredibly personable. The entire Bible is full of personal pleas from it’s writers to their audiences; and their audiences include you and me. Therefore, when you read Jesus’ words, “truly, truly, I say to you…” or when Paul says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire…” pay attention.

When you see these words in Scripture, pause. Consider what you’re about to read and know that it is a personal plea from the writer and the Inspiration to you. Pay attention.

Paul the Evangelist

You get a sense of Paul’s love and desire for the Jewish people he is related to as you read the beginning of Romans 10. Paul earnestly wants his friends and presumably family to worship Jesus. What is important to note from Paul’s lament and personal plea is this: evangelism is motivated in the believer by both theological and emotional conviction. Paul understands he must tell them about Jesus, but he also feels he must do so.

What about you? Are you motivated to be an evangelist like Paul? Is your motivation fueled by both a theological and emotional conviction?

How to Save Yourself

Man has tried to invent many ways of receiving salvation. Paul deals with the top two ways people try to save themselves:

“For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3).

1) Saved by good deeds. Romans 10:3-4. Man has always invented deeds or works through which man can be saved. In Seattle, this would look like: living with little to no carbon footprint (e.i. biking everywhere), recycling, and only drinking fair-trade coffee.

Generally, this is typically understand by a general sense of morality. People suppose that, if there is a God, He would be happy as long as we are morally acceptable people. Therefore, if you’ve never murdered or raped someone and are generally a nice person, God shouldn’t take offense and allow you passage into heaven. You just have to be good enough.

2) Saved by supernatural deeds. Romans 10:5-7. Believe it or not, this is still a common way people try to be saved. Whether you’re like Tom Cruise and you want to pay lots of money so that your religion’s supernatural power can save you or you’re like Madonna and you think that your little red bracelet can bless you physically and spiritually. These are ways that people try to perform supernatural deeds to save themselves.

How to be Saved

Paul teaches something entirely different. It’s not that Paul teaches that these things can’t bring salvation, in actuality they can, what Paul teaches is that you can’t perform these actions perfectly. Therefore, you need someone to do them for you and His name is Jesus.

Can you be perfectly moral for your entire life? No. Jesus was, He lived without sin while on this earth, morally perfect.

Can you perform any kind of supernatural action to bring God down to you or to wake Him from death? No. Christ did this under His own power. He came down to earth, lived a perfect life and dead the death we should have died and was raised from the dead on the third day and is alive today seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Therefore, it is God who saves, not man.

The evidence of a saved person is:

“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

This action could have not been performed unless God had, in Paul’s words, “…I will have mercy on whom I have mercy…” (Romans 9:15), or, “For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son…” (Romans 8:29). So we must remember that Paul just told us that God is the one who saves, and He chooses those whom He will save “before the foundations of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

Many have wrongly taken this one verse from Scripture and thought is the way people are saved. This not true when one takes a look at what the whole Bible says about our salvation. The way people are saved are by God’s sovereign choice. Therefore, Romans 10:9 is telling us what someone does as evidence of their salvation, yet this can often happen simultaneously when they are saved thus “you will be saved”.

You the Evangelist

Is it your desire like Paul’s to see people saved by Jesus? What evidence in your life supports this desire? What are you doing to actually share the gospel and love of Jesus with people?

Paul tells us that, though it’s God who saves, He has chosen to make us the vehicle through which He spreads the gospel. He puts it like this:

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15)

The Gospel must be preached! Someone must go and tell others! That person is YOU! “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). So go and share it! Evangelism is not about your Spiritual gifting, it is about your obedience to the word of God. Therefore, to not share the gospel is to be disobedient. Repent of your sin and obey by telling people about the unending, immeasurable love of Jesus Christ!

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

One of the most difficult about preaching through the book of Romans is the fact that many of Paul’s thoughts run together. It’s exceedingly difficult to break each one into it’s own study. Frankly, to attempt to finish the book of Romans in nine months is just as difficult. This week we find ourselves in the middle of Paul’s discourse on God’s Sovereignty (Romans 9:19-33).

As we study it is important to keep a few things in mind: God is eternally preexisting (Psalm 90:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:17), God is preeminent (Genesis 19:14; Matthew 19:26; Philippians 2:10), God created everything (Genesis 1) and sustains all of His creation (Colossians 1:17).

God is eternally preexisting. There has never been and will never be a time during which God has not existed. He has always been and will always be.

God is preeminent. God is over all. No authority, person or idea can supersede Him. In fact, every knee will bow at Jesus’ name either as a friend or foe. All are subject to Him.

God created everything and sustains all. The very fact that you are living is a direct result of God’s loving choice. Furthermore, every subsequent breath, thought and beat or your heart is allow and sustained by the Lord Himself. Not only did He give you and all things life, He allows you to continue to live.

It is with this understanding and context that we can understand (somewhat) Romans 9:19-33.

God Will do What He Wills

One of the most silly things mere man can do is question the will of God. Paul puts it this way:

“But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Romans 9:19).

Who are you? Well, let’s review what Romans says about us:

• We are a suppressors of the truth (Romans 1:18).
• We are fools though we profess to be wise (Romans 1:22-23).
• We are judgmental (Romans 2:1).
• We are unrighteous (Romans 3:5).
• We are worthless (Romans 3:12).
• We are not good (Romans 3:12).
• We curse and our speech is venomous (Romans 3:13-14).
• We do not fear God (Romans 3:18).

Who then are we to question God? Without God we are nothing. As Paul said in the first part of chapter 9 “He will have mercy on whom He has mercy”, man cannot manipulate God in any way so as to receive His mercy. The Bible is clear, God has the authority to give mercy to whom He chooses. It’s His choice, not ours.

The Cornerstone Rejected

In this portion of the book of Romans, Paul is balancing speaking to the mixed congregation of Jewish people and gentiles (those who are not Jewish). One of Paul’s greatest grievances is the fact that the Jewish people (his people), though religious and highly moral, rejected the savior Jesus. This can often be applied to the many pseudo-religious, moralistic people of the US, though they may be “good” people, they have rejected that it is Christ who saves, not mans choice nor any action that man could perform.

It is clear that it is God who chooses, but this choice is made effectual through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. You see, if one simply states that it is God who chooses and not man, but you fail understand that it is Jesus who makes that choice transform the dead person into a new and living one you allow for all kinds of heresy, lies and false teaching because Jesus is no longer necessary in the plan of salvation.

This is essentially what happened with the Jewish people that Paul is speaking to. They understand God’s choice, they know that the true followers of God will obey the Scripture and live to glorify God in all they do. Yet, they failed to understand that without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ it’s just empty religion and moralistic behavior modification. It may make you a more amicable, kind person, but your still just a really nice and kind dead person. The goal of God’s election is not to make you a better person, it is to bring glory to Himself through your conversion from death to life.

Why this is Important

God is much bigger, stronger and more important than you ever thought. Furthermore, you are far smaller, weaker and more frail than you ever imagined. You and I are continually, repeatedly offending His perfect righteousness and authority. To sin is to give the proverbial “finger” to One who created all things, sustains all things, is perfectly holy and righteous.

It is an exceedingly helpful thing for man to have a healthy understanding of the vastness and authority of God in contrast to our finite weak state as humans. You and I need to keep in perspective our position in relation to God. We must constantly be reminded that God is our supreme authority, and rather than challenging Him through questioning His will or sinning against Him we should submit to Him and worship Him.

Your next breath is allowed and given to you by God. You should worship Him, praise Him and live for Him. You need to repent of thinking your God and submit to the One who truly is.

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The following are sermon notes from Romans Soli Deo Gloria. This is a study of the book of Romans. To read more about this series, including the introduction, download the study guide, resources and listen to audio content click here.

No doubt the Bible is controversial. It is controversial to those who’ve never read it and it is, sometimes, just as controversial to those who have read it. The Bible is controversial for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it is written from a perspective that is exceedingly counter-cultural. It is this very counter-cultural nature that challenges our thoughts on life, death, the afterlife and everything in between. In fact, even the authors of the Bible understood the controversial nature of what they were writing. Romans 9:1-18 is particularly controversial.

Paul’s lament

As Paul continues writing the book of Romans he opens up with each page. What begins as a passionate theological exposition moves into a heartfelt plea containing personal remarks, laments and thoughts that had previously been silent behind the deep theological truths.

Paul anticipates that many will resist what he is about to say and seeks to qualify his statements by reminding his readers that he is speaking the truth:

“I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:1-2).

It’s not hard to see Paul’s pain. Though what he’s about to say pains him so, he must speak, because it is the truth. In many ways, Christians today can empathize with Paul’s anguish if they are seeking to maintain their hold on the truth and hold Scripture in highest authority. There will be times that the truth we know and sometimes must teach is controversial and that many will reject us, even those whom we love and are close to. This is precisely why Paul is grieving, there are many that he is close to that reject the truth that Jesus is Lord and the only means by which we ‘re  saved.

Paul’s kinsmen

The root of Paul’s grief is the fact that the very people that are not saved are his kinsmen, family members and close friends (Romans 9:3-4). These people were God’s chosen people here on earth. They received the physical blessings from God in ways no other people group has received. Paul sites six specific aspects of what they received from God:

1. Adoption (referring to when Israel was rescued from Egypt).
2. Glory (referring to the tabernacle and the temple).
3. Covenants (referring to Abraham being the father of the Israelite people and through him the coming Messiah).
4. Law (the law by which our sin is revealed and the necessity for the Savior is made certain).
5. Worship
6. Promises

Paul is lamenting because these chosen, special people in His day have not received the greatest blessing of all, salvation from Jesus Christ. The Jews in Paul’s day had rejected Jesus as savior and therefore many were not saved.

Do you have a family member that is not saved? Do you grieve over this fact? Do you even care? Paul gives us the great example that we are to care! We are to grieve, cry and lament over those who have not received salvation. Yet, Paul reminds us (and himself I think) that God does not fail (Romans 9:6). God does not make mistakes. From here Paul launches into his thoughts on predestination.

Man does not choose, because it’s not about man

Paul’s comfort, rock and confidence is not in man’s ability to choose God, but God’s ability to choose man. What is most important to keep in mind about this truth is the fact that salvation is not man-centric, it is God-centric. The salvation of God’s children is NOT about those that are saved, it’s entirely about God. This is one of the worst errors that can be made in our understanding about God. God does not exist for you, He does not give salvation for you. You are not needed! It is all about God, not you.

“…though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad– in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls– she was told, ‘the older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Romans 9:11-13).

Paul defends this controversial truth by saying, “Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! …So then he has mercy on whomever he will,s and he hardens whomever he wills” (Romans 9:14 ;17-18).

Salvation is not up to you. It’s up to God. The miracle in salvation is that God makes dead people alive, dead people don’t wake themselves up do they? Salvation is like adoption, children don’t choose their adoptive parents do they? Salvation is God saving us while we were still enemies, enemies do not become friends with their foes!

What this means for us

Many will say, “if God chooses us, then why should I care about those who don’t know him yet?” Do we see this in Paul’s understanding? No! He laments, grieves and cries out for those who don’t know Jesus! He cares so deeply for these people and desires them to be saved. You and I have no idea who will be saved and will not be saved. Furthermore, Christians have been commanded in Scripture to make disciples by sharing the good news, so it’s not a matter of your success in leading them to Jesus, it’s matter of your obedience to God! Will God save them if you don’t say anything, yes. Will you be held responsible for your disobedience, yes.

Think of it this way: when I ask my daughter to perform a task such as picking up her room I know that task will be completed, it is my will that it be so. Now, there are two ways the task can be completed, with her compliance to my command or with her disobedience to my command. Regardless, it will be completed. Now, my daughter will be rewarded for her obedience and likewise disciplined if she were to disobey. I may even have to step in and do it all myself, the point is, my will will be completed regardless of my daughter’s response.

Here are my questions for you:

1. Have you made salvation, and even God’s plan all about you? If so, you need to repent! It includes you, but it’s not about you!
2. Christian, do you lament over those that don’t know Jesus? Do you even care that they are not saved? Your example that you are to follow is Jesus, the man who poured out His life for everyone. If you don’t care about those who don’t worship Jesus, you’ve become self-consumed and are no longer following the God who gave it all.
3. Do you struggle with the theology of election? What confidence do you have in God if He is not the beginning, middle and end of your salvation? Any confidence in yourself is prideful, weak and misplaced confidence.
4. Trust in the Lord God who saves His children! Worship the God of the Bible who saves those who hated Him, those who were opposed to Him! Praise Him who brings the dead back to life! This is why we are called Paradox: death to life through Jesus Christ!

For more information about this series click here.

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