Post Calendar
-
Podcast Feeds
Jul
21
Meditations on Romans 5:19
July 21, 2007 |
Posted by michaelp · Filed Under Humanity and Sin, Salvation, General Discussion, Personal
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.Romans 5:19 (ESV)
Today I would like to address two issues in this text.
1. The word “many” means something different in both places. In the first part ”The many were made Sinners”; This we know to reference all of humanity as a whole (Rom 3:10-18, 3:23, Is 53:6a). In the later half of the verse we have the second “many”; here you would have serious problems if you took this “many” to mean the same as the last. For it is a sure thing that all will not be saved (Rev 20). So now it begins to become clear that the “many” in the later half is in reference to those whom the father has drawn to the Son (Jn 6:44)!
2. Now I would like to address is the sovereignty of God in salvation from this text. Notice in the second half of the vs “by the one man’s obedience” ; our position in Christ is never based upon our obedience namely because we cannot obey a holy God with a holy standard. So our salvation is completely dependent upon the sovereign work of Christ in His life, death, & resurrection! It is completely outside of us! Now, look at the last piece of this verse “the many will be made righteous.” Paul is reenforcing the fact that we will not be the final determiner in our salvation. It is only the ones whom He “made” righteous that will enjoy Him forever! Therefore we have nothing to bring to the table…Oh God….Have Mercy on me a sinner!
It sends me to my knees knowing that I am solely dependent upon Him for salvation; at the same time having these inexpressable feelings of thankfulness. I guess you could call it “dreadful joy”. I am so thankful it is not up to me to save myself - I’m grateful it’s not a wisdom contest….”who is smart enough to choose God?”
So I will be waiting for your comments, questions, disagreements, frying, ect….
Comments
7 Comments so far
-
-
Theologica
Check it out here.
-
Parchment and Pen Blog - Internet Monk
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Faith and Theology
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
-
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /home/ttpstude/public_html/blogs/wp-includes/rss.php on line 428
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /home/ttpstude/public_html/blogs/wp-includes/rss.php on line 428
Powered by FireStats
Predestination is for those whom God did foreknow would be saved. Growing into Christlikeness is the object of predestination.
The Bible repeatedly invites sinners to come to Christ.
Unconditional election ignores the numerous open invitations in the Bile for all sinners to come to Christ and be saved.
Dennis
The invitations are to believe. But a person can’t simply choose to believe something. If someone invited me to believe that my wife does not exist, I would not be able to do it, even if my life depended on it. How much harder to believe that a 1st century Jewish carpenter is God and Savior of the world.
Unless the scales are removed from a man’s eyes, he will not be able to see and believe, no matter how hard he tries.
How do you answer he numerous references to God being no “respector of persons.”
The invitations are to all that burden and heavy laden.
*edit* the not he
terrible typer put together with terrible speller and all I can hope is you can read.
Dennis,
I think we may have a classical arminian vs calvinistic discussion starting here, and that may be some of the rub for you. I dont wish to try to rehash that whole discussion as I dont think I could do it justice and there are many resources on the topic.
However, to address your specific question:
I take the passages that talk about God not being a respector of persons (from Acts 10:34) to mean that he does not elect those on any merit or basis of their own doing (family, race, wealth, status, etc). Specifically in this passage, we are dealing with the issue of race. God does not only consider Jews, but also Gentiles need the Gospel message. That’s the context of the passage I think you’ll find.
When taking that in harmony with many other passages (Romans 9 for example) where it is said that God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and He will make some for “special” and others for “ordinary” use we can see a more fully-orbed view of God’s sovereignty in salvation. He chooses whom He chooses, but it is not based any criteria (and thus He’s no respector of persons). Now, this is a potentially tough idea, but like Paul says in Romans 9:
9:18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.
9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God?
Though this may not satisfy you in an answer, I did want to respond to your question and address that. I hope my comments were helpful to you in understanding what is meant in Acts 10:34.
-steve
Great responses by everyone! The only other question I have is; Is God still God if anything is outside His power?
Michael,
I think that sounds like an excellent topic for another post. Go for it. ;^)
-steve