b2_21 | Spiritual Food

ROMANS 9
VI. Selection
A. God’s Selection, Our Destiny
1. Of God Who Calls

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
That I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were a curse, separated from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
Who are Israelites, whose are the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service and the promises;
Whose are the fathers, and out of whom, as regards what is according to flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has fallen away, for not all who are out of Israel are Israel;
Neither is it that because they are the seed of Abraham, they are all children; but, In Isaac shall your seed be called,
That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted as the seed.
For this is the word of promise, At this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only so, but Rebecca also, having conceived by one, Isaac our father,
Though the children had not yet been born nor had done anything good or bad (that the purpose of God according to selection might remain, not of works but of Him who calls),
It was said to her, The greater shall serve the less;
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

2. Of God’s Mercy

What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? Absolutely not!
For to Moses He says, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised you up, that I might show in you My power, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.