God's Plan - Romans 9 - 12

You will note that I have entitled this lesson as GOD’S PLAN. Plan is singular by intent; because only God could have organized one plan that could and did cover everything that exists today; or has ever existed, or ever will exist in all of Heaven, earth and in the universe. In previous lessons I have established that God is SOVEREIGN; [has always exited and is the one and only supreme ruler]. God is OMNIPOTENT [has absolutely no limitations] and is OMNIPRESENT [has always been everywhere] and He is IMMUTABLE which means that He has never and will never change.

The one characteristic of God that is especially important in your ability to understand this lesson is that God is OMNISCIENT [knows all things]. God knew a trillion years ago [or when God was] that I would be writing this lesson today and He knew that you would be reading it; and He was then… and still is very concerned about how well you will understand his purpose for your life and the mercy he has shown toward you; and that you never give up, but always remember that He is a patient God. You were given free choice, however, because of his fore-knowledge; you must understand that He has always known what your spiritual condition would be this day—He has always known you! And He has always known where you would spend eternity—because he knew what choices you would make.

Now, please stop for one moment where you are and try [as best you can] to visualize the entire universe including the sun, moon, stars, galaxies and the known world. You live here on earth and know something about what is happening here; so emphasize your study of the earth and all its wondrous beauty and complexities, including the mountains, rivers and oceans, night and day and how the earth hangs in space, held by gravity. Now think about all the living things, plants, animals, and people, with organs, tissues, cells, which have many parts, including a wall, protoplasm, nucleolus, genes, and even DNA]. All of these things that we know about are only a ‘dot’ on the map of His total creation which includes the many galaxies that only the scientists have discovered, and think they know about.

Only God in his total majesty has the ability to design a plan of this magnitude! Therefore, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that God’s plan included the life of each and every human being, from inception to the grave, and encompasses all eternity. In his plan He decided to give each of us the freedom and responsibility to choose our eternal destination. That is, he planned a heaven and a hell, and gave you and me the privilege to choose where we would spend eternity, and He has challenged each of us to “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” There is no gray area; you must either choose God and righteousness or Satin and evil. Jesus says that we are either ‘for’ Him or ‘against’ Him, and that simply means that there is no middle ground; no fence to ride. You must make a choice; if you do not choose him, you automatically choose to stand against him.

God created a perfect world and also man with his help-mate, knowing that man would choose to disobey Him. Therefore, his original plan also included his plan of redemption and salvation, [a way for man to be forgiven and be able to return unto Him in a perfect state, [as though he had never been lost]. The plan resulted because of his grace, free and un-earned, without merit on man’s part, and because of his Mercy which you can learn about in 9: 1-29. We have assurance that we can participate in this plan as explained by Paul in [9:30-10:21]. We know that we are sinners and that we do not please Him throughout much of the life we live, but we can be assured that He will be patient with us and that he is a God of second and third opportunities by studying [Romans 11: 1-36. Our lesson today is ALL ABOUT GOD’S PLAN.

Many of those [especially the Jews] that heard Paul preach opposed him. Because of his message he was rejected and persecuted, run out of town, stoned to near death and actually thought to be dead, because of Jewish opposition [see 2: Cor. 11:22-27]. Please read this passage; it is amazing that the Jews could treat Paul the way they did and for him to still love them and care for their future. One might think that he would seek revenge and either mislead his enemies or withhold the truth from them; but he did not. Paul forgave them and spent his life trying to reach them and bring God’s Plan to them and all posterity [Read 9: 1-5]. Paul seemingly tried to emulate the life of Christ by saying that, if it were possible, he would be willing to be cursed and cut off from Christ if it would save his own race—the people of Israel. In other words, Paul was willing for God to condemn him—if by so doing, that would save his people of Jewish descent. Then in verse five, he reminded them that Jesus became the Messiah [The one and only God over all] and that the Messiah descended from Jewish parents.

Primarily, Paul is dealing with a group of Jews. God had told them that, since Abraham, they were His chosen people. He gave them the law, and made them many promises, and for about six thousand years they had believed in God and trusted him to keep his promises to them. And now Paul is telling them that salvation is by grace through their faith and not of law or works—and it is easy to see why they were upset. His answer starts in verse six: you must read it. He says the word of God has not failed; but some of you have failed because you are not in total obedience…which is required. He said that “Not all of you who are descendants of Israel are Israel.” What does this mean? The word Israel generally applies to the people living there that are doing God’s will; therefore if they are disobedient they are really not considered a part of the recipients of his promises. Then Paul gives examples of what he means; he used Abraham and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael to explain.

God promised Abraham that he would father a great nation. When his wife Sarah could not bear children—they took things into their own hands and tried to help God’s promise come true by having Abraham sire a son, Ishmael, through his maid servant…not his wife. Later Sarah had a son, Isaac, fulfilling God’s promise. Ishmael was the oldest and should, by law, be the one to succeed his father; it was a promise—God changed the rule and declared the younger son Isaac as the seed of Abraham. Thus not physical descent, but the will of God determined the inheritor of the promise. It may not be written anywhere in the bible, [but I personally think that someone may have ask Paul if God did this—[“Could he possibly be honest and fair? And did God go back on his promise?] If they did not ask the question—then Paul just knew what they were thinking, because he answered the question in verse 14. “What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

God did not give the blessing to the firstborn who by ancient tradition should always receive it. God did not include all descendants of Abraham in the covenant. God blessed Jacob, though Jacob had not earned it. Paul is proving that God’s actions grow out of His mercy and grace and not from justice; if this were not true, we would all be damned [see 2 Chron. 19-7].

We find the words predestined and foreknowledge in several scriptures. There is no doubt in my mind that God knew each of us before we were conceived—He has that foreknowledge. At the time He designed his PLAN, He foreknew that many would never accept Him, but he included “freedom of choice” and placed the responsibility on the shoulders of each one to make the choice. Paul explains that responsibility in 10:8-13—you must read this scripture. You must choose; and herein is the decision you must make. Your faith is in your heart and it must be confessed with your mouth. “Jesus is Lord”—when you [must] confess this with your mouth, and believe in your heart [faith] that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead YOU WILL BE SAVED. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. The scripture says, ‘anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, God is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on Him,--for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” You make the choice, God gave you this privilege, however, He has always known which choice you would make.

We owe much to the Jews because God chose them to reveal his coming to the entire world—some of them never believed, or they disobeyed Him. However, He always had a remnant that remained faithful. God never promised that the entire nation would be saved; only those who were faithful to Him [the remnant] were considered true Jews [11:5]. Paul says some were hardened; but this was not punishment for their sin. It was a confirmation of their personal stubbornness and rebellion. The scripture says that God will not always strive with man—and this is an example where God removed their ability to see and hear and repent as the consequences of their rebellion; God did not predestine them to die; they made their own choice.

Verses 8-10 describe the punishment for hardened hearts as predicted by the prophet [Isaiah 6:9-13]. If you [any one] continually refuse to hear the Word, you will eventually not be able to understand it. Paul saw this happening among his people. Do you realize that in God’s plan, he intended for their failures to lead to the salvation of the gentile world? God did not force any Jew to be disobedient; however, in His plan he arranged it so that those that did would make it possible to save Gentiles who would otherwise have never known about the plan of Salvation. God conquered the Jewish spirit and dominant drive in Paul [a devout Jew] on the road to Damascus, and here in this lesson Paul is now trying to get both Jew and Gentile to understand the plan of salvation is by grace through faith and not works and law.

God did not predetermine that any man or woman would go to heaven or hell, but he did predetermine that they would have to choose for themselves, and because of His foreknowledge, God knew which choice they would make.

Note: Predestination is a deep subject; many disagree on its true and total meaning. I pray that I have not misled any one; but if so, that God and you will forgive me. Amen.