The Devotional - R034

The Devotional

Comment:

Many are the religions of people and nations in the world around us. So many in fact; that these would be hard to count, even to the point that some regiments in life, while these are not considered a religion are religiously and vigorously adhered to. Some folks religiously cling to a sport and vigorously defend their teams or people. Some religiously cling to family and tradition and will not budge, looking any further is like committing adultery. Finally some believe that one can gain eternal bliss by doing good works, with little or no Divine knowledge. This in every corner is “missing the mark” or as we saw yesterday that Israel as a nation had God’s Purpose and Plan but drifted off course into idolatry. By the way all of efforts to gain God’s favor in life apart from the full intent of the Word of God is – IDOLATRY! With this in mind, let us look once again at “calling and election”!

Challenge: Romans 9:14-16

As we also saw yesterday we have no human ability to enter the kingdom of God on our own merit, simply put; all our efforts are “unrighteous in the Eyes of the LORD”. Earlier in Romans 3:10-18 we saw that God sees all of humankind as unrighteous. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

For parallel passages in the Old Testament see, Ecclesiastes 7:12, Psalm 14:1-3 and Isaiah 53:1-12. It is very difficult for us as an individual or as a nation to view ourselves as unrighteous people and off course to God’s Plan and Purpose. By human nature we are religious on every path of life, yet God has ordered the Way to His Kingdom, not by “religion” but by one MAN. Calling and election is not ordered by mankind’s human ability to understand, but by mankind’s ability to believe God. Which by the way is FAITH! Okay, I get it, but faith in what or who? We already know the answer, do we not? Jesus/Messiah or as some might say – Messiah/Jeshua. The world around us does not KNOW God, they only know “of God”!

God gives us every opportunity to personally KNOW Him, remember there is no unrighteousness with God so then, where does unrighteousness dwell? It dwells in you and me and it expresses its evil power in the nations we live in and in the religions we participate in. Therefore God calls out to the nations and the individuals of religion/idolatry to change their mind about their unrighteous way of life and He demonstrates this to all nations and religions. As God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

This is not selective calling or election as taught in some religious circles. As God proves earlier in Romans 9, not all Israel is Israel, but only those who are the Seed of Abraham. The SEED is Jesus/Messiah or Messiah/Yeshua however you seek to look at the Son of God. Believing God is hearing the “calling” that has gone out to all the world and “election” is the result of all who personally receive Jesus by faith. All of the calling and election of God to the peoples of the world was completed in eternity before time began, not to just a few in Israel. See Hosea 2:23 or read Romans 9:24-29.

In closing out Romans 9:30-33 – I certainly know that the wisdom and depth of God,s Love, Mercy and Forgiveness is not fully revealed in the things we have looked at briefly. But this I do know, “God has had His Gate to the Kingdom open to the Gentiles since the fall of Adam, Adam was Gentile not a Jew. The Way through the gate is like this, John 14:1-6, we will pick up this conversation of Jesus in verse 6… “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”