Pastor Josh continues teaching us through Romans, beginning Romans 9 this morning:
“Whenever we are studying in Romans there is a danger, especially as we work slowly through a couple verses at a time, that we miss the forest for the trees. This is Romans. There are some magnificent sequoias in here, some towering cedars. We’ve got predestination, we’ve got the sovereignty of God, we’ve got the state of ethnic Israel and the promises being granted to Israel….but we don’t want to miss the big picture…(T)he central issue in these chapters is not predestination, nor even the salvation of Israel, but the question: “Are we in the church able to fully trust the promises we have just received in chapters 5-8?” At the forefront of Paul’s thinking is God’s faithfulness to his promises…(F)or God to be truly ‘good’ he must also be fully in control. For God to consistently give such amazing promises to his people, as we have just seen in abundance throughout chapter 8, he must be fully willing and capable to carry them out. Anything less is not ‘ good’, well meaning though it might be…”