Essays in Romans 9:10-15... The Election of God

The case is clear - left to our own devices, there is not one single member of humanity that will choose God. How else will ANYONE choose God if God does not first choose him/her? Is our salvation utterly dependent on the predetermined will of God? How can there be any other conclusion? I am not going to sugarcoat things here - this is a hard truth, indeed. But Paul doesn’t leave any wiggle room that I can see. That is the message from the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that would have been the particularly offensive part to Paul’s Jewish readers. They would have prided themselves on being descendants of Jacob. But in truth, Paul is telling them that they are more like Esau…