Monday, October 12, 2009
The amazing glory of Romans 9:15
Romans 9:15 is a verse where Paul quotes from Exodus 33:19 where God says to Moses "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" I have recenty discovered the amazing meaning behind this awe inspiring statement. The context for when God said it to Moses is that Moses was interceding before God after he saw the Israelites dancing in front of the golden calf. After Moses finds favor with God in Exodus 33:12-17, he makes a request that one would dare not make while they are in a sinful body. He asks in verse 18 that God would show Him His glory (the visisle manfestation of His all surpassing beauty. After Moses makes His request, God replies in verse 19 "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my Name, the LORD, in your presence." And then God goes on to say that "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". I believe that God said that in order to justify granting Moses' faithful request to gain a partial beatific vision of God that his face would be radiant to as he went down to speak with his people. (Exodus 34:29-35) And now I think that I finally may have found a life altering meaning in Romans 9:15 where Paul quotes it in order to validate the righteouesness of God in saving through the gospel rather than by race. (Romans 9:6-8) Romans 9:15 is God's unswerving zealous zeal to show amazing glory to all those who respond to the gospel with a desire to accept God's love as accepting eternal happiness. I think that is precisely what Hebrews 11:6 is saying when the author says that faith is coming to God with the expecatation of a reward (Happiness in GOD??) And so the nature of saving faith is desiring and accepting God's all-satisfying love and grace and beauty with a confident trust that it can satisfy. Jesus says in John 6:35 that He who believes in me will never be hungry or thirst EVER!! And so I plead that you will accept the gospel that Paul presents in Romans 9:15-16 regardless of anything in you. Because the reason that God will have mercy on who He does is because they belong to His wonderful Son (Galatians 3:28, Romans 9:8) and they can now be even more radiant with God's glory than Moses can all because they can go directly to God through union with their mediator Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5) and through the indwelling power and fruit of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-26) So I plead that you can delight in Romans 9:15 because that is God's unswerving zeal to proclaim His glory and all-surpassing goodness to those who belong to His beloved Son, who are children of promise and spiritual children of Abraham without those people being obilerated as they now are spiritually alive!! Even the reason why He is putting up with His vessels of wrath (all non-Christians as John 3:36 declares) is so that not only will they repent and come to Christ (Romans 2:4) but also to demonstrate the glory of His amazing mercy to us Christans both Jew and Gentile!! (Romans 9:22-23) I pray that you will see that amazing God who is infinitely passionate about your soul-stirring pleasure in Him that no tribulation on earth can brake!!
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