https://youtu.be/_fgjo7ymLVI
In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we completed our expanded translation Rom 9:8; "This means that the descendants of the flesh (racial Jews), are NOT the children of THE God: but THE children of THE promise are counted as descendants."
Rom 9:9; (For) is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle "gar" that tells us that additional explanation is coming. With it is the nominative singular subject "logos" (word) with the article 'ho" (the) referring to the specific content of God's Word to Abraham.
With it is the possessive genitive singular from the noun "epanggelia" (of promise) referring to unconditional promise that God gave to Abraham that was guaranteed by God's integrity.
There is another ellipsis here that requires the insertion of the present active indicative of the verb " eimi" (is) with the predicate nominative singular from the demonstrative pronoun "houtos" (this) so the first phrase is "For the word of promise is this."
Next comes a quotation from Gen 18:10. The Lord Jesus Christ had come to visit Abraham to encourage him and to add to the repertoire of doctrinal promises from God would be fulfilled in the future.
"And he (Jesus Christ) said, I will surely return to you when the time revives next year; and behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. Gen 18:12; "And Sarah laughed within herself."
Rom 9:9; The Greek says literally, "According to this time I will come, and there will be to Sarah a son." The prepositional phrase "kata" (by) plus the accusative singular from the demonstrative pronoun "houtos" (this) and the noun "kairos" (time or season) "at this time" or "at this season." The future active indicative of the verb "erchomai" (I will come).
By the time that Jesus came back to visit Abraham had attained spiritual maturity adjustment to God's justice of God and God imputed the blessing of the restoration of his sexual ability. Jesus Christ came for the purpose of imputing blessing. The predictive future tense describes an event that is expected to occur at a future time.
The active voice, the Lord Jesus Christ who is speaking with Abraham as the angel of Jehovah promises to fulfill the action. The indicative mood is declarative describing the reality of the imputation of God's blessing that revives Abraham's sexual capacity.
Next we have the connective "kai" (and) that connects to result of blessing. With it is the future active indicative of "eimi" (will be) so we have "and there will be. The future tense is predictive. The active voice: Sarah is going to produce the action in her pregnancy from Abraham.
The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of God's imputation to Sarah so she is included in the promise. The verb "eimi" (to be) with the dative case is an idiom that means, "to have."
Next comes the dative singular from the proper noun "Sarra" (Sarah). The dative of indirect object means that Sarah is going to benefit from this "there will be to Sarah" or "Sarah will have." Then the predicate nominative of "huios" (son) the son that God had promised.
God's omniscience knew in eternity past that Abraham would attain spiritual maturity and that he would be circumcised in preparation for the new racial species that was an indication that God intended to keep His word and provide a son to be the promised heir for Abraham and Sarah.
A year later through the imputation of sexual prosperity Abraham and Sarah she would have a son who would be the source of a new and unique race. God's omniscience knew that Isaac would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that Ishmael would not, that Jacob would believe in Christ and that Esau would not.
The printout of God's decree is based upon the fact that God knew in eternity past what the free will decisions of every individual would be. God's sovereignty did not and does not determine this; the free agency of each individual determines it.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:9; "For the word of the promise is this, at this time (after Abraham's spiritual maturity adjustment to God's justice) I will come to impute blessing, and Sarah will have a son."
We see here that the foundation of the Jewish race and the nation Israel should inform every Jewish person to the fact that natural generation is not enough because the true Jew is both the natural and the spiritual seed of Abraham.
It is true that the racial origin descends through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But the question arises, why not through the firstborn, like Nahor who was the firstborn in Abraham's generation, Ishmael and Esau.
In this case the entire connotation of primogeniture or the inheritance of the eldest son set aside. So we have the principle that there is no advantage in primogeniture without the advantage. The concept is that the elder will serve the younger because positive volition to God's Word takes precedence over birth order.
The overruling principle in God's plan of grace is that advantages are not actually advantages without the advantage of believing in Jesus Christ.
God's purposes relating to all events of every kind constitute one single all-comprehensive intention, perceiving all events in omniscience, the free as free, the necessary as necessary together with all causes, conditions, successions and relations as one indivisible system of events every link of which is essential to the integrity of the whole.
This means that God knew every cause and effect and all of it was perfectly related. The decree of God, then, is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending simultaneously all things that ever were, or will be, in their causes, conditions, successions and relations, and determining their certainty of their occurrence.
God's decree is His eternal and immutable will with regard to the future existence of events that will happen in time, and of the precise manner of their occurrence.
God's decree is God's eternal plan whereby God has rendered all things in human history certain, past, present, and future. This is not only true of human history but is true regarding the angelic conflict as well.
So God's omniscience knows everything that ever would occur. God's omniscience has placed in the decree of human events everything that would be thought, every decision that every free will would ever make, and every action or deed that would occur.
Not only that but they are all interrelated just as we see them when they occur in time and we see them happen but God knew they would happen in eternity past.
The decree is constructed from the perception of God's omniscience for the eternal purpose of God, the councils of His will, and the promotion of His glory and His pleasure.
Once the information is in the decree the future events that are in the decree are described as being foreordained or predestinated. That simply describes the certainty of the decisions, thoughts and actions of every creature who will ever live.
The decree only deals with what will actually happen. It does not deal with what will not happen. Infinite intelligence knows what will happen regarding every creature including who will believe in Christ and who will reject Christ as savior, and which believers will regress into reversionism and which believers will advance from positive volition.
With spiritual death and the indwelling old sin nature man is incapable of pleasing God not only from the factor of sins that were judged on the cross but, even worse than that, human good because human good is just as evil as sin.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is designed to sustain mankind in his relationship with God. This is illustrated by common and efficacious grace for the unbeliever and the indwelling and the filling of the Spirit for the believer.
The principle is that no event or occurrence that is fed into the decree is directly affected or caused by God. God's omniscience distinguishes between reality that is fed into the decree and the potential that is not fed into the decree.
Only what will actually occur in history is fed into the decree even though events in the decree are affected by causes acting in a manner consistent with reality that affects the thoughts, decisions and actions of each and every free agent.
God's decree is efficacious in that it determines all that ever was or ever will be, and at the same time it is efficacious in relationship to what God does directly in contrast to what God permits creatures to do.
The execution of any thought or any decision or any action on the part of a creature is not the source of the decree.
God's omniscience created the decree from God's cognizance of every anticipated thought, decision, or action of every creature and fed it into the decree in eternity past.
Events in the decree never arise from God's foreknowledge because foreknowledge makes nothing certain; it simply acknowledges what is declared in the decree.
Foreknowledge is not synonymous with self-knowledge or omniscience. It is an entirely different category of information that does not exist until after the decree exists because it is a readout from the decree.
Being omniscient God knows all that would have been involved had He adopted any one of an infinite number of plans of action. But what is actually fed into the decree is only what is or will be actual reality.
Foreknowledge is knowledge of what occurs in the decree that will actually become part of history, but omniscience also includes knowledge of what does not occur in the decree.
God's omniscience only fed reality into the decree and what He fed into the computer is exclusively related to omniscience, never to foreknowledge. Foreknowledge can only read out what is in the decree.
That means that foreknowledge is not knowledge of future events, it is merely an acknowledgment of what is in the decree. God's foreknowledge does not produce or cause any events, it simply recognizes what is in the decree, and foreknowledge is a readout of that information.
Foreknowledge is not foresight. God does not learn or obtain knowledge. In eternity past God instantly knew everything that was ever knowable. God knows all events past, present and future because in eternity past He decreed them and His omniscience fed that reality into the decree. Foreknowledge is simply the readout of that information from the decree.
God's decree relates equally to all future events in all categories that includes the free actions of moral agents as well as the actions of necessary agents, to the sinful, and the human good, the evil as well as morally correct and gracious actions.
Since the divine decree alone establishes certainty nothing can be foreknown until it is first decreed. Omniscience only decreed what would happen and therefore omniscience only fed reality into the decree.
Foreknowledge is related only to what is decreed. Again foreknowledge simply acknowledges what is in the decree. So omniscience precedes the decree; foreknowledge is technically simultaneous with the decree but logically it comes after the decree.
Foreknowledge cannot be placed before the decree because that would be a blasphemous implication that God was not aware of something and was therefore not the original cause.
The will of God must be consistent with His own perfect attributes and His own eternal essence because God's immutability requires that be no compromise of His attributes. It is impossible for God to compromise His attributes.
Because of this we have to understand God's will as it relates to man's free will that is the function of man as a free agent. God cannot compromise His essence. God is one in essence, three in personality. Both the essence and personality imply self-consciousness and self-determination.
God did not decree Himself to be. God always existed and He preexisted and decreed everything else from His omniscience. In other words, everything that was fed into the decree was fed by an eternal being who has always existed in a perfect state and who never came into existence or ceased to exist at any time.
God's will is manifested in the decree because the decree covers everything in history because the divine decree is God's will. Not the slightest uncertainty could exist as to one of the smallest events without confusing everything.
That means that all of the events are interwoven and they are interdependent because God's will is eternal. God's will existed in eternity past, long before anything else existed because everything that exists is in the decree.
God fed all of the facts of history into the decree as thought, decision, and action under the principle of free volition. In other words, God is a gentleman and God's sovereignty that always existed created the free volition of angels and humans and He provided alternatives that always have a solution.