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In our verse by verse study of Romans we have completed our Expanded Translation of Rom 9:11; "For though the twins [Esau and Jacob] had not yet been born, and though they had not yet accomplished anything, good or evil, in order that the predetermined plan of God might remain in status quo in relationship to election not of works, but of the one who calls."`
This verse highlights God's plan for believers so we took up a brief study on the doctrine of election.
Before we stopped last time we had noted that every election only includes believers and then there is the unique election of the Lord Jesus Christ that is a unique because it only involves one person who is not described as a believer because He is the Lord Jesus Christ and God's Word does not describe Him as believing in Himself.
The election of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation for all of the other elections in history. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is a free will choice from non-meritorious self-determination that is made by free volition is the key to every election.
So faith in "the elect one," the Lord Jesus Christ is the predicate for all elections of human history.
God's system for the election of the Church as God's royal family is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that during the church age occurs at the moment anyone believes in Jesus Christ.
At the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ and His life as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. That God's Word describes as current positional truth.
We are also entered into union with Christ in His death on the cross that God's Word describes as retroactive positional truth that is basis of the believer's big divorce from the old sin nature as the ruler of their lives.
No Church Age believer can properly understand God's plan for his life or the significance of his royal privileges until he understands the significance of the election of each and every individual member of the Church.
1Thess 1:4; "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, his election of you." The participle is in the imperative mood so a better translation is " Now you know brethren beloved by God that He has elected (chosen) you.
God has chosen each and every individual member of the church so believers can't learn enough about their election and this is a command to learn about your election as you orient to God's plan for your life.
You will never be able to understand the significance of God's plan for you and your life until you understand the significance God's election of you.
You are elected as God's royal family with a specific purpose on the earth in time and a specific purpose in eternity in heaven forever. At this time understanding our purpose in time is more important than understanding our purpose in eternity but both are very important.
2 Thes 2:13;"But we are obligated to give thanks for you [royal family], beloved by the Lord, because God has elected you to office from the beginning' (from eternity past) for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
There is no election apart from faith in Christ the phrase "to salvation through sanctification from the Spirit" is describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit that enters every believer into union with Christ creating God's royal family "and faith in truth" all believers are members of God's royal family but to understand it you have to advance in your understanding of the truth. 2Pet 3:18;
1Cor 1:2; approaches election from a slightly different angle "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus (the baptism of the Spirit), saints (God's royal family) by election, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, theirs and ours."
We see here that election is a printout of the divine decree for believers only, just as predestination and foreknowledge is a printout for believers only because Jesus Christ becomes Lord from the retroactive and current positional truth that comes from the baptism of the spirit when you are born again.
Col 3:12; "As elected ones of God, holy and beloved, put on the affections of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."
2 Tim 1:9; "The one having saved us, and having elected us into a holy station of life (royal family), not according to our works but according to his predetermined plan, even grace (the name of the plan), which has been given to us in Christ Jesus before time began."
Eph 1:3-6; "Worthy of praise and glorification is the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ,
v4 even as he has elected us for himself in Him before the world began that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love.
v5 having predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
v6 resulting in recognition of glory from the source of his grace, from which he has endowed us with grace in the beloved one."
Eph 1:11; goes onto say, "In whom (Christ) we have been claimed as God's own possession since we were predestined according to His predetermined plan (His divine decree) from the one (God the Father) putting into operation all things according to the plan of His will."
One of the greatest passages on election relates God's plan to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in Rom 8:28-34 - "We know in fact that to those who love God all things work together for the purpose of the good (agathos), to those who are the elected ones according to a predetermined plan."
God's omniscience knew the actual and distinguished it from the probable. Omniscience knows the probable that would have happened if you had made different choices- but only what you actually did was fed into His decree as reality.
God's "predetermined plan" takes cognizance of human free will.
v29 "We know that whom he foreknew (foreknowledge), he also foreordained as conformed ones to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren (royal family of God);"
Foreknowledge is a printout from God's decree for those who are conformed to Jesus Christ so foreknowledge only applies to believers in Jesus Christ.
v30 "and whom he foreordained (or decreed), these same one he also elected; and whom he elected these same ones he also imputed righteousness (justification); and whom he justified, these same ones he glorified (glorification is the imputation of divine blessing to imputed righteousness)."
v31 "Therefore, face to face with these things, to what conclusion are we forced? If the God is for us, who is against us?
v32 The God who did not even spare his own Son, but on behalf of us all he delivered him over to judgment; how shall he not with him in grace give to us the all things?
v33 Who will bring accusation against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one having died, yes, rather having been raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us."
We see here that the application of doctrinal truth to election is the motivation for God's royal family to advance to spiritual maturity, and that spiritual momentum is developed from that motivation.
For example, Eph 4:1; - "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling (royal family), to which have been called."
Titus 1:1 - ""Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the doctrine of God's elected ones and of spirit taught knowledge of truth according to the spiritual life."
v2 in confidence of eternal life that God who cannot lie promised in eternity past.
This brings us to the election of Israel that is the topic of our passage in Romans 9:4-13. v7 "but (quotation from Genesis 21:12) in Isaac your posterity (your seed) shall be named." Net note 23
Rom 11:2; "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." In other words, every believer in Israel is in the divine decree as a believer is also elected. Then and now, election has always been the predicate for Israel.
Isa 45:4; "For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my elected one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you (unbelieving Jews) do not even know me."
Regardless of this the overruling principle is that Israel will always have an elect, and that elect forms the pivot that kept the Jewish nation in great prosperity during the time they were functioning as a priest nation.
Now that Israel as a priest nation has been discontinued since 70 AD the Jews who reach spiritual maturity in every generation determine the prosperity of Israel during the period of being scattered during the Church Age and the Tribulation.
Isa 65:9; "Therefore I will bring forth from Jacob a seed (the elect of Israel), out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, even my elected ones will inherit it, and my servants will dwell there."
Matt 24:21,22; "but because of the elected ones." This pivot determines blessing to the Jews scattered throughout the earth. They will bring safety to Jews in the land of Israel.
So the elect or believing Jews have future national blessing from God in the Millennium and during the Tribulation there is a pivot of mature believers in Israel.
Election is the content of God's decree related to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, assigned to their various dispensations. Election is a category of God's decree that explains God's omniscience.
Each dispensation has its own election that is related to God's policy for that dispensation under the principle of as goes the believer who is the elect in any dispensation so goes the client nation that the believers are associated with.
Rom 9:12; is a quote from Gen 25:23; "Eipon autos hoti" (it was said to her)
"ho megas douleusi elassonai" (The greater (older) will slave (serve) the lesser (younger)).
In eternity past God's omniscience knew that Jacob would believe in Jesus Christ and his twin brother, Esau, would not believe so Jacob would be the recipient of God's promised eternal blessings.
Rom 9:13; "Kathos grapho" (As it stands written), referencing a quotation from the TNACH Mal 1:2,3.
We have "ton Iacob (the Jacob) the accusative singular definite article is used with the proper name Jacob makes it monadic describing Jacob, whose identity is well known to the reader.
The definite article is used here as a demonstrative pronoun to call special attention to this specific person who was no better or no worse than his twin brother but because of God's grace he became one of the great people of human history.
Because the definite article is in the accusative case it is assumed that the proper noun Jacob is also in the accusative case so it is the direct object and that God is the subject so the correct translation is "that Jacob."