I. The Word: Romans 9:19-29

19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

25As He says also in Hosea,
“I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’
AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’”

 26“AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’
THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”

 27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; 28FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.”

29And just as Isaiah foretold,
“UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY,
WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”

II. Reflection Questions:

1. Why is Paul asking this question in verse 19?

2. How do you define total and ultimate freedom?

3. If you believed what Paul is saying here, how can that make you a better missionary and prayer warrior?

This is one of the, if not The, most formative chapters in the Bible for my walk with Jesus. I hope you enjoy the struggle as much as I have!

I implore you all to not move to fast through these text, and not be quick to be dismissive of words/phrases that bother your western, 21st century, sensibilities. This text is rich with deep theological thoughts and ideas, so get your bucket and go down the mine. My only warning as a long time miner who has survived my share of close calls down the shaft of deep theological study…make sure you are doing two things: 1. Work through these theological truths in community…it will save you a ton of pain. 2. If your theology about Jesus ever leads you to not be passionate about His mission to brings people from death to life and darkness to light the you have a bad, broken, and yes even an evil/demonic theology. It would be more helpful to the Gospel if you moved into a cave by yourself than to have a theology that births in you a cold/apathetic attitude towards those who do not yet know Jesus like we do.

With all that said for these crazy challenging passages I am going to post a really cool study tool that John Piper put out called “Look at the book.” There are 8 short (10 minutes each) videos that he has made on this big section of text. Today I will post 4 of them and then tomorrow the last four. That is about 40 minutes of great stuff today and then 40 tomorrow. I beg you to limit yourself to only 4 a day, do not get ahead. Pace yourself, and enjoy!

Look at the book part 1

Look at the book part 2

Look at the book part 3

Look at the book part 4