Calvinism and Romans – Part 5
In Romans 3, Paul sets forth the truth that Jews cannot be saved outside of Jesus Christ. This was both frightening and offensive to the Jew who would have objected. Paul writes five more chapters showing that such is the case. Then, in chapter 9, he writes: “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” He wrote this because he knew that the Jews, “according to the flesh,” were lost outside of Jesus Christ. He wished he could be accursed so that they could be saved. All is not lost, because one can belong to the Israel of promise without being an Israelite “according to the flesh.”
This is what Paul means when he says, “It is not that the word of God has taken no effect” (Romans 9:6). The word of God had, in fact, taken effect by God’s promise through Abraham. The children of the flesh are not by that fact the children of God, “but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.” God’s plan would be fulfilled through His promise: “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
Here is where John Calvin and the Calvinists make their mistake. They assume that “seed” means all saved individuals, chosen as individuals. Paul is speaking of one person, Christ Jesus. In Galatians 3:16 he writes, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ.” The saved are “counted as the seed” because they are in Christ, who is the seed. The rest of Romans 9 has to be read with that in mind.
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley