Romans 9:19-21: Suggesting Some Answers Regarding God’s Sovereign Election, Part Two
Nick confesses his love for the hard questions raised in Scripture, pointing to Christ’s own cry of dereliction from the cross as an example of a question whose answer proves profound. Continuing Romans 9:19-21, he works through the two wills of God, the idea of concurrence, and the image of the sinful lump from which God shapes vessels of both mercy and wrath.
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Romans 9:17-18: Double Predestination
Nick observes that people rarely object to God’s sovereign mercy toward the elect but recoil from the other side of election, what theologians call reprobation, the subject of Romans 9:17-18. He works through active mercy and passive hardening, showing why Pharaoh’s hardened heart does not make God unjust.
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Romans 9:14-16: The Justice and Mercy of God
Nick asks what the single most important lesson of Romans 9 really is, and surprises his hearers by naming humility rather than the doctrine of election itself. Preaching Romans 9:14-16, he shows the innocence, unity, mercy, and goodness of God even in his sovereign dealings with Pharaoh, guarding against any thought that God is unjust.
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Romans 8:29: The Foreknowledge of God, Part One
Nick explains that every sinner is born with a natural religion that puts self at the centre, the opposite of true religion which exists for the service of God, as he opens the first of two messages on Romans 8:29. He works carefully through the nature of analogical language and the etymological fallacy to show what the foreknowledge of God actually means.
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Romans 8:28a: God’s Working is the Ground of our Assurance
Nick surveys the many grounds of assurance Paul has already given, from propitiation to the ongoing ministries of the Spirit, before arriving at what he calls the bedrock in Romans 8:28a. He shows that our assurance rests not on our feelings but on knowing God’s unchanging character, his ways, and his purpose for those who love him.
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