Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Romans 8:14-16.

 

“¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

 

¹⁵  For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”

 

¹⁶  So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”  Romans 8:14-16.

 

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Salvation does not depend on the man who wills (“free-will faith”) or the man who runs (“works”), but salvation depends on God who has mercy.  God is sovereign in the area of salvation.  God chooses or elects those whom He will save. 

 

God’s election is unconditional:  the “U” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the doctrines of grace.  God’s election is not based on any condition provided by man which motivates God to save him whether it be works or faith or anything else.  Remember “Total Depravity”, the “T” of “TULIP”.  Man is dead in sin;  there is nothing attractive about the corpses that motivates God to choose one corpse over another.

 

In addition, God’s election is totally based on mercy and compassion.  God does not owe, as a matter of justice, to provide salvation to anyone.  Man has not provided anything (whether it be works or faith or anything else) that obligates God to save him.  Article 1 of The Canons of Dordt states:  “Article 1.  As all men have sinned in Adam, lie under the curse, and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done no injustice by leaving them all to perish, and delivering them over to condemnation on account of sin, according to the words of the apostle, Romans 3:19, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”  And verse 23:  “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23:  “for the wages of sin is death.”  

 

 

Article 7.  Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, he hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of Salvation.  This elect number, though by nature neither better nor more deserving than the others, but with them involved in one common misery, God hath decreed to give to Christ, to be saved by him, and effectually to call and draw them to his communion by his Word and Spirit, to bestow upon them true faith, justification and sanctification;  and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of his Son, finally, to glorify them for the demonstration of his mercy, and for the praise of his glorious grace;  as it is written:  “According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved,” Ephesians 1:4,5,6.  And elsewhere: “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called;  and whom he called, them he also justified;  and whom he justified, them he also glorified,” Romans 8:30.”

Article 9.  This election was not founded upon foreseen faith, and the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality of disposition in man, as the pre-requisite, cause or condition on which it depended;  but men are chosen to faith and to the obedience of faith, holiness, etc., therefore election is the fountain of every saving good;  from which proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and effects, according to that of the apostle: “He hath chosen us (not because we were) but that we should be holy, and without blame, before him in love,” Ephesians 1:4.