Romans 9

So I haven’t been real good with keeping up on this every day.

1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen^[a] according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”^[b] 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”^[c]
10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”^[d] 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”^[e]

I used to champion Romans 9 as a bastion of predestination.  But here are the Orthodox Study Bible notes.

The paradox of Jewish unbelief is understood in part by Paul’s description of a twofold Israel: one spiritual, the other physical. God is faithful to all Israel, but the issue is, who is a true child of Abraham?
(1) Not a natural or biological offspring of Abraham, for if this were the case the children of Hagar and of Keturah would be Israelites. Further, not all those in Isaac’s line  are Israelites (otherwise Esau and the Edomites would be) but those who are “in Isaac” – in other words, faithful believers.  Being a child of God has never been based on race, or family.
(2) Children of the promise – that is, those in Isaac, or faithful believers – are the true children of Abraham. For Isaac was conceived by the word of promise, not just by the natural procreative powers of his elderly parents.

It was being argued that since Ishmael was the son of a slave woman, whereas Sarah was free, Isaac was the seed and Ishmael was not. However, the fact that Rebecca was free and the mother of both Jacob and Esau proves the argument wrong. for if being God’s children is based on the flesh, then Esau must also be counted in the inheritance. Jacob is the seed, not because of his human parentage, but because he is the child of promise.
Both Jacob and Esau were called to salvation, for God loves all equally. But God foreknew how these two would freely respond to His call: Esau was hated, or rejected, only because God knew he would choose wrongly and be wicked. Jacob was loved and chosen because God knew he would participate in the faith of Abraham and serve God’s purposes. Similarly, though at one time Paul persecuted Christians, God foreknew he would repent and had elected him before he was born. God knows the end even before the beginning.

Generally speaking, I’ve kinda come to see predestination in a more corporate manner, like God predestining the Church for salvation, rather than any kind of individualized attention.  Of course, I believe in the foreknowledge of God, but I’m not a determinist…. and I am soooooo NOT a Calvinist.

Romans 8: part 3

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us^[b] with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

“The Holy Spirit not only brings us strength, He empowers us in our weaknesses, especially helping us to pray. Prayer in the spirit, also called prayer without words, is the highest form of prayer. The Fathers identify three stages: (1) saying te words of the prayers; (2) saying the words with meaning and full concentration; (3) praying without words, when one is so filled with the Holy Spirit and so in union with God that words are inadequate.”

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

This is a section that I used to champion as very Calvinistic.  However, since relinquishing my Reformed doctrine, I have yet to quite figure out how to explain these verses in an Orthodox mindset without completely contextualizing everything that goes behind predestination.  There is absolutely no way that I can believe in predestination or total depravity in the same sense as I once did having now understood (at least partly) and by trying to see everything through the light of Trinitarian theology.  In my opinion, the best way to understand anything in Christianity is to start from the Trinity… if you start there, you might not get lost so often.

Anyways, I will quote the commentary for these verses: “For those who love God, the Scriptures and experience bear witness: all things work together for good. Setbacks and difficulties there will be, but God turns them into “loight affliction.” This passage is read on the Feasts of teh Martyrs, for being conformed to the image of His Son includes conformity to christ’s death out of His love for the Father. God foreknows all things, but He does not predetermine all. For God is free and man is free. Gof freely offers salvation to all, and man freely responds to it. All are called, but all do not respond. Those who refuse to love God are not forced to change; God compels no one. “God does not will evil to be done, nor does He force virtue” (St. John of Damascus). Based on His foreknowledge, God assures or predestines that those who choose to lvoe and obey Him will be fulfilled, being conformed to the image of His Son. The model for the creation of man is the Son incarnate, and the eternal goal of man is conformity to the incarnate Son. Thus, everything the Only Begotten Son is by nature we bec ome by the grace of the Incarnation. In relation to the Father, the Son is the Only Begotten, but in relation to us He is the firstborn of many brethren.”

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”^[c]

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Love of God is greater than anything we could possibly imagine. In my past theological intrigues I don’t think I ever realized how much rests on the love of God.  I stressed his wrath, his anger, his righteousness and forgot the love and mercy, forgiveness, and grace of God.  God does not rejoice in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live!