Do We Choose God Or Did God Choose Us?

 God’s Selection of Israel

9 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.[a] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.[b] God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Romans 9 is a chapter loaded with theological implications that help us understand the nature of God.  First, Paul talks about God's relationship with Israel. Second, he talks about the nature of how God chooses some and not others.  Of course this is a hotly debated subject.  Those who believe in "predestination" believe that God chooses who He wants and who are we to question him.  Others believe in Arminianism.  This theology was put forth by Jacobus Arminius a Dutch Reformed theologian of the University of Leiden (1603–09). Ariminianism was a reaction to strict Calvinistic predestination (put forth by John Calvin).  These two men were right after the time of Martin Luther in the latter stages of the Protestant Reformation. 

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,”[d] though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son."

Enough with the history lesson. In the verses above, Paul says that though his Jewish brothers and sisters were descendants of Abraham, it didn 't necessarily make them "children of Abraham". By this he means "children of the promise" that led to the birth of Christ.  Though Sarah gave birth to Issac, Abraham had another son Ishmael.  Issac was a son of the promise and Ishmael only descendant of Abraham.  God chose Issac not Jacob. 

10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.[f] 11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”[g] 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

Then Paul gives another example of how God chose one person from a family and not another.  When Issac married Rebekah and they had twins, Jacob and Esau. God told Rebekah before the boys were born that the older would serve the younger.  Esau was predestined from birth to serve Jacob.  Esau was a descendant of Issac, but not a child of the promise.  Jacob was both a descendant of Abraham and a child of the promise through which Jesus would come.  This makes it clear that good works don't justify us.  God called Jacob before he could do anything good or bad.  The challenge is one might say Esau never had a chance.  This is the biggest challenge with the theology of predestination.  How could God reject someone before they were even born? Paul says, "who are we to question God?" Can the clay question the potter's motives?  Though predestination is troubling it is pretty hard to interpret anything differently from this passage.  But there are other passages that lend themselves to Ariminianism as well.  I think we can hold these two in tension.