In our last visit we discovered, according to Romans 9, if you are a believer and have a personal relationship with God and are declared righteous, it’s because of God’s choice. It’s because you have been called with an effectual call. You are the object of His love. 

 

This is not something new that Paul dreamed up and presented. He based his message on the sovereignty of God in redemption declared by Old Testament prophets. 

 

Paul refers to Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 when he writes in verses 25-26, “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” And from Isaiah 10:22-23 and 1:9: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality...Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” 

 

The populations of Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped out with the exception of Lot and his two daughters. You might say they deserved this because of their wicked lifestyle. But remember Paul’s warning in Romans 2:1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same thing.”