The document discusses biblical translations used and provides guidance for interpreting difficult scriptures. It recommends starting with Jesus, considering context, and looking for the author's own summary. It then summarizes the deterministic view that God determines all things and people do not have free will. Finally, it notes that no one held the deterministic view for the first 3 centuries.

2. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THE SERMON-IN-A-SENTENCE
God is faithful & gracious to EVERYONE!
ROMANS 9

3. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Start With Jesus – ALL Scripture points to Him
WHEN DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SCRIPTURES

4. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Start With Jesus – ALL Scripture points to Him
2. CONTEXT! For today: What is Paul trying to
address?
* Has God been faithful to His covenant with Israel?
WHEN DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SCRIPTURES

5. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Start With Jesus – ALL Scripture points to Him
2. CONTEXT! For today: What is Paul trying to
address?
* Has God been faithful to His covenant with Israel?
3. Look for the author’s own summary of their argument
WHEN DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SCRIPTURES

6. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Start With Jesus – ALL Scripture points to Him
2. CONTEXT! For today: What is Paul trying to
address?
* Has God been faithful to His covenant with Israel?
3. Look for the author’s own summary of their argument
4. CONTEXT again! This time, re: the O.T. passages
WHEN DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SCRIPTURES

7. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THE DETERMINIST VIEW
1. God determines EVERYTHING, “good” or “bad,”
and ALL of it – evil or beauty – is for His glory
OF ROMANS CHAPTER 9 & LIFE IN GENERAL

8. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THE DETERMINIST VIEW
1. God determines EVERYTHING, “good” or “bad,”
and ALL of it – evil or beauty – is for His glory
2. Free will is a myth; we aren’t capable of making
choices
that actually impact the way things come to pass
OF ROMANS CHAPTER 9 & LIFE IN GENERAL

9. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THE DETERMINIST VIEW
1. God determines EVERYTHING, “good” or “bad,”
and ALL of it – evil or beauty – is for His glory
2. Free will is a myth; we aren’t capable of making
choices
that actually impact the way things come to pass
3. God made some to love/save, and others to
hate/damn,
OF ROMANS CHAPTER 9 & LIFE IN GENERAL

10. A WORD ABOUT
BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS USED
For the sake of readability & getting
at what I believe to be the truest
essence of the text, I’m using a
combination of the:
* NRSV
* The Kingdom New Testament
THE DETERMINIST VIEW
1. God determines EVERYTHING, “good” or “bad,”
and ALL of it – evil or beauty – is for His glory
2. Free will is a myth; we aren’t capable of making
choices
that actually impact the way things come to pass
3. God made some to love/save, and others to
hate/damn,
OF ROMANS CHAPTER 9 & LIFE IN GENERAL
NO ONE Held This View For The 1
NO ONE Held This View For The 1stst 3 Centuries…
3 Centuries…

11. I am speaking the truth in The Messiah—I am not lying;
I call my conscience as a witness by the Holy Spirit— I have great
sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Left to myself, I am
half inclined to pray that I would be accursed and cut off from
The Messiah for the sake of my own people, my own flesh
and blood relatives. They are Israelites, and to them belong
the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law,
the worship, and the promises; the patriarchs are their ancestors,
and from them, according to the flesh, The Messiah has come,
who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 9:1-5

12. It is not as though the word of God had failed.
For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not
all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants;
but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named
for you.” This means that it is not flesh and blood children
who are the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted as descendants.
For this is what the promise said, “About this time
I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”
Romans 9:6-9

13. And that’s not all; the same thing happened to
Rebecca when she had conceived children by
one husband, our ancestor Isaac. Even before
they had been born or had done anything good
or bad (so that what God had in mind in making His
choice might come to pass, not because of works but because
of the One who calls) she was told, “The elder shall
serve the younger.” As the Bible says,
“I loved Jacob (Israel), but I hated Esau (Edom).”
Romans 9:10-13

14. What then are we to say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!
For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom
I have mercy, and I will have pity on whom I have pity.”
So it depends not on human willing, or human effort,
but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says
to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up to show My power in you,
so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
So then, He has mercy on the one He wants,
and He hardens the one He wants.
Romans 9:14-18

15. You will say to me then, “Why then does He still
blame people? Who can stand against His purpose?”
Are you, a human being, going to answer God back?
Surely the clay won’t say back to the potter,
“Why have you made me like this?” Doesn’t the potter
have authority over the clay, so that he can make
from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another
vessel for dishonor?
Romans 9:19-21

16. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
“Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there
I will let you hear My words.” So I went down
to the potter’s house, and there he was working
at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay
was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he
reworked it into another vessel,
as seemed good to him.
Then the word of the
Lord came to me:
JEREMIAH 18:1-5

17. “Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as
this potter has done?” says the Lord. “Just like the
clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand,
O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will
pluck up and break down and destroy it,
but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken,
turns from its evil, I will change My mind about
the disaster that I intended to bring on it.”
JEREMIAH 18:6-8

18. And at another moment I may declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom
that I will build and plant it,
but if it does evil in my sight,
not listening to My voice,
then I will change my mind
about the good that I had
intended to do to it.
JEREMIAH 18:9-10

19. You will say to me then, “Why then does He still
blame people? Who can stand against His purpose?”
Are you, a human being, going to answer God back?
Surely the clay won’t say back to the potter,
“Why have you made me like this?” Doesn’t the potter
have authority over the clay, so that he can make
from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another
vessel for dishonor?
Romans 9:19-21

20. What if God, desiring to show His anger and to
make known His power, put up very patiently with
the vessels of anger created for destruction; and what if
He has done so in order to make known the riches
of His glory for the vessels of mercy, the ones He prepared
in advance for glory— including us whom He has called,
not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9:22-24

21. This is what it says in Hosea, “I will call ‘not My people;
‘My people.’ ” And in the very place where it was said
to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called
children of the living God.” And Isaiah cries out
concerning Israel, “Even if the number of the children
of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant
of them will be saved; for the Lord will bring
judgment on the earth, complete and decisive.”
Romans 9:25-28

22. As Isaiah said in an earlier passage, “If the Lord of Hosts
had not left survivors to us, we would have become
like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
What then are we to say? That the nations,
who were not aspiring towards covenant membership,
have attained it, that is, a covenant membership based
on faith; but Israel, eager for the law which defined
the covenant, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
Romans 9:29-31

23. Why not? Because they did not pursue it on
the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.
They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
as it is written, “See, I am laying in Zion a stone
that will make people stumble, a rock that will
trip people up, and whoever believes in Him
will not be put to shame.”
Romans 9:32-33

24. My dear family, my heart’s desire and prayer to God
for them is for their salvation. I can testify on their behalf
that they have a zeal for God, but it is not based on
knowledge. They were ignorant, you see, of God’s
covenant faithfulness, and they were trying to establish
a covenant status of their own; so they didn’t submit
to God’s faithfulness. The Messiah, you see, is the goal
of the law so that covenant membership may be available
for everyone who believes.
Romans 10:1-4

25. SOUL TRAINING
EXERCISE
In light of today’s message:
Text