Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, we come to you because in you we find our hope, our joy, our peace and the strength to begin again. We come to you, Lord, because in Christ you first came to us. We come to give you thanks and praise as we give you our hearts and lives. May Christ be lifted up so that people everywhere may know his love and power. In His name, we pray.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Wednesday Reflecting
For thus says the LORD: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished.” – Jeremiah 49:12.
The tale of the goblet which the genius of a heathen fashioned was true, and taught a moral of which many a deathbed furnishes the melancholy illustration. Having made the model of a serpent, he fixed it in the bottom of the cup. Coiled for the spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike, it lay beneath the ruby wine. Nor did he who raised that golden cup to quench his thirst, and quaff the delicious draught, suspect what lay below, till, as he reached the dregs, that dreadful head rose up, and glistened before his eyes. So, when life’s cup is nearly emptied, and sin’s last pleasure quaffed, and unwilling lips are draining the bitter dregs, shall rise the ghastly terrors of remorse and death and judgment upon the despairing soul. Be assured, a serpent lurks at the bottom of guilt’s sweetest pleasure.
~ GUTHRIE
Wednesday June 7, 2023
Exodus 3:21
“When you go, that you shall not go empty-handed.”
When we are really emptied He would have us filled with Himself and the Holy Spirit. It is very previous to be conscious of nothing good in ourselves; but, oh, are we also conscious of His great goodness? We may be ready to admit our own disability, but are we as ready to admit His ability? There are many Christians who can say, “We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves”; but the number I fear is very small who can say, “Our sufficiency is of God.”
Are you sure that He is able to provide every want in you, or do you feel that you must supply it yourself? Are you believing that God does now supply every lack in your heart and your life, so that all stumbling is taken away, and you are endowed with power for His service, as Elisha took the empty vessels and filled them before they were set aside to be used? Our Saviour, at Cana, ordered the water-pots to be filled to the brim. Then the water was made into wine, but not until the vessels were full. God wants His children to have always a full heart.
“When I was crossing the Irish Channel one starless night, I stood on the deck by the captain and asked him, “How do you know Holyhead Harbor on so dark a night as this?” He said, “You see those three lights? All of them must line up together as one, and when we see them so united, we know the exact position of the harbor’s mouth.”
“When we want to know God’s will there are three things which always concur: the inward impulse, the Word of God, and the trend of circumstances—God in the heart, and God in circumstances, indicating His will. Never start until these three things agree.”
~ F. B. Meyer
Atonement is appealing because we all have relationships we wish we could reconcile. The 12-step program involves forgiving and forging renewed relationships when possible. But the story with God is different. There’s an acute awareness that we can’t fix things with our Creator; we need someone or something else to do it for us.
Jesus is described as the atonement, the sacrifice, and the perfect offering. But what do these terms actually mean? In Leviticus 5:14–6:30, we learn what it means for Jesus to be a guilt offering: He takes the guilt of the people, incurred through their sinful acts, and takes it upon Himself. He becomes the “ram without defect from the flock” (Leviticus 6:6).
Jesus takes the stage as the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52:13–53:12, fulfilling the events it prophesies. Isaiah 53:10 reads, “Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him; he made him sick. If he places his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring. He will prolong days, and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.”
When He is arrested, Jesus understands that He is on His way to die at the hands of His own people (when “she” is used in Isaiah it means “Jerusalem” or “Zion”). Matthew notes, “But all this has happened in order that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:56). Jesus acknowledges it by saying, “the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners!” (Matthew 26:45). This echoes Isaiah 53:3: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness, and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in high regard.”
Leviticus seems archaic until it is put into this perspective. The oddities of this ancient book give us a connection to Jesus. He is the fulfillment of all Israel hoped for. Isn’t this the same in our lives? At first it might seem like the events are somehow disconnected or distant from God and His works. But upon a second glance—in retrospect—we see they’re a foundation for hope.
Please read John 8:12-20 for background to this section.
If you have ever flown in a airplane at night, you will notice that you can see pinpoints of light miles away. That is why it was necessary to have blackouts during the war; for the enemy pilots could see the smallest evidence of light and thus find the target. Light bears witness to itself; it tells you it is there.
Perhaps the Pharisees were quoting our Lord’s own words (see John 5:31-35); but He quickly refuted their argument. One of the key words in this section is witness; it is used many, many times. Jesus made it clear that their witness was not dependable because their judgment was faulty. They judged on the basis of externals, mere human judgment, but He judged on the basis of spiritual knowledge. The way they judged the woman taken in adultery proved that they neither understood the Law nor their own sinful hearts.
Since they wanted to use the Law to condemn the woman and trap Jesus, He also used the Law to answer them. He quoted a principle found in Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, as well as Numbers 35:30, that the testimony of two men was required to validate a judgment. Jesus had those two testimonies: He gave witness and so did His Father. We have seen from John 5:37–47 that the witness of the Father is found in the Word of God.
How tragic that these experts in the Law did not even know their own Messiah as He stood before them! They claimed to know the Law of God, but they did not know the God of the Law. They did not have His Word abiding in their hearts (John 5:38), nor did they experience His love (John 5:42). They did not know the Father, and therefore did not know the Son.
Jesus never really answered their question, “Where is Your Father?” The word father is used twenty-one times in this chapter, so Jesus did not avoid the issue but faced it honestly. He knew that their “father” was not God, but the devil! These men were religious, and yet they were the children of the devil!
Their further attempts to arrest Jesus were again thwarted by the Father, for it was not yet our Lord’s hour when He should give His life. When the servant of God is in the will of God, he can have courage and peace as he does his duty.
Please read John 8:21-30 for background to this section.
Jesus had already mentioned His leaving them (John 7:34), but the Jews had misunderstood what He said. Once again, He warned them: He would leave them, they would not be able to follow Him, and they would die in their sins! They were wasting their God-given opportunities by arguing with Him instead of trusting Him; and one day soon, their opportunities would end.
Once again, the people misunderstood His teaching. They thought He was planning to kill Himself! Suicide was an abhorrent thing to a Jew, for the Jews were taught to honor all life. If Jesus committed suicide, then He would go to a place of judgment; and this, they reasoned, was why they could not follow Him.
Actually, just the opposite was true: it was they who were going to the place of judgment! Jesus was returning to His Father in heaven, and nobody can go there who has not trusted the Savior. The reason Jesus and the Jewish leaders were going to different destinations was because they had different origins: Jesus came from heaven, but they belonged to the earth. Jesus was in the world, but He did not belong to the world (see John 17:14–16).
The true believer has his citizenship in heaven (Luke 10:20; Philippians 3:20–21). His affection and attention are fixed heavenward. But the unsaved belong to this world; in fact, Jesus called them “the sons of this world” (Luke 16:8). Since they have not trusted Christ and had their sins forgiven, their destiny is to die in their sins. The Christian dies “in the Lord” because he lives “in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13); but the unbeliever dies in his sins because he lives in his sins.
Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, we come knowing that you will accept us, not because we deserve it or because we are worthy, but because of your extravagant love. We come to confess who and what we are and what we are not. We come to confess your glory. We come because you call us and because you love us. We come because you are the Lord, and we are your people. We come in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Tuesday Reflecting
“I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.” – Jeremiah 31:33.
Lycurgus would allow none of his laws to be written. He would have the principles of government interwoven in the lives and manners of the people, as most conducive to their happiness. Their education would be such as to imprint these laws upon their minds, that they might remain perpetually before them. He will most faithfully abide by the king’s commandment who has the word of God so engraved upon his heart that nothing can erase it. The multiplication of Bibles that stand upon book-shelves or lie upon tables is an easy matter; but to multiply copies of walking Scriptures, in the form of holy men who can say, “Thy word have I hid in my heart,” is much more difficult.
~ GUTHRIE
Tuesday June 6, 2023
Numbers 13:32 – Read Numbers 14:6-7
And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out,
saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours
its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
Every unguarded word you use, every inconsistent act, puts a slur on Christ. The world, you know, does not find fault with you—they lay it all to your Master. If you make a slip tomorrow, they will not say, “That is John Smith’s human nature;” they will say, “That is John Smith’s religion.” They know better, but they will be sure to say it; they will be sure to put all the mischief at the door of Christ. Now, if you could bear the blame yourself you might bear it manfully; but do not allow Christ to bear the blame—do not suffer his reputation to be tarnished—do not permit his banner to be trampled in the dust. Then there is another consideration. You must remember, if you do wrong, the world will be quite sure to notice you. The world carries two bags: in the bag at the back they put all the Christian’s virtues—in the bag in front they put all our mistakes and sins. They never think of looking at the virtues of holy men; all the courage of martyrs, all the fidelity of confessors, and all the holiness of saints, is nothing to them; but our iniquities are ever before them. Please do recollect, that wherever you are, as a Christian, the eyes of the world are upon you; the Argus eyes of an evil generation follow you everywhere. If a church is blind the world is not. It is a common proverb, “As sound asleep as a church,” and a very true one, for most churches are sound asleep; but it would be a great falsehood if anyone were to say, “As sound asleep as the world,” for the world is never asleep. Sleeping is left to the church. And remember, too, that the world always wears magnifying glasses to look at Christians’ faults.
When the U.S.S. Nautilus made her epoch-making journey under the Arctic icecap, there were no guiding stars or radio beams to give her position. Instead, the world’s first nuclear-powered sub marine relied upon a new means of finding latitude and longitude without external reference points. The means used was inertial guidance. With it the submarine made the journey without visual or electronic aid from earth or stars. To believers, this would be the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The book of Leviticus can feel distant, abstract, and even absurd. Its opening chapters discuss odd offerings made at the tent of meeting, where God met His people when they were wandering in the wilderness after the exodus. Yet, the book signals an appreciation for all things: animals, crops, and the general need for peace—both between people and between God and people.
In Leviticus, we also find the setup for the entire Gospel of John; Jesus’ life is cast as an offering to make all people one with God again. We find the background information for Isaiah 53, where the Suffering Servant dies and is resurrected on behalf of God’s people. Much of the Old and New Testaments require a general understanding of Leviticus.
Not only do these ancient rituals show the need to appreciate the entire created order, they also show how much we should appreciate a faith that doesn’t require all these rituals.
Leviticus shows the distance between God and His people. The amount of work required to get near Him is enormous. And it’s not because God wanted it that way, it’s because a holy (set apart) God cannot come near the unholy. Holiness rituals were required for Him to interact with His people—a temporary way for people to reach Him.
Just as God camped in the middle of His people in the wilderness, today He wants to set up His tent in the middle of our lives. And this is precisely what we witness in the beginning of John’s Gospel when Jesus “dwells among us,” which literally translates as, “took up residence among us.” God dwelled among His people in the wilderness, just as He dwells in our lives today.
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” – John 8:11.
It was required by Jewish Law that the accusers of those caught in adultery cast the first stones (Deuteronomy 17:7). Jesus was not asking that sinless men judge the woman, for He was the only sinless Person present. If our judges today had to be perfect, judicial benches would be empty. He was referring to the particular sin of the woman, a sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (Matthew 5:27–30). Convicted by their own consciences, the accusers quietly left the scene, and Jesus was left alone with the woman. He forgave her and warned her to sin no more (John 8:11).
We must not misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was “easy on sin” or that He contradicted the Law. For Jesus to forgive this woman meant that He had to one day die for her sins. Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap. Furthermore, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law so that no one could justly accuse Him of opposing its teachings or weakening its power. By applying the Law to the woman and not to themselves, the Jewish leaders were violating both the letter and the spirit of the Law—and they thought they were defending Moses!
The Law was given to reveal sin (Romans 3:20), and we must be condemned by the Law before we can be cleansed by God’s grace. Law and grace do not compete with each other; they complement each other. Nobody was ever saved by keeping the Law, but nobody was ever saved by grace who was not first sentenced by the Law. There must be conviction before there can be conversion.
Neither is Christ’s gracious forgiveness an excuse to sin. “Go, and sin no more!” was our Lord’s counsel. “But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.” – Psalm 130:4. Certainly the experience of gracious forgiveness would motivate the penitent sinner to live a holy and obedient life to the glory of God.
Please read John 8:12-20 for background to this section.
This second great I AM statement certainly fits into the context of the first eleven verses of John 8. Perhaps the sun was then appearing (John 8:2) so that Jesus was comparing Himself to the rising sun. But this would mean He was once again claiming to be God, for to the Jew, the sun was a symbol of Jehovah God (Psalm 84:11; Malachi 4:2). There is, for our section of the universe, only one sun; and it is the center and the source of life. So there is but one God who is the center of all and the source of all life (John 1:4). “God is light” (1 John 1:5); and wherever the light shines, it reveals man’s wickedness (Ephesians 5:8–14).
Our Lord’s I AM statement was also related to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the huge candelabra were lighted in the temple at night to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel in their wilderness journey. In fact, John has combined three wilderness images: the manna (John 6), the water from the rock (John 7), and the pillar of fire (John 8).
To “follow” the Lord Jesus means to believe on Him, to trust Him; and the results are life and light for the believer. The unsaved are walking in darkness because they love darkness (John 3:17-21). One of the major messages in John’s Gospel is that the spiritual light is now shining, but people can’t comprehend it—and they try to put it out (John 1:4–5).
Not all of the Jewish leaders had left the group, and others had no doubt come along after the woman left. As usual, they debated with Jesus. This time, they accused Him of bearing witness to Himself by claiming to be the Light of the world; and Jewish courts would not permit a person to bear witness to himself.
But light has to bear witness to itself! The only people who cannot see the light are blind people!
Lord, hear our prayer:
Father, we come with a great sense of anticipation; we come expecting to meet you here. We come, and we know that you will not disappoint us. We come seeking your face, longing to give you praise and glory. We have come that we might be made strong in Christ and be renewed by the power of your Holy Spirit. In our precious Redeemer’s name we ask.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Monday Reflecting
“You will not be forgotten by Me!” – Isaiah 44:21.
He may leave you long without succor. He may allow you to toil against a tempestuous sea until the fourth watch of the night. He may seem silent and austere, tarrying two days still in the same place, as if careless of the dying Lazarus. He may allow your prayers to accumulate like unopened letters on the table of an absent friend. But at last He will say: “O man, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
~ F. B. MEYER
Monday June 5, 2023
Proverbs 3:19
The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.
It tells us in Proverbs 3:19 and Jeremiah 10:12 that the Lord founded the earth, established and stretched out the heavens by wisdom, understanding and discretion. Those are two of many verses in the Bible that tell us about the wisdom of God. . . .
It is necessary to our humanity that we grant God two things at least: wisdom and goodness. The God who sits on high, who made the heaven and the earth, has got to be wise, or else you and I cannot be sure of anything. He’s got to be good, or earth would be a hell and heaven a hell, and hell a heaven. We have to grant goodness and wisdom to God, or we have no place to go, no rock to stand on, no way to do any thinking or reasoning or believing. We must believe in the goodness and in the wisdom of God, or we betray that in us which differentiates us from the beasts—the image of God Himself.
So we begin with the assumption—not a guess, not a hope, but a knowledge—that God is wise.
Before the days of modern navigational aids a traveler made the Atlantic crossing in a boat equipped with two compasses. One was fixed to the deck where the man at the wheel could see it. The other compass was fastened up on one of the masts, and often a sailor would be seen climbing up to inspect it.
The passenger asked the captain, “Why do you have two compasses?”
“This is an iron vessel,” replied the captain, “and the compass on the deck is often affected by its surroundings. Such is not the case with the compass at the masthead; that one is above the influence. We steer by the compass above.” Do we also as Christians?
~ Prairie Overcomer
Following Jesus isn’t like developing a crisis-aversion system. So often, it’s tempting to treat our faith in this way—relying on Him when things get tough or when others expect us to do so. But He wants us to rely on Him continually.
After Jesus miraculously fed the crowds, He told them that He was the bread of life. But they were fickle. They wanted evidence—another sign. Instead of feeding their transient desires, Jesus delivered hard teaching: “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me and I in him” (John 6:54–56).
For the Jews, this teaching would have been shocking and strange—drinking blood was forbidden by Old Testament law, and He was speaking about His own body. They followed Jesus because they wanted a sign, a prophet, or a Messiah. A sacrifice was not part of their plan.
But a sacrifice was exactly what they needed. Forgiveness and eternal life were discarded by some, but not by all. Simon Peter’s simple confession is actually quite stunning in the midst of all the confusion: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68–69). The disciples didn’t put hope in a transient sign—in one meal. And although they didn’t always understand Jesus’ teaching, they recognized that He was the true bread of life, and they relied on Him for sustainment even when His teaching seemed strange to their ears.
The question has been raised concerning the story of the woman taken in adultery and whether it is truly a part of Scripture? If it is, where then does it belong in the Gospel record? John 7:53–8:11 is not found in some of the ancient manuscripts; where it is found, it is not always in this location in John’s Gospel. Most scholars however, seem to agree that the passage is a part of inspired Scripture regardless of where it is placed.
To many of us, the story fits perfectly, right here! In fact, the development of the entire chapter can easily be seen to grow out of this striking event in the temple. Our Lord’s declaration on His being the Light of the world (John 8:12) certainly fits, and so do His words about true and false judgment (John 8:15–16, 26). The repeated phrase “die in your sins” (John 8:21, 24) would clearly relate to the judgment of the woman; and the fact that the chapter ends with an attempt to stone Jesus shows a perfect parallel to the opening story. The transition from John 7:52 to 8:12 would be too abrupt without a transitional section.
Our Lord found Himself in conflict again and again with the Jewish religious leaders; but this time, they set a trap, hoping to get enough evidence to arrest Jesus and get Him out of the way for good. However, their plot failed; but a controversy did follow. In this chapter we see a series of contrasts that reveal the graciousness of Christ as compared to the wickedness of man.
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” – John 8:11.
The Feast of Tabernacles had ended, but Jesus took advantage of the opportunity to minister to the pilgrims in the temple. During the feast, word had quickly spread that Jesus was not only attending but openly teaching in the temple (see Luke 21:37). He taught in the court of the women at the place where the treasury was situated (John 8:20). The scribes and Pharisees knew where He would be, so they hatched their plot together.
They would not be likely to catch a couple in the “very act” of adultery; so we wonder if the man (who was never indicted!) was part of the scheme. The Law required that both guilty parties be stoned (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22) and not just the woman. It does seem suspicious that the man went free. The scribes and Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman into the midst of the crowd.
The Jewish leaders, of course, were trying to pin Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. If He said, “Yes, the woman must be stoned!” then what would happen to His reputation as the “friend of publicans and sinners”? The common people would no doubt have abandoned Him and would never have accepted His gracious message of forgiveness.
But, if He said, “No, the woman should not be stoned!” then He was openly breaking the Law and subject to arrest. On more than one occasion, the religious leaders had tried to pit Jesus against Moses, and now they seemed to have the perfect challenge (see John 5:39–47; 6:32-51; 7:40-52).
Instead of passing judgment on the woman, Jesus passed judgment on the judges! No doubt He was indignant at the way they treated the woman. He was also concerned that such hypocrites should condemn another person and not judge themselves. We do not know what He wrote on the dirt floor of the temple. Was He simply reminding them that the Ten Commandments had been originally “written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18), and that He is God? Or was He perhaps reminding them of the warning in Jeremiah 17:13?
Robert Hawker: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers
Grant, dearest Lord, that though we still live in this world, yet never, never may we forget our relationship to you. Though we are outcasts, yet we are Jesus’ outcasts.
Lord, be our hiding place, so that you are all we need, like “rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
Oh for a word, a whisper of Jesus. I cannot live without it. I dare not let you go, unless you bless us. None of all the past enjoyments or experiences will do us any good, until you again shine in upon my soul. Come then, Lord Jesus! I fly to you as my God, my Savior, my portion, my all!
I see my daily, hourly, continual need of you. You are our hope and Savior! Keep me, Lord, near you, for without you I am nothing.
Precious Jesus, help me to see my clear part in you, from my union with you. And dear Lord, make me so strong in your strength, that during the whole period of my present warfare, I may be “terrible as an army with banners” to all who would oppose my way to you, and in you.
Yes, Lord! Let sin, and Satan, and the world, be united against me; yet do you put on me the whole armor of God, that I may “fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, and be made more than conqueror through him who loves me.”
Amen.
COMING third of the patriarchs, we have Jacob and we find that he is the example of divine justification. Jacob, the crook, the rascal, the cheat, the liar, the thief, the conniver, the supplanter, becomes the example of justification. That really is something divine. “Whom He called, these He also justified.” – Romans 8:30. Why did God choose Jacob? Why would He call him? Certainly not on the basis of his worth; certainly not on the basis of his own merit. Then on what basis did He call him? It was again on the basis of sovereign grace, appropriated through faith.
Esau, his brother was a gentleman compared with Jacob. Esau was a home-loving boy, kind to his father as far as the record goes. When Isaac, the old man, wanted comfort in his old age, he called Esau, not Jacob. You may search the record and you will find nothing derogatory to Esau, except that he sold his birthright and despised the promise of God. But from every other standpoint, morally and otherwise, there is nothing bad recorded about Esau. He was a pretty good fellow, as fellows go. But now look at Jacob. He schemed with his mother, took the goat skins about his neck to fool his father, and when poor, old, blind Isaac becomes suspicious, Jacob tells a brazen, boldfaced lie and more or less says, “Don’t worry father, I wouldn’t lie to you.” It was Jacob who stole the birthright from his brother Esau, cheated his father, connived with his mother and then ran away, and then almost ruined his uncle Laban. Yet, to God, he was justified rather than Esau.
Jacob is the kind of person God justifies. God does not save good people. A man must be a sinner to be saved. He has to be absolutely helpless before God can do anything with him. Grace is unearned favor to the unworthy, and the more unworthy a man is, the greater he needs the grace of God. That is why the Lord chose folks like you and me—not because we were better, but in spite of what we are. God’s grace is exalted, not in choosing nice people, but rather “not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” – 1 Corinthians 1:26. God has taken the foolish things of this world, the base things of this world, because of His grace (1 Corinthians 1:27). Thus He steps aside again from the natural course of things and puts aside Esau, the eldest, first from the human standpoint. Of course, Esau deserved to lose his birthright from the standpoint of human responsibility, for he despised it; but that is the human side. Paul, however, is not talking about the human side in Romans 8. He is dealing with sovereign grace. In grace God chose Jacob, good-for-nothing Jacob, because he believed the promise, and even that belief was a matter of grace. So again we see, “Whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified.”
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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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