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There’s an interesting admission by John the Baptist in the peak of his ministry; “I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'”(John 1:33). John the Baptist would not have known who Jesus was were it not revealed to him by the Father. And so it is with any true knowledge of God. God reveals himself to us and without that revelation we would have no such knowledge. It would not later be discovered as in the gradual discovery and confirmation of scientific theories (like gravitational waves). But God has chosen to reveal himself to man. And we must take that revelation as it is for He is God. Divine election, God choosing persons to be recipients of his mercy according to the free and good pleasure of his will, is out of favor. We demand fairness on our terms. Paul encountered objections to the way, work and will of God in redemption during his extensive missionary work. In Romans chapter 9 he gives a defense for those rebuttals which were common in his day and remain relevant in ours. This sermon on Romans 9 was preached by Clay Thompson at St Jude’s Anglican Church in Huntersville on September 29th, 2019.
