Romans 9:15-16 - Dependence Day

You might not like this passage at first, but it contains the Bible's most comforting promise!

---

Romans 9:15-16

¹⁵ For God says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

---

Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election

Point 2 - Limited Atonement

Point 3 - Total Depravity

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace

Article 10: Conversion as the Work of God

1. The fact that those who are called through the ministry of the gospel come to Christ and are brought to conversion 

   1. must not be ­credited to human effort, 

      1. as though one distinguishes oneself 

         1. by free choice 

         2. from others who are furnished with equal or sufficient grace for faith and conversion 

      2. (as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains). 

   2. No, it must be credited to God: 

      1. just as from eternity God chose his own in Christ, 

      2. so within time God effectively 

         1. calls them, grants them faith and repentance, 

         2. and, 

            1. having rescued them from the dominion of darkness, 

            2. brings them into the kingdom of his Son, 

   3. in order that they 

      1. may declare the wonderful deeds of the One 

         1. who called them out of darkness 

         2. into this marvelous light, 

      2. and may boast not in themselves, 

         1. but in the Lord, 

         2. as apostolic words frequently testify in Scripture.

---

Summary

This isn't the first time we've come to Romans 9 this year (we also read this passage in February), and it likely won't be the last. Indeed, we could dwell on these difficult but comforting words nearly every day as we work through the Canons of Dordt.

Romans 9 is all about God's sovereignty in our salvation - that is, His control, authority and presence. In other words, your salvation does not depend upon your own desire or effort. It's completely dependent upon God's mercy.

For many people - maybe even you - such a premise isn't comforting at all; in fact, it's quite the opposite. That's because independence - the opposite of what's being taught here - is solidly baked into your psyche. This is true for all people, living throughout the span of all ages and in all places, but the fact that you live in North America in the 21st century makes these words seem more grating than comforting.

You live in a time where you watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it on TV. You choose who you want as your leaders, and to a large degree you decide for yourself how much you'll acquiesce to the dictates of leaders that don't correspond to your politics. Even if you live in a big city, you likely prefer to drive yourself rather than depend on mass transit.

  Dig Deeper  

All of this to say that you are very used to, and quite content with, nearly everything in your life depending on your own desires and efforts. So it can be disconcerting to read here that it - your salvation, the most valuable thing you'll ever possess - does not depend upon your independence.

This is why it was so critical to spend most of our summer going through so many ugly passages from which we develop the doctrine of total depravity, detailing your absolute and complete inability to independently choose to trust in Christ for your salvation. Your desires and efforts have been so corrupted by sin that you would always cling to your stubborn rebellion rather than to Christ.

That's why today's verse, stating that salvation does not depend upon your desire or effort, but on God's mercy is foundational to these Canons, which are often referred to as the doctrines of grace. For when the Holy Spirit regenerated you - that is, when He opened your heart and mind to understand both the reality of your depravity and the beauty of God's mercy - then your instinctual desire for independence began to morph into a irresistible desire to cling to Christ.

You can't memorize every word of the Bible, and by God's grace, you don't need to (as opposed to the claims of Islam, which requires rote memorization of the entire Quran). But you can and should memorize Romans 9:16. The more you come to understand it, the more you'll begin to see this verse as some of the Bible's most comforting words:

Salvation does not depend upon my desire or efforts, but on God's mercy.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who will have mercy on whom He'll have mercy, and compassion on whom He'll have compassion;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for changing your sinful desires and efforts, and pray for the strength to live into this regeneration;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

---

Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Corinthians 8