Children of the Promise -01/19/2025

Is God fully sovereign? Our first response would be, “yes, He is.” Isn’t that what we are supposed to say? Many people have taken this passage to mean just that. Is this idea problematic? Yes, it is because it means that God controls everything. Can God control everything? Yes. But does He. We are told that we have been given free will. This was a decision God made when He created Adam and Eve. He gave us the ability to choose to love Him or reject Him. After all, God’s reason for creating a family was for relationship, and His greatest attribute is love. Essentially, He gave away some of His sovereignty. According to some, God has chosen some people and not others. According to some, God loves some and doesn’t love others, and this is the passage used to explain this belief. This is not just simply a theological debate, what is at stake is nothing less than the character of God. God did foreknow us. He knew from the beginning whether we would choose to follow Him or not, so He has planned accordingly. His plan of giving salvation to the world through Jesus Christ was orchestrated this way, and we see how He did that in this passage, but make no mistake, it is our choice to be children of the promise, and that choice comes from a decision we make to either love or reject Jesus. We serve a sovereign and loving God who has given us a Savior. Through faith in Jesus, we can become children of the promise.