“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” –Jesus, John 15:5, NLT

God’s purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative.”—Paul, Romans 9:12, MSG

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! –Jesus, John 15:9-11, NLT

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey…

“I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
    I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.”—Hosea, quoted by Paul

Romans 9, The Message

God Is Calling His People

^1-5 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites . . . If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!

^6-9 Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit. It wasn’t Abraham’s sperm that gave identity here, but God’s promise. Remember how it was put: “Your family will be defined by Isaac”? That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise. Remember that promise, “When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son”?

^10-13 And that’s not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac, and her babies were still innocent in the womb—incapable of good or bad—she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. God told Rebecca, “The firstborn of your twins will take second place.” Later that was turned into a stark epigram: “I loved Jacob; I hated Esau.”

^14-18 Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.” Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy. The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, “I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power.” All we’re saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for better or worse.

¹⁹ Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?”

^20-33 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:

I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
    I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
    they’re calling you “God’s living children.”

Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:

If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
    and the sum labeled “chosen of God,”
They’d be numbers still, not names;
    salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.
    Arithmetic is not his focus.

Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:

If our powerful God
    had not provided us a legacy of living children,
We would have ended up like ghost towns,
    like Sodom and Gomorrah.

How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing.

They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:

Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
    a stone you can’t get around.
But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
    you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God is the One and Only God; we are not.  We plan but God decides. 

Our response begins with fully trusting in God so that obeying God becomes who we are with God.  “Remain in Me,” says Jesus.  When we remain with God, believing in His promises, our desire to obey becomes stronger each day. 

When we ask God to lead us, we must not get in the way but follow how and where  He leads us.  God made us, we did not make Him.  God is the designer and creator, we are His beloved creation!

Loving God back is to obey what He says!

Paul reminded the Romans that no good work could bring salvation. Rather, God saves his people through his love.

But that’s not all!

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us and calls us His   beloved children—members of His family!  We once had no hope but now we have no fear!  Nobodies become somebodies as God’s own. 

How and why did God do this?  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we learned earlier from Paul.  (Romans 3:23) We stand before God full of rebellion and mistakes. Because of God’s justice he cannot dismiss our sin, but because of his love he cannot dismiss us! So, in an act which stunned the heavens, God sent His Son to tke our punishment on the cross for our sins. God’s justice and love are equally honored. And we, God’s creation, are forgiven. But the story doesn’t end with God’s forgiveness!

God calls us by name—His Name!  We are His children—joint heirs with Christ!  It would be enough if God just cleansed our name, but he does more. He gives us his name. It would be enough if God just set us free, but he does more. He takes us home. He takes us home to the Great Big House of God.

Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
It’s a big big house
With lots and lots of rooms…

(Audio Adrenaline, By Barry Blair, Bob Herdman, Mark Stuart, Will McGinniss)

We need to decide what kind of righteousness we are seeking, whether we are depending on good works and character or trusting Christ alone for salvation. God does not save people based on birth or behavior. “By grace we have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8, 9). The offer is made to “whoever believes” (John 3:16). To trust and obey Jesus, is to go and tell others teaching them about who and what God did for them, too, so they can become God’s own—all because of Jesus!

“I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You’re my dear Somebody,’and he’ll say ‘You’re my God!’”    –Hosea, God’s Prophet, Hosea 2:23

Lord,

Thank you for your gift of salvation. Thank you for saving me from myself!  Thank you for leading me, molding, and shaping me continuously to be all you created me to be before doing anything in Your Name.  Thank you for calling me by name and reminding me I am not just a numbered nobody but a beloved somebody in your family who has purpose in Your Kingdom.

In Jesus Name, Amen