READ: Rom. 9:8–13 … Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.
God preserves a remnant of covenant children who receive His promises in faith, while the majority reject them. The faith found in that remnant is the work of the Spirit, who uses God’s Word of promise to powerfully work this faith (cf. HC Q&A 65).
Paul points to a distinction among the children of Abraham: children of the flesh and children of the promise. To the latter belonged Isaac and his descendants, and not Ishmael nor the children of Keturah, who did not belong to the covenant.
Paul mentions a further distinction among the children of the promise, referring to God’s election, which makes a separation among covenant children. The elect children receive God’s promises through the working of the Spirit; others do not.
This election is already a fact before the children have done anything; it is not of works (v.11), for when the children—Jacob and Esau—were not yet born, it was already determined who would be part of God’s people. It is solely the work of the LORD who elects and calls. His electing purpose He powerfully accomplishes by calling Isaac and all other elect children to faith.
Thus the Canons of Dort (CoD) state in I, Art. 10: “The cause of this gracious election is solely the good pleasure of God. This does not consist in this, that out of all possible conditions God chose certain qualities or actions of men as a condition for salvation, but in this that out of the common mass of sinners He adopted certain persons to be His own possession.” (with reference to the full text of Rom. 9:11–13 and to Acts 13:48: “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”)
In CoD I, Art. 6, we read concerning the outworking of God’s purpose: “According to this decree, He graciously soft ens the hearts of the elect, however hard they may be, and inclines them to believe. But, according to the same decree, He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their own wickedness and hardness.”
Is election a comfort to us? Why?
Sing: Ps. 105:2,15