Dear Family at Christ Community,

     
     On Sunday, we will hear the testimony of God’s redemptive faithfulness and grace from Romans 9:6-13. Paul will point us to God’s promises kept through His electing grace alone among the Patriarchs and preservation of His promised seed over the generations. While there is a deep mystery to God’s saving work that sparks many questions for us, our predestination by His grace alone ought to anchor us in the only firm foundation on which our salvation could securely rest. Charles Hodge in Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans helps us to consider how we should respond to the gift of  God’s electing grace:

The doctrine of the sovereignty of God in the choice of the objects of his mercy should produce,
1. The most profound humility in those who are called according to his purpose. They are constrained to say, “Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory.”
2. The liveliest gratitude, that we, though so unworthy, should from eternity have been selected as the objects in which God displays “the riches of his glory.”
3. Confidence and peace, under all circumstances, because the purpose of God does not change; whom he has predestinated, them he also calls, justifies, and glorifies.
4. Diligence in the discharge of all duty, to make our calling and election sure. That is, to make it evident to ourselves and others, that we are called and chosen of God.
We should ever remember that election is to holiness, and consequently to live in sin, is to invalidate every claim to be considered one of “God’s elect.”

     Please pray for the broken bread and lavish cup to humble us in that God would entrust His saving glory to earthen, untrustworthy vessels such as us. Give joyful thanks that God not only saved us from the power of sin and death but has called us to participate in His Kingdom coming in the power of the resurrection. Rest assured in who and Whose you are because of God’s sovereign power and Christ’s finished work. May the Spirit nourish our faiths to display God’s character in word and deed for His glory, our joy, and the life of the world!

In Christ,
Cameron