Romans 9:22-26

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

Psychologists tell us that our view of God often comes from our view of our earthly dads. If they are carefree, we think God is carefree. If they are angry, we think God is angry. The list goes on and on. That is the only way we view God. We tend to view God as looking and acting just like me, only slightly better. He is a little bit smarter, a little bit more powerful, and maybe even a little better looking. Either way you slice it, we tend to think that we have God figured out. Worse yet, we tend to think that He should answer to us and not the other way around.

Paul asks the church take away all of their “common sense.” Maybe situations arise in life where you question God’s goodness. Maybe you wonder why God lets evil have its way while the good suffer. Paul shines a light on our complaints. God puts up with evil so that His good can shine. Think about it. How would you know what good is unless there was evil? How would you know you needed a Savior unless you saw that you needed saving?

God’s plan predates you. God’s plan predated the Roman Christians in first century. God is not slightly smarter or slightly more powerful. His knowledge and power are something that we truly cannot understand fully on this side of His Kingdom. His chosen people didn’t get Him either. They thought that He was just for them. Paul shares a passage from Hosea so they could see that they had it all wrong. God is after everybody. Thank God for that.

Some days you won’t understand Jesus. That is okay. Jesus understands you. More than that, He is for you. You are His people.