The Election of Grace

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LESSON 11

*September 4 - 10

The Election of Grace

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week's Study:

Romans 10, 11.

Memory Text:

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1).

This week’s lesson covers Romans 10 and 11, with a focus especially on chapter 11. It’s important to read both chapters in their entirety in order to continue to follow Paul’s line of thinking. These two chapters have been, and remain, the focal point of much discussion. One point, however, comes clear through them all, and that is God’s love for humanity and His great desire to see all humanity saved. There is no corporate rejection of anyone for salvation. Romans 10 makes it very clear that “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek” (Rom. 10:12)—all are sinners and all need God’s grace as given to the world through Jesus Christ. This grace comes to all—not by nationality, not by birth, and not by works of the law but by faith in Jesus, who died as the Substitute for sinners everywhere. Roles may change, but the basic plan of salvation never does. Paul continues with this theme in chapter 11. Here, too, as stated earlier, it’s important to understand that when Paul talks about election and calling, the issue isn’t one of salvation but one of the role in God’s plan for reaching the world. No one group has been rejected for salvation; that was never the issue. Instead, after the Cross, and after the introduction of the gospel to the Gentiles, particularly through Paul, the early movement of believers—both Jew and Gentile—took on the mantle of evangelizing the world.

*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 11.