“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another….” Romans 12:9-10a
In the past I assumed that the two sentences in verse nine were two separate trains of thought, both necessary but not directly connected. Today as I was reading this I noticed how God ordained that the statement “abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good” falls between two statements about love. This strikes a chord with something that is biblical but has been forgotten, that is that love should be “black and white” in nature. Those that would abhor evil would often be accused of being unloving while it is actually impossible to be full of true love without abhorring evil. To be relative in a world steeped in sin isn’t merciful acceptance or loving , it is cruel and unloving. It is because we have not loved through the lens of abhorring evil and clinging to good that so much that was once considered evil is no longer considered evil in the church.
Love! But please let our love be genuine. May God soften our hearts and toughen our skin so that we may love not as the world loves but love in a way that abhors evil and clings to good.
“If the Lord of host had not left us offspring we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” Romans 9:29
Sold under the curse of sin mankind was doomed from the moment that Adam transgressed. In him there remained no ability to walk uprightly before God on his own agency. “Their foolish hearts were darkened”. Such that if God had not set aside an offspring for himself from among mankind all would have remained doomed, deceived, and darkened. The default of mankind since the fall is to rebel against God and all would unless God would choose to rescue some to display the glory of his grace and the immensity of his mercy. If God had not done this we would be “like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” Unless God had left us an offspring we would have all headed to destruction and eternal ruin, a display to the universe of the infinite justice of God. In choosing an offspring from among fallen man God did not pervert his justice but he sent Christ “who came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh”. The curse of Adam became his on the cross in order that God could justly gather in his remnant offspring. We (the elect offspring) were vessels prepared beforehand for glory, but hostage to our deadly curse of sin and the wrath that was stored up against us, thus God ransomed us with the blood of Jesus.
In other words election is God’s vehicle to gather in his children from the corners of the earth. Apart from this wonderful grace of God we would all justly be destroyed. It is a great mystery as to who God has “given the right to become children of God” but it is one that we rejoice in. It is impossible for man to justify himself or even choose a sort of assent to a creed that some might call faith for so deep is our depravity. We would be without hope as the race of mankind if God did not adopt from among us an offspring. In this mystery the mercy and severity of God are made clear.
Changed By Glory 