2 Cents

When I was in college and just figuring out this whole Calvinism/Arminianism debate I always kept coming back to Romans 9.  Romans 9 is the one chapter in the Bible that I would say Calvinists most often use to support their view of salvation.  It's also the one chapter that makes Arminians (free-will people) the most nervous.

Here are a couple verses that Calvinists love and Arminians get squeamish over:

"though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad - in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls..."  - Rom. 9:11

"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."  - Rom. 9:13

"For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."  - Rom. 9:15-16

"So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills."  - Rom. 9:18

"You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?"  - Rom. 9:19-20

"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..."  - Rom. 9:22

Do you see what I'm getting at here?

My favorite preacher in all the world and uber-Calvinist, John Piper, loves, loves, loves to preach on this chapter, to the point where I've only heard the man speak live three times in my life and two of those times he preached on Romans 9.

Again, when I was in college and just getting introduced to this debate Romans 9 was particularly problematic for me.  I say problematic because I grew up being taught the free-will perspective and I must honestly say I wanted that to be right and Calvinism to be wrong.

But I just couldn't shake Romans 9.  It seemed to me that there were parts of the Bible that clearly spoke of our responsibility to choose to put our faith in Christ, to choose to repent, to choose to give our lives to God and deny ourselves.  It seemed there were parts of the Bible that clearly spoke of God's goodness and how he could not even tolerate sin, would never tempt us to sin, and (heaven forbid!) would never cause us to sin.  It seemed there were parts of the Bible that clearly spoke of God's desire for all people to be saved, not just some that he had chosen long ago to be saved, and the rest had no chance and no hope.

But Romans 9... UGHHHH!

No free-will believer could explain Romans 9 in a way that satisfied my free-will-desiring heart.  And I asked a lot of them!  They always dodged the deep, foundational questions.

Then I read Dr. Jack Cottrell's Romans commentary.

To this day this is the only satisfactory free-will explanation of Romans 9 I've heard.

But not only is it satisfactory... it blows the Calvinist explanations out of the water!  In fact, even though the score on explanations of Romans 9 seems to be 1000 to 1 in favor of the Calvinists, this 1 is so much more convincing than all 1000.

(And yes I realize I'm predisposed to want that to be true.  But I sincerely believe it after reading so many explanations from the other side and trying to weigh them honestly.)

So over the next few weeks I'll be posting a series of blog posts using Dr. Cottrell's Romans commentary to help us understand why Romans 9 does not support Calvinism.

And also... if you've never listened to John Piper preach... go download some stuff right now.  Makes me love God more every time I listen!  Just don't believe the man on Romans 9.