I’ll never forget the biology lab in in college where they gave each of us a fertilized egg and we had to carefully cut away a small square of the eggshell without damaging the underlying membrane, creating a window through which we could watch the chick develop.
It took several tries to get it right, but it was worth it to watch one of nature’s miracles transform the yolk into a tiny chick … ready to hatch and grow into a chicken!
Now we have come to the second section in the book of Romans.
The first section in chapters 1-8 focuses on faith and justification; this second section in chapters 9-11 focuses on hope and salvation, and the third section in chapters 12-16 targets love and sanctification.
Much like that window in the eggshell, Paul is opening up a window into our Christian growth … or lack of growth … or misdirected growth.
Paul writes:
“And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac. But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’” — Romans 9: 10-12
He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so, God’s choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.
And now we, and Paul, are faced with an impossible paradox.
Is God sovereign and is his choice final, or are we created with a free will and able to choose our own path between right and wrong … or can both be true?
John Calvin believed God’s choices were final. John Wesley believed God chose, but man was free to accept or reject God’s choice.
Both can’t possibly be true? I rather like the explanation in the Bible Commentary: “We cannot avoid the doctrine of God’s sovereign election, nor can we reconcile God’s sovereign election with man’s free will. Both cannot be true, but they are ... and they are woven together in ways we cannot understand.”
God created us and is therefore sovereign, but he created us as children and set us free to choose our own path. God created Adam and Eve, but one of the first things he did was to give them a choice — to obey or to eat the forbidden fruit!
For instance, Paul, at the end of Romans, introduced us to 20 men and six women — one simply called “mother.” In verse 13 of chapter 16, Paul sends “greetings to Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”
It could mean that Rufus is Paul’s brother, or it could simply mean that Rufus’ mother is “like a mother” to Paul, which is what most scholars believe it means. So, it becomes an early tribute to the value of mothers!
Now it gets even more complicated if we remember Mark named Simon of Cyrene as the man who carried Jesus’ cross and he told us Simon had two sons, Alexander and Rufus, who might be the Rufus in Paul’s greeting. Now we’re talking about Simon’s wife and Rufus’ mother who is like a mother to Paul.
It’s confusing to say the least. Simon chose his wife, and they chose to give birth to Alexander and Rufus, and they all chose to take Paul into their family.
Then God spun all their choices together into this beautiful story of an unnamed mother who chose to add Paul to their family as a third son.
Families can be complicated, but sometimes they’re as simple as celebrating God’s plan and making every day a “Happy Mother’s Day!”
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga.
