Subject: eph 1:4-5 what is predestination, chosen |
Bible Note: Hello Edwin My anaysis of Romans 1-3 is as follows. Ch.1:18ff the Gentiles are guilty. Ch 2 - the Jews are, if anything, more guilty than the gentiles since they have sinned against greater light. Paul's conclusion in chapter 3 is that all have therefore sinned and no one will be justified by works. The whole world is guilty before God. His conclusion to this argument is a whole string of quotations from the OT Scriptures to the effect that the human race is thoroughly sinful (3:9-19). When he says in chapter 2 that it is those who keep the law by patient continuance in doing good (and not just those who know the law like the Jews) who will be justified he does not mean that anyone actually is justified in this way because he goes on to declare in 3:20, 23 etc all have sinned and that no one will be justified by works of the law. It is only through Christ that anyone is justified, Jew or Gentile, with the law or without the law. This is how I interprete these marvellous verses. As for Cornelius, even as a good gentile who believed in the God of Israel and prayed to him etc, he still needed to hear the gospel of forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43) and Peter specifically says in 11:14 that it is through this message that Cornelius and his household would be saved. I would also want to say that if he was seeking God before this (as he clearly was) it could only have been because God had begun to work in his heart to bring him to himself. Without that work of God no one would ever seek for God. Best wishes Apollos |