Chosen by Grace

Rom. 11:6

"So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace."

Elijah was desolate.  He thought that the enemy had killed all the prophets of God leaving him totally alone, but God encouraged his heart telling him that He had chosen a remnant. This choosing was not by human works, but by grace alone. God Himself had preserved His cause in the midst of this wicked situation. 

Then Paul goes on to discuss Israel who had received a hardening of their hearts by God for their unbelief. Why would He do this? Certainly, part of it was judgment and discipline, but the passage says that He did this that the Gentiles might have salvation. God provided a way for the Gentiles, a wild olive shoot, to be grafted into the vine. But Paul cautions against human arrogance at this grafting since it was only of grace and not based on human works. In fact, Paul goes a step farther to warn against pride. If God, in His righteousness, elected to send spiritual blindness to the natural branches,couldn't He in turn do that to the grafted-in branches? Paul says to beware of this same root of unbelief!

But there is a time when the natural branches will be grafted in. Just as the Gentiles were disobedient but because of the grace of God were grafted in, so too Israel who was disobedient will be grafted in because of the grace and mercy of God. "For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all."  Only God can understand the process of consigning to disobedience to allow mercy.

Why?  What does this all mean?  What about those who were eternally lost during these times of hardness and disobedience? It doesn't seem as if Paul struggles with this at all. He accepts it as how God works and praises Him for His mercy and grace. I know that I can't really understand this completely, but I must say with Paul, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen."

My human response is praise and awe. I am not to understand totally, but I am to trust totally. I know that I am a finite, flawed human while He is an infinite, perfect God. My mind, not even if it were Einstein's, would be able to understand the workings of a sovereign God. To be chosen by grace is a gift beyond comprehension granted sovereignly to the chosen elect. What can I say? "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways!"

Father,

Even though I can never understand Your mind and Your ways, I am in awe at Your workings in my life, that You have chosen me by grace to be grafted in to You, my vine. Convict me of any unbelief that seeps out from my natural man so that I might grow and flourish in Your grace and power.

In Jesus name,

Amen