Such is often the case when it comes to Romans 9. The temptation is to get so caught up defending God’s sovereignty that we fail to treat him as the Sovereign Lord by seeking to know if our thoughts are his thoughts on the matter.

Romans 9 is the lynchpin of reformed or Calvinist view of predestination. Calvinists believe that Romans 9 is about God’s sovereign choice regarding election to eternal life. Calvinists believe that when God said “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” and “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy that God meant he sovereignly chooses some people to be saved and that everyone else cannot be saved.

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