How can we know the mysterious workings of God? We look to Jesus: Jesus does His job of Jesus-ing only the way He can Jesus. Jesus never did His Messiah work the way that people thought that He should, and nothing has changed. We are blessed that He is not a God created of our own image and imagination. All of this is revealed to us through the God’s word alone, and in that word we have comfort of what Christ has done for us.

Craig and Troy wrestle with the same issue Paul is wrestling through: Wanting our friends and family to be saved and knowing that salvation must come through Christ. As the Prodigal Son believed in his father’s goodness and returned, so too will God restore and graft in all who believe—both Jew and Gentile alike—in His Son Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of election is a doctrine of comfort for all who believe . . . that means it’s for you! Romans 9 is all about the nature of God, and His very nature is to be merciful to the Jew and the Gentile, for the unbeliever and the believer alike. We understand election rightly when our faith looks not at itself, but to Christ.

We’d like to say that Craig and Troy wrestle with the teaching of election, but actually, it’s no struggle at all. The promises of God are freely given to all in Christ, and the elect are those who are in Him. He alone is our security.

Divine election is nothing other than God’s freedom and power to choose, and He has made His word the instrument by which He makes His choice about you.

The following is an excerpt from “Crucifying Religion” written by Donavon Riley (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Today’s advice for the anxious and worried would have likely horrified Luther.

How are we to understand election in Romans 9? What does it mean that God loved Jacob and hated Esau?

All views of election and predestination are not equal. These are doctrines meant to comfort and provide assurance.

Divine election hacking happens with the proposal that God’s Word is irrelevant and powerless, weak and impotent.

The Church of Jesus Christ is and stays Jesus' Church whether we decide it is or not.

A significant election is quickly approaching. A candidate will be chosen to hold the highest office in our nation.