One of the ongoing theological debates in which Romans is central is between Calvinism and Arminianism. One stresses the sovereignty of God, the other the free will of man. More recently (though it actually has a long history) is Molinism. Calvinism gives priority to the sovereignty of God, Arminianism gives priority to human free will (these descriptions are by necessity inadequate because of their brevity, but it stresses the main point). Molinism seeks to give equal weight to both, and this is what I like about Molinism, though I prefer the term human responsibility to human free will. This seems closest to what the Bible teaches. What I don’t like about Molinism is the way it seeks to explain how this happens, I think we need to be very careful about being dogmatic about how the sovereignty of God and human responsibility interact.
So what has all this to do with this verse? Well it could be interpreted as saying that the believers in Rome are part of the elect. Or it could be interpreted as meaning that the Gentiles in Rome are among those who are called to belong to Christ. In practical terms it doesn’t matter much, and indeed we should take it in both senses. As believers we should consider ourselves to be those called by God, there has been a sovereign call from the King that we should belong to Christ and we should seek to live our lives in the light of that call, of that sovereign decree. On the other hand, we should view all the people around us as people that God has called to believe in Christ, it is God’s command and purpose that all people believe in Christ. Not all will, but we should seek to make the gospel known to all.
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