Can we pray that people be saved? (Rom. 10:1)
Peter Paul Rubens Landscape with the Shipwreck of Paul If there is one unmistakable truth that Romans chapter 9 teaches, it is that the ultimate reason why anyone is saved, why anyone is a vessel of mercy, is because they have been prepared afore by God to glory, chosen by him to be saved through Christ without any consideration of their good or bad works. In other words, this chapter teaches the doctrine of election, that before the foundation of the world, God chose a definite number of people to be saved through Christ, and that this choice was unconditional, it was of individuals, and it was to eternal life. It is therefore right to say that if we are saved, it is because we were chosen in Christ. This choice was from eternity and so from all eternity the salvation of the elect was sure and certain. However, the choice of God the Father to save is not in itself salvation; it is unto salvation (2 Thess. 2:13). It results in salvation – necessarily, certainly, ...
