Leftovers

DEVOTION
ROMANS
LEFTOVERS
Rom 11:1-6
11:1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah — how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? 4 And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
NIV
It certainly seems clear to me, I cannot achieve eternal life without the whole work of Christ, which means I cannot through my work. If by some works of mine I could gain some small amount of standing with God, then it would have required less than the complete work of Christ. If I could, then it would be Christ and me, which brought about my eternal life, my salvation. But such is not the case, no God determined it would be Christ and Christ alone who would accomplish all that needed to be done, in order that I may gain eternal life. The question which always remains regarding some words in this passage still exists over God’s election. Verse 4 talks about God reserving for himself, yet the Greek word which was used carries the meaning of ‘remaining’. I have no problem with this as Paul quotes 1 Kings 19:18 and the Hebrew word simply means left over, So God must likely was saying He had seven thousand left over who had not bowed their knee. It still was up to those seven thousand as to whether they would bow or not. Grace still applies in the manner of God have a divine influence upon the hearts of those men and they reflected His influence by bowing a need to Baal. All this bears a great deal on my life today, as I must be aware of God’s influence on and in my life. It is my own decision to listen to the voice of God, or to ignore it and travel my own path. True, I make choices every day, some of which certainly would be considered as ignoring the voice of God. I respond inappropriately to others, or think about my own human needs too much, or any number of other things. But my path has not changed, it is my desire to hear God, I fail, and still He does not reject me. No, He continues to forgive and gives guidance for me to hear. He continues to demonstrate His divine influence upon me, working with me to continue to grow in His likeness. I must make the choice to listen. I decide not to bow my knee to the false gods in this world today. I must choose to be one of those God can say, “I have a certain number left over for me” after all the death caused by the evil one in this world. God has not rejected nor will He reject those who decide to be the leftovers.