Romans 9 & 10

I have at times received great blessings of spiritual strength even when I have not deserved such blessings. I have wondered at times if such blessings had more to do with what I had done in a previous or pre-existent life than what I had done here. Paul suggests that many of the blessings of election or fore-ordination we received had to do with our diligence in a pre-mortal existence not this life as he talks of hating Esau and and loving Jacob -

"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth..." (New Testament Romans 9:11)

Peter taught much the same thing -

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ..." (New Testament 1 Peter 1:2)

How else would it be where some receive greater spiritual blessings with no apparent earned reason. Why would Saul be so visited on the Road to Damascus. Is it unfair to others in general. Paul answers -

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." (New Testament Romans 9:14)

It is because of our pre-earth diligence that the Lord can say -

"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." (New Testament Romans 9:15 - 16)

Explaining -

"Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" (New Testament Romans 9:19 - 21)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote -

“He is a resurrected and holy and perfected man, and we are his offspring. We are his spirit children. He lives in the family unit. We are members of his family. We lived in this premortal life with him for an infinite period of time. We were on probation; we were being schooled and tested and examined; we were given the laws and the circumstances so that we could progress and advance. . . .

This system was given to us, and for an infinite period of time, we advanced and progressed and did things that enabled us to go along the course leading to exaltation and dominion and godhood. . . .

In this prior life, this premortal existence, this pre-existence, we developed various capacities and talents. Some developed them in one field and some in another. The most important of all fields was the field of spirituality, the ability, the talent, the capacity to recognize truth.” (Bruce R. McConkie, as cited in When Thou Art Converted, Strengthen Thy Brethren, A Study Guide for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums of the Church, 1974–75, pp. 8–9.)

He also explains -

“Preexistence is not some remote and mysterious place. All of us are but a few years removed from the Eternal Presence, from him whose children we are and in whose house we dwelt. . . .

. . . We know we had friends and associates there. We know we were schooled and trained and taught in the most perfect educational system ever devised, and that by obedience to his eternal laws we developed infinite varieties and degrees of talents. . . .

. . . When we come into mortality, we bring the talents, capacities, and abilities acquired by obedience to law in our prior existence.” (Bruce R. McConkie in CR, Apr. 1974, pp. 101–3.)

Joseph Fielding Smith also wrote -

“God gave his children their agency even in the spirit world, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just as men have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, or partaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins. . . . some even there were more faithful than others in keeping the commandments of the Lord. . . .

The spirits of men . . . had an equal start, and we know they were all innocent in the beginning; but the right of free agency which was given to them enabled some to outstrip others, and thus, through the eons of immortal existence, to become more intelligent, more faithful, for they were free to act for themselves, to think for themselves, to receive the truth or rebel against it.” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:58–59.)

But even though we were diligent in the pre-existence or first estate, it provides no guarantees to salvation. We still have the responsibility to be faithful and diligent here or in this, our second estate -

"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (New Testament Romans 10:12 - 13)