9 But now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
In this passage Paul repeats the principles about which he wrote to the Romans in Chapter 6, that is we are slaves to sin or slaves to God. In verse 8 he makes it clear - when we did not know God, we were slaves to those who are not gods. He is obviously referring to Satan and his minions. We were slaves and slaves do the bidding of their master, period. There is no one who Satan wants to see saved. For a lost man to choose Christ, Satan would have to want him to get saved. It’s as simple as that.
Then in verse 9 Paul writes now that you know God but then immediately corrects it by saying or rather are known by God - clearly showing a distinction between the two, how the latter is more accurate than the former. The point is we can’t know God until He first knew us. And He didn’t just know us, He foreknew us (Romans 8:29-30) which means He knew us in an intimate personal way BEFORE the foundation of the world because that is when He chose us in Christ. (Ephesians 1:4)
However, even though He chose us long before we were ever born and before we could do anything good or bad (Romans 9:11), He waits until a specific point in time to call us and to quicken our dead spirit - and God does not call every man to salvation (1 Corinthians 1:26; Hebrews 9:15). Then as a result of God acting first, we WILL come to Christ (John 6:37).
We become children of God NOT by human decision (John 1:13).
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