“What if God?”

TEXT:  Romans 9:19-29 – Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee – November 28, 2004

REVIEW

1.  Through the Works of the Law: The way of righteousness through the works of the Law requires perfect obedience.  One man has accomplished this.  He did not need to do this for Himself, since righteousness is part of His essence.  He did this for the unrighteous. 

2.  Through the Mercy of Jesus Christ: Now a new way of righteousness has been opened up to us through the perfect works and atoning death of Jesus Christ.  That new way is through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.  This is the message of the gospel, and it is the message Paul has been preaching throughout this book.  It is this message that is essential to the Christian faith, and it shines forth most brightly when we see that from beginning to end our salvation has come to us as the mercy of our God who cherished us before we were born.

 

TODAY’S PASSAGE: 

Romans 9:19-29   19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"  20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"  21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?  22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,  23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,  24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?  25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved."  26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God."  27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved.  28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."  29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

 

Thou art the Potter…

            R. C. Sproul says that he knows that he is on the right track in his understanding of Romans 9, because the objections that people bring up to him are the very things that people apparently brought up to the Apostle Paul.  Paul has already anticipated more than one objection in this chapter.  Is the Word of God without effect since not all the chosen nation recognized Jesus as Messiah?  No, they are not all Israel who are of Israel.  Is there unrighteousness with God in choosing some but not all of the descendants of Abraham?  No, God never promised to save all the descendants of Abraham.  We see that in the first two generations that come after him.  God promised that the son of Sarah would be saved and not the son of Hagar.  He promised that the younger brother Jacob would be saved and not the older brother Esau.  God did what He promised.  He has mercy on whomever He will have mercy.  Those who are not saved have their role in His plans, but He is under no obligation to give eternal life to everyone.

            Why then does God find fault?  If it all depends upon God, and no one can resist God’s will, why does He hold Pharaoh responsible for Pharaoh’s sin, and even harden the King of Egypt’s heart?  Why is Moses given eternal blessing and Pharaoh eternal condemnation if it all comes down to God’s sovereign mercy?  Anyone who teaches the biblical doctrine of election will encounter this question regularly.  Can God hold people responsible for sin when they are actually unable to obey Him?  If you want an answer to this question, you can find it in a good theology textbook.  Don’t bother to look in Romans 9. Though Paul raises the question, he chooses not to answer it here.  He is more interested in the inclination of the heart that asks the question than in proving that inability does not take away responsibility.

            The heart issue is more important to Him.  How dare you talk back to God!  “Have Thine own way, Lord.  Have Thine own way.  Thou art the Potter.  I am the clay.”  God is righteous, and He has power over all that He has made.  It is the Creator’s prerogative to make us for His own purpose.

 

First Purposes

            What is God’s purpose?  That is a profound question, and it is one that Paul chooses to answer beginning in verse 22.  What if God wanted to do something?  What if He planned all things for His own glory?  What if the plan that would bring Him the most glory is His first purpose, and not necessarily the plan that brings you the most immediate comfort or ease?  What if God’s plan called for some to be created for the greatest display of His mercy and others for the display of His eternal justice?  What if God endured with much longsuffering the rebellion of those who would not be saved, in order that He  might make known the riches of His glory on the objects of His supreme mercy?  (That would be us, whom He called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles.)

            What if everything is first about Him, and only secondarily about us? 

            That is certainly the case.  As you read the Bible, keep your eyes open for phrases that declare that God does things for His own name’s sake and you will find them everywhere.  One well known example comes from Psalm 23.  “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.”  Ezekiel 36:22 makes the point very clearly by giving us God’s reason for His merciful deliverance of Israel from the hands of her enemies.  “Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.”  God’s first purpose is to glorify His own name, and His calling of Jews and Gentiles to faith is for the higher purpose of bringing glory to Himself.

 

Hosea

            All of this discussion about God’s glory and election has everything to do with Jews and Gentiles.  Remember, Paul is writing in this chapter about His concern for His countrymen, the Jews.  Could it be right that some of the Jews would be left out of the electing purposes of God, and some of the Gentiles would be brought in?  Apparently this is something that would be for God’s great glory, and He had announced it long ago through the Old Testament prophets.

In Hosea 2:23 God says, “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.”  Notice the centrality of God in the work of saving Gentiles.  “I will call them …”  God will not merely make salvation possible for Gentiles.  He will save them.  God reveals His firm resolve to bring Gentiles (who are the “not My people”) to be a part of His people.  This was announced hundreds of years before the Gentiles of the first century heard the call of the gospel through the preaching of Paul and the New Testament church.  In Hosea 1:10 God makes it clear that pagans would be part of God’s family.  “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

           

Isaiah

            Not only would pagans be brought in, but many Jews would be left out.  Here the Apostle turns to Isaiah.  Though Jacob would have many descendants, yet only a remnant would be saved.  Many would be sent off to exile, but only a small percentage would return.  This remnant according to election would be the Israel within Israel.  The rest would be treated as “not Israel.”  They would be “not my people” in the words of Hosea. 

            God will judge wickedness.  Yes the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.  Who can stand when God determines to judge?  Only the elect remnant will stand, and they will only stand by the mercy of the Lord.  Without that mercy all we will see is the wrath of God in action.  We don’t often see that wrath.  We saw it in the flood when only chosen Noah and His family were saved.  We saw it in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah when only elect Lot and His daughters were spared.  Finally we saw it on the cross when the sinless Son of God faced divine wrath so that elect Jews and Gentiles would find eternal life.  One day we will see it again when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.  “Oh Lord, I want to be in that number” – that number of the elect remnant chosen by the mercy of God, when the saints of God are forever separated from vessels of God’s wrath who will be sent into eternal destruction.  If you want to be in that number, there should be evident fruit of God’s grace in a life lived in humility before God, God’s law, and God’s electing plan.

 

Deuteronomy

The idea that not all of Israel would be elect should not have been a surprise to anyone familiar with Deuteronomy.  It has never been safe for those who call themselves the covenant children of God to continue in sin and rebellion.  Deuteronomy 29 speaks of the danger that one asks for when he willfully turns against the Lord, and follows other gods.  Moses said to the Israelites in that day that rebelling against God would be asking for something like Sodom and Gomorrah.  The Lord’s anger would be aroused against the land, “to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.”

There should be no false presumption of safety for covenant breakers.  This is not the fruit of the elect of God.  Presumption that insists that I am immune from judgment because I am an Israelite (or because I am baptized) will not be a good defense for the man who rejects the Lord of glory and goes his own way.  The chosen of the Lord bear spiritual fruit in keeping with repentance.

 

What if God is God?

            What is the right way for us?  Let us be humbled by the doctrine of election.  Let God be God, and serve Him with all humility.  Bow before the Lord.  Abide in His Word.  Receive meekly His mercy.