Romans - Series 2
1 - Sovereign Choice
Chapters 9 to 11 of Romans are closely related. They unfold some of the profoundest aspects of God’s sovereignty and grace. These chapters deal with unconditional election and they focus on the Jews. God makes choices and He needn’t tell us why. Our job is to bow to the authority of Holy Scripture. We come to the Word of God to be taught. However unpleasant to the natural mind the revealed truth of God may be, we acknowledge its supreme right to be right. Like the elect One, God’s servant Jesus Christ, so the doctrine of election is a stumbling stone and a rock of offence to many. That’s because we’re perverse. Election has been called ‘the shut door of the sanctuary of God’s choice.’
Chapter 9 opens with the Apostle telling us of the huge sorrow he carries with him at all times. It’s an enormous pain deep within him. His constant burden was for his own race, the people of Israel, to turn to Christ. Just as Moses had once pleaded with God to drop his name out of the book of life, if it were possible to save the Israelites, so Paul wishes to be in hell and cut off from Christ, if only the Jews might be saved. Understand that election is no deterrent to a passion for souls.
The Jews had so much going for them. Verses 4 and 5 state, “Theirs is the adoption as sons, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” After all those advantages, still somehow they missed it – big time! Did you notice the end of verse 5 said, “Christ, who is God over all, forever praised?” This is one of the clearest statements of the deity of Jesus Christ found in the entire New Testament.
Remember that God is sovereign. He makes choices. The reason for the choice lies in the depths of God. Election is an act of God governed only and solely by His good pleasure. Father Abraham had many sons. After Isaac’s wedding, he married again – a woman called Keturah and had sons by her. But Isaac was the elect seed (verse 7) and Jacob (verse 13) the elect son. Jacob, who was Abraham’s grandson, was chosen before the twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. Therefore God’s choice was not based on their character or conduct, so God’s promise took priority over genetics. Moral character does not decide election. Verses 11 and 12 state quite clearly, “Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls – she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
Some suggest that God is unjust because He chooses A and does not choose B. “Not at all” declares Paul. What God does is always right and always righteous. His ways are ways of righteousness. His word and His Law are ever righteous. Therefore, His choice is the choice of righteousness. To His prophet Moses, He revealed that righteousness depended on His ‘I will.’ What God wills is righteousness. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Exodus chapter 33 verse 19).
Before we were born our destiny was ordered of the Lord, in fact from before the foundation of the world. You may reject this or resent it. Your decision would only serve to demonstrate that you are a creature with freedom of choice.
The reality is man has no claim on God but His mercy. God would not be unjust to reject all men. Election was demonstrated in the life of Pharaoh the tyrant, ‘that large example of defiant human sin.’ Pharaoh was morally responsible for hardening his own heart. “Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go” (Exodus 8:32), later becomes, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus chapter 10 verse 20).
We still have questions that trouble us. Is God fair? Does He have favourites? In Exodus chapter 9 verses 15 and 16 the Lord tells Moses to confront Pharaoh with these words: “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Now here’s a thought! God raised up Pharaoh for this purpose – in order that He might demonstrate His justice, His mercy and His glory.
Pharaoh willingly and deliberately battled with right. He brought ruin on his own head and, thereby, God made Pharaoh a monument not of grace but of judgement.
If the will of God is irresistible, how can God blame a man if he does wrong according to the will of God? Who are we to question God? This is one of our problems. His actions are never questionable, never nefarious, never shady. God is transparent, but the glass through which we’re looking is opaque.
To elect means to choose as in a general election when a new government is chosen. Election in the Bible is unconditional and by grace alone. It is not decided by natural causes, foreseen or otherwise. The choice is not based on works, but wholly on the Caller who is God.
No person has any right to argue with God. But we do. We’re so argumentative, so ready to announce, ‘I see it differently’, ‘In my considered opinion ...‘. In verse 20 the question is asked, “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Verse 21 “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” A proud man needs to be reminded that he is but clay.