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God's Election of His People in Christ

3/21/2017

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"Election is God, from eternity, choosing individual sinners in Christ to be holy and without blame before Him in love, and giving those sinners every spiritual blessing in heavenly places with Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). God’s word reveals several glorious things about election.

In Christ
I can’t say with certainty, but it seems to me that the most important aspect of election is that it is “in Christ.” We are chosen in Christ. We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. And we are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ to believe Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel. Throughout scripture, God speaks of His people in two ways: what we are in ourselves, and what we are in Christ. In ourselves we are “without strength,” “ungodly,” “sinners,” and “enemies of God.” (Rom. 5:6-10). In ourselves, we are "children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3). But from eternity, God, of His own free and sovereign will, chose His people “in Christ.” And in Christ He sees them as He sees His Son! “I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob” (Num. 23:19). Jacob was a liar and a cheat. Yet, from eternity, in Christ, God says, “I have not  beheld iniquity in Jacob!”

What does it mean to be in Christ? It means that God forever considers His people as He considers His Son.

“23 ...that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:23-24).

“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3).

Their sin debt, their obligations to keep the law, the punishment God’s justice demands for their disobedience, all of this He eternally laid on Christ, received from Christ and found in Christ! Before the world began, before any man was created, before any had yet fallen in Adam, God, in His eternal electing love in Christ, and by His eternal decree, already laid the sins of His people on His Son, and already received from Christ full satisfaction for those sins. From eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Yet, from eternity, in the decree of God, our Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for His people as the Lamb of God, and He was slain in God’s will and purpose. “...ye were redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24). Thus, God knew what we were in ourselves from eternity. Nevertheless, He chose us in Christ to eternal salvation, to be holy and without blame before Him in love (Eph. 1:4). Election, therefore, is God, in His sovereign mercy, choosing His people in Christ before time began (Rom. 9:15). Two staggering things have been accomplished from eternity in the mind of God the Father: First, He made His Son and His elect people one. He received sinners as He received His Son. Second, and more incomprehensible than the first, He made Christ sin for them, and plunged the sword of His justice into His Son, even in His eternal decrees (Zech. 13:7)!

Men talk of God being unfair in election because He chose to save some and pass by others. But if man was concerned with justice, why doesn’t man raise an objection to God requiring His eternal Son to take a created human nature into union with Himself, and make Christ, who is holy, to be sin for His people, and then deliver Him up to death as a criminal to suffer at God’s own hand and at the hands of unjust, wicked men (Acts 2:23; Gen. 50:20)!? We foolish, sinful men focus on those things we think we understand, but don’t, and accuse God of injustice in our own case, while we gladly allow God to be just in the case of others (Rom. 2:1), and allow Him to give up His Son to suffering and death!

That God chose His people in Christ meant that He left others outside of Christ. What does it mean to be outside of Christ? It means that God leaves us to obey His law and answer His justice for our disobedience in our own person. It means that we, in ourselves, must obey God, and we, in ourselves, must bear our own sins before God for our own disobedience. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, that so frightens me as the thought of bearing my own sins before God!! Yet, where is the injustice in God for requiring a man to give an answer for his own thoughts, words and deeds? Again, if we were truly concerned about injustice, wouldn’t it rather shock us to know that God never thought of His people’s sins as their own, but charged them and laid them and saw them on Christ (Isa. 53:4-12)? Shouldn’t it stagger our sense of justice that God predestinated Christ to be delivered up to His justice and to the hands of wicked men for the sins of His people made His (Acts 2:23; Ps. 40:12; 2 Cor. 5:21)?! But He did not stop there! For when in God’s eternal decree, Christ was slain, it was not an unwilling sacrifice on Christ's part. It was for love that He gave Himself to God for His people (Eph. 5:25-27; Gal. 2:20; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-10)! “He put away sins by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). He offered Himself to God for His people in love with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength! "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:15). “He offered up Himself” (Heb. 7:27)! "Thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:7)! He held nothing back! God wouldn’t accept all of creation because He required His Son to die (Mark 14:36). Nor would Christ offer less than Himself to God for His people!

Men object that God would, of His own will, show mercy only to some, by choosing them in Christ, while leaving others outside of Christ to keep His law and answer His justice in their own person. But all such objections reveal an underlying attitude of pride, as if God owes me something, I who am a sinner! God owes no man anything. If God treats man with strict justice, what does He do more than earthly kings who uphold order in their own kingdoms? To think we deserve mercy is to think high thoughts of ourselves and low thoughts of God! There are several problems with objecting to God’s electing love in Christ. First, because God is God and we are men. He gives no account of any of His matters to any of His creatures (Job 33:13)! “He puts no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight” (Job 15:15)! Second, because man deserves nothing more than justice before God. It is folly to object to God’s eternal counsels. God is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works (Ps. 145:17; Deut. 32:4)! If God did it, it must therefore be right, just because He did it! To require God to explain His eternal counsels is more than we demand of ourselves. What home or business or government can hope to survive if every individual must understand and agree with every step in every decision?! Yet, we require God to explain His reasonings to us, to us whose hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful above all things?!!

From eternity
We cannot begin to understand how God could be God from everlasting and to everlasting (Ps. 90:2)! Yet He is! And this is our security (Deut. 33:27; Heb. 1:12; 13:8)! What this means is that there was never a time when God did not view His people in Christ! And there was never a time when God did not view those who are outside of Christ except as they are in Adam and in their own person. Therefore, we can see that if God “hated Esau” by not choosing Esau in Christ, that He therefore also hated Esau for what he was in his own person: a profane man who traded his birthright to eternal blessings for a bowl of stew to satisfy his belly. “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Php. 3:19). In ourselves, we are no different than Esau. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6). Yes, Eph. 2:4-6 speaks of God’s work in time. But “known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world” (Acts 15:18). Therefore, in eternal election, this too was in His heart from eternity. There was never a time when it could not be said, “But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us,” because this has ever been His mind towards those He chose in Christ, in spite of what we are in ourselves! In spite of all that we are in ourselves, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world!

God's will and God's work, not man's will or man's work
If God teaches us anything in election it is this: “not of works, but of him that calleth” (Rom. 9:11). “It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs (to obtain salvation as a runner strives to win a race), but of Him who has mercy, of God” (Rom. 9:16). God puts it both positively and negatively. Positively: it is of God. Negatively: it is not of man. That seals the entire matter. It is not of man! It is of God! Over and over again, scripture repeats this truth, because we need to be reminded of it over and over again. We need to be bowed and humbled before God, worship Him because it is not of us, but it is of Him! We need to repeatedly hold this in our mind that our salvation from everlasting to everlasting is NOT OF OUR WILL NOR OF OUR WORKS, BUT OF GOD’S WILL AND GOD’S WORK in CHRIST ALONE!

To salvation
God eternally chose His people in Christ to salvation (2 Thess. 2:13). I once read a man who said this meant God chose us because of foreseen faith. He said that He chose us “...through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13), as if God’s choice was through faith. Now, the devil and his children distort the word of God in an attempt to rob God of His glory and rob man of his eternal soul. But God our Father chose us to salvation. That salvation to which He chose us is through sanctification of the Spirit. That is, the Spirit of God saves us through faith, which He gives (Eph. 2:8-9). Thus, faith is never the cause of God’s electing love; it is the result of it. “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48)!

Certain as God’s word
Our salvation is as certain and everlasting and sure as God's own written word (Matt. 24:35; John 10:35; Heb. 6:17-19)! In Romans 9:6 the Spirit of Christ by the mouth of the apostle says, “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6). Men can’t get past their proud, mistaken notion that God’s word must in some way depend on them! But in salvation, God’s will and God’s word and God’s work accomplish all in spite of man! If there were conditions placed on man, he, as the weakest link, would utterly destroy the entire matter! God never makes His eternal purposes depend on man! Rather, He made all of His purposes depend on His Son (John 17:1-4)!! That is why He chose His elect “in Christ!” He entrusted His people to Christ (John 6:39-40; 10:29; 17:2). He entrusted all of creation to Him (Col. 1:16). He entrusted the fulfillment of His word to His Son, who is the Word of God (Ps. 40:6-8; Heb. 5-7). And He entrusted His own glory to Him (Heb. 1:2; John 3:35; 6:37-40; Rev. 4:11; Rev. 5:1-14)! “I have laid help on One that is mighty” (Ps. 89:19)! There are therefore no conditions God places on the elect to meet or uphold. The truth of Romans 9:1-11 is that most of Israel perished because God did not choose to rescue them from their own willful unbelief. He left them to themselves. He did not choose them in Christ!

​Else none would be saved
Unless God elected a people, unless He chose some in Christ out of this world, no one could be saved; all would justly perish. This is proven in scripture by the experience of the entire nation of the Jews. “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved” (Rom. 9:27)! It is not possible for any to be saved apart from God’s electing love in Christ! “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9; Rom. 9:29).

Real sinners saved
Perhaps the most endearing aspect of election is that it is precisely because salvation is by God’s electing love in Christ that real sinners are really saved (Heb. 9:12; John 19:30)! They are not just saved a little, but saved to the uttermost, with an everlasting salvation (Heb. 7:25; Isa. 45:17)! Salvation is Christ doing all for the sinner. In salvation, God never looks to the sinner for one thing, but provides all for him and gives every grace and blessing to him for Christ’s sake alone! And that is the only salvation that will save this sinner!

Objections
Men basically raise three objections to election. One, which I have already mentioned, is that God can only save a man if man does his part, if he meets the conditions. But God throws this false premise to the ground (Rom. 9:11). Remember how Moses prayed in Numbers 14:13-20? Israel had sinned. God said He would destroy them. But Moses argued to the Lord: if You destroy them, the Egyptians will hear of it and say that Israel perished because the LORD could not bring them into the land He promised to give them! No, God’s word cannot fail! Most in Israel were lost not because God was unable to save them, but because God did not determine to save them (Rom. 9:6)! He did not choose them in Christ from eternity. Christ is called “Israel” in scripture because it is in Him that all of God’s people are chosen and saved and boast (Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15). “In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel by justified and shall glory” (Isa. 45:25)!

The second objection men make about election is that God is “unfair.” Is God unrighteous because He loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were born? Once again, this objection is answered by God’s sovereign right to show mercy, that is, to save whom He will in Christ. There is nothing unfair about God. He cannot be unjust. If God did it, it is right. It is right, not because it is right by external standards. But it is right for this most fundamental of all reasons: because God is right and He thinks and says and does only right (Ps. 31:5; 145:17; Deut. 32:4; Isa. 6:3; Rev. 15:4). Because He did it, it is therefore right!

The third objection men raise is that because men cannot resist God’s will, God should not fault them for their sin. This is the fatalistic argument. "If God does what He does, I will do what I do, because He will make me do what He wants and I have no say in the matter." But this is taking part of God’s truth while rejecting the other part. It is using the part of God’s word I like with the intent of arguing against God’s right to be sovereign. It is taking what God says about His control over all things while throwing out the effect His Gospel has on real sinners (Isa. 53:11). The truth that God is God puts proud man’s face in the dust, in worship of God, asking Him to look upon and receive me for Christ’s sake! This is seen in what follows in Romans 9:30; 10:4 and 10:13. Gentiles were given the righteousness which is of faith (Rom. 9:30; Rom. 5:17). Christ, by His obedience in His life and death, established that righteousness that was given to them. He is the end of the law to everyone that believeth (Rom. 10:4). And scripture says, “
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Therefore, election brings sinners to see and believe Christ (John 6:37-40). But if we only 
hold the one truth, that God is sovereign, and yet deny that He is so holy and just that He can only save sinners in Christ (Isa. 45:25; 1 Cor. 1:30), and if we also deny that He has commanded me to look to Christ alone (Isa. 45:22), then we only pick and choose from the truth of God’s word. And that is fatal! That is always fatal. On the objection that man cannot resist God’s will and therefore God should not fault man, God reveals that even the wicked were made for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4). When God hardens a man, such as Pharaoh, it amounts to leaving that man to his own pride and lust and his heart’s deception (Rom. 1:21, 24, 26). When God leaves a man to what he is in himself, that man will serve God’s sovereign purpose by showing His severity, His wrath against sin.  God is impartial in His judgments. He is "no respecter of persons" (Rom. 2:11). The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezek. 18:4, 20). Sin entered the world by one man, Adam (Rom. 5:12). God made man upright, but man has sought out every (evil) invention (Eccl. 7:29; Rom. 1:30). God does not tempt men to sin. Man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:13-15). Therefore, this objection, as all objections against God, must fall. Scripture is the final word on every matter. We must rest our case on God’s word alone. We must not rest because we are able to reason it all out. And we certainly must not rest on our warped sense of what God must do to be just (Jer. 17:9-10).

God’s love to His elect
“We are bound to give thanks to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation” (2 Thess. 2:13). Did God love everyone born to Abraham? No. He did not love Ishmael. Did God love everyone born to Isaac? No. He did not love Esau. Did God love those in Israel who perished in their unbelief? No. Those that perished were not the spiritual seed of Abraham (Rom. 9:6-8). We should understand and worship and rejoice in this truth: God only loves those in Christ. “The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). And if God did not love all born to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then He most certainly does not love everyone in the world. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him, should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The world God loved is that world of His elect “out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) who believe Christ, just as God loved Jacob and hated Esau though both were born to Isaac, and just as God did not love those in Israel that perished in unbelief (Rom. 9:6-8; Matt. 7:23). The elect believe Christ. They believe Him for life just as the serpent-bitten Israelites looked to the uplifted serpent on the pole to live (John 3:14-15). Their faith is part of "all spiritual blessings" (Eph. 1:3) and "all things" (Rom. 8:32; Acts 13:48). And if God did not promise spiritual blessings to everyone born to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then Christ did not die for everyone in the world, because all of God’s blessings are given to those for whom God did not spare His Son (Rom. 8:32). If God delivered up His Son for a man, He will without fail, give that man all things with Christ. Neither heaven nor hell, nor the hell that is in a man’s heart will prevent God from turning him from his unbelief to faith and love in Christ (Luke 7:42,47; Acts 13:48; 5:31; 11:18; Jer. 31:18-19).

Don’t you love God’s electing love and grace that is in Christ Jesus our Lord?! Every believing sinner does. It is only when we know God to be sovereign in our salvation, and know that His salvation is in Christ alone, that we truly come to Him for mercy in Christ and worship Him for His sovereign, electing love and mercy, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Only then will we join the Psalmist from our heart and say, “Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word” (Ps. 119:41; Luke 18:13)!
Rick Warta
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The Answer of God - Election

3/12/2017

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This question often comes up, “Why did God create men whom He determined before not to save?” In other words, “If God eternally and unalterably determined whom He would save and whom He would not save, then why did He create those He knew He would send to hell?”

Though I often try to answer this question the best I can, not only to myself but to others, I often leave with the sense that I did not give a satisfactory answer. Therefore, I want to give “the answer of God” from scripture (Rom. 11:4). The Spirit of God Himself speaks through the apostle Paul to both ask and answer this question in Romans 9. In v11, God says that before Jacob and Esau were born, while they were still in their mother’s womb, before either of them had done any good or evil, God said, “the elder shall serve the younger.” Now, He did not mean simply that Esau would serve Jacob in his life, but spiritually, that God would use Esau (and all like him) to further the purpose of God in the salvation and blessing of His people (Isa. 43:3; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Rom. 8:28,35-39). It meant that Esau would forever remain the servant of sin; He would never have the promises in Christ God gave to Abraham: salvation and eternal glory in Christ alone. Rom. 9:11 says that God spoke this in advance that His “purpose according to election might stand.” “The purpose according to election” is that salvation is “not of works, but of Him that calleth.”  This is why scripture declared, before Jacob and Esau were born, that God loved Jacob and hated Esau: that salvation, from first to last, might be of God and not of man (Rom. 9:11; 1 Cor. 1:30-31).

God’s will never changes. Those He loves, He loves eternally (Jer. 31:3; Isa. 14:24; Ps. 33:11; Mal. 3:6). Those God loved in heaven are those loved before the foundation of the world. All those loved before time are eternally loved in glory. “Beloved of the Lord…” (2 Thess. 2:13). Those the Lord saves, He determined to save from eternity. Therefore, here in Romans 9:11, Paul quotes scripture from Malachi 1:2-3 to affirm God’s eternal will towards Jacob and Esau: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom. 9:11). Malachi’s prophecy was not a decision God made in time, but one He made before time. Rom. 9:11 teaches that Jacob was not loved for his good works. And it teaches that Esau was not rejected for his evil works. God is less influenced by sinful man than men are influenced by a worm, or a Potter is influenced by the clay on his wheel (Job 35:5-8; Acts 17:25; Rom. 11:34-36; Jer. 18:6; Isa. 29:16). Election is not in any way conditioned on man. God eternally loved and eternally chose His own. And He eternally rejected the rest. Nothing about men moved God to chose one and pass by the other. “For the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil…”

Many deny this plainly declared truth as if God did not really love one unborn child and hate the other. Some have tried to apply these words to nations rather than individuals. But what are nations but groups of individuals? Some have said this means God loved Esau less, as if “hate” did not mean hate. But why would Esau deserve to be less loved? Usually Luke 14:26 is given to show that Jesus used “hate” to mean “love less.” But the word in Luke literally means “hate.” Jesus is teaching that we must disobey all, even our loved ones, in all things they want us to do that oppose the will of our great Lord and Savior. Our disobedience makes it appear that we hate them. Thus “hate” means hate. And God follows His statement here with a question from an objector that only makes sense if the meaning was that God did love Jacob and hate Esau before they had done any good or evil. The objection that is raised and answered is: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” The question confirms God’s plain meaning. There could be no objection if God rewarded Jacob and Esau for their will or their works, either past or foreseen. But the objection serves to confirm the truth plainly stated: election is unconditional. It depends on God alone. God eternally set His love on Jacob and chose Jacob in Christ to eternal salvation and glory (Deut. 7:7-8; Eph. 1:3-5; 2 Thess. 2:13-14). Jacob is God’s exemplar of all the elect of God. God judged Christ and rewards His elect for Christ’s works. But God determined not to choose Esau in Christ. He left Esau to bear his own burden, to reward him according to his own works (Jer. 17:9-10; Rom. 2:6-ff).

Doesn’t the objection raised in Rom. 9:11 capture our own when we ask, “How can God be just if He created some with the unalterable will that they suffer the just punishment of their sins” (2 Pet. 2:9-13; 1 Pet. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10-12; Jude 1:4)? "Why did God create any who ultimately go to hell? Wouldn’t it have been better if He either saved all men or simply did not create those that would ultimately perish?!”

Now, we might put forward many responses to questions such as these. We might respond, “In asking such questions, you place greater concern on the plight of unjust man than the glory of holy God.” And that would be a correct assessment. God’s glory is certainly more important than the personal suffering of sinners. Or we might say, “God only gives men what is right.” That would also be correct. Yet Paul, by the Spirit of God, does something better in his answer, something we must all learn to do in response to our own questions and the questions of others. We must never forget this principle: the Spirit of God answers all such questions as our Lord Jesus answered satan three times. He said, “It is written...” This is always the answer of God, isn’t it?! Let it therefore always be ours! God’s word must be our final answer to every question. We must stop with all of our reasoning and own that God’s word is truth. We must rest in the fact that there is no truth but the word of God. God’s  written word is the ultimate authority. There is none higher (Ps. 138:2).

If we want to know the truth of anything, we must come to the final and ultimate answer of God’s written word. For example, “How did this world come to be?” Scripture alone answers this and all such questions. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). How did God create all that is out of nothing? He spoke, and it was done. How do we know? The Bible tells us so (Gen. 1:1-31; Ps. 33:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; John 1:3; Acts 17:24). God made all that is by His Word (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). Scripture has spoken. That is the final response on the matter. To go beyond scripture is to presume there is truth more foundational than God’s own word. But scripture is truth (John 17:17; Dan. 10:21; Ps. 119:43,142) It is the unprovable axiom. All truth is therefore proved by the word of God. Truth is not proven by experience. It is not proven by science, not by man at all or in any way! It is most certainly not proven by our own sinful reasoning (Prov. 28:26; Jer. 17:9)!! Faith is taking God at His word (John 3:33; 20:31). Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself refuted Satan’s temptation from scripture (Matt. 4:4,7,10). Eve failed to do so and was deceived. Believers must believe Christ, according to scripture (Rom. 10:17; 1 John 5:4).

Now, in Rom. 9:14-16 God asks, then answers this objection for us. “Is there unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14)? What is His answer? “God forbid” (Rom. 9:14)! We immediately know, therefore, that God is not unrighteous! But He continues by bringing in the foundation of all truth: scripture. “15 For he saith to Moses, 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” (Rom. 9:15-16). Scripture says God is not unrighteous. Scripture says He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Scripture says He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. The Spirit of God draws the conclusion from scripture to the objection He knows lies in the minds of sinful men: “So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom. 9:16). Salvation is not of him who wills. It is not of him who runs. It is of Him who has mercy! It is of God, to the exclusion of all that is in man!!

By raising and answering this question from scripture, the matter is now put to rest with regards to Jacob and Esau. God determined to have mercy, and did have mercy on Jacob. He determined not to have mercy, and did not have mercy on Esau. God loved Jacob. He hated Esau: He rejected him. Scripture says this was God’s eternal will towards these two unborn children. Scripture says God shows mercy as it pleases Him. Now, we might try to go further and ask, “But Why?” If we question further, we must know that we are prying into God’s eternal counsels. Oh, the pride of our natural hearts! Only faith in God’s word can put such pride to silence! Have you ever come face to face with a complex system, such as your computer? When a computer expert tells you what you should and should not do, you might be tempted to delve deeper into why the computer does what it does so that you can verify the conclusive advice of the computer expert. And how many times in our lives do we acknowledge that some one else understands a complex system better than we do? We are content to leave it there, aren’t we? Expert advice has been given: “Don’t do that! Or, do this to avoid that problem!” We know that if we go against that advice, we may very well incur expensive repairs! So we rest on the  expert’s advice without prying into every supporting fact and intermediate conclusion that led the expert to give that advice: “Do this; do not do that.”

Now, in Romans 9:11-16, God says He has a purpose. His purpose is that salvation will be of His calling and not of our will or works. He says that before these two sons were born or ever did good or evil, He loved Jacob and hated Esau. There! The answer has been given! It is a simple answer. Scripture has spoken. Truth has been revealed. Faith must stand firm on it. God, who is righteous, is absolutely sovereign! He saves because of His own will to show mercy on whom He will show mercy! He does not save because of man’s will or work to save himself! That’s the way things are! Believe the Lord. Bow to Him. Worship Him. His judgments have been made known (Rom. 11:34-36). "Be still and know that He is God" (Ps. 46:10; Ps. 145:17; Deut. 32:4)!

Yet the Lord gives another example. He includes Pharaoh. The Spirit of God again speaks through Paul with the ultimate authority of scripture. He again draws the conclusion for us. “17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth” (Rom. 9:17-18). Scripture spoke to Pharaoh. Scripture said God raised him up to show His power in him and to make His name known throughout all the earth. Isn’t that interesting?! God used Pharaoh to show all men that He is Judge of all and sovereign in salvation! God rules over and defeats His proudest enemies on behalf of His people, to the glory of His power and justice! It pleased God to bring Pharaoh to power over all of Egypt, and then, at the appointed time, God commanded him to let Israel go. But in his pride, Pharaoh refused. God hardened him in his own pride (Rom. 1:24,26). Ten times Pharaoh refused. Finally, God overruled his objections. When Pharaoh was in the height of his pride and anger against the LORD and the LORD’s people, God destroyed him in the Red Sea. To the utter humiliation of Pharaoh and his proud armies, God destroyed them in open view of His helpless people without so much as a finger being raised by Israel in their own defense! In the same way Christ, the Lamb of God, will cast satan and his followers into the lake of fire under eternal torment by the work of Christ alone (Rev. 20:10; 21:8)!

Now, this scripture from Ex. 9:16 is called forth to us in Romans 9 to establish the truth that God has mercy on whom He will and hardens whom He will. Again, the Spirit of God anticipates the objection of men: “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will” (Rom. 9:19)? The objection once again confirms God’s meaning. God does with men what pleases Him. His will is absolute, eternal and unalterable (Isa. 14:24; 46:10). Because this is so, sinful man vigorously objects: “If God’s will determines all outcomes, why does He find fault with men?! None can resist His will!” Haven’t you and I wondered and even asked this question ourselves?

Once again, to this objection God Himself answers. His answer is authoritative, final and perfect. He says, “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” (Rom. 9:20)? God’s answer does not stop with v20. He goes on to reveal that in His sovereign will, before the world began, He predestined some men to be vessels of honor to His saving mercy (Rom. 9:23). And He determined for others to serve His purpose as vessels of dishonor in their just condemnation to demonstrate His wrath (Rom. 9:22; Isa. 29:16; Jer. 18:6). He sovereignly shows mercy on those He chooses before to save (2 Thess. 2:13-14). That mercy is by His sovereign will alone. And He hardens those He rejected. As Pharaoh, He leaves them to the just consequences of their pride. Or, as Esau, He leaves them to the just consequences of the lusts of their hearts (Heb. 12:16). Pharaoh was destroyed in the height of his pride. Esau cast away eternal blessings for stew. God therefore cast away Esau. Who can deny that God dealt in justice with these two?

Listen to scripture. Scripture says God does not tempt men to evil (James 1:13-15). Scripture says men commit sin when they are drawn away by their own lusts (James 1:14). Scripture says that God did not create Adam and Eve with a sinful nature, but that everything He made was very good (Gen. 1:31). Scripture says men are inventors of evil things (Rom. 1:30). Scripture says God created man upright, but they sought out many inventions (Eccl. 7:29). Scripture says that God’s wrath is revealed -- not against the innocence of man but -- against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1:18). Scripture says God has shown every man that He is eternal and almighty and that He alone is worthy of all worship (Rom. 1:19-21). Men are therefore without excuse (Rom. 1:20). Men suppress the truth God has shown them (Rom. 1:18-19). In consequence, God gives men over to their own hearts’ lust (Rom. 1:21-24). Scripture makes it clear that men go to hell justly. And in Rom. 9, scripture makes clear that men receive the just reward of their actions (Rom. 2:6-10; 9:22). But scripture also makes clear that God chose some to salvation and eternal glory in spite of the curse of God they deserved by preserving them in Christ, rescuing them from the curse of His justice by Jesus Christ (Jude 1:1; 2 Thess. 2:10-14; Eph. 1:4-5; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 2:1-6)!

Scripture gives this answer: “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Ps. 145:17). “There is none that doeth good” (Rom. 3:12). “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). “There is no man that sinneth not” (1 Kings 8:46). Yet God is good (Matt. 19:17; Mark 10:18). He is righteous (Deut. 32:4). In His goodness, and according to His righteousness, He has mercy on whom He will (Ps. 85:10; Rom. 3:24-25; Rom. 9:15-16). And in His righteousness, He hardens whom He will (Rom. 9:18). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4,20). Death is payback for sin (Rom. 6:23).

We must not exercise our minds further than what God has revealed. He has not revealed the processes in His eternal counsels by which He determined and predestinated all things for His glory. But He has given us the concluding decisions of His eternal counsels. Scripture reveals God’s decrees and purposes and records His works. Justice is what God thinks. Righteousness is what God does. God chooses to save whom He will as it pleases Him (Matt. 11:25-26). He does this so that the salvation of His elect cannot in any way be the result of their works. Just the opposite. He saves His own people in spite of their sinful opposition to Him and even in opposition to their own salvation (Rom. 8:7; 2 Tim. 2:25; Ps. 106:7-8). Scripture reveals that unless God saved men in this way, none would be saved (Rom. 9:29). Scripture reveals that God pours out His wrath on men for their sins (Rom. 1:18-32; Ezek. 18:4,20). And scripture reveals that He hardens men by giving them over to their own pride and lust that arises and resides in their own hearts (Mark. 7:21-23; Rom. 1:18-3:20; Eph. 4:17-19; Acts 28:24-28; Prov. 1:20-32; Isa. 65:2-9; Rom. 10:18-21; 1 Pet. 2:7-8; 2 Pet. 2:1-22).

Why did God create men whom He determined not to save? Because it seemed good to Him to do so. All that God thinks and does is good because He thinks and does it! We should be more concerned to believe scripture than to pry into the secret things of God (Deut. 29:29). We should be more concerned for God’s glory than for the consequences man suffers for his wilful and stubborn ungodliness and unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). May the Lord be pleased to show us His mercy and cause us to rejoice in His salvation in Christ! May He make us go in the path God-given faith in Christ (Ps. 119:49). Oh Lord! Order my steps in thy word (Ps. 119:133)! Make me to go in the path of thy commandments (Ps. 119:35)! Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness (Ps. 119:36)! Give me grace to understand and know the Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 119:34; John 17:3)! I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant (Ps. 119:176)! Do this, almighty, gracious Savior, according to your righteousness, to the glory of your great and holy name, find me in Christ alone (Php. 3:3-10)!
Rick Warta
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