YouTube video sermon
Romans 9:1-29
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Romans 9. As you’re finding your place let’s play a little game. I’m going to ask you a few basic geography questions and see if you can help me answer them. You ready?
Question 1
How many continents are there? (7)
Question 2
Can you name them? (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Africa, and Antarctica.)
Question 3
Does every continent have a continental divide, or just North America? (Yes, all, except Antarctica)
Question 4
What do continental divides do – besides divide continents? (They’re used to define the direction that an area’s rivers flow, in order to drain into the oceans and seas.)
Of all the continental divides around the world, ours: The Continental Divide of the Americas, also known as the Great Divide or the Western Divide, is the most well-known. It begins in Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska and the Bering Strait and travels south through Canada, the US, Mexico, Central America and South America, ending in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Chile and Argentina. In the US, the Great Divide tiptoes across the ridge of the Rocky Mountains beginning with Wyoming, and continuing with Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and ending with New Mexico.
Now, there are two reasons for taking that little geography lesson. The first is to illustrate to one of the members of my family – whose name I won’t share, in order to protect the guilty – that geography is indeed important. This particular member of my family didn’t know that Alaska was part of the United States. I’m still wondering if the comment was made in sincerity or sarcasm. I pray it was the latter, but suspect it was the former. In either case, knowing the basics is important.
The second reason is to hopefully set in your mind the mental picture of the Rocky Mountains, in all their majestic beauty, and the idea of walking along that ridge that forms the Continental Divide and how careful one must be in order not to miss a step and fall either to the east (and thus the Atlantic) or the west (and thus the Pacific).
Someone once said that Romans 9-11 is like riding a bicycle. If you stop peddling you’ll fall over – either to one side or the other. You have to keep peddling in order to stay upright. The reason I say that is because the doctrines of God’s sovereignty and Man’s free will are BOTH realities that are taught in the Bible. In fact, both of them show up in these chapters of Romans. (I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself but that’s ok.)
For instance, if you look at Romans 9:10-13, Paul is using the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their two boys: Jacob and Esau as an illustration of God’s sovereign election. Listen to what he says, “Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, 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 [God] who calls – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” God’s divine election couldn’t be more clearly proclaimed. Often times we say things like, “Show it to me in black and white.” Well, there you have it.
But now, hang on with me, and look at Romans 10:8-9. In the very next chapter Paul is talking about the gospel – the Good News of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection – and listen to what he says, “the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Hold on. Wait a minute, Paul. What do you mean “if you…?” You just made the argument for God’s divine election. If that’s true, there is no “if you…” there’s only “you will…” But that’s not what you just said. Do you see, now, why I stand before you this morning in fear and trembling?
So, truth number one. God’s sovereignty is a biblical reality. God’s divine election is a biblical reality.
Truth number two. You and I are not robots. God, in His infinite wisdom, created men/women with an ability to make choices (good/bad), and we are held responsible for those choices.
So, here’s the issue… This is the reason that Christendom has been divided on this issue. Are you read? How! How do these two biblical realities go together? That’s the question. That’s the issue at the heart of a lot (not all, but a lot) of our theological conflict. So, do you want to hear my answer to how we reconcile these two seemingly irreconcilable doctrines? Flip over to Romans 11:33-36:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
You say, “Now wait a second, pastor. That’s not an answer.” Well, it might not be the answer you wanted, but it’s Paul’s answer, and it’s my answer. “So, what are you saying, pastor? That we should just throw our hands up in the air and say ‘que sera sera’ – whatever will be, will be?” No, I’m simply trying to encourage you to be in awe of our great God and King, the Lord, Jesus Christ. Because, as we move through these next three chapters (and indeed all of your life) you’re going to want to come back to this conclusion time and time again.
Now, we could call it a day and go home. Some of you would like that, wouldn’t you? But alas, it’s my job and my duty – to the One who called me to the ministry – to faithfully proclaim and teach His holy Word to His church. So, in the few moments we have left (all of that was introduction) we’re going to quickly look at chapter 9.
Now, again, remember that chapter 9, 10, and 11 all belong together. They’re a unit. It’s a brief aside. As my preaching professor, Dr. Wayne Stacey, always used to say, “Let me drop a footnote here.” This is Paul’s footnote concerning Israel and God’s plan of salvation. And in chapter 9 Paul’s point to his people, to his kinsmen, to the Jew that’s scratching his head trying to understand salvation by grace through faith is this: God’s plan has always worked this way. That’s the point of Romans 9 – to show the Jews that God’s plan of salvation was always based on God’s free gift of grace.
The Gospel Has Always Been Based On Election
Even as far back at Abraham, God’s good news of salvation (the gospel) has always been the outworking of God’s choice. In Romans 9:6-9 all that Paul does is remind the Jews of their family’s story: God made a promise with Abraham to give him a son, right? Yes. But Abraham and Sarah were too quick to help God out and so you have Ishmael, who’s born to Hagar. That’s the point of verse 7, “and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’”
Paul is basically saying, “Hey, fellow Jews, listen, even with Isaac and Ishmael – Abraham’s two boys – it was God’s choice. It was God’s divine election at work. God’s child, God’s choice was Isaac, not Ishmael.”
But Paul continues the story in verses 10-13, and this is where the genius of the Holy Spirit, working through Paul, comes out. See, Paul knows his fellow Jews all too well. He knows that the Isaac/Ishmael comparison only proved that salvation was not made on the basis of lineage. You can almost hear one of his Jewish friends saying, “Oh, I see. I can’t punch my ticket to heaven just because I’m a descendant of Abraham and Isaac.”
Today’s modern equivalent would be, “It’s not the children of Christian parents who are Christians; it’s those who have personally embraced Christ as Savior and Lord who are Christians.” So, Paul’s fellow Jew says (and perhaps even you), “Well, surely, I punch my ticket, then, based on what I do?” Surely salvation is based on what someone does, right? So, Paul moves to the story of Isaac and Rebekah, and their two boys: the womb-mates, the twins, Jacob and Esau. Paul’s whole point here is to prove that merit and works have nothing to do with God’s sovereign plan of election.
Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, 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.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
God, through the Apostle Paul, says, nope. Merit and works; doing enough “good” things to outweigh the “bad” things doesn’t factor in either. These two boys hadn’t even been born. They hadn’t DONE anything, and yet God, of His own choosing, in order to accomplish His own purposes, chose Jacob and didn’t choose Esau.
By the way, that’s what is meant with the love/hate language of verse 13. Hate doesn’t mean what we tend to think it means. You say, “How do you know that, pastor.” Because Jesus uses the same exact word in the same context in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be My disciple” (NIV). Jesus isn’t telling us to hate our family, although He uses the word for “hate.” The meaning is to “love less,” to make a “choice in favor of one over the other.” That’s what Paul says God did with Jacob. God chose Jacob over Esau.
So far, using Israel’s own family tree, Paul has demonstrated that God’s plan of salvation has always been based on election. And Paul knows that this isn’t really sitting well with his Jewish friends (or the American spirit of independence and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps thinking). So, he moves to answer the charge that he knows is coming. You know what that charge is? You hear it in every corner of society: “That’s not…fair.”
The Gospel Has Always Been Based On Justice And Mercy
This is how the New Living Translation renders verse 14, “Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!” God is ALWAYS fair. He’s ALWAYS just. How do we know this? Because His sovereign election is ALWAYS based on mercy. The gospel has always been based on justice and mercy.
This is so interesting. You don’t need to turn there, but mark down Romans 3:5 next to Romans 9:14. In Romans 2-3 Paul has been talking about the sinfulness of mankind and how God (as the supreme Judge) is faithful (i.e. fair) in condemning sinners, and he sarcastically says that people will find fault with that. “It’s not fair that God condemns sinners.” That’s my paraphrase of Romans 3:5; and over here in Romans 9, Paul has been talking about God saving sinners and what’s the argument now? “That’s not fair.”
Isn’t that exactly what our world says today. It’s not fair that God is the judge. It’s not fair that sinners are condemned to hell. It’s not fair that God saves based on His divine sovereignty. It’s not fair. God’s not fair. Listen folks, the same man that wrote Romans (via the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) is the same man that wrote these words to Timothy, “The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).
What I’m trying to preach to you this morning (election, justice, mercy) are not easy things to preach. Preaching the truth of God’s Word has never been easy. Mainly because the truth is often uncomfortable. Of course, you wouldn’t know that by listening to many sermons today. Messages that tell people there’s no need to repent. Sermons that stroke our egos and tell us that we’re basically good; that God is too loving to judge anyone; that the cross, with all its blood, is not really necessary; and that God wants His children to be healthy, wealthy, and content in this world.
That’s what itching ears want to hear. Don’t wrestle with Romans 9 and God’s sovereignty and justice and mercy. That’s too divisive. That’s too hard. That’s too messy. Indeed, it truly has been and can be, but we are not at liberty to ignore it. Thus, we move forward.
In order to illustrate that the gospel has always been based on justice and mercy, Paul, once again, takes his Jewish audience (and you and me) back to the Old Testament to remind them of God’s words to Moses (vss. 15ff), “For [God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
We don’t typically have any trouble understanding mercy, so long as we’re the recipients. If someone else is about to receive mercy, that’s when we get a little antsy. In those cases what we want isn’t mercy, we want justice. And so, to show us that the gospel has always been based on God’s justice, Paul turns to another episode in the national life of Israel: Pharaoh. “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So, then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills.”
How does God harden someone’s heart? That’s the question. We know that hearts are hardened. But how? Does God intrude into the lives of otherwise holy and righteous people to sow seeds of evil, to create wickedness? No, remember Romans 3:23, “There is no one righteous, not even one…” God is not the author of evil or sin. So, no, God’s doesn’t create evil and wickedness and hardness in Pharaoh’s heart.
Rather, are you ready? God hardens Pharaoh’s heart by simply removing the restraints of His grace and mercy and “giving him over” to the evil that’s already present. See if any of this rings a bell: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity… For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions… And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because those words come directly from Romans 1 where Paul describes the sinfulness of human hearts. If you want to see people be worse than they already are, then just wait until God removes the restraints of His grace and mercy. He doesn’t need to create any evil or wickedness or sin in Pharaoh’s heart. It’s already there. All God does is give Pharaoh the room to do what Pharaoh has already determined in His heart to do.
But this argument, by Paul, also brings an objection of “That’s not fair.” And this leads to the last stance that Paul takes in chapter 9, as he share the good news with his Jewish friends, and that is the gospel has always been based on God’s sovereignty.
The Gospel Has Always Been Based On God’s Sovereignty
Before Paul gives an answer to this latest objection, notice what he does. He makes a moral appeal to remember who we are and who God is, “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?” Doesn’t this remind you of another man in the Bible – a guy named Job? Job was the victim of so much injustice at the hands of men and of Satan. Job was the epitome of someone who was afflicted without relief, when finally, he raised his fist against heaven and shook it in the face of God and screamed, “WHY, GOD?”
God answered Job by looking at Job and saying, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” And then we read chapter after chapter of questions, “Can you loosen the cords of Orion?” “Nope.” “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?” “Nope.” “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?” “No, no, no, no…” Four chapters of this.
And finally, Job says, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ [you asked. It was me.] I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. [You said,] ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ [O God,] I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Paul draws on the imagery of a potter and his clay. “Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show His anger and His power, He is very patient with those on whom His anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of His glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. And we are among those whom He selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.” (Romans 9:20-24, NLT).
What’s the point of Job’s response and Paul’s response? Even when we struggle, even when we don’t fully comprehend the mystery of God’s sovereign will, may it not lead us to blasphemy. Let us remember who’s will we’re talking about. Going back to the previous question: Is there unrighteousness in God? Don’t even ask it. Even though at times it seems like it. What we should understand more clearly than any other thing we’ve talked about today is the absolute integrity and righteousness of Almighty God.
Let me conclude with two quotes that I find tremendously helpful when considering God’s sovereignty and divine election. The first is from American evangelist D. L. Moody back in the 1800’s. He said, “Lord, save the elect, and then elect some more.” And the second is from American congregationalist clergyman, Henry Ward Beecher, from around the same time period. (If his name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you recognize his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852.) Listen to how Henry Beecher summed this up, “The elect of God are the whosoever will, and the non-elect are the whosoever won’t.”
If you know Jesus, today, as your personal Lord and Savior. If you’ve confessed your sin to Him, repented of your sin and asked Him to forgive you and reconcile you to the Father, then rejoice, knowing that God chose you before the foundations of the world.
If you’ve never responded to the call of God, to the movement of the Holy Spirit, today is the day to discover that you, too, are numbered among God’s elect. Would you receive the free gift of God’s grace and be made new?