True confession. I remember several times in private discussions and in sermons, attempting to explain away election. On those occasions, I also remember my discomfort in trying to explain away something without a clear biblical rationale to do so. Like so many others, I used the “straw men” that one could easily blow away with emotional arguments but what I could not use was Scripture. The reason was simple. God’s sovereign mercy in election showed up throughout Scripture.
I could not argue against God choosing Noah and not others or Abraham and not someone else. Nor could I explain away why God chose Isaac over Ishmael and especially Jacob over Esau. The words of Malachi one haunted me, “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau.” Then the New Testament did not help me at all!
“Many are called but few are chosen.” “You did not choose Me but I chose you.” “Not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are.” “But by His doing are you in Christ Jesus.” “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself.”
How do you explain away such a strong biblical declaration? Well, you try, but you do not do succeed in explaining it away (it’s still in the biblical texts), only following the party line that stands in opposition to election. You position yourself against the clear teaching of Scripture because you feel compelled by tradition or preference.
My own line of reasoning began to unravel by one thing: weekly discipline of working through books of the Bible to expound them to my congregation. In the midst of dealing with the biblical text over and over I caved to my excuses and faulty reasoning! I found liberty in simply standing upon what is plainly stated in God’s Word. And that included God’s sovereignty in salvation, especially as worked out in election.
It is obvious that Paul found some who had difficulty with it too. Had he merely been dealing with God making His choices based upon prescience (or prior knowledge) as He “looked down the corridors of time” then it would not have caused a scuffle. There would be no outcry of “It’s not fair!” by his hearers, had this been the case. Instead, what he deals with so clearly is God’s sovereign mercy in salvation. What Paul shows is important for us in our understanding of God. God’s sovereignty in salvation proclaims that He alone is God. At the heart of this doctrine, as I hope we will see, is the revelation of God who alone is worthy of glory. How does Paul build his argument for this?
Let’s refresh ourselves in the context. Paul had expounded the believer’s assurance of salvation in Christ as certain and satisfying. Yet he immediately picked up disagreement from someone. ‘If God’s promises are so certain and they are fulfilled in the gospel, they why are the Jews not all Christians? Can I rely on His promises if your own kinsmen do not believe the gospel? Did God fail Israel?’
The Apostle assures his critics of his own burden for his kinsmen’s salvation. Then he makes his premise: “It is not as though the word of God has failed.” In other words, because many, if not most, of those from Jewish descent were not believers, that did not in any way diminish the promises in the gospel. And what was his reasoning on this? “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” Racial, ethnic heritage does not equate to being a child of God. It is only by God’s sovereign choice that one is ultimately a child of the promise. He illustrates this by God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael. He gives greater detail in that of Jacob over Esau, showing that God made His choice before they had done good or evil, so that His choice concerning election might stand. He ends with that haunting verse from Malachi, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
“Not fair!” ‘That’s just not fair of God to decide that Jacob would belong to Him but Esau would not. It sounds as though they had no choice in the matter; that God alone laid ultimate claim to one’s inclusion and the other’s exclusion!’
So the question is posed concerning injustice with God. “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?”
The question came in reaction to the distinction made by God’s sovereign election in verses 6-13. How can God be fair if He chooses one and not another? Can He really claim to be just (or righteous) if He does that? Obviously, that was not just a first century question but a common one in the present day. It is a question of fairness or justice.
Some try to get around this by stating that Paul was dealing with national election of Israel as a state rather than individually concerning salvation. Others attempt to ride the train of man’s free will into a passage that does not address it. One Baptist commentator of great renown a generation ago attempted to do this in the following way:
So by the examples of Moses and Pharaoh, Paul demonstrates that in his sovereignty God shows both mercy and justice—mercy where man’s free will makes it possible; justice where man’s free will makes it necessary. In both cases God acts in a manner true to his nature and without the counsel or consent of anyone outside himself [Hershel Hobbs, Romans: A Verse by Verse Study, 125, italics added].
The writer knew that sovereignty implies that God acts without “counsel or consent of anyone outside himself,” but he could not let it appear that God’s sovereignty would actually trump man’s sovereignty—or else that would not be fair! His view of sovereignty meant that God could act only if man made it possible by prior choice. Yet that is far from Paul’s language or argument. The Apostle emphasizes unconditional election that strips all human merit, effort, or action. It stands on God alone.
The charge made against God was that He is not acting righteously. “Injustice with God” can be translated as “unrighteousness with God.” In this case, particularly as Paul has spent the last eight chapters dealing with the righteousness of God, it appears shocking that someone questioned God’s righteousness due to sovereign election. Yet it happened and continues to happen. How can this question even be asked with regard to God being unjust or unrighteous?
His question was phrased in such a way in the Greek as to expect a negative reply—and he gave it! “May it never be!” He could not have stated it with more force than this phrase that we’ve seen before. Paul is almost formulaic by using a negative particle in the question that calls for a negative answer, and then responding with “May it never be!” (6:1-2, 15). What it implies is this: the wrong question is being asked due to false assumptions about God. So how does the Apostle respond to the false assumptions that led to the wrong question? He does it by two uses of “for” and two of “so then,” with both clarifying the doctrine of election by emphasizing God’s sovereign mercy and sovereign judgment.
I call this a dilemma though it is not at all one for Paul. But election is a dilemma for most people because it is viewed as some kind of cosmic infringement upon human rights, instead of what it really is: sovereign mercy.
You will notice that “For,” in verses 15 and 17, introduce explanatory clauses through quoting Old Testament verses, which serve to illustrate that God is never unrighteous by the exercise of sovereignty, whether in election or judgment. “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Calling God unjust missed the point. There is no injustice with God. Rather the questioner misspoke by caricaturing God as unrighteous while failing to see with amazement that God is merciful. The real issue is not that God would choose one and not another, but rather that God would show mercy by choosing anyone!
Why does Paul emphasize mercy from this Old Testament quote? The story takes us to that time when Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. As he delayed in returning, the children of Israel began to show their true colors by worshiping a golden calf and engaging in immorality and drunkenness while abandoning the Lord. The Lord told Moses that they were “an obstinate people,” so He would destroy them and make of Moses a great nation (Ex. 32:9-10). Moses interceded for them, not objecting to God’s assessment of their obstinacy but pleading for God’s mercy. God showed mercy to Moses by letting them go forward yet warned that He would blot out of His book and punish those who sinned against Him (32:33-35). Some received temporal mercy but not eternal mercy.
Meanwhile, Moses sought the Lord, asking for His presence with him and with Israel. He told the Lord that the one thing that would distinguish Israel from the rest of the people would be the Lord dwelling among them. Then Moses asked, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” Amazed that God would still go up with them in spite of their obstinacy, Moses wanted to see the glory of God. That was another way of saying, ‘I want to see You,’ for God’s glory was tantamount to the essence of His being. It is in the context of this response that we find the verse that Paul quotes. Keep in mind what Moses sought. He wanted to see God. This is how God revealed Himself. This is how you know that God is truly God.
And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (Ex. 33:19).
Who is God? He is the One who shows mercy upon whom He shows mercy and compassion upon whom He shows compassion. What we see in Exodus 33 is similar to Exodus 3:14. At the burning bush, Moses had asked the name of God. He replied, “I AM WHO I AM.” In both revelations, the Lord declared His sovereignty. Apart from sovereignty there is no God. So what does it declare when God reveals Himself as the one who sovereignly and thus unconditionally, shows mercy and compassion? (1) To show mercy is God’s prerogative. It is not a requirement that God be merciful to anyone; nor can anyone demand mercy of Him. Mercy admits human desperation and need of God to savingly intervene. (2) Mercy is therefore sovereign, “so that God’s purpose according to election would stand” (Rom. 9:11). (3) Mercy shown displays the divine glory. Moses wanted to see God’s glory; and He saw it in the sovereign actions of mercy. (4) Mercy therefore eliminates boasting in self. For the mercy emphasized is saving mercy that is grounded in God electing obstinate sinners to call them to Himself through the gospel, to justify them through the substitutionary death of His Son, and to glorify them by completing their sanctification by the Spirit.
After stating that salvation does not depend upon “the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy,” Paul then shows that even divine justice is sovereign. “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth’.” Though Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth, he did not arrive at that position merely by good fortune. God “raised” him up, thus declaring the divine activity that brought this about [cf. L. Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, 360]. Pharaoh’s existence had one purpose: God’s purpose. He may have thought his purpose was to build his kingdom, construct monuments to his grandeur, build pyramids, conquer other nations, etc. but ultimately, while he may have done many of those things, he existed for the sovereign purpose of God.
That purpose is two-fold: (1) “to demonstrate My power in you.” And how did God do that? By Pharaoh’s hardness of heart in resisting the powerful displays of the plagues, God declared His power among the nations. What other god could accomplish the ten plagues that fell upon Egypt? Pharaoh’s magicians tried with their magic but soon declared, “This is the finger of God” (Ex. 8:19). (2) God’s purpose was also “that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” What does it mean to proclaim His name? How did God reveal His name? “I AM WHO I AM,” and “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” The greatness of God’s sovereignty in mercy and judgment was displayed through Pharaoh. And how was that so? Let me answer by a question: Did the people of Israel deserve the mercy and compassion of God? Remember, they were an obstinate folk! Yet the great God showed them mercy while another obstinate person, Pharaoh, He showed judgment.
Did word get out about the Lord? Indeed it did, as we read in Joshua 2 when the spies entered into the house of Rahab the harlot. She said, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt… Because the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” On that basis she asked for mercy! ‘We saw His sovereign judgments against Egypt. But we’ve also seen His sovereign mercy toward you.’ “Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord…and deliver our lives from death” (2:8-14).
Paul’s interest is not trying to balance our understanding of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Though he deals with the latter a bit further on in regard to the “righteousness which is by faith” (9:30-33), his concern is to drive home the sovereignty of God shown in mercy and in judgment. Both display God’s sovereignty in salvation and both insist on man’s total inability to secure the righteousness of God apart from mercy.
Notice the implication drawn from God’s revelation of Himself in sovereign mercy. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” ‘But Paul, there’s got to be something that we do in order to motivate God to choose us!’ It is not human willing or desiring nor is it human running or achievement that moves the heart of God to elect anyone. Election is unconditional. You cannot put yourself into a position for God to elect you. I’ve heard those who object to this doctrine explain that God elects when we believe. But that contradicts the biblical order. Election enables a sinner (obstinate as Israel and Pharaoh) to believe. While man must later respond to the gospel call to be saved, he cannot and will not apart from sovereign mercy in election.
“It” is a relative pronoun referring back to the mercy of God in election. Mercy is not dependent upon you and me. It is dependent upon God alone. That is a great motivation to evangelism rather than a detriment as some suppose. If you think that you must persuade a stubborn, obstinate, darkened mind, dead hearted sinner to believe (if you really believe that man is lost in his sin) then you will quickly grow weary in sharing your faith! But if you recognize that God is merciful—and that He sovereignly shows mercy, then you have every reason to believe that the person with whom you’ve engaged with the gospel may be shown mercy to believe. John Piper adds three reasons that unconditional election is good news.
- It is good news because it means no unbeliever is so bad that they can say in response to our gospel pleading, “I can’t be elect; I am too evil. I have sinned too long and too deeply.” …To the despairing soul who feels he has sinned himself out of the possibility of election, unconditional election is good news.
- The doctrine of unconditional election is good news because it preserves praise of God’s glorious grace at every point in our salvation. There was not, and is not, nor ever will be, a point where we become the decisive cause of our salvation.
- The doctrine of unconditional election is good news because when, by grace through faith, you know yourself loved by God, forgiven, justified, accepted, this doctrine of election assures you that the roots of your salvation—the roots of God’s almighty commitment to save you—are not shallow, but go down deep into the counsels of eternity [www.desiringGod.org, “The Freedom and Justice of God in Unconditional Election,” Romans 9:14-18, January 12, 2003, pp. 3-4].
“So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Right after pointing back to that time when God displayed His power and proclaimed His name by raising up Pharaoh, Paul concludes that this judgment, which Exodus points out is a hardening by God, is sovereign. ‘But I thought God hardened Pharaoh’s heart only after Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.’ Such is often the rejoinder. But before Pharaoh had even met Moses or seen any plague, God told Moses, “I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go” (Ex. 4:21). So did Pharaoh harden his heart? Yes he did. Did God harden his heart? Yes He did. So which is it? Let me answer by asking another set of questions. Did you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes you did. Did God first elect you by sovereign mercy so that you would believe? Yes He did.
Do you see what Paul is doing? Salvation comes by sovereign mercy preceding our believing at a point in time. And by the same implication, judgment comes by sovereign action so that God’s purpose might be displayed by which He demonstrates His power and proclaims His name.
This might make you uncomfortable. I certainly understand. But what I hope it does is this, that you would not presume upon God to show you mercy; that you would not think that you can act as though you are sovereign over your life. Instead, I hope this truth concerning God’s sovereignty in election and judgment humbles you, and gives you an impetus to call upon Him for mercy, to see the provision through Christ that He has made for sinners like you and me, and that you repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If this doctrine resonates with you then worship the Lord who has shown you mercy beyond measure!
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