The most foundational truths of the Christian faith continue to have the most practical value in our daily lives. For instance, take the truth of God as Creator. If we think that the world came into existence by a cataclysmic explosion of primordial gas so that the world flung into existence, then we will struggle with hopelessness. The world will have no ultimate aim or purpose. A person’s reason for existence will only be the end of his nose—where he aims, what he desires, what satisfies him, what gives him pleasure each day. In reality, nothing ever satisfies him because he can only find true satisfaction in relationship to the One who created him.
But if God created the world, as the Scripture teaches, then one’s existence finds absolute focus on the purpose of God. The way he perceives life, relationships, and even suffering is ultimately viewed through a God-saturated worldview.
Or take the doctrine of the fall of man. Without understanding and believing what happened in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve, the first humans, fell from their state of innocence and introduced sin into the world, one cannot understand the ways of humanity. Just listen to news broadcasts to see constant evidence of this. Whether it has to do with greed or crime or terrorism or failing economics or duplicitous politicians or cruel dictators or senseless persecution—the basis for all of this goes directly to Genesis 3. Mounting fears, despair, and anxiety spring from reacting to evidence of the fall without hope in Christ. In contrast, the believer in Christ has learned not to rest his hope on fallen men but in the One who fulfilled the law, bore the curse of the fall, and satisfied eternal justice for sinners.
Election is another one of those foundational truths with a long list of practical applications in daily life. However, it is also one of the truths most debated and even rejected. Yet you do not find this doctrine tucked toward the end of confessional and doctrinal statements as though it holds little importance. It’s usually in the earlier sections, e.g. the fifth article in both The Abstract of Principles and The Baptist Faith & Message 2000. The reason is quite simple. Election has to do with the action of God on behalf of fallen humanity. It is a doctrine of hope! One needs only to think of Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ to understand this. Even though He was promised and anticipated as the Messiah, Israel as a whole rejected Jesus Christ. Such rejection should elicit despair and hopelessness for the Jews! But the doctrine of election rings with hope that in spite of their hardness and rejection of Christ, God is pleased to continue saving Jews upon whom He has shown mercy. As John Stott points out, “One might have expected that, since they have rejected God, God has rejected them. But this is not so” [Romans: God’s Good News for the World, 291]. This is precisely what Paul unfolds for us in Romans 9-11, and in the process, he shows us just how pivotal the electing grace of God is to both Jews and Gentiles. Without God’s electing grace we would never make one move toward trusting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That is so apparent among the Jews, and is just as true among Gentiles. How does God’s dealing with Israel give encouragement for Israel’s future and the future of all peoples? Let’s see how this is developed in our text.
Since we’re starting a new chapter in Romans, let’s consider where we are heading. In Romans 9, Paul explains God’s sovereignty in salvation. In doing so he emphasizes that salvation is not rooted in human decision but in God’s sovereign mercy shown to sinners. He especially develops this in light of the Jews, explaining, “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (9:6). Just as God chose Isaac and not Ishmael, and Jacob and not Esau, He has also chosen “to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles” (9:23-24).
While dealing with God’s sovereignty in salvation in chapter 9, the next chapter explains human responsibility in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why are men lost and under judgment? Especially, why are the very people who had received so much from the Lord, as a people, not Christians? They have not confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believed in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead (10:9-10). Every person has a responsibility before God to respond to the light of revelation in the gospel.
Paul does not hesitate to hold these two truths of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in glorious tension. They do not contradict each other (this is especially evident when we grapple with the human condition and the nature of salvation). Both stand as truths that we need to understand and glory in, rather than try to eliminate or dodge or explain away.
The big question that remains, though, regards Israel. Has God finished with Israel? Has He given up on them because of their unbelief and hard-heartedness? Chapter 11 answers that question, demonstrating the remarkable grace of God. To explain this, Paul once again shows us that we cannot grasp the purpose of God if we do not see the part played by God’s gracious election of a people for Himself. With that, let’s ask some questions of the text and investigate its meaning.
That is a legitimate question. “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?” Should we be concerned about Israel? Since there is both a state known as Israel and people known as Jews who live across the globe and in our community, we must look at this not in a geo-political sense but in an anthropological and ethnic sense. Paul was not focusing on the state of Israel but the people known as Israelites or Jews. So that is our concern in chapter 11.
We see this also in Romans 8:28, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” Foreknowledge and predestination go hand in hand. So this presents us with a quandary on how to interpret the use of foreknowledge in verse 2. It would seem most obvious that Paul means that God has not rejected the people whom He foreknew and consequently elected to salvation. Yet that would also be so obvious that Paul’s use of foreknowledge in this instance would seem odd. Of course God does not reject those whom He foreknows and elects to salvation!
I think the answer to how he uses this word in this context is found in the phrase “His people.” It is obvious that verse 1 refers to the people of Israel, especially demonstrated by Paul’s explanation of his own Jewish heritage. That same phrase is used in verse 2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” The consequent plural pronouns in the next verse go along with this same emphasis on “His people” constituting the Jewish people. So we have to conclude that Paul uses foreknowledge, in this case, to refer to God’s choice of Israel as His special people upon whom He would display His love. We need only read through Hosea to get a clear picture of this special love of God for Israel in choosing them out of all the nations, not because of any significance in them, but simply due to God’s kindness and good pleasure. The choice of Israel from among all the peoples of the world is a microcosm of the greater work of God’s electing grace of a people whom He would redeem through Jesus Christ from among “every tongue, tribe, people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9-10).
So the point that Paul makes, and will reinforce as we work through the chapter, is that God has not rejected ethnic Israel. He says nothing about geo-political Israel but rather emphasizes the people, now scattered throughout the world. Why does he bring this up? Paul will explain that Israel’s rejection of Christ was so that Gentiles might be brought into the kingdom of God. The day will come, he tells us in 11:17-32, when fallen Israel will be grafted back into relationship with the Lord God. “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake,” Paul writes, “but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:28-29).
Even though Israel had rejected God, He had “kept” for Himself seven thousand who had not given themselves to idolatry. The word “kept” intensifies the divine action. God did the keeping. These seven thousand did not initiate belonging to the Lord. To amplify, the Lord said that He kept these seven thousand “for Myself.” In other words, for His glory, for His purpose, for His honor, for His delight, God kept these seven thousand from among the tens of thousands in Israel whose hearts were hardened and who were given to idolatry. If God did that centuries before with Elijah, then not only in Paul’s day but in our own, we have assurance that He has not rejected the Jewish people but will continue to take action to keep for Himself a remnant.
First, God does the choosing. That’s what election is about throughout the Bible. It is never about us choosing Him. Now the question is asked, ‘Don’t we choose the Lord? Don’t we repent, believe, and call on the Lord to save us?’ Yes, indeed we do, but the reason why we repent, believe, and call on the name of the Lord is due to God’s prior electing grace at work in us. Notice that Paul calls this a “gracious” election. In other words, it has nothing to do with us performing a certain level of works or making certain decisions for God in order for Him to choose us. Otherwise, it would not be grace but works.
Second, His choice has nothing to do with human initiation as some teach. I have heard some say that God elects us when we first choose Him. In that case, we cannot call it “God’s gracious choice [election],” but rather God’s response to our initiative. Do you see how contradictory this is to the whole nature of grace? Grace is God acting on our behalf. Nothing motivates Him to do this other than His own kindness and purpose. Nothing in us, no actions on our behalf, not even foreseen faith motivates God, otherwise then it cannot be attributed to grace.
Third, His choice has nothing to do with foreseen merit by works. “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” As John Piper points out, Paul is not contrasting faith and works here as he does in chapters 3-8 but rather he contrasts grace and works. In other words, you cannot have one if you have the other. “Grace is no longer grace” if works is the basis for God’s action on our behalf, including election which he specifically addresses here.
Fourth, His choice has nothing to do with ethnicity or paternity. Paul has already made this clear in 9:6-13. Not even one’s Jewish heritage traced back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is ground for salvation. That comes through God’s gracious choice!
Fifth, His choice has nothing to do with the will of man. Again, Paul leveled this argument that is so common in our day, in 9:16-18. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” His declaration of “God’s gracious choice” simply reiterates what Paul has already made clear in chapter 9.
Sixth, only by election can salvation be maintained to be wholly by grace. I realize that many object to election, thinking it unfair and unjust. But it cannot be either if it is by grace as the Scripture declares. Dare we call the grace of God “unfair and unjust”? Consider that if man initiates his salvation and then God goes to work, then man has a stake in glory. He can claim a small part in his coming to Christ. Or consider that if election is based on “God looking down the corridor of time to see that you will be one who follows Jesus,” then again, man can boast that God elected him due to his foreseen faith and merit. He then has at least a token of bragging rights when it comes to his salvation.
Or consider that if man can raise himself from spiritual death, which Ephesians 2:1-3 declares as the condition of everyone, then he has grounds for boasting. If man can enlighten his own darkened mind, which Ephesians 4:17-19 declares that every lost person has, then he again has grounds for boasting. If man finds himself when he is lost, as the parables of Luke 15 describe the human condition, then he has room to boast. But if he has any room to legitimately boast of raising himself from spiritual death or enlightening his own mind or finding himself though lost, then grace has not been involved in his salvation. And if grace is not involved, God is not involved. His salvation originates in himself, not in the grace of God. God has so designed His saving work, as Paul explained to the Corinthians, “so that no man may boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:29).
Here too is practical encouragement in our evangelism. Saving sinners does not depend upon how smooth we are in telling others the gospel. It ultimately depends on the grace of God, and that grace breaks through even the poorest gospel explanation to shine the light of Christ’s saving work into the darkened mind. That God would elect even hard- hearted antagonists ought to spur us toward sharing the gospel with others. He is big with mercy and shows grace when and where we least expect it. Indeed, “God’s gracious choice” is discovered through gospel witness. Let us be busy to see His grace shine!
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