The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 18

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he 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. (Romans 9:14-16 ESV). In Romans 9, Paul stresses the unconditional nature of election, he describes the principle God used in the choice of Jacob over Esau (cf. Romans 9:11-12). He is showing us that God’s election is preserved in its unconditional nature because it is transacted before we are born or have done any good or evil. I know that some interpreters say that Romans 9 has nothing to do with the election of individuals to their eternal destinies, but only deals with corporate peoples in their historical roles. I think this is a mistake mainly because it simply does not come to terms with the problem Paul is addressing in the chapter. What is clear is that something has made it look as though God’s promises have failed.

The deepest issue Paul is addressing is not why Israel as a nation has this or that historical role, but that individuals within Israel are accursed and cut off from Christ. In other words, individual eternal destinies are indeed at stake. And the nature of Paul’s argument confirms this. Then he moves on to show how God’s unconditional election was at work within Israel. Our reading is very specific at the point of this unconditional nature of God’s electing grace. It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. The very nature of the mercy we need is will-awakening, will-transforming mercy. Our only hope is sovereign mercy, irresistible mercy. We are in no position to merit mercy or elicit mercy. If we are to receive mercy, it will be at God’s free choice. Fortunately this is not the only passage that points us to this truth. Paul underlines again the individual nature of election within Israel when he writes, “Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened” (Romans 11:7). Throughout Romans 9–11 Paul assumes that election deals with individuals and with eternal destinies, and that it is unconditional. There is, I believe, a divine covenantal commitment to corporate Israel, but that does not contradict or annul the individual, eternal thrust of Romans 9. God elects this way so that “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue” (v. 11). Unconditional election does not mean that there will be people in heaven who do not want to be there, nor will there be people in hell who wanted to be saved but could not be because they were not elect. Unconditional election properly recognizes that, apart from God’s supernatural work in the life of a sinner, men will always choose to reject God and rebel against Him. What unconditional election does correctly recognize is that God intervenes in the lives of the elect and works in their lives through the Holy Spirit so that they willingly respond in faith to Him. That produces such relief in the heart of the understanding believer that we then are free to truly love Him in return. Nothing he asks me to do is now a burden; it is always a blessing!