IS THE SOVEREIGN GOD JUST OR UNJUST - II

Romans 9:25-33
July 30, 1995
Bob Bonner

As Americans, there are several things that we hold very dear to our hearts. One is that we have a strong belief in the importance of freedom. In addition, we hold strongly to the rights and the responsibilities of the individual. Also, we are committed to things such as fairness and justice.

But sometimes, we allow things like fairness, justice, freedom, rights and responsibilities to get out of balance, and when we do, trouble results. For example: nothing will distort our relationships with each other faster than emphasizing our rights over our responsibilities. A husband may chip away at his wife because he feels he has a right to expect her to be submissive. A wife may nag her husband because she expects him to be the spiritual leader of the home. Parents harass their children because they feel it's their right to demand obedience. Members of a committee or council, members of a board at a church or members of a church are offended when they think their rights have been violated by pushy leaders, pushy pastors, pushy board members or other pushy members. Any time a group of people or an individual insists upon their rights at the expense of failing to assume their responsibilities, there will be trouble.

In God's system, especially as we see it explained in the Book of Romans, our focus as humans should be on the fulfilling of our responsibilities, not on insisting upon our rights. As we have been studying Romans 9 we have seen that if we want to demand our rights and demand justice from God, we may not like what we would receive. Because from a perfect, holy, totally righteous and just God, if we got our rights and received the justice we deserve, our eternal destiny would be to spend it in isolation as individuals, away from God or any other created being. [DAILY IN CHRIST, 11/30, Neil Anderson.]

In the past couple of studies that we have had in Romans, we have been stressing the justice of God as it involves His choice to save certain individuals to spend eternity with Him. As we continue to look at Romans 9 and the sovereign justice of God, this morning we will also begin to look at what part do we play in our own salvation. What responsibility do we as individuals have, if we want to spend eternity with God and to know Him personally?

If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to open them up to Romans 9:25, where we will begin our study today. As you are turning there in your Bibles, let me quickly review what we have seen in these past weeks from the first 24 verses.

The overall theme of the last half of Romans 9 is the explanation of how it is that the Sovereign God is just, when it comes to His choice to save some people to spend eternity with Him but not all people.

Somehow, we tend to think that if God doesn't choose to save everybody, then God is unfair. In verses 14-16, we learned that God's grace reaches out to us. Without it, no one would be saved. Reality dictates that God doesn't have to reach out and save any of us, because we have all turned our backs on God and gone our own ways. God would be perfectly just if He never saved one human being. But instead, because of His mercy and compassion, He has chosen to save some. 

In verses 17-24, Paul goes on to explain, that although we may never understand why God sovereignly chooses some people to be saved and not others, we can know that His choice always involves righteous purposes. He is not and evil God who, for wicked or absolutely no reason, flippantly chooses to save certain people. All of God's choices ultimately are made to bring all of creation to rejoice in the greatness and glory of God.

That has all been by way of review. This morning we want to continue our study of this subject of God's just, in Romans 9:25. In verses 25-29, the apostle Paul explains to us another facet of God's justice as it concerns His choosing to save people. The thought connection between these verses and the preceding verses has to do with the fact that God chooses as "vessels of mercy" both Jews and Gentiles. But, the question Paul is trying to address here is, "Has God ever shown partiality to any one group of people?" In other words, does God ever reject or close the door to some people just because they are Jews or Gentiles? And Paul's point in these following verses will simply be that God’s justice has been impartially consistent throughout history, whether in His dealings with Jews or Gentiles. 

To prove this point, Paul goes back to the Old Testament to point to prophecy concerning the chosen people, the children of Israel, to use them as an example of God's impartial consistency in choosing to save whom He wills. In verses 25-26, Paul paraphrases God's words to the prophet Hosea. Paul writes, "As He [God] says also in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,' And her who was not beloved, 'beloved.'" "And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, 'you are not My people, 'There they shall be called sons of the living God." 

To fully appreciate these verses, we must understand their historical context, which is the following: At the time that Hosea the prophet lived, the nation of Israel was divided into to kingdoms---the northern and southern kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel had been laughing at God for years. They ignored his instructions as to worship in the temple in Jerusalem and they set up idols to worship. They had virtually ignored God and gone their own way. As a result, God is saying here, that just because someone is a Jew doesn't mean that they will be saved or that they are loved by God or that they are His people. To be saved they must choose to seek Yahweh and put their trust in the coming Messiah. Furthermore, God is warning these unbelieving disobedient Jews, that because they had acted arrogantly toward God, God was going to replace them with believing Gentiles or non-Jews. 

Now, that thought was a horrible thought to the Jews at that time, because they thought they owned God in a sense. He belonged to them and to no other peoples. They thought that they had special privileges to God and that they were better than the non-Jews, and that God wouldn't dare work with the filthy pagans. They hated the thought that God might even look at the non-Jew. But God was demonstrating right then and there, that He never intended to exclude one race or group of people. But instead, God is impartial and will save anybody who puts their trust in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Paul brings up this prophecy from Isaiah not only to prove that God is consistently impartial as to whom He chooses to save, but also that He wasn't surprised by the Jews rejection of Jesus, the messiah, and that the Gospel would be offered directly to the non-Jews in the days ahead. There are several examples of God saving non-Jews. For instance: God said that any Egyptians who wanted to leave Egypt with the Jews and put their trust in the God of the Jews, could join the Jews. Rehab the harlot, along with her household was saved even though she was a non-Jew. Ruth, the Moabitess was not only saved but it was through her that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, was born. Then you have the whole nation of Ninevah was offered salvation through the preaching of the prophet Jonah, and if you remember, they repented before God, and that made Jonah, the Jew mad because he didn't want to see God save these mean pagans who had been so mean and had tortured the Jews in the years past.

One of the questions that remains in the minds of the Jewish readers of Paul's letter to the Romans is, will God turn His back on all of the Jews because they have rejected Jesus? Paul answers that question in verse 27, by once again quoting an Old Testament prophet, Isaiah.  Paul writes, "And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;’". The term "remnant" refers to a small remaining group out of the vast numbers of Jews who will be saved. But they will be saved, not because they are Jews, but because they have put their trust in their Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

Note, this concept of only a "remnant" being saved is not new. Jesus made it very clear that there will be a lot fewer people saved who are religious than we might think will be saved. By nature, we hope that a lot of people will be saved. Who wants want to see any friend or relative not be saved, right? As a result, sometimes we are guilty of giving some people a sense of false comfort or false hope, by making it easier for them to believe that they or some loved one was saved, when maybe they were not. The harsh facts are that God is a God of justice, and He has a standard that will determine whether or not someone is saved. Jesus spelled out that standard for us in His Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:13. 

Why don't you turn there with me as we look at what our Lord and Savior has to say about this. I want you to read along with me to see what Jesus says for yourselves. This is not Bob Bonner speaking, a mere earthling. These are the words of Jesus, the living Son of God who has said this. Jesus' own words will serve as a reality check for some of us. Jesus says, beginning with verse 13, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it." "Destruction" in this context refers to eternal separation from the living God. In other words, damnation. Jesus clearly says right here that there is going to be a lot of people, who by their own choice, take the wrong and easy road leading to their destruction. He continues in verse 14, "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." Conversely, Jesus says that there will be a relatively few people who will enter the narrow gate who will spend eternity living with God. 

Now skip down to verse 20. Here, Jesus gives us one piece of evidence that helps us know whether or not we are saved. The purpose of these next verses is not to use this evidence to judge others as to whether or not they are saved. God is the only judge, not us. But it is something we have to check out our own hearts before God. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; [just because someone claims to know Jesus personally does not mean that they really do know Jesus and are saved or will enter heaven. So how can you tell if you are saved? Is there any evidence that might point to someone being saved or not saved? Jesus continues] "...but he [it is who will enter the kingdom of heaven] who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." In other words, one evidence that a person is truly saved and has entered the narrow gate is a person who is committed to obeying the Lord. Be careful. One does not obey the Lord to get saved. But obedience to the Lord's principles is evidence that one has already been saved because they have put their trust in Jesus.

The reverse is also true. If one continues one with a lifestyle that one knows is wrong without any desire to change that lifestyle, then that is pretty good evidence that that person has not submitted their lives to Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior.

Let's read further. Jesus says, "Many will say to Me on that day, [meaning "judgment day"] 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, [meaning speak about you to others and how you were important to life] and in Your name cast out demons, [Boy, you would think that anyone who was so spiritually adept as to command demons to be exorcised had to know God, right? Not necessarily. Jesus continues,] "...and in Your name perform many miracles?' Surely, a person must be saved if they can perform miracles, mustn't they? No, they could perform miracles actually using satanic powers. So what will Jesus say to some of these people who point to their conversations about God and their religious good works as proof of their right to be saved? Jesus says to them, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you;" Note: the key was not their religious works, it was their personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Their trust in Jesus and their living for Him is what saved them. 

So, what will happen to the Jews and the church goers who didn't take seriously their commitment to Jesus Christ? Jesus says, "...depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." "You who say that you know me, but live in deliberate and knowledgeable disobedience of what you know to be my will, leave my presence for eternity. For you were never saved in the first place."

Jesus is not talking about people who are struggling with a sinful habit or addiction and genuinely want to stop, but have not learned enough about their freedom and power in Christ to do so. Here, Jesus is referring to those religious people who believe because they are more moral than others, but still choose to blatantly ignore God's standards, they will not be saved. There is no way that a saved person who knows what Jesus wants can continue to deliberately live in sin as a lifestyle. If one does, Jesus' point here is that more likely than not, that person is not saved. Reality is, that there will not be a mass of people saved, according to Jesus' comments here. Only a remnant will be saved. We probably won't see 50% or maybe even 30% of the population of the world saved. In fact, I doubt that even 10% of the population of the world will be saved, in light of God's historical judgments of putting to death some of the Jews and non-Jews who lived in rebellion against God down through Biblical History. Jesus didn't call this a "narrow gate" and say that only a few would enter it for no reason. He didn't say "many" would go through the broad gate if He didn't mean that either.

Romans 9:28 adds a few more thoughts to Jesus' words. Here, the apostle Paul writes, "...for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly." How thoroughly and quickly? To what extent will we see God's justice? When it happens, how obvious will it be to the rest of creation? Paul gives us an illustration here to help us understand the extent of God's thorough and quick justice. Paul writes, "And just as Isaiah foretold, ‘Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become as Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.’" You remember Sodom and Gomorrah? That whole morally, politically corrupt city was totally and suddenly destroyed, and so was Abraham's relative, Lot's wife. When justice was served, there was only Lot and his two daughters who escaped total destruction out of the whole city!!! Three people and that's it. That's a remnant!

Does God mean business here when He says judgment will come and few will be saved? You bet. And He hasn't changed His attitude or character in the last 20, 30, 100 or 3,000 years. Even though we might like to ignore the fact of God's justice and only speak about God's love, we can't. He is both, just and loving.

What's Paul's point here? Simply this if God didn't choose some to be saved, if He didn't choose you to be saved, you wouldn't be a part of that remnant. You would be condemned for your ignoring God and your wrong doings. God would be just in condemning you, but He is also just and loving if He saves you based upon you putting your trust in Jesus Christ.

In the end, Paul's overall point in verses 25-29, one that he has illustrated so well from these verses in the Old Testament, is that God’s justice has been impartially consistent throughout history, whether in His dealings with Jews or Gentiles. He has never changed the way He has operated. 

Now, in the last three verses of this chapter we will see one last ingredient involving God's justice as it regards the salvation of individuals. Paul asks in verse 30, "What shall we say then?" Or, "What final thought can we consider in this area of God's justice and His sovereign choice to save some people?" Paul says, "That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at {that} law." 

The term that Paul uses here for "pursue" describes someone chasing after something or someone with haste and dogged determination. Paul's point here, is that the Jews, the early entrants into the race for salvation, trained hard in their pursuit of the goal, but they did not even finish the race. 

In contrast to the Jews who pursued God's acceptance by trying to be good and to earn God's approval, the Gentiles were not even competing in the race, but stumbled into it, and without even trying to earn God's favor, they finished the race and won! God accepted them not on the basis of their trying to prove to God that they were worthy to be saved; but rather, they were saved because they admitted that they were not worthy to be saved and that there was nothing they could do to be saved, except to trust in Jesus. 

Notice two terms that stand out in contrast in verse 30 and verse 31. These two terms further explain what many gentiles received from God and how they came by salvation versus how it is that many Jews were not saved. In verse 30, Paul uses the word "attain", and in verse 31 he uses the word "arrive." It's unfortunate that in the KJV translation that these two words were translated the same in the English, because they are not the same words in the original. By describing the words as the same, it misleads one into thinking that the situation that faced the Gentiles and the situation that faced the Jews were the same, but only the outcomes were different. But that is not correct. The fact is that both were two entirely different situations to begin with, and that's why they have two different results. 

To illustrate the difference between these two words, I borrow the following illustration from Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. Sometime ago, Barnhouse saw a cartoon in one of our national magazines. It showed a scene in the board room of some industrial company where the president of the company was standing before his subordinates. On the wall behind him was a portrait of a man dressed in the style of the previous generation, who by the likeness was most evidently his father, the founder of the business. The president was scowling fiercely and saying to his salesmen, "The trouble with you men is that you have no initiative. Why, by the time I was thirty years old, I had inherited my first five million dollars." 

There is a big difference between inheriting five million dollars and earning five million dollars. The two Greek words for "attain" and "arrive" show that same kind of difference. The Gentiles who did not set out to earn their righteousness or acceptance before God nevertheless inherited it or "attained" it by putting their faith in Christ. While the people of Israel who tried to earn God's acceptance by proving themselves righteous by their good works and their religious works, did not get it or "arrive" at it. 

Paul explains all of this in the next two verses. He writes in verse 32 "Why? Because {they [the Jews] did} not {pursue it} by faith, but as though {it were} by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed." Paul's basic answer to why the Jews could not earn salvation has to do with the fact that no one can earn salvation. It is only something that one receives as a gift by having faith in the stumbling stone, Jesus Christ. 

Paul is painting a mental picture in these verses of a roadway with a great stone placed right in the middle and all humanity is streaming toward it. When a person comes to that stone, the person can do one of two things. You can either stumble over Jesus, out of pride trying to prove to God that you are good enough on your own; or you can stand upon Jesus by putting your faith in Him. 

Paul is telling us that the Jews tried to pursue their own righteousness, their own acceptance before God through in their own power, their own self effort at pleasing God. They, like many gentiles, did not want to admit that they needed a savior or that they were unable to save themselves through their own efforts or good works. So, they stumbled over Jesus, rejecting His gift of salvation. But those gentiles who put their faith in Jesus and what Jesus has accomplished on their behalf, they stand upon that stone, secure, rather than falling down. Now, that's the testing point for all humanity. It is and always has been Jesus, the promised messiah of the Jews. 

At this point, you can sense that Paul is beginning to introduce the subject of our human responsibility as a part of salvation. This subject he will bring up in chapter 10. Up to this point, Paul has been talking about salvation being on the basis of divine choice. But right here Paul introduces us to another facet of God's justice. And that is God’s justice includes the responsibility of the individual to choose correctly. 

But which is it, then? Does God choose us or do we choose Him, in order to be saved? The answer is really both, as we will see more in the next chapter. Jesus said, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." That shows that the choice belongs solely to God. But Jesus also says, "The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." That reveals that the responsibility of being saved also rests on our will to choose Jesus as our savior. For us to focus on just one side of the coin called truth, and not the other side, would be to deny half of the truth. 

For instance: I have here the picture of a woman. Would one of you please describe for me the woman that you see? How old does she appear to be? Do you all see this woman the same way as this person has described? How do you see this woman? How old would you say she is? 

Actually, there are two women in this picture. [SHOW THEM BOTH PICTURES]. To say that she is old or that she is only young would only be half the truth. You cannot see both women simultaneously, even though you know that both exist in the picture. Your eyes only allow you to focus on one at a time. That's the problem we have with our limited minds. We cannot fully understand that man has the responsibility to choose and that God chooses us before the foundation of the world. Both are true. This is not easy for us to understand, and that's why Paul, back in verse 20, asks, "Who are you, O man, to question God?" 

I appreciate what one highly regarded theologian once said. He said that "Every careful expositor of the scriptures comes to the place that both of these facts are true." [RCS, taped Bible Study.] God chooses whom He chooses. But it is also true that we are responsible to choose Him as well. John MacArthur, another Biblical scholar, put it this way: "God will not save a person who does not believe in His son, and a person cannot save himself simply by the act of his own will, no matter how sincere and heartfelt. In God's sovereign order, both His gracious provision and the exercise of man's will are required for salvation." 

Nowhere does God ask us to choose between these two truths of man's responsibility to choose God and God's choosing us. As Warren Wiersbe says of these two truths, "They do not compete; they cooperate. The fact that we cannot fully understand how they work together does not deny the fact that they do." 

So, how do we respond to the teaching that salvation comes from God's divine choice and human responsibility? There are three possible responses, as I see it. Two of them are wrong, and only one is correct. One wrong response is, "Well, if salvation is my responsibility, then I'll do it myself. Somehow, I'll make it, by hook or by crook." The end of that attitude is to fall headlong into destruction. 

The second wrong response is to say, "God will do everything, I don't have to do anything." This too will end in destruction, because then a person will see Jesus as only fire insurance, and go on living as he or she pleases. A person who only sees Jesus as fire insurance will not understand how much God who wants to save and maintain a personal relationship with that individual. 

The third response is the only correct response. Jesus tells us a story that illustrates this third and only correct response in the closing sentences of His Sermon on the Mount. He says in Matthew 7:24, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and {yet} it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall." The correct response states, "I stand on the Rock that is higher than I, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior." 

Notice, that the scriptures never say, "Try to determine whether you have been chosen by God or not." Rather, they say: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Acts 16:31. 

Or, "Yet to all who received Him, [Jesus] to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12 

This morning as we close, I bring you up to the rock. Is it a stumbling stone, or a rock of salvation? How have you responded to Jesus Christ? Have you stumbled over Him and refused to put your confidence in Him and made Him master of your life? Or, have you stumbled over Him and chosen to ignore Him and determined that you don't need Him, because you are good enough on your own? 

Let’s pray: Father, once again we thank you for bring to light your truth in a way that we can't miss it. Father if there are any here who have never committed their lives to you but wish to, please have them meet with us up here in front, that we might pray with them. If there are some here, who realize now that they have taken God for granted, and want to get back to the joyful walk with You, please have them come and pray with us, so that we can join them and encourage them in their walk with our Lord Jesus. Thanks Father, for you patient, loving drawing of us to yourself. In Jesus name, Amen.

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