It is widely stated and believed that we serve a sovereign
God; but if you think about that, what exactly does that mean? Without going through a theological diatribe
on the meaning of sovereignty and the many ways in which God is sovereign,
suffice it to say that God being sovereign means that he has supreme
independence and is not accountable to anyone but himself. It furthermore means that he has the power
and the capability to do whatever he desires without having to answer for any
of his actions.
That raises an important question. How can we trust in a God
who is sovereign? How can we be sure
that he will not do something arbitrary or vicarious or capricious? Sure, we can trust in the fact that he is
supposed to be a loving and kind God who only has our best interests at stake,
but then we read Paul’s description of God’s sovereignty in Romans chapter 9
and literally our faith can be shaken at the core.
Romans chapter 9 takes the concept of God’s sovereignty into
a very controversial area of Christian theology known as predestination and
election. There are numerous and various
views on predestination and election that I will not go into in this article
because that is not really the intent of this post. However, it is almost impossible to read
Romans chapter 9 and not come away with the distinct impression that sometimes
God’s actions can seem somewhat arbitrary.
Think about it. God sovereignly
chose the nation of Israel – beginning with Abraham – to be the bearer of his
covenant and ultimately to bring forth his messiah. Why Israel?
Israel was repeatedly unfaithful to God. Why start with Abraham? Abraham had not done anything to earn merit
in God’s eyes for this great honor. He
was the son of an idol maker and an idol worshipper, but God chose him above
all other men in the world at that time.
Then, God chose his son Isaac – not his firstborn Ishmael by the servant
girl and not the many sons that Abraham bore after Isaac (and yes, read Genesis
25:1-5…Abraham ended up having a bunch of other kids after Isaac). Why Isaac – other than the fact that he was
the promised son? Then there is Jacob –
the deceiver and theif – the second born.
He was chosen over Esau the first born.
Why? Because that is what God decided? What was God thinking when he made these
choices? Only he knows.
To take the faith-shaking discussion further, Paul then
discusses others whom God, in his sovereignty, has outright rejected – such as
Pharoah. That just seems wrong – until you
realize that God did not reject Pharoah until after Pharoah had first rejected
God – not once, but twice. Still, it
seems a bit frightening to imagine being rejected by God, though – especially when
we find Paul basically telling us that God’s sovereignty does not excuse us
from anything. What if God prepared
some vessels for wrath? Who are we to
argue with the Sovereign? What if God
prepared some vessels for glory? Can the
clay argue with the potter? It is
certainly enough to make your head spin…
…until you get to the end of Romans 9 and then go further
into Romans 10.
You see it is most certainly true that God is sovereign to
do whatever he chooses to do and we have no say so in the matter. That means he is sovereign to save or to
condemn at his own pleasure. However,
what we find out at the end of Romans 9 is what God actually DID DO in his
sovereignty. You see, in God’s
sovereignty, he decided that he would call the elect based on faith (Romans
9:24-29) – not just the Jews who believed, but gentiles as well. Furthermore, God decided in his sovereignty
that he would reject and condemn those who did not have faith (Romans 9:30-33) –
not just the heathen gentiles, but the unbelieving Jews as well. In other words, God’s sovereign choice of
election is based on faith – not on some arbitrary or capricious choice of his
own. Thus we see, moving into Romans 10,
the significance of our faith in dealing with God’s sovereignty.
Romans 10 gives us the method by which God accepts our faith
and includes us into the elect. If we
confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God
raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.
This is a promise from God. The
thing about God’s sovereignty is that it will never be in conflict with his character,
and his character is such that all of his promises will be kept. We do not have to worry about the seemingly arbitrary
or apparently capricious actions of God as it relates to our salvation because
he has given to us exactly what we need to ensure our salvation. Furthermore, he has promised us that in
receiving salvation by faith we will be included among the elect.
But how did we get there?
Did we arrive at our faith by some irresistible force of God or by our
own free will choice? Should that even matter?
Obviously it does matter to some because the answer to those questions is
the basis upon which much of the theological controversy exists. However, I find that God has made it very
clear in Romans chapters 8-10 that we have placed much too much emphasis on
trying to understand God’s actions in salvation (as identified in Romans 8:29-30)
and not nearly enough emphasis on what our responsibilities are to carrying out
God’s plan for salvation (as identified in Romans 10:13-15).
Clearly, God’s hand in salvation is supreme. His perspective and his participation is clearly established in Romans 8:29-30 – for those he foreknew he predestined; those he predestined he called; those he called he justified; and those he justified he will glorify. We can spend ages (and we have) debating exactly what that means and may never be able to come to an agreement. Quite frankly, I believe God has intentionally left just enough mystery on this one because I think he wants us to accept by faith his work in salvation instead of trying to force his work into some theological construct of our own design.
By contrast, we should instead be focusing on man’s
responsibility in the salvation process as equally and as clearly established
in Romans 10:13-15 – Our salvation comes when we confess Jesus; that confession
comes as a result of calling on the name of the Lord; how can anyone call
unless they first believe; how can they believe unless they hear; how can they
hear unless someone preaches; and how can someone preach unless someone is
sent? While understanding God’s role in
salvation requires faith, man’s responsibility in the salvation process is
merely a matter of obedience. Send
someone to preach so that the lost can hear, believe, call upon the name of the
Lord, and thus be saved.
So where does God’s Perspective meet Man’s Responsibility? They meet at the call. God calls on us. We respond and call on him. See picture below:
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Confession
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Foreknowledge
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Predestination
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Calling
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Justification
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Glorification
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Believing
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Hearing
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Preaching
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Sending
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Therein lays the significance of our faith with respect to
dealing with and responding to God’s sovereignty. If we will simply be obedient to his commands
to spread the gospel, then we can have faith that he will carry out his promise
to call those he has sovereignly foreknown and predestined (whatever that may
mean) to be saved.
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