The Doctrines of Grace

Unconditional Election

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Unconditional Election

Romans 9:1-24

We come this morning in our series on the Doctrines of Grace to the doctrine of Unconditional Election. Two Sundays ago, we discussed the doctrine of Total Inability. Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the natural man as dead in sins, controlled by the world, controlled by the devil, controlled by his flesh, and under the wrath of God. The lost man is unable to hear God’s voice, see God’s kingdom, understand spiritual things, please God, or come to Christ. He is completely cut off from God and His grace, and is unable to change that. Why? Because of his depravity. He is fallen. Sin has affected every part of his being. He is spiritually dead, and unable to change his nature and come to Christ.

Well, if that is true, then the truth we are going to study this morning must also be true. If unsaved people are spiritually dead, and can’t cooperate with God in their salvation, then God must choose them to be saved. They can’t choose Him, so He must choose them, if they will ever be saved. We have a presidential election coming up very soon. Now, what do we mean by the word “election”?  We mean this nation is going to choose our next president. To elect, is simply to choose. When I talk about Unconditional Election, I’m simply talking about God choosing people to be saved. When I speak of it as being Unconditional, I’m simply saying that there were no conditions in us that we needed to meet for God to choose us.  We talk a lot about unconditional love, and we understand that. God’s unconditional love means that He loves us without us having to meet any conditions to earn or deserve that love. Well, God’s unconditional election works exactly the same way.

Now, in order to teach this doctrine from Scripture, I could have gone to many different passages of Scripture. We could have gone to Ephesians 1:3-6, or John 17:2, or Romans 8:29-30, or 2 Thessalonians 2:13. But this morning we are going to go to Romans 9, which, quite possibly is the most perplexing, mind-boggling, and pride-crushing chapter in the Bible. I don’t think Romans 9 is too terribly hard to understand. It is just very hard to accept. It will challenge your view of God.

There was a time when almost everyone believed the earth was flat. It was a comfortable theory to live with – safe, easy to understand. Believing it didn’t make it true, but it made life easier to handle and more predictable. So when scientists began to affirm that the earth was round, contrary to the way it looked to everyone’s eyes, that it was spinning on its axis and floating in a great sea of space, people grew very alarmed. Our problem when we come to a passage like Romans 9 is that we have grown up thinking God is flat – safe, easy to understand and predictable, fitting comfortably into the pattern we have made for Him. We’ve got Him crammed into our nice, little, neat theological boxes. However, I think you are going to see today from Romans 9 that God cannot be contained in our nice, comfortable theological box. In fact in Romans 9, God comes bursting out of any box that we try to confine Him in. This chapter will challenge the thinking that whether you are saved or not is ultimately up to you. In fact, this chapter teaches that whether we are saved or not is ultimately up to God!

In fact you can’t be a Bible-believing Christian without believing in election. The words “chosen, elect, and predestined” are found dozens of times in our New Testament. We can’t simply ignore these words. They mean something, and it’s our duty to find out what. Many Christians say they believe in election, but they believe that God’s election is conditional. They believe God chooses those whom He knows will believe in Him. That’s not what I’m teaching this morning. I’m teaching that God chooses those that won’t choose Him, because they can’t. They are totally unable to choose God, because they are spiritually dead.

I, as your Pastor, am bound before God, to believe and preach what the Bible says is true – not what I want to be true. In 1990, this subject assaulted me like a ton of bricks. At first, I couldn’t accept it. My mind turned from it in horror. It took me a full year of reading, thinking, praying, and studying before I could fully surrender to the truth of God’s Sovereign Choice. You may be like I was 25 years ago. You may not like the message I have to preach today. You may argue with it, fight against it, reject it, ignore it, and slam your Bible shut and refuse to believe it. You may shake your fist at God and cry, “It can’t be. It’s not fair.” But none of that will change anything. Truth is still truth, and facts are still facts. Arguing against a truth in God’s Word is like banging your head against a rock. You can bang all you want, but it’s not going to destroy the rock. It’s only going to hurt you.

Please, open your Bibles to Romans 9, and let’s begin to search out the awesome truths found here.  We will examine this chapter in four different blocks of Scripture:

1. The Truth of God’s Sovereign Election

2. Objections to God’s Sovereign Election

• Objection 1: Election is Based on God Knowing Who will believe:  9:10-13

• Objection 2: Election Makes God Unfair:  9:14-18

• Objection 3: It Would Turn Us Into Robots:  9:19-24

• Objection 4: It is about nations and service, not individuals and salvation:  9:1-24

1. The Truth of God’s Sovereign Election

Romans 9:1  I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

So, what is Paul telling the Romans here?  He begins by describing Israel’s rejection of Christ, and the anguish it costs him. Paul says that he has “great sorrow” and “unceasing grief” in his heart. Why is Paul’s heart bursting with great sorrow and unceasing grief? It is because the majority of the Jewish people have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. This rejection of Christ by the Jews has so deeply affected Paul that he makes a claim that is so shocking that he has to introduce it by saying, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit.”  So, what is Paul telling the truth about? The fact that he could wish that he would be accursed for the sake of his fellow Jews. So, what is Paul saying? He’s saying, that if it were possible, he would be willing to be cursed by God and face eternal damnation in hell, if it meant that his fellow Jews would be saved. The Jews of Paul’s day had been granted great spiritual privileges. Paul lists eight of them:

1) to whom belong the adoption as sons,

2) and the glory,

3) and the covenants,

4) and the giving of the Law,

5) and the temple service,

6) and the promises,

7) whose are the fathers,

8) and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

So, had the Jews profited from having these great spiritual blessings? Not at all. In spite of all their privileges and advantages, they had rejected Jesus Christ, their Messiah.

So, the natural question that would arise is found in verse 6, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel, who are descended from Israel.” The natural question is, “Has the word of God failed?” In order to understand verse 6, we need to understand what Paul means by “the word of God”, and “failed.”

Now, what does it mean for the word of God to fail? The word “fail” means “to fall”. It’s the opposite of “to stand.” There is a parallel passage in Romans 9:11, “in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand.”  What Paul is saying is that the word of God has not failed – it stands.

Now, what does Paul mean by “the word of God”?  The parallel again is in verse 11.  The word of God is parallel to God’s purpose.  God’s purpose stands. The word of God doesn’t fail. It doesn’t fall to the ground.  So the question Paul is asking in verse 6 is, “Since the Jews have not believed on Christ as their Messiah and Savior, does that mean that God’s purpose has fallen to the ground?”

What is Paul’s answer?  It is a resounding NO!!!  Well, why not?  The simple answer is was never God’s purpose to save every ethnic Israelite. That’s what Paul means when he says, “for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.”  God did not choose every member of the Jewish race to be saved. There was an elect group of Israelites among the Jewish people. . And that’s the reason that the purposes of God have not fallen to the ground. God’s purposes haven’t failed because it was never God’s purpose to save every Israelite. It was God’s purpose to save some Jews, but not all. That’s why the majority have not believed on Christ.

Paul goes further and gives some real life illustrations of this truth.  Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Paul says that Ishmael, the child of the flesh was not a child of God. Instead it was Isaac, the child of the promise.  Then Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau, the elder brother, should have been the chosen son, but God reversed the natural order, and chose Jacob to be in the Messianic line, and rejected Esau.  Simply because a person was a physical descendant of Abraham didn’t mean they would be included in the covenant. Isaac was accepted and Ishmael was rejected. Jacob was accepted, and Esau was rejected.

In verses 10-13, the apostle Paul drives home the truth of God’s Unconditional Election. Notice that both win boys, had the same father. Then, even before the twins were born and had done anything good or bad, God had already decided that He would love Jacob and hate Esau. Why did God decide this? Verse 11 says it was so that His purpose according to His choice would stand. God wanted to make a point. His choice had nothing to do with any good or bad things Jacob or Esau had done. It was not because of works. It was a decision God made according to His purpose, which was according to His choice. Election is not dependant on man. It is dependent on God alone. Notice the language in verse 11, “not because of works, but because of Him who calls.”  Now, if God’s choice were conditioned on something in man, we would call it Conditional Election. But this passage makes it very clear that His choice was not based on something in man, but only on something in Himself.

Now, remember that the reason Paul is giving us this information about Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau, is because he is showing that the word of God has not failed. It was never God’s intention to save every ethnic Israelite. From the very beginning God accepted one, and rejected another. God’s acceptance of some, was not due to something in them, but wholly due to His sovereign choice, and His call.

Now, at this point, Paul knows that there will be objectors with a whole host of objections rising in their minds. And today, there are those who will not embrace God’s unconditional election. They have a whole host of objections. So, we are going to take a look at 4 of those objections one by one.

2. Objections To God’s Sovereign Election

Objection 1:  Election is Based on God Knowing Who Will Believe.  Many Christians believe God looks down through the tunnel of time, and sees who will believe of their own free will.  They say that election is simply God choosing those people. However, there are a lot of problems with this view.

1)  In this view, God makes no choice at all.  Election is God’s choice. However, if He is merely looking down the tunnel of time and foreknowing who is going to choose Him of their own free will, God has made no choice.  At best, He is simply ratifying the choices that we have made.

2)  This view assumes that some people have the ability to choose God of their own free will.  However, in our last message we discovered that because of the Fall, man is unable to come to Christ on his own. Jesus said, “No man can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  Because a lost person is dead in trespasses and sins, is spiritually blind and deaf, and cannot understand spiritual things, he will never come to Christ on his own. If God were looking down the Tunnel of Time to see who would decide on their own to follow Christ, He would see the entire human race rushing madly into Hell! Psalm 14:2-3 tells us, “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good not even one.”

3)  This view is directly contradicted in Romans 9.  Now, let me ask you, as we read Romans 9:11-13, does it support Conditional Election or Unconditional Election? Well, let’s read it, “for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, because God looked down the tunnel of time and saw that Jacob would believe and Esau wouldn’t it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”  That’s not what it says does it? No, Paul puts the reason for God’s choice, not on what He foresaw Jacob and Esau would do, but on God’s purpose, God’s choice, and God’s call.

Also, look at 9:15-16, “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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”  We say salvation depends on the man who wills. Man must repent and trust Christ of his own free will, we say. The Bible says the exact opposite. It says salvation does not depend on the man who wills, but on God who has mercy.

Objection 2:  Election Makes God Unfair.  Romans 9:14-18, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 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.”  So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”

Of course, the very first thing that occurs to us when we read that God chose Jacob and passed by Esau, even though neither one had even been born and hadn’t done anything good or bad, and that God loved Jacob but hated Esau, is “That’s not right! That’s not just!” Now, the way you know whether you are understanding Paul’s argument correctly is that it will naturally lead to this objection. If your understanding of what Paul is saying doesn’t lead you to say, “That doesn’t seem just”, you don’t understand his argument! Many preachers say, “Well, you see, the real reason God chose Jacob over Esau is because God knew that Jacob would have a spiritual bent and Esau would be a fleshly man.” I’ve heard that taught many times. But if that is true, then why in the world would Paul imagine an objector saying, “That’s unjust and unfair of God” as he does in 9:14?

Now, it is very important at this point to make the distinction between God being just and fair. What does it mean for God to be just? It means that He punishes sin wherever He finds it. Is God just to all men? Well, does God punish the sins of every person? Of course He does! Either He punishes them in Hell, or He punishes their sins by putting His own Son on a cross. In every case, God punishes all sin.  But for God to be fair means that He gives everyone exactly the same thing. Is God fair? Absolutely not! You and I grew up in the United States, where we could hear the gospel on radio, TV, internet, and in thousands of different churches. But, the tribesman in Papua New Guinea may grow up and never hear the name of Jesus in his entire life. Is that fair? The truth is that the Bible does not say that God is fair. It does say that He is just. He always punishes sin. But He does not give exactly the same thing to every person.

No, God’s sovereign choice does not make God unjust, it makes Him merciful! That’s what this paragraph is emphasizing. Notice verse 15, “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’”  Or again in verse 16, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”  Or again in verse 18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”  And what does God do if someone tries to stop Him from showing mercy to His people, like the Pharoah of Egypt, who refused to let the children of Israel go free?  God hardens him, and then destroys him!

You say, “Brian, that still doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t God save everybody?”  My friend, the doctrine of Election does not damn any man who ought to be saved; but it saves many men who ought to be damned! We’ve all sinned away our right to salvation and eternal life. The marvel is not that God doesn’t save everyone. The marvel is that God saves anyone! If there are ten men on Death Row, and the Governor out of his goodness and mercy grants a pardon to one of them, is he being evil or good? Of course he’s being good. The Governor isn’t being unjust to the nine that end up in the electric chair. They are getting what they deserve for their crimes. However he is showing great mercy to the one, because he deserves to go to the electric chair just like the other nine.

Objection 3:  Election Turns Man Into Robots.  In the preceding paragraph Paul has told us that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy. He ends the paragraph by saying that God has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. Now, if God hardens whoever He wants, and He gives mercy to whoever He wants, then the logical question arises in verse 19, “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” Remember, unless we are asking the same questions as the imaginary objector, we are misunderstanding Paul here. Paul intends for us to come to the conclusion that none of us can resist God’s will. If it is His will to harden someone, they will be hardened. If it is His will to bestow mercy on someone, mercy will be bestowed. We can’t thwart the sovereign purpose of the Almighty. But the question in the mind of the objector is, “How can God judge evil men, for He has hardened them, and they are only carrying out His will.” Aren’t they just doing what God has already determined? If so, how can God punish them for doing what He has determined?” That sounds logical right? Well, how does Paul respond?

Verse 20-21, “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”

When people start questioning God, and calling His actions into question, the only Biblical response is, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Now, Paul doesn’t say that we are robots. But he does say that God is the potter, and we are the clay, and that the potter has a right to make out of the clay anything he wants.

In verse 21, Paul mentions that God makes two different kinds of vessels from the same lump. Now, what is that “same lump” Paul is referring to? I believe it is fallen mankind. Why? Because one of vessels God makes from that lump is a vessel of wrath (22). The other kind of vessel God makes from that lump is a vessel of mercy (23). Now, both wrath and mercy presuppose sin. God’s wrath comes upon us because of sin. God’s mercy comes to us because we have sinned. This “same lump” that God forms both kinds of vessels out of, is a fallen lump of sinful humanity.

Notice the vessels of wrath in verse 22. These were prepared for destruction. God manifests His wrath and power upon these vessels in their destruction.

Notice the vessels of mercy in verse 23. He prepared these beforehand for glory. Now, notice what God is doing in these two different vessels. In the one, He is manifesting His power and wrath. In the other, He is manifesting His mercy. Wrath, power, mercy. Those are the attributes of God. The glory of God is nothing other than the manifestation of God’s attributes. What God is doing in these two kinds of clay vessels, is He is putting His glory on display. He glorifies His power and wrath in one kind of vessel, and He glorifies His mercy in the other kind of vessel.

The bottom line is that we are in position to criticize or blame our Creator. He is the Potter and we are the clay. He does what He wants, when He wants, where He wants, to whom He wants. Folks, this is not the Brian Show. It’s the God Show. All of creation and history exists to glorify His name!

Objection 4:  Election is Not About Individuals and Salvation, It is About National Privileges.  This objection goes like this: “Yes, it is true that God has made a sovereign choice. However, His choice was not of individuals. God did choose the nation of Israel to certain privileges like the ones spelled out in Romans 9:4-5. But God has not chosen particular people to eternal life. Well, let’s test that theory out against Paul’s argument here in Romans 9.

Let’s look at the context again. Remember that Paul begins the argument by telling us how grieved and sorrowful he is that his countrymen are accursed and headed for eternal damnation, in spite of all their privileges. Then he goes on to tell them that not every person physically descended from Israel was true Israel. In other words there was a smaller group within Israel who were chosen. What were they chosen to? Well, verse 8 says they were “children of God.” Well, the phrase appears twice in Romans 8:16 and 8:21, and in both cases it refers to saved persons. The expression “sons of God” appears in Galatians 3:26, and it refers to a person who has faith in Jesus Christ. Even in this very chapter, in 9:26, Paul speaks of sons of the living God as individuals, Jews or Gentiles, who have been called by God to salvation. So, every other time that Paul uses the expression “children of God” or “sons of God” he is speaking about someone who has received eternal salvation.

Then, notice verse 16, “So then it does not depend on the nation who wills or the nation who runs, but on God who has mercy.” What? It doesn’t say that? No, it is the man. Notice also that it is not the receiving of privileges or service that is mentioned, but of mercy!

Then in verse 18 Paul says, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Again, Paul’s concern is not nations, but individuals. Isaac and Jacob are examples of individuals that God had mercy upon, and Pharoah is an example of an individual whom God hardened.

Again, let’s examine 9:22-23.  In this section Paul describes vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Furthermore he describes vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory. What do “destruction” and “glory” speak of? What do “wrath” and “mercy” speak of? It couldn’t be more clear. Paul is speaking of eternal salvation and eternal damnation.

Again, in verse 24, when Paul wants to tell us who these vessels of mercy are that God has prepared for glory, he doesn’t say that it was the nation of Israel. He says, “even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”

Or, if you need further proof, just look at the larger context. Romans 9 comes after Romans 8 and before Romans 9:25-10:21. What is Paul speaking of in those chapters. Is it national privileges or individual salvation?  In Romans 8:28-39 it is all about God’s sovereign purpose to foreknow, predestine, call, justify, and glorify a particular people, and these people can not be separated from His love. I would say that’s referring to eternal salvation, wouldn’t you?  Let’s look at Romans 9:27, “it is the remnant that will be saved.” Or look at Romans 9:30-33. There Paul is talking about the righteousness which comes by faith. That clearly refers to salvation. Or 10:1, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”  I could show you many more references, but I think this is sufficient. Suffice it to say, that Romans 9 is not about National Privileges. It is about Individual Salvation.

Conclusion

Unbelievers.  If you have never become a true believer in Jesus Christ, what does this passage have to say to you. Some unbelievers think it means that God is standing at the door of heaven, and people are thronging to get in the door, and God is saying, “Yes, you may come, but not you, or you, or you – yes, you may come, and you, and you, but not you.” That’s not the situation at all! Rather, God stands at the door of heaven with His arms stretched out, inviting all to come. However, everyone is running in the opposite direction towards hell as hard as they can go. So God, in election, graciously reaches out and stops this one, and that one, and this one over here, and that one over there, and effectually draws them to Himself by changing their hearts, making them willing to come.” If you aren’t saved, don’t go away from this sermon thinking that even though you want to be saved, you can’t, because God hasn’t chose you! If you are willing to be saved in God’s way, you can be saved. Are you willing to repent of your sin and trust in Christ alone? Then do it right now. If you do, it was because you are one of the elect! So, come to Jesus Christ this morning!  But what if I wasn’t chosen? Anyone who comes to Christ in repentance and faith was chosen. Election should never make you feel like you can’t be saved. It ought to make you feel like it is possible for you to be saved. Without election none could be saved, because we are all dead in our sin. Because of election, it’s possible for you to be saved. Why do you delay? Why do you resist? Come in faith to Christ today, and you will find out that you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world!

Believers. Bow in the dust before the Almighty, and put your hand over your mouth, and fear Him! Instead of answering back to God, bow in awestruck wonder at His greatness and glory and sovereign freedom. Fear Him! Reverence Him! Behold Him, and worship Him!!

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