Before I was born, my mother knew me and loved me. Before I caused her pain - in childbirth (and thankfully thereafter), by disobedience, by spitefulness - she committed to love me unconditionally as her child. This is the nature of motherhood, a natural attachment to her offspring. My father likewise loved me before he saw me and has never wavered from it. It is marvelous the design God has to preserve the family, and it is beautiful to see his work in action through imperfect human love. Sometimes though, this can lead to a wrong mindset about God, His purposes, and His plan.
I was recently studying Romans chapter 9, and though I had read it many times before, I reverted emotionally to an old response when I read the words: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated". You see, Paul writes, "Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls - she was told: 'The older will serve the younger.'" (vv 10-12, NIV - a quote from Genesis 25:23) From the context, Paul is very clearly using this story as a prooftext to show God's unconditional election of His own people before their birth. Our immediate human response is "That can't be! A loving and just and merciful God choosing our fate for us before we have done anything good or bad! Shouldn't God leave it up to us? Surely He has an obligation to justice that He must leave this up to us!" And yet Paul anticipates this very thinking - it is after all the natural response - as he immediately writes "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy...' It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy." (vv14-16, NIV - a quote from Exodus 33:19) The New King James Version reads, "So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." (v 16) Paul, himself being human and very justice-minded knew the knee-jerk reaction that sinful man would have when reading these words. A man's will cannot and will never bring the mercy of God. Only God has the prerogative to show mercy or not. Indeed, fallen sinful man standing before God and demanding justice or mercy would be similar to (yet still an infinitely weaker case than) an ant demanding anything of a human. Paul goes on to write "For the Scripture says to Pharoah: 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." (vv 16-18 NIV - a quote from Exodus 33:19) To my brothers and sisters who would argue that Pharoah hardened his own heart, or that Pharoah was "too far gone" so God decided He could make an example of the ruler, I submit that that is not what Paul is saying here, nor is it consistent with what Paul is saying to be true in this passage. The fact is that God took a man's heart into His own hands and hardened it, turned it against Himself for His own purposes. It is clear from Paul's argument that God is the one doing the action, not Pharoah. God does what He wills and we are powerless to do anything about it. That is the true Christian view of the condition of man. And yet Paul sees the next argument coming, as it tries to rise up in my heart every time I read this passage. "One of you will say to me: 'Then why does God still blame us? For who resists His will?'" (v 19 NIV) Admit it. That's the same thought you had when you read through Romans 9 up to this point, and it is the same feeling I have as well. Paul knows exactly who he is talking to and what he is talking about. God has placed in us a natural desire for justice, but it is corrupted by our sinful pride. So much so that we will question God on His sense of justice. Paul knows this and gives his response. "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him that formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"'" (these are quotations from the book of Isaiah) "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath - prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory" (vv 19-23 NIV) Wow. What if God wanted to do that. Surely the omnipotent Creator of the universe can do whatever he likes with His creation. My dad used to say (quoting Bill Cosby I believe) "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out." Well, God brought this world into being and created music and gravity and quadratic formulas and grammar and logic and you and me and He can do whatever He pleases with it. You see, God is not bound by any law of goodness or justice. If these things transcended Him, He would cease to be God. Rather, He has by His nature defined for us what justice and goodness are, and anything He does would be just and good. I think I sense a hint of sarcasm when Paul says "Who are you, O man..." (v 20). O man, great explorer of the planet and the moon, who cannot go to the nearest planet, of which there are millions in the universe God has created. O man, who has found DNA and can clone animals and people, yet cannot add information to the proteins necessary for life, while God created all ex nihilo - out of nothing - and created you, O man, from dust and His breath. O man, who can calculate the angle of an isosceles triangle and the speed of light, yet cannot approach infiniteness, which God is. Who are you, O man, who kill, steal, covet, profane, and boast, who are you to approach God demanding satisfaction? The potter has the freedom to do what he will with the clay, and the clay has no argument against the potter.
Now, as we look into Romans 9, which is the more miraculous and absurd fact? Is it that God would choose to let sinners receive the punishment they deserve ("for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 NIV) "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 NIV)). Is it so far-fetched that God would let these people - dead in sin, haters of God, perverters of the truth - take their natural course in order that His justice and wrath be magnified and glorified? Is it so beyond the scope of imagination that before they were born and had done anything good or bad that God hated Esau? No, my friends. The wondrous, miraculous, supernatural message of Romans 9 can be summed up as this: "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NIV). While we were the enemies of God, before we were born, God said of us "These are mine, and I will die to protect them".
So then, how much more powerful now, in the light of God's unfailing sovereign grace and love when we read:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 (NIV)
"What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31(NIV)
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39 (NIV)
When I read the promises of Romans 8 in the light of Romans 9, they are more powerful, more beautiful, and more glorious. I can anew agree with Paul when he says in Ephesians 3:20-21, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
So, you are saying that God is both loving and just when he chooses to hate someone who isn't even born yet (Esau), just because that person will be born with a fallen nature (and therefore deserving of God's wrath), which is not that person's fault, but ultimately the fault of the first human who disobeyed a few thousand years before Esau was born? And it is loving and just for God to choose to love another unborn person (Jacob)who is no different in nature from his brother(Esau), who in fact displays significant character flaws through much of his life?
ReplyDeleteA couple of points. While each person's sin nature is inherited due to Adam's sin (Romans 5), Esau's sin and sin nature was accounted to Esau, Adam's sin was not attributed to Esau. Adam's sin forfeited several things, including life without death and each person being born sinless. So yes, God is just when he hates Esau from before his birth. Paul agrees. God is under no obligation to show any sinful person any kindness. After all, those who are sinful are His enemies (Romans 5:10). Now, when God loves Jacob, this is obviously loving, and He is just in His love. We should expect any sinful person to have character flaws in his or her life. God doesn't love people because they are somehow better than others, because all sinful people are equally separated from God (Roman 3:23, as above). God shows no favoritism based on human reasoning (Romans 2:11), and Paul says in this chapter above that God chose Jacob rather than Esau in order to show that His election is based on His free choice, not the coercion of man by being good forcing His hand to save them. So yes, God is just in treating any fallen sinful man how He chooses according to His plan. He can turn His back to Esau and extend His hand to Jacob and is under no obligation to do any differently. Had he turned His back on both or loved both He would have been just as righteous. To those who have received God's gift of grace, this is a matter of great rejoicing, that God loves those that do not deserve it.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the point of this post was that when I see what God has done for me, that He loved me when I didn't deserve it, that He chose me to love, that even while I was still diametrically opposed to Him He raised me from the dead, then His promises are that much more powerful and trustworthy.
ReplyDeleteOf our corrupted sense of justice: we want what's just right for us. Maybe we have somewhere close to an objective view of what's just when it applies to others. No way, we can detach from self and accurately apply justice towards our own situations especially when the consequences are severe. Perhaps we should stop pretending to understand justice, and pathetically attempt to criticize God on the subject when He is the one who defines justice, embodies justice.
ReplyDelete"Of our corrupted sense of justice: we want what's just right for us."
ReplyDeleteMore correctly, what we think is right for us. This is the point I was trying to make in that God is not held to some objective law named Justice, but rather He IS Just, and all justice derives its value from Him. In this sense, God's justice, like all His attributes, are transcendental and complete and perfect. Therefore, our understanding of justice must be based on what God has revealed about justice. Now, all of mankind has had some sort of understanding of justice - perhaps Romans 1:18 and following can speak to this fact - but apart from God's word, our understanding of it is imperfect at best and false at worst. Thoughts?
It just occurs to me that it is much easier to praise God for His sovereign grace and mercy when you are Jacob, than when you are Esau. How would it feel to Esau to read that passage and realize he was hated before he ever even arrived? Could it be that this issue is far deeper and wider than just celebrating God's sovereignty?
ReplyDeleteAgreed that Esau would not feel too good about reading this passage. Although the converse argument would be that either he wouldn't believe it or else he would hate God because of it. Either way God would be carrying out His purpose in justice by allowing the sinner to remain dead in sin, an enemy of God (or so the argument goes).
ReplyDeleteAlso agreed that there is a lot more here to find than just celebrating God's sovereignty. For instance, the wrath of God is a huge theme in Romans 9, and is given as justification as to why God would harden anyone's heart. Yet when was the last time you heard a major evangelical sermon on this issue? :)
ReplyDelete"Purpose Driven Punishment" doesn't sound like a Christian best-seller does it? :)
ReplyDelete