Mercy and Justice

Article 16 answers the doctrine of original sin with the doctrine of election. For the church, this doctrine is one of the most controversial, especially in the rampant individualism of North America.

In order for us to understand this doctrine, we need to look at the big picture. Last week, when we looked at the doctrine of original sin, we saw how devastating Adam’s sin was. We noticed that it completely condemned the human race, so that, from conception on, all humans are in a state of sinfulness.

God’s Justice

In this judgement, we see God’s justice. God will not let sin go unpunished. He put the rules down, and Adam chose to break them. God didn’t come to him and say, “Oh, that’s too bad, I didn’t mean it.” That would make God like Satan, a liar. God carried out his just payment of sin. His character, his justice demanded it. But right alongside of God’s justice, we see God’s love, God’s mercy.

When God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, they immediately began feeling the effects of sin. They had to work hard for their food. They had to slaughter animals in sacrifice. They had to suffer many things. And yet, even as they were standing in the harsh reality of sin’s consequence, God promised salvation.

God promised to send a seed of the woman to save His people from sin.

By this we know that Adam’s sin didn’t surprise God. In fact, God decreed it (not that God is in any way responsible for Adam’s sin), nor did it hinder God’s plan for his people. God also decreed to save a multitude of Adam’s descendants. God chose to save a countless number of people who do not deserve salvation.

The fall into sin resulted in death, corruption, all passed down as an inheritance. The divine image, that which contrary to PETA and other animal rights groups was given solely to humans, the divine image was distorted beyond recognition. Born in sin, we have sinful natures that produce sinful desires from day one. We are slaves to this natures, our wills are bent to it, and it clouds our minds to Gods truth, we hate God’s discipline, we disobey the commandments, we suffer illness and death. We are helpless to save ourselves. We see in the doctrine of original sin, reality. It is in this stark reality that the doctrine of election makes any sense at all.

The doctrine of original sin, is bad news. It is a cancer diagnosis from a doctor. Only a good doctor tells the truth, and we need to know the truth. But we also need to know God’s response. Like a physician, he has the cure, he himself is the cure. He promises to redeem all of his people through Jesus Christ.

God’s Election in the OT

The doctrine of election answers the question, “who are these people God promises to redeem? They are the ones God has chosen. God chose them before the foundation of the universe.

Now, this is a controversial doctrine because people don’t want to hear the truth. The truth is, everyone has sinned, everyone deserves death, no one deserves to be saved, not one single person.

Isn’t this what Paul teaches us in Romans 7? “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” So, if there is nothing good in us, why would God possibly want to save some, let alone any? The answer lies in God’s love and mercy.

God chose to save some sinners, out of his mercy. It is not, as some believe, that God was able to see into the future and discern which people would respond. We learn from Deuteronomy 7.1-11, specifically verses 6-9 that why God chooses some and not others.

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the

land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

God chose Israel because he loved them. Was there anything in Israel that made them particularly lovely? Similarly, in 1 Samuel 12:22, we read, “For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.” God chose Israel for his sovereign design, to honour his name. He was happy to do it. John 15:16 teaches the same thing, because God chose us, we choose God.

God’s Election in the NT

Paul explains this principle even further, saying in Ephesians, “We were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Also in Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

The result? “God foreknows who will believe because he has already chosen who will believe!”[1] He makes his choices based on his own will, not at all based on anything good in the creature. In fact, God’s saving purposes are directed not to everyone, but always to the ones he plans to save. He doesn’t sit around waiting for sinners to rise up to certain criteria.

At first glance, the doctrine of election seems to make God fickle. He chooses those he wants, without any reason whatsoever. But we also have to read article 16 in context with articles 17 and 18 which describe God’s activity in redemptive history. The climax of God’s mighty acts is the incarnation and the final defeat of the seed of the woman against the serpent.

Article 16 contains two sides of the same coin. Some are elected, others are not. These are two parts of God: his mercy and his justice. His justice demands the punishment of all, his mercy allows the salvation of some. God decreed this before the beginning of creation. He did this by his good pleasure, B.B. Warfield once said, “The marvel of marvels is not that God in his infinite love has not elected all of this guilty race to be saved, but that he has elected any.”[2]

The election of sinners is seen everywhere in the New Testament. John’s gospel focuses on it. Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (Jn. 6:37). And, as we saw this morning, Jesus does the opposite of what evangelistically minded people would do, he drives people away with his “church shrinkage seminar” as Bob Godfrey once put it. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” He goes on to explain:

Jesus] went on to say, `This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.’ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. `You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him,`Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Then Jesus replied, `Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’

God’s Mercy

We also might struggle with these words, but they are true, there is no one else to turn to. No one else has salvation. Salvation itself doesn’t depend on human desire or effort, but only on God’s mercy. In 2 Timothy 1:9, says that God’s power “has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”

And let us not forget the familiar and beloved words of Romans 8:29-30, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

But the difficulty lies perhaps not with election, but with reprobation, what happens to those who are not chosen. God leaves them to the consequences of their own and Adam’s sin. But this is what the scriptures teach. Jesus is a “stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.” Romans 9:19-22 soberly reminds us that we cannot reject this doctrine:

One of you will say to me: `Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? `Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?’ 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?

The fact remains. We are all sinners in Adam, guilty for his sins, guilty for our own. Who are we to complain? God has the right to do whatever he wants with his creation.

What does this mean for us? What application can come out of it?

First, the doctrine of election is the foundation of salvation. We believe in Jesus Christ because God chose us in Christ before he laid the foundation of the world. The reason we have been called is because of the preaching of the gospel. The reason why we have new birth, have faith and have repented, that we’re justified and sanctified, that we will be glorified one day, is simply a result of God’s great mercy. Nothing in us causes God to save us. Spurgeon put it like this, “I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I would never have chosen him; and I am sure that he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterward!”

Our election is in Christ! The great question, “How do I know for sure if I am saved?” Is answered in Christ. Because I trust in Christ, I know that I was chosen in Christ. I would not trust, if I wasn’t already chosen in Christ. The one who chose us is the one who lived for us, who died for us, who was raised for us. He is the mediator.

This doctrine is vitally important for the ministry of the church. We live in a secular world, a world that sounds like a page right out of Judges; everyone does what is right in their own eyes. To this world, we need to teach, “God is God, and you are not.” Sure, God is merciful, but he is also just. How do you know you will face his justice instead of his mercy? The answer lies in what you have done with his Son, Jesus. If you have already trusted him, then you are already recipients of God’s mercy. If you have not trusted in Christ, you are summoned to do so, and warned of what is to come! Amen.

[1] Rev. Kim Riddlebarger, Belgic Confession Article 16 edited Merciful and Just (riddleblog). [2] Cited from Blanchard, Gathered Gold, p. 78.