If God is Just, Why Does He Choose To Save Some and Not Others?

1. Election is by God

It would be expected to see the eldest receiving blessing in this custom. Or perhaps, more generally speaking, seeing that they both have the same father and mother and that they are twins, we might expect God to show equal favor unto them both, but this is not God‘s plan for them. Instead God chooses Jacob over Esau, not that either of them are deserving, or that one has done better than the other. As a matter of fact, this choosing is made before either of them are born and it is made solely by God’s pleasure.

Romans 8:29 NKJV

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

This is what Romans 8:29 would call God’s foreknowledge of Jacob. That God set His love upon Jacob before the world even began to be His elect child, not that Jacob had anything to offer, but that God was gracious to Him.

But That’s Not Fair!

Romans 9:14–18 NKJV

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

What we see here is that God‘s favor isn’t controlled by anyone or anything outside of Himself, but that He chooses for Himself a people by His own good will, not because of anything they have to offer. Deuteronomy 7:6-8

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 NKJV

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Paul goes on to pick up on the Old Testament accounts of Moses and Pharaoh and he uses each story to show that God has purposes for the raising up of His people and of the wicked to the glory of His name.

All humanity is sinful. Romans 3:9

Romans 3:9 NKJV

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

All humanity is sinful, so if God leaves some who are in rebellion against Him in their, that is what they want and what their sin deserves, so they receive justice. But if He shows mercy to others and brings them out of their sin, they receive grace but no one receives injustice from God. The thing that should blow us away here isn’t that God passes over people who hate Him, but that He would ever choose to love and redeem His people who once hated Him.

So, if any are lost, it is their fault. But if any are saved, the credit and praise belongs to God alone.

Then How Can He Blame Us?

Romans 9:19–29 NKJV

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

The Potter Has Power Over The Clay

Isaiah 29:16 NKJV

Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Isaiah 45:9 NKJV

“Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

Paul is not rebuking people with honest questions here, but he is rebuking the person who refuses to acknowledge God as God. He is rebuking the person who refuses to accept their place as creature and sinner.

He is Acting To The Magnifying Of His Glory (22-23)

He is, by showing patience with the wicked, building up their judgment that in the end, the bright light of His grace in redeeming His people might shine ever brighter upon the black backdrop of His wrath toward the wicked.

He Foretold Of This In His Word (24-29)

Here Paul goes on to show that Hosea is foretelling of the gospel redemption and inclusion of a great number of Gentiles who were once afar off and rejected.

He then uses Isaiah to show that the remnant of Israel would be so small that Israel would be considered excluded from God’s work.

In Conclusion

Romans 9:30–33 NKJV

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness were chosen to see the Christ as their Lord while the Jews, who pursued self righteousness in trying to keep the Law, stumbled over the messiah in their pride. Why? This is all according to God‘s purpose of election.

Application

How does this comfort us?

You may be sure of your election if God has called you to genuinely repent and believe in Christ as your Savior.

We can find comfort that God set His love upon us knowing how rebellious and flawed we are.

How does this call us to confidence and commitment?

2 Timothy 2:10 NKJV

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Just as Paul suffered all things for the sake of the elect, we too can be confident in facing hardships to spread the gospel knowing that God will save His people and that we aren’t wasting our lives but that we will be victorious.

How does this effect our worship?

We should stand in awe that God has chosen us to be His people.

We should recognize that God order all things to the glory of His name, even the judgment of the wicked.