A Sovereign Savior

Romans 9:14-33

Opening Comments/Illustration

ILLUSTRATION: The A Team

When I was boy one of my favorite times of the week was when I would sit down in front of the television to watch The A team! The show would start with footage of Army soldiers and helicopter in combat, and in the background narrator John Ashley would be heard… "In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the A-Team."[1]

A flood of excitement would rush through my heart as I knew that Face, Murdoch, BA, and Hannibal were about to team up to help some poor soul stand up to bully; they were gonna help the little guy take on the bad guys --- and along the way they were gonna blow some stuff up!

That’s just what every little boy wants to do!

And as the story flowed there would be the dramatic moments when it looked like the team was going to fail, the plan was going to fall through and the bad guys would win… But somehow and some way, they would always pull together and save the day… And one of the last lines of every show would come from Hannibal, the leader of the team --- He’d stick a cigar in his mouth and with a grin on his face, he’d say, ‘I love it when a plan comes together…’

Over the course of creation’s existence there have been many dramatic moments. There are occasions when it looks like things are falling apart, that the enemy is going to win, and that God is nowhere to be found. But I assure that such appearances are only just that… appearances --- Because our God, the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has a plan… and His plan IS and undoubtedly WILL come together!

And from Romans 9, the Bible affords us such assurance with revelation of the sovereignty of our Savior!

Our sovereign Savior’s majesty.

The question of God’s character. “… 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? …”

The question is in light of what the apostle has been discussing in verses 1-13 of the chapter --- It is the subject of God’s choosing of Israel as His covenant people through whom He would send the Messiah to bless all peoples by means of the Gospel… redeeming those who, by faith, would believe on the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Paul’s day there was at least two false ideas floating around among the Jewish people:

· The first was that every descendant of Abraham DESERVES the blessing and benefit of bringing God’s Word.

o The truth was that God had selected a remnant to bring His Word.

· Secondly, they believed that every descendant of Abraham would have eternal life on the basis of their lineage… because they were of Israel.

o The truth was, that no one could/would be saved by their nationality, but only by grace through faith!

§ And so, any people group, any nation, and the individual persons within those nations who rebelled against and stood in opposition to the WOG would live under the curse --- objects of hatred.

· And Paul illustrates that with the people of Edom/their father Esau, who was a direct descendant of Isaac, through whom the promise came, and yet Esau/Edom lived under the curse because of his/their rebellion.

o So, in vs. 1-13 the point is God’s purpose of election, which is God’s plan of redemption, which would come not by nationality, but by the Messiah ---

§ And the grand story of the Biblical text is that of a gracious God bringing that plan about in very specific ways…

· By Abraham, through Isaac, and then Jacob ---

· God choosing some of Abraham’s descendants and not others for the special purpose of His plan of redemption.

§ And as the apostle engages in this line of thinking with the hard-hearted Israelite in view, he anticipations this objection/question…

· To that 1st century Jewish mind this would not have seemed to be fair…

· So, “… 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? …”

· The Scripture’s answer to the question.

o “… 14b Certainly not! …”

§ NO, there is no unrighteousness with God, BECAUSE HE IS GOD! Redemption is His plan and He can bring it about by any means that He chooses!

§ He is not being unjust by being gracious to those who respond to Him in faith, nor is He unjust in condemning those who willfully oppose the WOG!

§ “… Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!” It is an important question to answer because it is not merely a question of fairness, but rather it is a question of the character of God!

· The Lord is just in His graciousness, and He is just in His condemnation.

· He is just in mercy, and He is just in judgment.

§ Paul uses two OT illustrations to prove the point:

o Israel: “… 15 For He says to Moses, (Quote from Exodus 33:19) "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion…"

§ The apostle reminds the Jewish believer and the Jew wrestling with the truth of the Gospel of the rebellion of Israel, God’s Elect --- when they stood in opposition to the Word of the Lord by worshipping a golden calf.

§ Their actions demanded punishment! Their actions called for judgment, but instead they were recipients of mercy --- and God was just to be merciful to them because, by nature, He is a merciful God!

· And by the way, mercy, by definition, is God withholding from you what you rightly deserve, and that being judgment and wrath!

§ “… 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy…”

· What is “… not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy…”?

· “… IT…”is God fulfilling His promise, bringing about His purpose of redemption despite Israel’s rebellion and unfaithfulness!

§ God is just to give mercy to whomever He wishes for the fulfillment of His purpose --- so He says to Moses, and through Paul, He says to the church, Jew and Gentile!

o Pharaoh: “… 17 For the Scripture says to 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." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens…”

§ Whereas Israel illustrates God’s mercy on the undeserving, Pharaoh illustrates God’s hardening of the unfaithful --- the Lord does both for His purposes.

§ But don’t take that to mean that God arbitrarily hardens individuals and prevents them from receiving mercy and redemption.

§ That wasn’t the case with Pharaoh! In fact, the Biblical text (Exodus) provides an amazing narrative account of God pleading with and calling for a response of obedience from Pharaoh --- but again and again, and again the Bible says that “… Pharaoh hardened his heart…”

§ And this man, who was deserving of wrath and judgment because of his own hardness toward God is then further hardened by God to bring about the purposes of God!

o What’s Paul saying?

§ He is saying that there is no unrighteousness with God! He is just to be merciful to the underserving in order to bring about His purposes! AND He is just to harden (to judge/wrathful) the unfaithful in order to bring about His purposes.

· The how and why of God’s resolve: “… 19 You (an Israelite/Jew, unfaithful, and now hardened by God to bring about His promise [what Paul has been arguing since chapters 2 & 3]) will say to me (an Israelite/Jew, undeserving, but a recipient of mercy to bring about His promise) then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" (this is the same argument of 3:5 – it demonstrates a heart that is consumed and calloused by its rebellion --- this emerges from a heart that is not soft and repentant) 20 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?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? …”

o This is Israel having become cold to the Word of the Lord, consumed in their rebellion and calloused in their hearts: “… For the hearts of this people (Israel) have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes, theyhave closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them…” Acts 28:27

§ GOD IS OBLIGATED TO NO ONE BUT HIMSELF!

· He is just to be merciful to the undeserving, as He had demonstrated toward Israel so long ago at Mt Sinai.

· And God is just in hardening the unfaithful, as He demonstrated to an unrepentant Pharaoh in the Exodus of His people in Egypt!

§ And God is just in hardening unfaithful Israel, breaking that branch off, in order to fulfill is promise of blessing all the peoples of the earth with access to Himself by means of the Gospel in the Messiah!

· He is just in hardening unfaithful Israel, and He is just in being merciful to undeserving Gentiles!

Our sovereign Savior’s majesty.

Our sovereign Savior’s methodology.

· The purpose of His methodology. “… 22 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, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory…”

o This is a verse that we will come back to in a moment for greater explanation, but for now I simply want you to see to the purpose for which God does what He does and how He does it…

§ We often say that God does things for His glory…

· He saves, for His glory… He heals, for His glory. He judges, for His glory. He forgives, for His glory. He provides for His glory. He gifts, for His glory. He calls, for His glory.

· ALL OF THAT IS TRUE! Everything that God does is for His glory!

§ But it is also more! Everything God does is for His glory, BUT IT IS ALSO TO MAKE HIS GLORY KNOWN! “… 22 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, 23 and THAT HE MIGHT MAKE KNOWN THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory…”

o God is working and moving in all things in order accomplish His purpose (i.e. making His glory known), so that He might fulfill His promise (i.e. blessing all the peoples of the earth) through the Messiah, the seed of Abraham, of the promise of Isaac, through the lineage of Jacob, Jesus coming to Jew and Gentile with a gracious and merciful plan of redemption!

· The pursuit of His methodology: “… 22 What if God… endured with much longsuffering… that He might make known the riches of His glory… [to] us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? …” --- The purpose of God unveils the pursuit of God, which is the redemption of humanity --- God does what He does and how He does it to reach men, all men, with the Gospel…

o “… 25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved (Gentiles)." 26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people (Gentiles),' There they shall be called sons of the living God." 27 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 (the branch broken off will be grafted back in). 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth." 29 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 purpose of His methodology: make His glory KNOWN

The pursuit of His methodology: in making His glory know to redeem humanity.

· A proper understanding of “… the vessels of wrath preparedfor destruction…” and “… the vessels of mercy, which He had preparedbeforehand for glory…”

o I want to highlight these verses because, like vs.13 they are misunderstood by some, and abused by others.

§ Some would use vs. 22 & 23 in an exegetically improper fashion, not seeking the text’s correct meaning, but instead and unfortunately looking to promote their favored systematic approach to understanding the Bible.

§ And sadly, as a result these verses have become two of the GO TO verses, used, to deny the existence of free will (i.e. that man, being created in the image of God can reason and freely choose to believe on or reject the Lord Jesus Christ).

§ And they will often say, ‘Well, there it is… right there in the text… God has made some for glory, and others He has made for wrath. Man doesn’t really have anything to do with it at all; he doesn’t have a choice; he doesn’t have a free will. God alone has decided, and He did so in eternity past. So, men are what they are because God has made/fashioned them that way.’

o But is that what the Scripture says? Is that what the text is saying here? --- I don’t think so… and here’s why… There are vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, and the Bible says that both are prepared…

§ But notice the conspicuous absence of any attachment to a personal pronoun with the “prepared” vessels of wrath as opposed to the “prepared” vessels of mercy.

· And the reason for that is because although the words are the same in translation, they are not in the original language.

§ “prepared”vessels of mercy (23) is a Greek verb that occurs in the active voice (meaning the subject is performing the action) and that verb is clearly attached to the personal pronoun used to identify God (meaning that God is the subject and He is/has performed this action): “… 23 and that HEmight make known the riches of HISglory on the vessels of mercy, which HEhad prepared beforehand for glory…”

§ But there is a different Greek verb used to speak of the “prepared” vessels of wrath (22), AND it occurs in a different voice.

· Both words carry a similar meaning (i.e. to prepare; to be made ready; to be adequate)

· But the “prepared” verb in vs. 22 occurs in the middle voice (meaning that there is a reflexive action. In other words, the subject is performing the action on itself).

· And there is no connection to a personal pronoun referring to God BECAUSE the subject is the vessels of wrath themselves.

§ And so, a more literal rendering of vs. 22, and I think more accurate rendering would be: “… 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath [WHICH HAVE] prepared [THEMSELVES] for destruction…”

§ This is not only a more appropriate understanding based on the proper exegesis of the text, but it also in keeping with what Paul writes elsewhere… to the church in Thessalonica. When, also writing of the Jews, he states, 1 Thess. 2, “… 14 For you, brethren (the church), became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans (i.e. the people of Israel, the Jewish people), 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, 16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost…”

· In other words, they have brought wrath upon themselves with their sin and their rejection of Jesus Christ!

o No, back here in Romans 9, this isn’t saying that God creates some men for heaven, and that He creates others for Hell…

§ This isn’t saying that God fashions men to be the objects of His wrath…

§ I think Warren Wiersbe summarizes it well when he said, “God prepares men for glory (Rom. 9:23), but sinners prepare themselves for judgment (9:22).”[2]

§ What Paul was saying to the Thessalonians is exactly what he saying here to the Romans…

· i.e. In their rejection of the Messiah and in their rebellion toward God, the Jews, his countrymen according to the flesh, over whom he is brokenhearted, the Jews were filling up the measure of their sins… THEY WERE PREPARING THEMSELVES FOR WRATH!

Our sovereign Savior’s majesty.

Our sovereign Savior’s methodology.

Our Sovereign Savior’s Summary. “… 30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 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. 33 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…”

· This is not only the summary of Paul’s argument in chapter 9, and what he will continue to argue into chapter 10 & 11, but it’s also the summary of his argument for the entire book of Romans! --- And what is that argument? It is that…

o Israel was chosen, but now is cut off.

§ “… 32 Why? Because they did not seek it [the righteousness of God – a relationship with God] by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone…”

§ The Jews were trying to relate to God by the law… trying to earn the favor of God… trying to obtain the blessings of God… trying work for their salvation;

§ And the Bible says that they were cut off in their rebellion!

Israel was chosen, but now is cut off.

o Gentiles were cut off, but now are called.

§ “… 30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith…”

§ And though he goes on to emphasize Israel’s rejection, the implied answer pertaining to the Gentiles is YES!

§ YES… the Gentiles… who didn’t have the adoption… who didn’t have the glory… who didn’t have the covenants, who didn’t have the giving of the law… who didn’t have service to God… who didn’t have the promises --- the Gentiles… WHO HAD NONE OF THESE THINGS THAT ISRAEL DID HAVE, have nevertheless obtained the righteousness of God!

· The Jews, who had every reason to possess the righteousness of God now live in rebellion, broken off and separated from God, because they were trying to come to God in the flesh rather than by faith!

· The Gentiles who had NO reason to possess the righteousness of God have nevertheless come into possession of it because they have taken to themselves the Gospel… they have received the Gospel by faith!

o The Gentiles have come to possess the righteousness of God because their response to the Lord was not in the flesh, it was by faith!

§ This is the summary of Paul in Romans… THIS is what he is talking about… the whole book… ch. 9-11… ch. 9

Israel was chosen, but now is cut off.

The Gentiles were cut off, but now are called.

o The Gospel is for all… its for everyone --- it’s for Jew and Gentile --- the Gospel is for anyone and everyone who hears and believes, in faith, on the Lord Jesus Christ!

§ NOT BY WORKS OF THE FLESH, BUT BY FAITH IN JESUS!

§ And concerning the people of Israel, who at present reject faith for the pursuit of the flesh, GOD’S WORD HAS NOT FAILED!

· He has not given up on them… and the branch that He broke off in judgment, He will graft back in to the root of Christ, by mercy… and by faith, the Jews will come to their Messiah!

Conclusion

· Summary:

o Our sovereign Savior’s majesty.

o Our sovereign Savior’s methodology.

o Our sovereign Savior’s summary

· Challenge

o I know that there are occasions when it looks like things are falling apart; when it looks like the enemy is going to win; and when it looks like that God is nowhere to be found. But what it looks like IS NOT WHAT IT IS --- Because our God, the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has a plan… and His plan IS and undoubtedly WILL come together!

§ Israel was chosen, but now, is cut off. The Gentiles were cut off, but now, are called. The Gospel is for everyone, Jew and Gentile, all who by faith will believe on the Lord Jesus!

§ And God is not finished with Israel. He will graft that branch back in, and she will come to her Messiah, Jesus

INVITATION

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team. [2] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 545.