God Is Righteous In Election
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14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
15 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.”
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17 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.”
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Review of
Isaac and Ishmael
Jacob and Esau
The response that we have at this point is “That’s not fair.” God is suppose to be fair and righteous but that’s not fair. “It’s not Esau’s fault or Ishmael’s fault that they were not chosen.”
Paul preamps this in typical style.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
Verses 15-18 are dedicated to answering this issue of God’s righteousness in election.
God’s Righteousness in Mercy
God’s Righteousness in Mercy
15 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.”
This does not appear to be a very good argument for God’s righteousness in election. It seems to just restate the problem.
Where did God say this to Moses?
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
So back to Rom 9. I believe that Paul is reminding us of this word that God spoke to Moses in order to remind us that it is the essence of God’s glory that He choses with absolute free will. We like to talk about our free will, we like to exalt it, but we don’t have free will like God has free will. Our will is limited God’s will is unlimited. It is the glory of God that He choses and acts completely unrestrained by anything.
He said...
“I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.”
And what is the name of the Lord? the name that He told to Moses? The name that His people where to know Him by? I Am that I Am. That is that God is what He is and does what He does and this is His glory.
What is righteousness.
“the quality of being morally right or justifiable”
Who defines what is morally right or justifiable?
God does by who He is and what He does.
So God defines righteousness who He is and what He does.
You see, Paul’s argument holds up as a defence of God’s righteousness in election because the fact that God has absolute autonomy to have mercy on who He choses to have mercy is His glory and the fact that what God does and who God is defines righteousness means that when God acts according to who He is, He is acting in absolute righteousness.
This is why Paul says “is there unrighteousness with God? Certianty not!” It is impossible for God to act unrighteously because He defines righteousness.
Now we see the conclusion that Paul draws from this.
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Does this mean that we have no will or that our will and effort towards salvation is not important? Not at all.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing,
15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
Work out you own salvation yes. Exercise your will and effort toward your sanctification yes. Let us get this point! We run the race pressing toward the mark but understanding that my willing and my running are subservient to God’s will and God’s election. So that in all my willing and running God and God alone get the glory. I am his workmanship, my election and my sanctification is His glory according to His sovereign will. The I AM that I AM has mercy on whosoever He wills. Holy is His name!
Not only is God’s glory in His will to have mercy but He is also glorified in His wrath. This is important because if God elects to have mercy on some what about His righteousness and glory in those who he does not elect? Or in this case elects to harden?
God’s Righteousness in Wrath
God’s Righteousness in Wrath
17 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.”
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me,
14 for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.
15 Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth.
16 But indeed for this 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.
17 As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go.
That God’s name be declared in all the earth. God’s name must be made known. He must be and will be glorified.
Paul’s conclusion from this passage....
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
But the scripture reference said nothing about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, just that he would show His power in him that His name be declared in all the earth.
1 So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
2 You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.
3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
4 But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
However, other passages say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
30 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord.
31 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained.
32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.
No one will stand on the day of judgement and say I have done no wrong. This is a difficult and mysterious truth. Paul says...
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
This is truth! And yet those who He will’s to have mercy on must repent, must believe, must obey, must follow. And those who he hardens also chose to disobey, and harden their own hearts. It is not that we have no will it is that our will only operates under His sovereign will.
This teaching of election is very difficult to receive and it can take a great deal of time for us to come to terms with it. But I urge you to persevere with it, Accept it by faith even if it doesn’t make complete sense to you. Because we must come to the place that we see that it is God and only God who gets the glory for my salvation and my sanctification.
If you are disobedient God will still get glory and make His name to be known. But there is no joy in it for you. Pharaoh had a miserable end.
Obey God! that God might be glorified in your obedience. Because he works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.