The Search Party of God

Romans 9:1–29 ESV

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ” And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”

Scripture: Romans 9:1-29

Belgic Confession Articles 16-17

Sermon Title: The Search Party of God

           Last Sunday evening we were looking at the doctrine of original sin. Every person who has lived since Adam and Eve has been corrupted with sin and inherited depravity. We don’t become sinners only when we commit a sinful act—it is living inside of us, and our depravity is enough to condemn us. Yet, as we heard in Romans 7, we have Jesus as our rescuer. By him only, we look forward to, even groaning for that day when he will return and set us free from death.

           If we can see the recent trajectory of the Belgic Confession has been towards sin and death, it has now turned and is headed towards redemption and life. We said together in Articles 16 and 17 that God is merciful and just. He saves those who have been chosen on account of his goodness, while leaving those who do not believe to their ruin. 

As we listen to Romans 9 tonight, I think we can all agree that God does redeem us from sin, we can say “Amen!” to that. We had no problem saying that God set out to find Adam and Eve who were sinners, he comforted them, promising his Son to crush the serpent’s head and make them blessed. But with election, we get to a doctrine that Christians do disagree on. We want to listen now to God’s Word, and in the message, consider what can be said about this matter.  

Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the least enjoyed parts of life today is when people are excluded. That’s not something I have statistics to back up or a really good sociological study, but it is simply part of our human experience. For someone to not make a team, for someone to be excluded from a fun activity, for everyone to be welcomed to something but not everyone is able to participate, many people struggle with that. Our culture urges us to be inclusive, to involve everyone. It’s especially true when it comes to the relationships of parents and their children. To be excluded can carry a pain that multiple people feel, not just the individual who was cut out. 

Maybe some of us would say we experience this to a lesser degree.  With work ethic still promoted in many homes, we recognize that some people are good and should be included in some things, and others just aren’t good—we’ll admit that. We shouldn’t all be included. It’s not for the best. Yet we like having that say, that control—I’ll tell you when I don’t want to be a part of something. I don’t know how things were 50 or 100 years ago, or for the better part of history, but how inclusion is talked about today, it seems to be something new, whether it actually is or not. 

It’s partly due to this kind of thinking that people, even Christians, struggle with the doctrine of election. We have a desire and a yearning for everyone to be included, for everyone to get to heaven and enjoy eternal life. Yet that Scripture teaches this reality that some are destined for heaven, even predestined without accounting for their good works, while others are left for or destined to hell and eternal damnation—many don’t particularly like that, even if they are in the heaven-bound group. Again, I believe it comes back to this idea that people like controlling their destiny. Even though we’re thankful that God saved sinners through Jesus, there can often be hesitancy to be just as thankful that he elects some to life with him and others he does not.

If I had to guess, we gathered here tonight may share different feelings about election, and if we polled our neighbors and friends—we would probably find that to be true as well. Some of us accept it, end of story, glory be to God—we’re excited that we’ve been chosen. Others of us struggle along the lines of verse 19, “How can God blame those when he is responsible for hardening them against him?” That doesn’t seem very fair of God. So we’re torn on being joyful about our gift of salvation, when it seems like others didn’t have a chance. Some people toss election passages out completely along the lines that we in the Calvinist camp, we’ve misinterpreted God choosing some and leaving others. Other people choose to just avoid election altogether, ignore it, let’s just tell the gospel to whoever will hear us and win souls for Christ.    

This evening I want to commend our traditional understanding of election to you because I believe it is in line with God’s Word. If you do struggle, consider what Paul is saying, but also recognize Paul’s struggle even as he wrote these words. This was challenging for him to accept, to recognize there are people who not only will not receive salvation, but there are some who have been made to not even want to receive the good news.

The first thing we want to focus on in this text is that those who are elect are “children of the promise.” Salvation by God’s grace through the gift faith will not be received by every person. Again, Paul, a Jew by birth and Christian by rebirth, was writing very early on in Christian church history. That is important to note because the whole tradition and heritage of Judaism was still very fresh for him. The truth that he has been convinced of now though is that not every Jew or Israelite is destined for eternal life. 

This would have been an incredibly hard thing for him, and maybe some of us have found ourselves in similar situations. Verses 3, “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” Paul is saying, “I wish this wasn’t set in stone. I wish that God could forget about me. Let me go, that you might go and save the rest of them.” He would give up his spot in the kingdom, his being chosen for salvation to endure hell, if it meant others would be saved. It’s especially hard on him because God had given the Jews everything. Adoption, glory, the covenants, dwelling among their worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and Jesus came out of this line. All these things should have turned their hearts to him, and yet so many had rejected God. They would not be saved.

Throughout our passage we hear these memories that Paul recalls. In the opening thirteen verses, he calls to mind Israel, or Jacob, not all of his descendants would be saved; Abraham, just because you could trace your lineage to him did not necessarily mean you were saved. Isaac and Rebekah and going back to Jacob—all of those Patriarchs that are so revered, simply being their child did not guarantee your salvation, you have to be a “child of the promise.”

That means that God must have made a covenant with you. None of us initially come into life with an understanding of whether that promise has been made or not. In one of baptismal forms, we make a point to recognize that in infant baptism, the child has no idea what is taking place. Yet without knowing, God has, in the eternal and unchangeable divine counsel, elected and chosen [some]. We did not play a role in the making of the promise; it very simply is. 

This likely tends to be the troubling point for parents, maybe even some of you live in this experience. A child that you raised in the church, who was baptized and went to Sunday School and Youth Group, maybe even Christian day schools as well, now it seems they have walked away from the faith. It is good to not give up hope, to not stop praying that God would bring that son or daughter back to him. But a significant part of your struggle may lie in the potential that they might not be a child of the promise. 

Let’s be absolutely clear, if that’s you or someone else you know is going through that situation, it’s not because you failed your child. Recognize that. But we can also comprehend why such a person, whether a parent or a friend, might struggle in our own relationships with God because he has so allowed that person’s faith to fall. If you find yourself in that position, remember that as much as Paul wants to take their place, he cannot help but recognize that Christ is God over all, forever praised! He does not let that go—God though not saving some, has not changed in what he has done for us. 

We who are saved are children of faith not through natural descent, but as children of the promise—that’s point number 1. Point 2, brings us into verses 14 through 18, where we look at God’s character. Paul has clarified God is just and then goes onto write, “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” Then in verse 18, he adds “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” 

We’ve been looking at the troubling side of election, but we do also find reason for joy in this doctrine. God’s saving grace comes from his mercy, not dependent on our desire or effort—our work. In Corsica, we are currently working through the book of Galatians, another letter of Paul’s that is filled with language of God being the one that saves us, not what we do. But it’s worth highlighting in our context tonight that the mercy of God shows his activeness. I entitled our message, “The Search Party of God,” and this is what it refers to.

You think of a search party going out into a wilderness, combing and sweeping the ground for traces of someone being there, listening for the faintest shout seeking help, sending out dogs to try and track down a scent. There is a seemingly endless and relentless pursuit until you have found the person you are searching for. God, in his mercy, is the primary searcher going after everyone that is lost who he has promised himself to. 

Luke 15 has the trio of lost parables. A shepherd with 100 sheep who leaves the 99 to search for the 1. He finds it and comes back full of joy, throws a party with others. Jesus says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” A woman searches high and low for 1 coin of 10 that has gone missing—“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Then a lost son—the prodigal as we often refer to it. Luke 15 verse 32, the final verse of the chapter, “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now is found.” That father did not actively go and bring him back from the faraway land, but the love and generosity that he had shown his son while he was growing up is what brought him home. He had been found.

When we speak of God being merciful, we are not to have this picture in our minds that God sits on a throne, and if you convert and repent, then he waves a wand that emits mercy. No, Scripture provides us a much more vivid and active portrayal of God going after those whom he loves. He actively participates in bringing his “children of promise” back to him, no matter how far they have gone astray. Article 17 reminds us of the Garden of Eden, “God…set out to find [Adam and Eve], though they, trembling all over, were fleeing from God.” When we think of Old Testament Israel, as much as Romans 9 calls their history to mind, we recognize how often God tried again and again and again to draw the people back with timely, common graces. How much more so is he involved in showing us his saving mercy!

So children of promise, the active, searching of God with his mercy, and now as we come to the final lengthy section of what we read, a call to trust God. Again we hear that question, the question that probably connects with the minds of most people at one point or another who come into contact with the faith, “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” Paul answers that, verse 20, “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?” 

Paul does not in any way presume to speak for God on this matter in such a way that completely explains it to us. In fact, verses 22 and 23, as we heard, “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?” There is little resolution to tie it up with a nice bow other than to say, God has chosen from Jews and Gentiles alike—those who at one point were referred to as his people, and now people from all tribes can come into the category.

But there is little more for us to do or to say to God, then to trust him. That may not always feel satisfying, but this is the sufficiency of God—of him saying, “I have given you enough.” When we reach out and share the good news with others, desiring for them to join us in faith, it’s not that election should be the first thing in our minds, and we try to determine if someone is or is not elect. No, because God hasn’t revealed his election to us, we can reach out to any who are lost, and not presume to know more than we should. It also means that if we are doing the evangelizing that we are joining in God’s search party, which is an incredible privilege.

I’ll end with this note, it means that when we come to faith and when others come to faith, trusting God, we can marvel and express our thanks that he chose us. He did not leave us to the destiny, the fate, the consequence that we deserve, but in his mercy, he saved us. Thanks be to God! Amen.