Why is It Important to Accept God’s Solutions Rather Than Remain a Struggling Skeptic? – Romans 9:22-33
In most America’s universities it is considered noble to be a struggling skeptic who is always in search of truth. However, a committed Christian needs to come to a point of submission and obedience to the absolute truths of scripture even when certain aspects of truth are yet to be understood. The following are some guidelines in helping us come to a point of resolution about difficult issues such as verse 22 where Paul writes, “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 mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory.”
Many skeptics read this and suppose that God’s chose some to go to hell and some to go to heaven. But consider some of the following aspects of that help clarify this teaching for us.
1. Our humble attitude toward the truth of the Bible is essential if we expect to have the true understanding of God’s revelation. Those who have an unsubmissive attitude toward God are insolently approaching Him without a learner’s mind. We have to remember that He is the Potter and we are merely the clay. It is wrong to say to God, “Unless you answer my questions to my degree of satisfaction I will not believe in you or your word.” An insubordinate attitude is something that God cannot accept since He is the Sovereign Creator who has the right to know all things with His infinite understanding. On the other hand we have finite abilities to understand certain concepts because then we have to depend upon the Lord for everything that is good, true and eternal. David wrote, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.” (Psa. 25:8-10) God guides those who are willing to admit that they are sinners and are in need of His Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth.
2. It is important to totally believe, trust and be willing to obey in God’s sovereign grace, truth and right to do whatever He wants with anyone. People who wrestle with bitterness, anger or worry are usually people who are yet to totally come to grips with God’s sovereign grace in all things.
Do not be like the people in 2 Tim. 3:7 who are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Many of the intellectual philosophers in our American universities hold to existential, nihilistic or post-modern presuppositions about truth. As a result, they tend to believe that truth is what each individual conceives it to be – wrong. Jesus said, “Sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth.” (John 17:7) Jesus also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) We learn from Paul in Col. 2:3, “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ. When one has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that regenerates one, the Holy Spirit teaches us all the truth that we need for life and godliness according to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Peter wrote, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything according to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His glory and excellence. (2 Pet. 1:3)
3. If you lack wisdom about certain passages of scripture ask God for wisdom and He will give it to you. (James 1:5) We have to realize that we are still looking through a glass darkly (I Cor. 13:12) but when we get to heaven we will see things with crystal clarity. Only God is able to do right with all of His judgments. (Gen. 18:25)
4. God’s foreknowledge of everyone’s eternal dwelling does not determine where they will go. He gives each person a free will to choose to accept or reject His truth in Christ. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “If they seek me they will find me, if they search for me with all their heart.” God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God beckons everyone to turn from their sin and live. (Eze 18:32) Peter writes, “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:18) It is important to remember that God’s desire is for everyone to come to heaven, but Jesus knew ahead of time that many would not believe. Jesus said, in Matthew 15:13 -- "Every plant that my Father has not planted will be rooted up." Matthew 22:14 -- "Many are called but few are chosen."
According to Jon Piper it is better to believe that God can in one sense will to do something and in another sense not wish that it happen. Piper writes, “Take Ezekiel 18 and Deuteronly 28, for example. Must we say that these are simply contradictory or should we not say that in one sense God does delight in the judgment of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates the judgment in relation to the greatness of their wickedness and in relation to the preservation of his justice and glory and in relation to the other good things for other generations that will come from it, etc.), and in another sense he has no delight in the death of the wicked (in so far as he contemplates it narrowly as the destruction of his creature created in his image with potential for his praise and as a tactical victory of the evil one).
Similarly with Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem. In one sense he is grieved as he considers the sin of the people, the dishonor of his father, the loss of life in spite of the fact that they had had such great advantages in the word of God. But in another sense he gives hearty approval of God’s overarching design to suffer a temporary hardening and blindness to lie upon Israel. He even "rejoices in the Holy Spirit and says, `I thank thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father for so it was well pleasing to thee.’" Whether he is weeping or rejoicing depends on the angle of vision, or on whether Jesus is contemplating the universality of things or the narrow nature of sin and death for itself in isolation.
Therefore, the numerous texts in the Bible that describe God willing and yearning that men and women be saved should not be ignored, or diluted. We should set them stand and, in fact, we should join God in his tears and longings. But then we should realize that the mind and heart of the infinite God are more comples than we may have at first thought and may indeed allow for another sense in which for good and wise purposes he ordains to come to pass what in itself he hates (like the death of his innocent Son).
Piper goes on to explains, "God desires all men to be saved and to come to aknowledge of the truth."
In all likelihood "all men" is not to be taked in an indivdual and universal sense since it probably does not mean this in verse 1 ("I urge that supplications...be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions..."). It seems that "all men" refers to all stations and groups of men. All sorts and levels of men. So the point is that God is not willing that any group be excluded for salvation.
But note well. The former theology really implies that God has another will too: God really wills that there be a world in which there is self-determination even though he knows that it will mean the loss of many people in destruction. That is God wills a certain kind of world more than he wills to keep people from being lost.
I say that God prefers a world redounding to his glory instead of a world in which no one is lost.
In other words, God aims to give enough time to the world so that all the elect will repent and be saved
3. We should pray in a way that we ask God to save our unbelieving family, friends and neighbors believing His sovereign grace can touch everyone. God gets great pleasure out of preparing us to see His work done in the lives of the unsaved as another expression of His grace as we pray. We do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings and travailing too deep for words. (Rom 8:26). The fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. (James 5:16) Most great works of God in the lives of people have been wrought by prayer.
4. We should also realize that God’s saving of the elect will happen through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, we should not shrink to preach the gospel since we do not know who will respond to the message of the gospel.
Jon Piper writes, “The effectual call of God based on God’s eternal election is an encouragement for missions (Acts 18:10; John 10:16; 11:52; 17:20)
Conclusion: the doctrines of sovereign grace are not overthrown by problems in Scripture. They stand firm and are the precious foundation of our deepest hopes.
a. They give hope to our prayer life that God can and will break through where it looks humanly impossible.
b. They give hope to our evangelism that God will not only give us the strength to persevere in missions but also that God will effectually call his own from every tongue and tribe and people and nation.
c. They sever the root of all boasting and pride and and self-reliance, both toward God and toward man, and put in the place of pride a lowly walk that is continually stunned that it was chosen to be saved.
d. They guarantee the right and ability of God to fulfill the promises of the new covenant -- to give us a new heart, and write his law on our heart and cause us to walk in his statutes and love and fear him all our days.
e. They give us deep security that could not be enjoyed if we believed that God simply designed a general way of salvation with no particular persons in view and left it finally up to us who would belong to this salvation.
f. They insure that the work of the ministry is both indispensible and undefeatable (2 Timothy 2:10).
g. They reveal the true nature of grace and the true desperation of our plight without it. So God gets all the glory and we are moved to worship him and love as never before.
God has prepared some people for mercy in advance to display His power to predestine some to glory and some to destruction because His foreknowledge is not entirely determinative. God still leaves the responsibility to choose eternal life or eternal judgment in hell up to the individual. The elect are objects of God’s grace which help us gain a greater understanding of His transforming power and love. God shows us how He marvelously works out His plan. The objects of wrath have exercised their freedom in reaching their condition when they take the responsibility to refuse to accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. God’s long-suffering waited patiently for them until their hearts became hardened and callous like that of Pharoah. They only get the merited punishment that they deserve for their disobedience, unbelief and rebellion against God in remaining enemies and separated from Him because of their sin. Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” God’s wrath will be poured out in full upon those who refuse to appropriate the free pardon available to them through Christ’s atonement. No wonder they are called objects of wrath since they refused to accept the free gift God offered to them in the precious blood of His Son. The Potter makes the clay’s form but it is up to the clay to decide who will fill one’s mind, soul and spirit – Christ or themselves.
All that God can be held responsible for is the creating of vessel’s form but it is up to each individual to choose their eternal dwelling and godly character. Then God can justly show His deserved wrath upon in disposing of incorrigible sinners for their rejection of the truth and the redemption found in Christ. God has a severe side of His character and this will be made manifest to those who reject the truth in choosing not to put their saving faith in Christ as Lord and Savior for their sins. The question is what will each person do about the sin problem in their life.
