Why Does God Choose Some and Not Others?
00:00:00.000 | Pastor John, I know you're headed to the airport and for Dallas for a short trip to meet with
00:00:08.540 | some of our partners in Texas.
00:00:10.500 | But before you head off, we have a question for you on Romans 9.
00:00:14.660 | In fact, we have 150 emails now about Romans chapter 9, by far the most asked about chapter
00:00:21.540 | in the Bible in our inbox.
00:00:23.580 | Here's one of them, a recent email from a listener named Aaron.
00:00:26.380 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:27.900 | I was reading Romans 9 today and came across what is known to be a very hard to swallow
00:00:32.480 | passage and doctrine.
00:00:35.100 | While I believe God is sovereign, I can't help but take into account Paul's 'what if'
00:00:39.260 | statement at the beginning of verse 22.
00:00:41.460 | Is the language here being used as we would use it today, almost implying that God can't,
00:00:47.680 | but doesn't necessarily mean He does it?
00:00:50.660 | Is that a feasible interpretation?
00:00:52.920 | How do you explain this conjunction and its implications on our interpretations of Romans
00:00:58.880 | 9.22?"
00:00:59.880 | Well, perhaps just to encourage those who struggle with the message of Romans 9, let
00:01:07.260 | me give a little biography, autobiography, I mean.
00:01:13.140 | When I was teaching Bible and Greek at Bethel College, 1974 to 1980, virtually every class
00:01:21.220 | brought up the problems of the sovereignty of God vis-a-vis the will of man.
00:01:26.940 | If God is as sovereign piper as you say, how can man be accountable for his sin?
00:01:34.300 | And eventually in these discussions, I would go to Romans 9 as part of my answer.
00:01:41.340 | And there would be great disputes over how to handle Romans 9, especially 1 to 23.
00:01:48.020 | So in spring of 1979, I asked for a sabbatical.
00:01:53.580 | I had been there about six years, it was time.
00:01:57.140 | And from May of '79 through January of '80, as I studied, all I did was think and pray
00:02:08.340 | over Romans 9, day and night, every day.
00:02:11.340 | And I had to settle for myself.
00:02:14.200 | This is the point of what I'm saying.
00:02:16.580 | This was a great struggle for me.
00:02:18.500 | I feel like Romans 9 is a watershed of how you view God.
00:02:23.940 | I had to settle for myself whether this chapter meant what it seemed to mean, what I was saying
00:02:30.580 | it meant, or did it have some other explanation.
00:02:35.140 | And out of that nine months or so came the book, The Justification of God, an exegetical
00:02:42.060 | and theological study of Romans 9, 1 to 23.
00:02:46.300 | So I have shared the struggle with those who read this chapter and scratch their heads
00:02:50.860 | and try to reorient their minds.
00:02:54.260 | I have shared that.
00:02:55.460 | I don't think Romans 9 is up for grabs, though.
00:02:59.140 | I think Romans 9 really addresses the eternal destinies of people, not just historical roles.
00:03:08.100 | And it does deal with individuals, not just corporate peoples.
00:03:12.680 | Those are usually the two reasons people give for saying, "No, you shouldn't use Romans
00:03:19.460 | 9 to talk about individual election or predestination."
00:03:24.620 | This is not hard to see.
00:03:25.940 | Let me show our listeners from Romans 9, 2, and 3 how I approach the chapter, and I think
00:03:33.820 | they'll see it.
00:03:34.820 | It says, Paul says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
00:03:42.300 | For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my
00:03:49.380 | brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
00:03:53.500 | So what's he saying?
00:03:56.660 | He's saying that individual Jews, kinsmen of Paul, are lost and perishing.
00:04:05.660 | And this creates for Paul not only a heart-wrenching personal agony, which he describes, but a
00:04:14.060 | massive theological problem.
00:04:19.660 | Have the promises of God failed Israel?
00:04:22.780 | I mean, if Jews—and he's not talking one or two, he's talking most of them—have
00:04:28.540 | a veil over their face, and they're not seeing Jesus as their Messiah.
00:04:33.380 | So the question addressed in this chapter is, has God's promise to Israel fallen?
00:04:40.740 | And the presenting issue is precisely that some Jews—not the people as a whole—some
00:04:47.340 | Jews have fallen.
00:04:50.780 | They're perishing.
00:04:52.380 | And Paul's answer in verse 6 is, "It is not as though the word of God has failed."
00:04:58.820 | And then he gives his basic answer.
00:05:01.060 | Why?
00:05:02.060 | Because not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
00:05:09.700 | That's his basic answer.
00:05:11.620 | In other words, Paul answers the problem precisely by pointing out that individual lost Israelites
00:05:20.580 | are not really part of the Israel who inherit the promises.
00:05:25.420 | It's the lostness of individuals that creates the problem.
00:05:29.100 | It's not imposed on this chapter.
00:05:31.840 | It's the problem.
00:05:33.780 | Within Israel, there are Israelites who are perishing, and Paul solves the problem theologically
00:05:40.240 | by saying God's word to Israel has not fallen because not all Israel is Israel.
00:05:46.380 | And the rest of Romans 9, 1 to 23 is Paul's demonstration, vindication of the justice
00:05:53.340 | of God in the exercise of his sovereignty in having mercy on whom he will.
00:06:01.300 | So verse 14, what should we say?
00:06:03.460 | Is there injustice on God's part?
00:06:06.220 | That's where I started in my writing my book.
00:06:10.060 | Is there injustice on God's part?
00:06:12.660 | And his answer is, "By no means."
00:06:15.420 | And the rest of it, verses 15 to 23, is a support for why there's no injustice on God's
00:06:23.540 | part.
00:06:24.540 | He gives his argument for—verse 15—he says to Moses, "I'll have mercy on whom
00:06:30.500 | I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
00:06:34.340 | So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
00:06:39.260 | So God is free—free—mercy on whom he'll have mercy, free to show mercy and grace to
00:06:47.100 | whomever he wills.
00:06:49.140 | Nobody deserves it, and God is not unjust to give it freely to whomever he will and
00:06:55.540 | not to another.
00:06:57.900 | Now why does God exercise his freedom in choosing one and not another?
00:07:03.860 | And that brings us to the question that Aaron in this—the question you asked me—posed
00:07:10.900 | in verses 22 and 23, because this is Paul's most ultimate answer in the Bible, I think.
00:07:19.260 | Everybody should put their ears up when I say that.
00:07:21.860 | Whoa, that's a big claim.
00:07:25.180 | Check that out, Piper.
00:07:26.180 | I'm going to say it again.
00:07:28.500 | Verses 22 and 23 are Paul's most—I would say the Bible's most—ultimate answer for
00:07:36.380 | why God does what he does in choosing one and not another.
00:07:40.860 | And here's what it says, and this is the very sentence that Aaron asked about.
00:07:46.460 | What if—now in the Greek it's just "if," but "what if" is okay because it should
00:07:53.820 | be answered, "What if," namely, well, no legitimate objection can be raised.
00:08:00.020 | I'll come back to that.
00:08:01.420 | What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with
00:08:08.820 | much patience the vessels prepared for destruction?
00:08:12.420 | In order that, he might make known to the vessels of mercy the riches of his glory,
00:08:19.980 | the vessels which he prepared beforehand for glory.
00:08:22.660 | And Aaron is asking, do the words "what if" at the beginning of verse 22 suggest
00:08:28.820 | that God could act this way but doesn't act this way?
00:08:32.260 | That's what he's asking.
00:08:33.460 | Does "what if" mean, oh, yeah, he could act that way, and that would fit with Piper's
00:08:38.860 | Reformed understanding of this text, but he doesn't really act that way.
00:08:43.180 | Is that a feasible interpretation?
00:08:45.540 | And the answer is no, that's not a feasible interpretation.
00:08:49.260 | It's not feasible to take the words that way.
00:08:52.300 | And there's several reasons, but let me just zero in on one.
00:08:55.420 | The reason is that this "if" that introduces verse 22 and 23 has really already happened
00:09:04.180 | in Romans 9.
00:09:05.180 | It's not a question of whether it's going to happen.
00:09:07.460 | It did happen, and Paul is restating what he has already said, drawing out the implication,
00:09:15.060 | namely with regard to Pharaoh.
00:09:18.420 | And Paul says, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, desiring
00:09:24.380 | that, that's what he desired, has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared
00:09:29.980 | for destruction?
00:09:30.980 | Well, he's restating the very thing that he just said he did in regard to Pharaoh in verses
00:09:37.780 | 17 and 18.
00:09:38.780 | Here's what that says.
00:09:40.440 | For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I
00:09:46.500 | might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
00:09:56.060 | So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills."
00:10:00.940 | So when Paul refers four verses later in verse 22 to God's "desiring to show his wrath
00:10:09.660 | and make known his power, has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for
00:10:15.460 | destruction," that's exactly what he has just done with Pharaoh in verse 17.
00:10:21.060 | This "what if" is not hypothetical.
00:10:25.140 | It's actual.
00:10:26.140 | He did it.
00:10:27.380 | And the "what if" is, what if he did it?
00:10:30.560 | Can any legitimate objection be raised?
00:10:32.580 | And his answer is no.
00:10:34.900 | So Paul's overall point in this section is this.
00:10:38.940 | God is just in having mercy on whom he will, verse 14.
00:10:44.640 | He does no one, no human being, ever, anywhere, he does no one any wrong.
00:10:53.060 | And he always upholds the infinite value of what is infinitely valuable.
00:10:58.460 | That's his righteousness.
00:11:00.260 | Namely, he upholds his glory.
00:11:03.820 | And in his absolute glorious freedom, "I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy.
00:11:11.140 | I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious."
00:11:13.420 | His absolute glorious freedom, he makes known the riches of his glory for the vessels of
00:11:19.680 | mercy, that's verse 23.
00:11:21.480 | That's the ultimate goal of the universe.
00:11:23.700 | And those vessels of mercy are prepared beforehand by God for glory.
00:11:32.440 | But in this moment, in this very moment, the vessels of mercy—I'm talking now to our
00:11:38.900 | listeners—in this very moment, the vessels of mercy are everyone and anyone who calls
00:11:50.020 | on the name of the Lord.
00:11:52.460 | Amen.
00:11:53.460 | That's really good.
00:11:54.460 | The watershed chapter for how we understand God and his works.
00:11:58.900 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:00.580 | Serious students of the New Testament who want to go deep into Romans 9 and who can
00:12:04.620 | navigate a little Greek and Hebrew along the way should check out that book, The Justification
00:12:10.460 | of God, an Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9, 1-23.
00:12:16.280 | It was published by Baker Academic in 1993, and you can also find it in the 13-volume
00:12:22.340 | Collected Works of John Piper.
00:12:24.700 | See volume 1, pages 285-531.
00:12:29.540 | Pastor John is off to Dallas for a brief trip, and then we return on Monday.
00:12:34.100 | I'll ask John Piper, "Why did God alienate disabled persons in the Old Testament?
00:12:39.860 | It seems harsh."
00:12:41.940 | That's a great question.
00:12:42.940 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:43.940 | We'll see you then.
00:12:44.940 | Have a great weekend.
00:12:45.820 | [END]
00:12:46.320 | 1. What is the definition of a disabled person? A disabled person is a person who is disabled.
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