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SERMON 1 The Fame of His Name and the Freedom of Mercy SERMON 2 John S. Piper 1946-present Sermon 1 of 2 SERMON 1 January 12, 2003 The Freedom and Justice of God in Unconditional Election What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 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." 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. The doctrine of God's unconditional election is so different from what most of you grew up with that you not only have a hard time believing it is in the Bible, but also a hard time feeling that it is good news. So I am swimming against a doubly difficult current in these messages from Romans 9. On the one hand, I believe that is exactly the doctrine that Romans 9 teaches, and on the other hand, I believe that doctrine is very good news. So I must do my best both to show you that it is there in the text, and that it is good news. That's my job in these days. It is humanly impossible, but with God all things are possible. So, Lord, please help me. The main point of the message this morning is that God is just or righteous in unconditional election. The structure of the message goes like this:
First, Paul asks in verse 14, "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?" And he answers, "By no means! Where did the objection in Romans 9:14 come from? Paul knew the kind of objections that were typically raised against his teachings. He had preached and taught publicly for years in synagogues and churches and market places. He knew what he had to deal with. So he raises the questions that people typically raise and dealt with them. What had he said to raise this objection that God is unjust or unrighteous'? The main thing he had said was that God chose Isaac not Ishmael, and Jacob not Esau before they had [been] born or had done anything good or evil. That was the point of verses 7-13. Recall verses 11-13, "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 [conditionally] because of works but [unconditionally] because of him who calls - 12 [Rebecca] was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' 13 As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."' The point is that God's favor in election is not based on what we do or what we think or what we feel or what we choose, but on God alone - the one who calls. And we need to stress - because it is so often denied - that the issue Paul is dealing with in this chapter is election for our personal, eternal destinies - individual Jews and Gentiles, not just the Jewish people as a whole and the Gentile peoples, and eternal destinies, not just historical roles. The problem he is wrestling with is stated in verse 3: many of his Jewish kinsmen are accursed and cut off from Christ. That is what creates the crisis - not the historical role of a nation, but the eternal destiny of individual Jewish people who rejected the gospel as he preached from synagogue to synagogue. So the answer to our first question is that the objection in verse 14 rose from Paul's teaching of unconditional election - that God chooses whom he will graciously save before we are born or have done anything good or evil. Our election to eternal life is not based on what we choose or what we do. It is based on God alone. Which person chooses to trust Christ and be saved, and which one chooses to reject Christ and be lost, is finally God's choice. 2. Three Reasons Why the Doctrine of Unconditional Election Is Good News Now before we look at Paul's reassertion of the doctrine in verse 16 and his argument for it in verse 15 1 want to give you three reasons that this doctrine of unconditional election is good news. 2. 1. It is good news because it means no unbeliever is so bad that they can say in response to our gospel pleading, "I can't be elect; I am too evil. I have sinned too long and to deeply." God's election is not based on how much we do or don't sin. It is not based on anything we do or think or feel or choose. Therefore, the proper response to that kind of despair is to say, "Who do you think you are to exalt your sin to the level of God? Who do you think you are to wallow in your despair and make your sinful will the sovereign of the universe, as if 'Von could decide who is elect and who is not by the quantity of your sinning?" No! You have no right and no power to declare yourself beyond God's election. He and he alone decides who is elect. And he decides NOT on the basis of your sin or your righteousness, but on the basis of his inscrutable will alone. You may not play God with your sin. None of it proves you are not elect. Repent, therefore, and call on the name of the Lord through Jesus Christ who has died for sinners. For he has said, "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. "' To the despairing soul who feels he has sinned himself out of the possibility of election, unconditional election is good news. 2.2. The doctrine of unconditional election is good news because it preserves the praise of God's glorious grace at every point in our salvation. There was not, and is not, nor ever will be, a point where we become the decisive cause of our salvation. God has chosen us freely so that we may not boast in ourselves but in God. This is good news because we were made to find greatest joy in praising, not being praised. Probably the deepest corruption that we have all inherited from the Fall - and it is especially and blatantly prevalent in the last 50 years - is that we believe and feel that happiness and health come from being praised, rather than from praising God. We think that psychological health comes from being made much of, rather than from being freed from that need to enjoy making much of God forever. That is why we were made, and that is where the greatest and deepest and longest joys are found - not in being made much of, but in forgetting ourselves in the joy of making much of God's glory, which consists very much in his free and sovereign grace. Unconditional election is designed for that great and happy end. Therefore it is good news. 2.3. The doctrine of unconditional election is good news because when, by grace through faith, you know yourself loved by God, forgiven, justified, accepted, this doctrine of election assures you that the roots of your salvation - the roots of God's almighty commitment to save you - are not shallow, but go down deep into the counsels of eternity. It is good news to know that the root of 'your salvation goes down forever and ever into eternal grace and never gets to a point where it is contingent and fragile and dependent on your foreseen faith or your foreseen good works. There are other reasons for feeling that the doctrine of unconditional election is good news, but that is what we have time for this morning, 3. How Paul Reasserts the Doctrine of Unconditional Election in Verse 16 Third, notice how Paul reasserts the doctrine in verse 16: "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." What is the "it"'? "It depends not on human will or exertion." It's the issue he is dealing with from verses 1- 13. Perhaps the shortest answer straight from the text would be from verse 11: " God's purpose according to election." God's electing purpose does not depend on human will or exertion. Literally the words are: "It is not of him who wills or of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." The point it to underline the unconditionality of God's election. And the completeness of the unconditionality is stressed by using a "willing" word and a "doing" word: "one who wills" and "one who runs." This is important because it touches the very thing that some people find so controversial: the human will. Paul states as clearly as we should wish, I think, that the human will is not the final and decisive condition of election. God is. It is God and God alone. God chooses his own people before we have willed anything like faith, or done anything like love. That's the point of verse 16, reasserting what Paul already taught in verses 11 - 14. 4. Paul's Argument in Verse 15 for the Righteousness of God in Unconditional Election Now finally, what is Paul's argument in verse 15 for the righteousness of God in unconditional election? Paul has said, No, there is no unrighteousness with God. That's the point of verse 14. Then verse 15 starts with that key word "for" to show that he is giving a reason or a basis or a ground for what he just said, "For he [God] says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Now that is a very puzzling argument for the righteousness of God in unconditional election. He says, "No, God is not unrighteous in having mercy on people without respect to their will or work, because God said to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."' It sounds like a restatement of the unconditional election, rather than an argument that unconditionality is righteous. At this point in the chapter I resolved in early 1979 to take a sabbatical from teaching Bible at Bethel College and devote nine months to figuring out Paul's argument. So I spent from May - January working on it. I've told you the upshot before: I wrote a book called The Justification of God (which for me, is one of the most foundational things I have ever written), and I left teaching to come to Bethlehem. That was the effect of one word, you might say, the word "for" at the beginning of verse 15. There is no unrighteousness with God, "FOR, God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."' There are two keys to understanding this argument. I will give you a bare introduction to them today and then come back to them in three weeks when we take up the rest of this paragraph. First is the context of this Old Testament quotation in Exodus 33:19; and the second is Paul's understanding of the righteousness of God Let's take these one at a time to see if we can follow Paul's argument and how verse 15 is a defense of God's righteousness in unconditional election. The Context of the Quote from Exodus 33:19 Consider this quote in Exodus 33:19. Moses is talking to God and seeking God's promise to go up to the promised land with the people. Then he asks to see God's glory in verse 18, and that sets up the statement which Paul quotes in Romans 9:15. In Exodus 33-.18, "Moses said, 'Please show me your glory.' 19 And he [God] said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The Lord.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Moses asks to see God's glory. God obliges by saying: Here's my goodness, my name. And to his name he attaches this sentence: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." In other words, I think God is saying to Moses, and to us, my glory is expressed in my name, Yahweh (Lord), and my name is expressed in my freedom to have mercy on whom I have mercy. This is who I am. This is my name. This is my glory. My essence as God consists essentially in being free from any constraint originating outside my own will. This is the essence of what it means to be God. This is his name, my glory. One confirmation of this is that back in chapter 3 of Exodus Moses asks God what his name is so that he can tell the Israelites who sent him. God answers in verse 14: "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO 1 AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."' "'In other words, God explained his name here as "I am who I am." And in Exodus 33:19 he explains his name as "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." The structure is the same, and the meaning is simply expanded. God's name, the essence of his glory, is that he IS absolutely and without cause or constraint from outside himself. He is who he is. And, expanding on that in chapter 33, he says his name, his essence, is, "I have mercy on whom I have mercy" - that is, I am absolutely self-existent and absolutely self-determining. I exist freely, without cause or control from any other. And I have mercy freely. At the deepest decision of my mercy there is no cause or control or constraint by anything outside my own will. That is what it means to be God, Yahweh. That is my name and the essence of my glory. The Meaning of God's Righteousness That is the first key to understanding the argument of Romans 9:15 - the context of the quote from Exodus 33:19. Now the second key is the meaning of God's righteousness. What does Paul mean by righteousness, when he says, "There is no unrighteousness with God"? If I had time I would love to develop a long argument from the Old Testament, and from Paul's use of the "righteousness of God," to show you where I get the answer to that question. But all I have time for is to give you my conclusion and say that I will come back in three weeks with support for it. God's righteousness is essentially his unswerving allegiance to his own name and his own glory. God is righteous to the degree that he upholds and displays the honor of his name. He is righteous when he values most what is most valuable, and what is most valuable is his own glory. Therefore God's justice, his righteousness, consists most fundamentally in doing what is consistent with the esteem and demonstration of his name, his glory. God would be unrighteous if he did not uphold and display his glory as infinitely valuable. Now the two keys are in place for understanding the argument of Romans 9:15. Paul is arguing that there is no unrighteousness with God when he elects unconditionally. Why? Using our two keys, the answer is: because God's name, the essence of his glory, consists in his absolute freedom to have mercy on whom he will have mercy. That is who he is. And his righteousness is his unswerving allegiance always to uphold and display this glory. Therefore, he must uphold and display his freedom, if he is to be righteous. Let me say it one more time: If God's righteousness consists in his unswerving commitment to uphold his name and his glory, and if his name and his glory consist in his absolute freedom in showing mercy, then to be righteous he must choose the beneficiaries of his electing mercy before they are born or have anything good or evil. Therefore the doctrine of unconditional election stands and God is righteous in it. And I close with the reminder of how good this news is: 1) No amount of sin that you have ever done can keep you from being God's elect. God was, is, and always will be free. And your past record of sin was and is no hindrance to your being elect. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. 2) And let all the praise for your salvation go to him and not yourself. You were made for this. Find your joy in making much of God and his grace, not making much of yourself. And when you find your rest in Christ through faith, glory in this: the roots of your security go down forever in the eternal grace of God. Amen. SERMON 2 February 2, 2003 The Fame of His Name and the Freedom of Mercy Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. We pick up where we left off three weeks ago. Let's review what we saw in Romans 9:14-16. The question of God's justice was raised in verse 14 because Paul taught in Romans 9:6-13 that God chooses - elects - unconditionally who will believe and undeservingly be saved, and who will rebel and deservingly perish. The terrible reality of perishing people had been raised in verse 3 where Paul was grieving over his Jewish kinsmen who, as he says, are "cursed and cut off from Christ." How can God's word and covenant with Israel stand if so many individual Israelites are unbelieving and therefore perishing? Paul answers in verse 6 that not all those who belong physically to Israel are truly Israel. Then he explains with the examples of Isaac and Ishmael, on the one hand, and Jacob and Esau, on the other hand, that within Israel there has been a remnant "chosen by grace" (Romans 11:5). Isaac not Ishmael was chosen. Jacob not Esau was chosen. That's Paul's explanation of why there were so many of his kinsmen who were unbelieving and therefore accursed and cut off from Christ. It was ultimately owing to God's free and unconditional election of some and not others. So Paul makes this explicit in Romans 9:11-13. "Though they [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad [this is where we see the unconditionality] - in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call - 12 She [Rebecca] was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' 13 As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."' God chose Jacob and rejected Esau. And he did this before they were born or had done anything good or evil. That's what we mean by unconditional election. Paul knew that in his day and ours people would stumble over this. People would say that God is unjust - unrighteous - to choose freely and unconditionally who would believe and be undeservingly saved and who would rebel and deservingly perish. So he poses the question that he has, no doubt, heard many times in response to his teaching. He asks in verse 14, "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there'?" And he answers: "May it never be!" God is not unjust in unconditional election. Why not? That is what we began to talk about three weeks ago, starting with verses 15-16. I'll try to sum it up and add the part I promised. The part we looked at last time was how the quote from Exodus 33:19 functions in verse 15. "For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, This is given as an argument for God's justice or righteousness in unconditional election. "There is no unrighteousness with God is there? May it never be! FOR, God says to Moses, 'i will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. "' How does that argument work'? The First Key: God's Glory Includes His Absolute Freedom in Election The context of Exodus 33:19 is all important. This statement of the freedom of God in mercy is given by Moses as an expression and manifestation of God's name, his character, his glory. (We saw that last time.) That's why Paul chose to cite what looks like a simple restatement of the problem: he has mercy on whom he wills. He is free and not decisively constrained by anything outside himself In the context, this freedom is shown to be the very essence of what it means to be God. It is an expression of his name: Yahweh: I am who I am. I have mercy on whom I have mercy. That is my name. That is my glory. That is what it means to be God. The Second Key: The Essence of God's Righteousness Is His Commitment to Uphold and Display the Infinite Value of His Glory and His Name That was one key to understanding Paul's argument for God's righteousness in the freedom of election. The other key is Paul's understanding of God's righteousness. Last time I simply gave you that understanding and promised I would give some support this time. 1 said, "God's righteousness is essentially his unswerving allegiance to his own name - his own glory. God is righteous to the degree that he upholds and displays the honor of his name. He is righteous when he values most what is most valuable, and what is most valuable is his own glory." Now, is this the way Paul understands the essence of God's righteousness? Yes. One place to see this is Romans 3:23-25. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Notice that sin is defined in relation to the glory of God. Sin belittles the glory of God. It makes God look less valuable by desiring something else more. Then Paul describes God's remedy for that derision of his glory. Verse 24: ". . . and [they] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." What we see here is that God sent Jesus to die ("by his blood"), and that by dying the righteousness of God could be vindicated and his anger could be propitiated and sinners who had belittled God's glory could be justified by faith alone. Why did God's righteousness need to be vindicated in this way'? Because (v. 25b) he had passed over sins. That is, he had acted as though the derision of his glory didn't matter, and thus his righteousness, his allegiance to that glory, is called into question. He acted as though his glory was of little worth. But it is of infinite worth. And God would be untrue, he would be unrighteous, not to uphold and display the true value of his glory. Therefore, in order to justify sinners (like us!) who belittle his glory, and yet not himself belittle his own glory (in acting as though it didn't matter)- he shows the infinite value of his glory by vindicating it with the death of his own Son who died for his Father's glory (John 12:27-28). Therefore, what Romans 3:23-25 shows (as well as 3:1-8 and other places) is that God's righteousness is, at its essence, God's unswerving allegiance to the infinite value of his own glory - his own name. It's his unwavering commitment to uphold and display his glory and his name. Paut's Conclusion: There Is No Unrighteousness with God in Unconditional Election Now with these two keys: we open Paul's argument. The first key from the quotation of Exodus 33:19 in Romans 9-15 is that God's glory, his name, includes his absolute being and his absolute freedom in election. "I am who I am." "I have mercy on whom I have mercy. " That is his glory, his name. That is what it means to be God. The second key is that God's righteousness is his unwavering commitment always to uphold and display the infinite value of his glory and his name. The conclusion that Paul draws is this: therefore there is no unrighteousness with God in unconditional election. When God acts in this way, choosing the beneficiaries of his mercy freely and without any constraint from human willing or human acting, he is upholding and displaying his name and his glory. And this is the very essence of his righteousness. And so he restates the unconditionality of election in Romans 9:16: "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." God's ultimate choice of who will believe and undeservingly be saved, and who will rebel and deservingly perish, is not based on human volition or human behavior. Then Paul turns to another Old Testament passage to give further support for his conviction. He cites Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9-17. And then he states his conviction again in verse 18. Verse 18 says, "So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." You can see how similar this is to verse 15, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." But here the opposite of mercy is also mentioned, namely hardening. "He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." You see what Paul is doing here. He had said in Romans 9:13 not only, "Jacob I loved," but also, "Esau I hated." One is chosen and the other is given over to become wicked. (See the sermon from 12-8-02 and the context of Romans 9:13 in Malachi 1:4, "wicked"). There are two sides to God's choosing, and verse 18 picks that up: "He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills." If the mercy is ultimately unconditional, the hardening is ultimately unconditional. That's what verse 18 adds, simply repeating what verse 11 had said, "Before they were born or had done anything good or evil," God chose who would be the beneficiary of his mercy and who would not. Ultimately, God does not save or condemn because of constraints laid on him by the willing or doing of man. God is free. He acts according to his own wise purposes to uphold and display the fullness of his glory. God Hardens Whom He Will To show from Scripture that God "hardens whom he wills," Paul turns to the great old story of the Exodus from Egypt. And he chooses one verse from those 10 chapters, Exodus 9:16, and quotes it here in verse 17: "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth."' Why this verse from all the verses that he could have chosen that speak of hardening? Why choose one that does not even refer to hardening, and then draw out the conclusion: "He hardens whom he wills" (v. 18)? There are very profound reasons. They relate to God's freedom and to God's great global purposes of world evangelization. But that we will save for next week. I want to devote the entire message next week to going back with you to the story of the Exodus and seeing what the Old Testament teaches about the purpose of God in hardening Pharaoh. But to draw to a close this morning and move to the Lords' Supper, I want to step back, get the big picture and make some clarifying comments. Unconditional election does not mean that our final salvation or condemnation is unconditional. Unconditional Election Does Not Conflict with Real Conditions It is by faith we are saved (Romans 10:9), and it is because of hard and impenitent hearts that we receive wrath and perish (Romans 2:5). There is a real condition that has to be met for justification - namely faith in Jesus Christ. And there are real conditions that have to be met for damnation, namely, hardness and unbelief. There is a real choice that we make which 'unites us with Christ so that we are clothed with his righteousness and have eternal life. And there is real choice that we make - in Adam and in ourselves - which is resistant to the truth and deserving of condemnation. Unconditional election, which Paul teaches here, does not contradict any of that. What unconditional election teaches is that God chooses who will be in those two groups - who will believe and undeservingly be saved, and who will rebel and deservingly perish. Implications There are two huge implications for us this morning. 1) We should believe on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and Treasure. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Don't be wiser than the word of God. Don't say: God chooses whomever he wills, I don't need to choose him." The Bible says, "Choose this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). Don't say, "Why should I take hold of Christ if he takes hold of me?" Rather say what Paul says, "I take hold of Christ because he has taken hold of me" (Philippians 3:12). Don't be wiser than the word of God. "God has made foolish the wisdom of the world" (1 Corinthians 1:20). Humble yourself and turn to Christ and be saved. 2) Beware, when you have believed, that you not boast, as if your believing were ultimately your own doing. Instead be thankful and say with the apostle Paul, "I thank God that from the heart I have become obedient to the teaching of Christ" (Romans 6: 17). The Bible makes clear that God saves us in a way that excludes all boasting. Boasting is doubly excluded. It is excluded by the principle of faith and by the truth of unconditional election. Boasting excluded by FAITH. Romans 3:27, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith." Faith excludes boasting because it looks away from all human distinctives (including itself!) and receives free grace. Boasting excluded by unconditional ELECTION. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring 29 to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." God's choosing, God's free and inscrutable election removes boasting from those who really feel its preciousness. Therefore, believe on Christ, and when you do, thank him. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. . © Desiring God Ministries. Website: www.desiringGOD.org. Email: mail@desiringGOD.org. Toll Free: 888-346-4700. For information on how to receive DGM email subscriptions visit www.desiringGOD.org/esubs. |
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