7/7/24 “Election Results”
“Election Results”
Romans 9:1-33
There are many things in this world that I just don’t understand.
For instance, I don’t understand how light can be both a wave and a particle.
I don’t understand how a dog that is released 500 miles away from home can find its way back home again.
I don’t understand how yawning is contagious (Especially when you don’t see the other person yawning – Lisa & I have this happen all the time)
I don’t understand how to describe the colors.
I don’t understand how back in elementary school, my friend Brian could drink chocolate milk and then make it come out his nose (I still don’t know how he did that!)
…Seriously, folks – I really do spend time thinking about stuff like this! 😊
I don’t understand how a lobster can regrow a leg that gets cut off.
I don’t understand why Hallmark Christmas movies all have the same plot!
I don’t understand how black holes work
I don’t understand how time slows down when approaching the speed of light…that’s why my wife looks so young for her age – she drives really fast!
I don’t understand how a whale can hold its breath for 60 minutes.
Obviously, there are many things that I don’t understand.
But the 2nd most confusing paradox (A paradox is something that seems to be self-contradictory)
The 2nd most confusing paradox I’ve ever seen involves two completely opposite laws in the world of physics – that are, apparently, both true.
You’ve probably heard of a guy named Albert Einstein….a pretty smart fella.
Einstein came up with a provable mathematical equation describing how gravity interacts with stuff we can see…
Everything from objects such as this pen, or this book – all the way up to large scale objects in our universe, like planets and solar systems.
Einstein was able to show how our universe is made up of a space-time fabric that is very orderly and predictable….this is called General Relativity.
By the way, even though Einstein – A Jewish man – never professed to be a Christian, he understood how the precision of the universe and its laws revealed a creator – and he wrote on several occasions how he saw atheism as an intellectually weak worldview – especially when one considers the orderly way in which the cosmos operates.
So, General Relativity has been proven over and over to be a completely dependable way to describe the world that can be seen with the naked eye…
But what about the realm of our world that is too small for us to see without the assistance of a microscope?
Those extremely tiny things such as particles, atoms, protons, chicken McNuggets....stuff like that.
Well, it turns out that General Relativity begins to spit out some pretty unrealistic information when we try to use it to describe the microscopic world…in other words, it doesn’t work on the tiny stuff.
It is in this world of microscopic particles where we see a different mathematical equation correctly describe what we observe happening – this is called quantum mechanics.
While General Relativity tells us that all things are orderly, consistent, and completely predictable – Quantum Mechanics tells us that all things are chaotic, inconsistent, and completely random.
Logic would seem to indicate that only one of these laws of the universe is true, while the other is not, right?
Well, the problem is that they both seem to be true at the very same time.
This makes no sense. The smartest minds and the most advanced supercomputers can’t figure it out.
There is no logical way that these competing, opposite, mathematical theories should both be true – and yet, this does indeed seem to be the case.
Time and again, both theories have been proven to be accurate – but only in their respective “worlds” or “realms.”
If you recall, I described the General Relativity/Quantum Mechanics conundrum as the 2nd most confusing paradox I’ve ever heard of?
Well, the #1 most confusing paradox that I’ve ever tried to wrap my mind around is even more difficult to understand…
It’s the biblical paradox dealing with the truth of God’s Sovereignty….AND the truth of Man’s Free Will….
Seemingly opposite doctrines that the Bible teaches as both being true.
Passages like ours for today describe man’s salvation from the perspective of God’s ultimate sovereignty…
…Sovereignty basically means that nothing in the universe happens outside of God’s authority and Will…In other words, God controls all things – including each person’s eternal destiny.
Free Will, on the other hand, describes how man has the ability to make decisions free from divine or external coercion, including decisions about his eternal destiny.
When it comes to the topic of salvation, biblical Free Will is defined as the ability of each person to either accept Jesus Christ or reject Him – without his decision being ‘forced’ or ‘predetermined’ or ‘arbitrarily elected’.
Well……to our finite minds, these two truths seem to be incompatible.
It’s what we call a biblical paradox…
The Bible teaches us that God created, controls, and sustains all things.
The Bible also teaches that man has the freedom to make his own decisions…
…With the most important one being to either follow Jesus Christ or to reject Him…and we are held eternally responsible for this most important of all decisions.
The Bible teaches that both of these competing spiritual concepts are true – much like General Relativity and Quantum Mechanincs in the world of physics
As you would expect, the topic of God’s sovereignty and man’s free will has been debated (Sometimes very intensely) within the church for centuries….
Over the years, people have attempted to accommodate both of these truths by coming up with elaborate frameworks, or paradigms, by which to interpret scripture…
But every time people try to do this, they end up ignoring (Or, at the very least, de-emphasizing) passages that speak to the truth of the opposing position.
So, all of this being said, if you are expecting pastor Andy to solve the dilemma of God’s Sovereignty vs Man’s Free Will this morning…you are going to be very disappointed!
…And If that upsets you, feel free to walk out right now….demand your money back if you’d like… 😊
You’re not going to hear some enlightened new solution to a dilemma that 2,000 years of Christian thinkers – many of whom are much smarter than me - have yet to figure out!
And…if you’re a person who has planted your doctrinal flag deep in the soil of one camp or the other – you most likely won’t be completely satisfied with the remainder of this sermon today…
…because, this morning, you’re not going to hear the pastor teach an extreme view of either Sovereignty or free will.
Rather, today, I’m going to convey what the Bible says – And It teaches 2 very clear truths:
1) God is Completely Sovereign.
2) Man has Free Will & he is held responsible for his decisions.
Think General Relativity and Quantum Mechanincs!
So, let’s take a look at our passage for today.
Romans chapter 9 has been a chapter that has been used extensively by people who tend to emphasize God’s absolute sovereignty….
You may have heard people say “I’m a Calvinist.”
If you aren’t sure of what that refers to, John Calvin was a 16th-century French theologian who stressed the attributes of God’s sovereignty and the doctrines of predestination and election.
Later, his followers developed a 5-point system of looking at scripture from the vantage point of God’s sovereign attributes.
Conversely, you also may have heard someone say “I’m an Arminian”
That term is derived from a 16th-century Dutch theologian by the name of Jacobus Arminius, who – in response to Calvin – put forth a theology that stressed the free will of man over God’s arbitrary predestination & election.
Essentially, Calvinism and Arminianism are man’s finite attempts to explain an infinite God!
They are both attempting to bring the thoughts of God into man’s realm of logic and rationality…because that’s what we humans do – if we can’t figure something out, we try to invent a framework that will provide us with some level of intellectual satisfaction.
We humans just can’t stand not knowing something…we don’t like loose ends.
With that as our background, let’s dig into the text.
The first 5 verses of Romans chapter 9 deal with Paul’s personal feelings of anguish toward his Jewish brethren, many of whom rejected his preaching about Jesus Christ.
Paul is heartbroken that many of his ethnic brothers & sisters simply would not accept the gospel message.
By the way, Paul seems to be indicating that his Jewish brethren have the ability to make a free will decision to accept Jesus if they so desired.
Paul even declared in verse 3 (Romans 9:3-4) “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.”
Obviously, this is a hypothetical situation – God would never allow Paul to endure eternal separation from Him in order that all other Jewish people would be welcomed into heaven.
But this verse does give us a glimpse into Paul’s intense empathy and love for his fellow Jews.
We are reminded of how the Jewish people were given such divine privilege…
They were, after all, God’s chosen race…given the task of revealing the one, true God to the world – and to announce the coming Messiah.
Then, when Jesus - the Messiah - finally did arrive, the vast majority of Jewish people rejected him and his message – and that, sadly, continues to be the case today.
Then, in verse 6, Paul begins to cite examples from the Patriarchal period in the Old Testament…
…Examples of how God sovereignly worked through people like Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah to guide this young family that would one day be a nation of people.
Then, in verses 11-13, Paul specifically begins talking about God’s sovereignty as it relates to Jacob & Esau – remember them?
The twin boys Jacon & Esau were children of Isaac and Rebecca – grandchildren of Abraham & Sarah.
These verses have traditionally been used by extreme Calvinists over the years in an attempt to prove that man’s salvation is left completely up to God’s arbitrarily choosing some people to be saved…
While at the same time, arbitrarily allowing others to continue on a pathway to eternal condemnation..
These verses definitely do remind us that God is in complete control, but do they teach us that God just flips some sort of spiritual coin when it comes to our eternal destiny…
…When it comes to our salvation, is God randomly plucking off the petals of a daisy – she’s saved…she’s not saved…she’s saved…she’s not saved.
Folks, I can guarantee you that God doesn’t approach something as important as eternal salvation in this way…
there are far too many biblical passages that speak of God’s love and compassion to accommodate this kind of cold, random, arbitrary assignment of eternal destiny.
2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that “…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
…and we all know John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
These passages don’t describe a God who simply flips a coin – or apathetically pulls petals from a daisy – to determine your eternal destiny.
So, what is Paul saying here in Romans 9 concerning God’s election and predestination?...
…Especially when He concludes this section with these words in verse 13 (Romans 9:13) “Just as it was written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Let’s take a closer look at verse 13.
The first thing we need to realize is that the words ‘love’ and ‘hate’ here are not value statements, rather, they are comparative words meant to give the idea that one thing is given priority over another.
When it comes to the word hate, Jesus uses the same word when talking about giving priority to following Him over all else in life – including one’s family members.
Listen to these words of Jesus from Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus is not telling us here that He wants us to actually hate our parents!...or hate our spouse!...or hate our children!
Imagine waking up every morning and hearing your spouse say “Good Morning honey, I really hate you!....No, that’s ridiculous.
If this were true, it would directly contradict literally hundreds of passages of scripture!
Rather, the word hate was being used by Jesus in Luke 14, and used by Paul in Romans 9, as a way of comparing two things.
It’s not like God had some personal vendetta against Esau, in fact, if you look at Esau’s life – God richly blessed him with a large family, along with plenty of land & livestock.
Verse 13 is also a quotation from the first chapter of the book of Malachi (Written centuries after Jacon & Esau actually lived) where God is comparing His favored nation of Israel (Coming through the line of Jacob) with that of pagan nations (Described as coming through the line of Esau)
So, in Romans 9, Paul is referring to a comparative statement made by God as it deals, primarily, with the Nation of Israel.
Paul is not saying that God arbitrarily made the decision to love the person of Jacob – while at the same time – arbitrarily making the decision to hate the person of Esau.
Beginning in verse 14 (Romans 9:14) Paul begins to anticipate some of the objections that people may raise in hearing about the attributes of God’s sovereignty, predestination, and election.
The first question raised has to do with justice - how can God have complete sovereignty and still be fair to the freedom of His creation?
The other question (In verse 19 – Romans 9:19) is “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists His will?”
Both of these questions are based on an incomplete understanding of the nature of God….
They both are inherently assuming that if God is completely sovereign, then He is assigning humanity to fatalism, or determinism – the idea that we are nothing more than carbon-based robots.
Paul bluntly responds to these questions by saying “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? (Romans 9:20)
Then in verse 21 (Romans 9:21) we are given the illustration of a potter having the authority and power to create pottery in such a way as to serve whatever purpose he desires.
The thrust behind these questions of justice and fairness always goes back to a lack of trust that God is able to use His sovereignty, predestination, foreknowledge, and election in a way that is perfectly fair and just.
Paul says that the idea of God being anything but completely fair and impartial is simply preposterous.
If God played favorites and based man’s salvation on nothing more than whims of preference, it would violate His very nature – His righteousness, His goodness, His Mercy.
Before we wrap up today, I’d like to briefly cover 2 essential truths dealing with predestination and election.
1) Predestination and Election cannot violate the free moral agency of man.
John 1:12-13 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Genesis 2:16-17… “And the Lord commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Revelation 22:17 says “The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
Finally, Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Notice it doesn’t say: ‘when the predetermined’ hear my voice…
All of these passages have something in common – they all have the built-in assumption that mankind is able to freely make choices – decisions - that will affect his or her own spiritual destiny.
2) Predestination and Election operate in conjunction with God’s foreknowledge.
Romans 8:29 reads “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
1 Peter 1:1-2 says “To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
At the end of the day, none of us are able to understand the infinite workings of the mind of God, however, these passages tell us that God’s foreknowledge (And I believe, His timelessness also) somehow does play a part in the workings of Predestination and election.
I’ll end today with a quote from pastor Chuck Smith.
Pastor Smith famously said “If you are afraid that you are not one of the elect, just give your life to Christ – and you will find that you are one of the elect!”
From God’s vantage point, our spiritual destiny is through election.
From our vantage point, our spiritual destiny is through freely making a decision for Christ.
Both are true. Both can be defended through multiple passages of scripture.
I don’t get it…I don’t get how both election and free will work together in man’s salvation.
But I also don’t get how general relativity and quantum mechanics can both be true as well…
And you know what? … I don’t lose sleep over either one.
Folks, don’t let this difficult biblical issue put sand in your spiritual gas tank…
Don’t let it fester like an infection in your thoughts…
The single most important thing to remember is that God loves you…
And that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for your sins…
And that through repentance of those sins – and by placing your faith & trust in Jesus - you will be forgiven and you will be welcomed into the family of God.
You don’t have to be a Calvinist.
You don’t have to be Arminian.
You just have to be a child of God.
Let’s Pray.