Does Anyone Pursue a Right Relationship with God?

We have been examining the strong emotions and questions that come from the timeless truth that the sovereign God is free to choose some and reject others. Thursday, we looked the reality that God alone reserves the right to choose as the creator of the universe according to His purpose, which is to bring Him glory. And this reality is clearly revealed through the message and teachings of the Bible. Paul then provides a third reason why God’s freedom to choose some and reject others is just in Romans 9:30:

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

In these verses, we see Paul provide for us a third reason why God’s freedom to choose some and reject others is just in that God’s freedom to choose some and reject others is just because no one pursues a right relationship with God. In verses 30, we see that the Gentiles did not even pursue righteousness, which literally means to be in the quality or state of being right with God. Non Jewish humanity was content to leave God out and live as though He did not exist. Paul explains that they attained a right relationship with God, not because they pursued God. Instead they achieved a right relationship with God as a result of God’s pursuit of them in order to rescue them from selfishness and rebellion through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It was their response to God’s activity by placing their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel that resulted in a right relationship with God.

Paul then contrasts the Gentiles lack of pursuit of God with the Jews wrong pursuit of God in verses 31-33. Instead of placing their confident trust in God and the promises of God, the Jewish people pursued a right relationship with God through the Law, which are the first five books that are recorded for us in our Bibles today. The Jewish people pursued a right relationship with God based on what they did for God instead of placing their confident trust in what God had done for them through Jesus.

And because they pursued a wrong path toward a right relationship with God, they viewed the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel with offense and rejected it. The Jewish people responded to the message of the gospel as one responds to stubbing one’s toe on a rock; the Jewish people were offended and rejected the gospel and Jesus. Paul concludes verse 33 by reminding the members of the church at Rome that this should not come as a surprised, because God predicted and proclaimed that this would occur some 700 years earlier, in the book of Isaiah.
You see, God in His sovereign foresight knew that no one would pursue a right relationship with God.

And because of that reality, God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just. God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just because no one deserves to be chosen. God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just because He alone reserves the right to choose. God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just no one pursues a right relationship with God. This morning, God is sovereign and we are responsible. And for the rest of this week, we will see Paul shift to focus in greater detail on the responsibility that we bear as a result of our attitude and actions before God.