Is God's Choice A Just Choice?

Last week, we talked about two truths about God that seemed to be in conflict with one another, which are God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. We saw a man named Paul reveal for us the timeless truth that the sovereign God is free to choose some and reject others. God, who is large and in charge of all humanity throughout history, is free to choose some and reject others.

In Romans, 9:1-13, we looked at two stories from the history of the Jewish nation that revealed for us the timeless truth that God, who knows everything that happens in human history before it happens, executes His Divine plan and purposes by choosing some and rejecting others. And God’s sovereign choice is based not on our race, not on our performance, not on our intelligence. That choice is based on God’s grace and God’s grace alone. Now this timeless truth provokes strong thoughts and equally strong questions. And this week we will see that these questions are not new. So let’s begin by looking together at a question that the members of the church at Rome had, which is recorded for us in Romans 9:14:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

Paul begins this section of his letter by addressing a potential objection that the members of the church may have had to his statement that God is free to choose some and reject others: “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?” This question, if communicated in the language of our culture today, would sound something like this: “Hold on Paul, what do you mean God is free to choose some and reject others? That just does not seem to be fair or right? That does not sound very just; that sounds like God is up in Heaven flipping a coin. That sounds like God is playing duck, duck, choose, with the eternal destinies of people. How is that just or fair or right? If that is how God operates, then God is unjust and unfair”.

And maybe I have just described the questions and thoughts that are running through your mind when you here that God is free to choose some and reject others. Maybe you are questioning whether or not God is just if He chooses some and rejects others. So is God unjust? Is God unfair? Is God wrong? While we wrestle with the answer to those questions, we see Paul’s answer to this question at the end of verse 14: “may it never be!” Paul responds to this question by defending God’s rightness and justice with the strongest negative response that is possible in the language this letter was originally written in. This response would have grabbed the attention of every person in Rome reading this letter.

And it is in this response that we see revealed for us a timeless truth that is necessary to embrace if we are going to be able to balance the two truths of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. And that timeless truth is this: God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just. Paul’s pointed response reveals for us the reality that God is perfectly right and God is perfectly just in choosing some and rejecting others. And in Romans 9:14-33, we see Paul reveal for us three reasons why God’s sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others is just. We see the first reason revealed for us in Romans 9:15. Let’s look at it together:

For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

To prove the point that God has the sovereign freedom to choose some and reject others, Paul points the readers of this letter to a story that is recorded for us in a letter in our Bibles called the book of Exodus. To fully understand what Paul is communicating here however, we first need to understand the context in which this story takes place. In Exodus chapter 32, we read that after Moses went up to Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments, which took forty days, the Jewish people became impatient. And instead of waiting for Moses to return, they convinced Aaron, who was one of the pastors, to make an idol in the form of a golden calf. The Jewish people then proceeded to worship this idol and participate in an orgy as part of that worship. As you might imagine, God was not pleased with the Jewish people worshipping something other than Him as god and the sexual sin that occurred as part of that worship.

Moses upon seeing the nature of the selfishness and sin responded by doing two things. First, Moses broke the tablets that contained the Ten Commandment, which demonstrated that the Jewish people had broken their covenant with God, and destroyed the idol and those who were leading the rebellion. Second, Moses went back up to Mount Sinai to intercede for the Jewish people in the presence of God. Because, at this point God was no longer going to enter into the Promised Land with the Jewish people. While God would keep His end of the promise and bring the Jewish people into the Promised Land, He was not going to go with them. We read the reason why in Exodus 33:3:

"Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way."

Moses then pleads to God for God to extend forgiveness and grace and accompany the Jewish people into the land that He had promised them. Moses asks God to reveal Himself to him in a powerful way. And it is in this context that we read the following in Exodus 33:19, which Paul quotes in Romans 9:15:

And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."

You see, the Jewish people had selfishly rebelled and rejected God, instead choosing to worship something other than God as god. The Jewish people deserved God’s right and just response to that selfishness and rebellion. Yet, in spite of the fact that the Jewish nation deserved God’s right and just response, God was willing to be gracious and compassionate upon some. And it is in this story from the history of the Jewish people that Paul provides the first reason why God’s freedom to choose some and reject others is just. And that first reason is this: God’s freedom to choose some and reject other is just because no one deserves to be chosen.

The Jewish people did not deserve to be chosen by God because the Jewish people rebelled against God. And as a result the Jewish people were responsible to face God’s right and just response to their rebellion. However, God in His sovereignty has the freedom to choose to extend grace and forgiveness to some, even though none deserved it. But not only do we see this principle play out in the lives of the Jewish people; we also see this principle play out in the lives of those who were not Jewish, which we will look at tomorrow...