28 - The Purpose of God According to Election
B.W. Newton The "Patmos" Series No. 28 “The Purpose of God According to Election” InRomans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36 “An if by Grace, then it is no more of works.” Romans 11:6 “For Christ is the End of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believes.” Romans 10:4 “Whom he hath called; not of the Jew only, but also of the gentiles.” Romans 9:24
It is at this point the Epistle divides. Former chapters reveal in their great fulness the blessings which personally belong to every believer, with the assurance that “nothing can separate” there¬from. But then, the sorrow connected with such thoughts is, that these blessings are so little diffused and known. They may be like a “garden en¬closed;” a “spring shut up;” a “fountain sealed;” i.e., reaching very few: and if so, there must be sorrow. But it is not the intention of God that the order of the age should always exclude the power of blessing. He intends the order of the age to be itself molded under it. And, is there no desire in a believer’s heart that the present condition of things should be altered? Yet, if it be altered, God will alter it in His own time. He has His own methods, His own plans for affecting His purposes; and remember our hearts are just as likely to be wrong respecting the methods whereby God reaches His ends as the ends them¬selves. So it is of great importance for hearts to be instructed respecting the mode in which God attains those ends. That is the subject of Romans 9:1-33, Romans 10:1-21, Romans 11:1-36 : which show the application of these blessed truths not only to individuals but to nations: first, to God’s own nation Israel, and after that to all nations of the earth: and it is the diffusion and application of these blessings in this wide sphere, which will at last result in the earth being brought into that condition of blessedness, of which it is said “The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the (Land) as the waters cover the sea!”
Now, the reason for this continual heaviness and sorrow of heart in the Apostle was, because they, for whom this blessing was designed and to whom it was, primarily presented, refused it; and he well knew that until Israel received it the nations of the world could not be blessed; because God has appointed that Israel shall first be blessed, and then, but not till then, shall “all the ends of the earth see the salvation of God,” (Psalms 67:1-2, Psalms 67:7). And this was an abiding condition of his soul. Though blessed and honored in his ministry, yet this did not take away the sorrow of his heart day by day. Has this, I ask, been the character of Gentile Christians? Have they had an estimate of these things? Have they shared in the feelings of the Apostle of the Gentiles? No! This thought has been almost entirely lost to the minds of Christians! They do not under¬stand this sorrow; they have not seen the con¬sequences of their failure and the ruin around, and thus do not apprehend the nature of that power which is necessary to remove the hindrances and to bring Israel into that blessed position! So as a rule, if Christians in their experience have advanced to the end of Romans 8:1-39, they have gone no farther! They are satisfied with individual security and blessing, but neglectful as to blessing on the nations and the means of its introduction! But it is deeply important to awake from this slumber and to understand the relation of God to His people Israel and to those who have nomin¬ally received His salvation while Israel has rejected it. This is spoken of in the chapters that follow; and any heart truly interested in these chapters must necessarily be led to all that the prophets have spoken, but not otherwise. And in following out these thoughts, we have peculiar need of submissive minds; of hearts that do not seek to “reply against God;” that do not expect now that everything should be explained respecting His ways, so as fully to understand them. It is not for you or for me to perplex ourselves with seeking explanations, but to learn what God has revealed; and, if a question arise, to bow our hearts and say “Who art thou that repliest against God”? (Romans 9:20).
Now with respect to this chapter, see what joy the Apostle himself had in Christ! I need not say how he recognized the blessedness of the truths in the preceding chapters, but yet he had “great heaviness” because he thought of others; of Israel. He loved them because they were his brethren, but also because he understood what their prospects were “whose are the promises, etc.” reminding himself that “God’s gifts and calling are unrepented of,” (Romans 11:29).
There is a parenthesis in Romans 9:2-3. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart on account of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” That is the connection. The inter¬vening words “for I used to wish myself accursed from Christ” are a parenthesis, showing to his own people that he sympathized with them; that he had had exactly the same feelings once. Many of the Roman Christians were con¬verted Jews, and numbers of unconverted Jews lingered among their converted brethren, so he knew that Jewish eyes would rest on these words, and he wished to show that he did not boast against them, as if he had not once been darkened as they then were. And what was the thought that they had and that he had once had? That he had wished to have nothing to do with Christ; and in wishing that, he of course wished to be “accursed from Him!” He did not then see what was involved in wishing not to have anything to do with Christ; but now his eyes were opened to understand what those will be manifested to be in the Day of Christ’s glory, who have nothing to do with Him now. It was not the then present wish of the Apostle, but a statement of his past experience, when he was as ignorant of the blessing of being in Christ as they. In Romans 9:4-5 he speaks of what the blessings of the real Israel are, and then announces a most important principle in verse 6: “They are not all Israel who are of Israel;” for a delusion has rested on the Jewish mind, that all who have the outward name of Israel are the real Israel of God! Now God has not so appointed. He has appointed an out¬ward Israel; a typical Israel; but His thought always has been of there being another character¬istic beside the outward mark and call; and that wherever “faith” was not found, whatever the outward calling might be, there was not the true characteristic of an Israelite. This is the principle on which God ever has and ever will act; and when the time comes for Israel to be gathered in, everyone who has this inward principle of “faith,” whether belonging to the outward Israel or gathered from among Gentiles, will belong to the Israel of God in the eternal sense; and in that sense the name will be continued even into the New Heavens and New Earth; as it is said “Thou art My servant O Israel, in whom I will be glorified!” So the blessings pronounced on Israel are ever mentioned as eternal blessings; being blessings that end not on earth but go on to the everlasting day!
Well, having mentioned this principle, it in¬volved that great question respecting which even the converted Jewish mind felt much difficulty; viz., the “calling of the Gentiles:” for it is very evident that if they were brought out of their despised condition into anything like a parity of condition with them in blessing, it must be simply on the ground of “grace;” for “nothing but God’s effectual calling in grace” without works could effect it. It was strange that they did not see themselves to be no better: but that is the reason why, in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus so continually emphasizes the word “world;” to prove to Israel that God had sent Him on a mission to a lost “world;” and, if they were willing to stand on that ground and own they were not better than the “world,” they could receive what He was sent to minister, and find in Him that which they needed, even Manna and Light (John 6:1-71). But, if they said they were morally superior to the world, then His mission was not to them, for He was sent to the lost world. This, they were unwilling to acknowledge. They wished to stand on a higher elevation than other men; therefore, the object of the Apostle was to prove by a reference to various instances in their history and various texts, that God had always dealt with Israel on the principle of “calling and election in Grace;” that He was dealing thus, and that He would in future deal on that principle. And first, he takes the case of Isaac. There was Ishmael and there were other children of Abraham, but were they not set aside and Isaac “chosen” by the sovereign will of God? So the foundation of Jewish blessing rests on this principle of God dealing in sovereign, elective Grace!
Again, in the case of Jacob and Esau was not the same principle seen? Esau had the comeliness and the goodliness of nature which were not found in Jacob; but Jacob was “chosen” and Esau set aside, and that before they were born or had done good or evil! And to go still further in their history. After they were called out of Egypt and put under special blessing at Sinai, did they not forget all blessing as a body by the worship of the golden calf? Then God said they would all be cut off unless He dealt with them on the promise “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, etc.” (Romans 9:15). There again was the avowed principle, for their only hope was through God dealing with them in “grace.” All had broken the relation in which they stood to God! He could justly have blotted them all out and saved Moses alone; but He reserved in His own hand the right to pity and to show mercy where He would!
Then the Apostle pursues the history of Israel. When Isaiah began to prophesy, he stood almost alone, saying “There was only a remnant in the midst of all Israel that God could own;” and looking forward to the future return of God’s blessing to them, he declares that “only a remnant will be saved, because a short work i.e., a concise work, will the Lord make upon earth.” Not short as to time, but as to that which is coincided or pared down till only a few are left (Romans 9:28). And Hosea says the same (Romans 9:25): —“call” being a word of “electing grace” —so that this principle is shown in the history of Israel from beginning to end. And on this principle God is acting now, not to Jews only but also to Gentiles (Romans 9:24), for the same sovereign Grace enables Him to “call out” from the Gentiles as well as from the Jews; and those on whom this blessing rests are “children of Abraham.” And do you ask who they are? I answer. “Those who do not refuse to submit to the righteousness of faith,” (Romans 9:30). There is the “stumbling-stone” at which Israel has stumbled, but which God has set as “a sure foundation.” Two passages are combined in Romans 9:33 (Isaiah 28:16 and Isaiah 8:14); and wherever there is an inward eye, open to see that this “stone” is indeed precious and to build on it as a foundation, such shall “never haste away confounded.” No circum¬stances shall terrify them. The hail will indeed overflow and sweep away the “refuge of lies,” but they shall stand firm and unmoved! In Romans 9:19 the Apostle anticipates the objection that it is unjust in God to act thus. I need not say that any attempt to explain this is vain; but at the same time, what must be more evident to any heart that honestly looks at its individual condition, than that everything that has been the result of its own energies; of its own willing and doing, has ever been to hinder the operation of the grace of God? If then, it were not revealed in Scrip¬ture, yet, what would the instructed heart more readily rejoice in, than that “all is of God;” that He has guided; that He has led? The flesh is so hard; its evil so great, that it never would have regarded this salvation of God; it would have spurned it and “stumbled at the stumbling-stone” unless God in sovereign Grace had “called” and been pleased to “show mercy.” In this we may rejoice, leaving all in His hands; not daring by means of this truth to interfere with any testi¬mony of the love of God to lost sinners. We reason not on such questions; we judge not God nor explain His ways; but we wait to understand them. On the one hand we say that nothing but “sovereign Grace” can open any heart, and that some will become more and more hardened; yet, it does not prevent our presenting the love of God in Christ to souls. We attempt not to reason, but we take things as God has put them and set them in the light in which He has set them. It is as daring to interfere with God’s manner of setting forth truths, as it is to set aside the truths themselves. In both we are to exercise Faith: to subject our minds; to take the Word as our guide; and the result will be peace to our hearts. If we take up one particular truth alone, we shall lose the combination of the truths of God, and also produce damage to others: for the truth we may have set aside may be the very one by which God seeks to lead and comfort and help another’s soul. We must not nullify or reason down one part by another nor profess to reconcile all statements of Scripture, but keep our minds in subjection to God; and when the end comes it will explain all, for we shall then “know as we are known.”
You will observe the earnestly ex¬pressed desire of the Apostle in verse 1 respecting Israel as a people “that they might be saved:” for he well knew that all his hopes concerning the universal progress of the Truth; the rectifying of the nations; the putting down of the power of Satan; the bringing in of the appointed order and blessing of God all depended on the return of Israel to the Lord through the veil being taken from their heart. Therefore, if he desired the earth’s blessing; the release of creation from the bondage of corruption; if he desired “the times of refreshing and restitution to come, when God would send Christ,” he must have had that anxious desire respecting Israel.
Now, it is of no slight importance as to health¬fulness of soul and true spirituality of heart, whether or not our desires and thoughts are turned the same way and directed to the same objects as the Apostle’s were. Then, speaking of the condition of Israel, he says “they had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” (Romans 10:2)!
Observe that strong expression. Few knew better than he what “zeal” was; so, for him to say they had a zeal for God was a great acknowledgment indeed; but it profited them not, because not according to revealed truth! They were “ignorant of God’s righteousness” —of that which formed the basis of all knowledge of God in peace and salvation—of that “righteousness” prepared by God, which He as it were, holds in His hand and presents for sinners to be accepted in. But Israel spurned it! They wished to “establish a righteousness of their own,” and refused “to submit themselves” —observe those words, “refused to submit themselves—to the righteousness of Christ” prepared by God! They imply that the good hand of God sought to subject them to it but that they resisted, and therefore all their righteousness went for nothing; it brought them not to God (Romans 10:3): whereas, Christ’s righteousness brings believers to the same end, to the same final point where they would have been had they kept the whole Law (Romans 10:4)! for His obedience to the Law as the Substi¬tute forms the righteousness in which they are accepted!
Then the Apostle tells of that which connects with this righteousness, viz. “the Word of Faith” which he preached; referring (Romans 10:6-9) to a passage in Deuteronomy 30:1-20 where Moses speaks of the Law, saying “it is not necessary to range over the wide creation to find the will of God, for it is here taught by my lips; only do what I propose to you to do, and you shall live.”
Now says St. Paul, we too like Moses, are messengers of God, and are able to tell you the nearness of the message which we bring. Yet, we do not say as he did, “Hear these things, do them, and live.” but we say “Hear, believe and live.” What a difference! So how important for us to know the instrumental means by which God bringeth us to life and acceptance! How emphatically the Apostle declares it to be “the Word which he preached,” (Romans 10:8); elsewhere called “the foolishness of preaching.” So it is a momentous question; for we are not concerned simply with the link that connecteth with it. Yet, how Satan has labored to deceive souls, even when not able to turn them entirely away from Christ: but, how simple are the words of Romans 10:8-9! There is no uncertainty; “thou shalt be saved” —the word “unto” meaning unto; not merely a tendency towards salvation without reaching it—and such an one shall not haste away like a discomfited fugitive in the confusion of terrified flight, but shall stand his ground: and this, whether he be Jew or Greek; for in Romans 10:12-13 the word “whosoever” is em¬phasized: making it as comprehensive as possible, and quoting a passage from Joel referring to the same principle obtaining in the Day of the Lord. The Holy Spirit must indeed open the heart to receive the message, simple as it is otherwise it would be sure to reject it; but is it not a mercy to have a word to speak to others respecting the justifying work of Christ, and that if any believe “that word which we speak” they are saved. Eternal life enters their soul! So, it is not by priestly ordinances, rites, ceremonies: it is not by a course of educational training; it is not by waiting for something that is not sent, that souls are to be brought to God, but by words addressed to ears directing to Christ, which, if received, they are brought as the Apostle says to those two great things, to righteousness and salvation!
Now as usual, the heart, especially the Jewish heart, reasoned against this, and was disposed to say preaching was a foolish instrument, and not of use to bring to God: so the Apostle refers to their own Scriptures as to what is said of that coming hour, when the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace are spoken of as “blessed” and as the means by which God brings to Himself. But, says the caviling heart of the Jew, “at that time the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace will be welcomed: not despised; not rejected; not spurned;” but, turning to the Apostle would point out the contrast in his reception: that his feet were not counted “beautiful.” “True,” says the Apostle (Romans 10:16), that while “faith cometh by the report, and the report by the Word of God” yet, do not your own Scriptures also speak of a time when the report (it is the same word) is rejected (Isaiah 53:1): and that this Gospel is to be preached in a period of rejection before the time comes for the feet of them that preach it to be esteemed “beautiful?” And then he uses words to show how Scripture recognized Israel as a “gainsaying people” at the time salvation comes to some who are chosen from among the Gentiles (Romans 10:20-21). Thus Romans 10:1-21 concludes with a sorrowful picture of Israel. Not that there was not mercy in the message sent, but they despised and rejected it! and a quotation in verse 18 from Psalms 19:1-14 tells of the extent of the testimony to them. But are they always to remain so? Is all blessing taken from Israel? Nay, says the Apostle I am myself a witness that “God hath not cast away his people.”
There is also a remnant in every generation of Israel (Romans 11:2): and by and bye, Israel as a nation is to be gathered in (Romans 11:26)! The olive-tree, planted in the earth when God called Abraham, remains. Israel despised it; con¬sequently they were broken off (Romans 11:17) and another branch grafted in, viz., Gentiles, who professed to welcome this grace. So, imagine to yourselves a tree with the branches on one side broken out, and those on the other side standing; but even those branches cankered! for, have the Gentile branches continued in God’s goodness? Have they not also despised the righteousness of God and sought to build up a righteousness of their own? Where has “the faith once delivered to the saints” been more trampled down than in midst of Christendom? Think of its condition this day (Dec. 25, 1856), rejoicing professedly in the birth of Christ: yet what ground is there for that joy? Has not the wickedness of Christendom made the name of Christ to be blasphemed amongst the Jews, and is not the Antichristianism finally to be manifested an excrescence of Christen¬dom? Yet, it is supposed that the salvation of Christ has reached and sanctified them in this condition! Hence the festivities and songs of mirth when there ought to be the cry “unclean, unclean.” Yet, on the cankered branch there may he berries—few perhaps—nevertheless, berries are fruit, and God will esteem them the more because growing in an evil day. It is a day when there is considerable testimony to “Grace,” but without it being sufficiently added that the “Grace,” which brings priests—which all God’s people are—into the sanctuary and presents them sprinkled with the Blood and the anointing oil, also sends them forth again to put a difference between clean and unclean. That part is forgotten or but feebly estimated, yet both are needful. This would keep from the tone of feeling predomi¬nating at this season, and preserve a sorrowful one in the soul. “Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep,” your com¬fort passeth away: but, “blessed are they that mourn now, for they shall be comforted.” And did not the grace in these chapters nerve the heart of the Apostle? You know it did: and what does Romans 11:1-36 end in? Sorrow or thanks¬giving? Where do we find in all Scripture more blessed words of thanksgiving than Romans 11:33-36? So it is out of the night of sorrow that this joy comes; and we shall not then repent us of the trial and sorrows, for they will stand like the darkness of the departing night in contrast to the bright rays of a cloudless day. Thus may these thoughts chasten and comfort us, that so in our measure we may be “just and devout,” waiting for the consolation of Israel.”
See Patmos 7 and 24 for Romans 11:1-36; Romans 12:1-21; Romans 13:1-14; Romans 14:1-23.