Chapter 9: the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but

the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth."

You say, "What then shall we teach?" We answer: Teach the words of Scripture and let it go at that. God can "reconcile" His own Word!

Many years ago a widely-known and beloved teacher of God's Word said to me, "I do not like to assert a truth too positively; I like always to teach a truth modified by any seemingly contradictory truth." I had myself observed in his discussion of a Scripture doctrine his citation of "authorities": "So-and-so says this; on the other hand, So-and-so says that: now take your choice." But in his later years, because he was a constant and devoted reader of God's Word, his manner of teaching quite changed: he was willing to take such a passage as the Ninth of Romans and teach it as it is, and say, "Thus saith the Lord"; and leave it there. And when there came up another line of truth that could not be "reconciled" with the first, in the mind of men, he taught this second truth also just as God stated it, and left it there.

Now if there is any passage of God's Word in which He seems to say: I am Myself assuming all responsibility for what I here announce, it is this same Ninth of Romans.

But remember it's closing words: "He that believeth on Him [Christ] shall not be put to shame!" God's simple-hearted, trusting saints are quite ready, having received God's great gift of Eternal Life in Christ, to await the day when they shall "know fully"--as they have been known. Meanwhile, they walk by faith, with humble hearts, subject to what God says.

GOD NECESSARILY SOVEREIGN IN SALVATION
1. Man was lost--he could not save himself.

2. He was guilty--none could pardon him but the God he had sinned against.

3. He was by nature "a child of wrath" not deserving good; nor being able to change his nature.

4. He was allied with God's Enemy; and had a mind at enmity against God: a mind not subject, nor able to be subject to God's law or will.

5. He knew he was doing things "worthy of death"; but not only persisted in them, but was in league-approval with those of like practice; he was "of the world," not of God.

6. Therefore, if any move be made toward man's salvation, it must come from God, not man.

7. God, being God, knew beforehand that the attitude of every man by nature toward his overtures would be to oppose them.

8. Since any real response to these overtures, therefore, must come from God's grace, He must elect to overcome effectually man's resistance, either

(a) In no case,
(b) Or, in every case,
(c) Or, in certain cases.

9. To hold God unable to overcome man's resistance in any case is to limit His power.

10. But to hold that God is unwilling to have certain saved is to deny His repeated word--"Who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"; "As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live."

11. Therefore, it would seem that only in those cases in which it would no longer be consistent with God's glory--that is, consistent with His holiness and righteousness, and His just government of His creatures, would God withhold, or refuse longer to employ. His gracious operations in behalf of any creature.

12. But, when we consider Election, we must remove our thoughts wholly from this world, the first Adam, the sin of man, and his "attitude" toward God. The purpose of God according to Election is "not of works, but of Him that calleth." It is outside human history altogether. It is of God. __________________________________________________________________

[194] Bishop Moule remarks upon the impossibility of Paul's really making such a prayer: "To desire the curse of God would be to desire not only suffering, but moral alienation from Him, the withdrawal of the soul's capacity to love Him. Thus the wish would be in effect an act of greater love for our neighbor than for God.' Again, the redeemed soul is not its own': to wish the self to be accursed from Christ would thus be to wish the loss of that which He has bought and made His own.' But, the logical reason of the matter apart, we have only to read the close of Chapter 8, to see how entirely a moral impossibility it was for Paul to complete such a wish."

[195] The envy of other races and nations towards God's elect nation Israel has always existed. But there is a mild phase and a virulent phase of this Gentile sin-disease that should be noted: First, the mild phase: this is Anglo-Israelism, the teaching that the Anglo-Saxons, especially Britain and America (Britain as Ephraim and America as Manasseh!) are the "lost ten tribes" who, carried away East across the Euphrates in God's Judgment,--turned East into West and landed at the British Isles! No; British and Americans are lost, but they are not The Ten Tribes! Second, the virulent phase of this jealousy and envy towards elect national Israel appears in "anti-Semitism," or anti-Jewism; and has lately been carried to new depths of pagan infamy by Hitler in Germany. For this phase of Gentile envy rejects Scripture. Mr. Hitler hates the Jews and declares for "pure Aryan blood"--(pray where would you find it?). Carrying his boasting hatred to its logical conclusion, he rejects the Word of God as authority, and turns back to the old pagan gods of Northern Europe. Now all hatred of national Israel arises from rebellion against Divine sovereign election. We know that Israel has failed God: but God declares He will not fail them finally, whereas the hate of modern Gentiles (wiser than God--for are they not the "moderns"?) would seek to crush Israel and exalt Gentiledom. Of course, it will end in the Antichrist, but the Lord Jesus will end him, and all Gentile boasting, at "the forthshining of His arrival" (II Thess. 2:8, Rotherham).

[196] It is indeed an infinitely blessed fact that all who believe share in the benefits of that "everlasting covenant" of Heb. 13:20, made between the Father and the Son, on these conditions: that if the Son would come to earth and die for our sins, the Father would bring Him again from the dead as the great Shepherd of the sheep, Paul says in I Corinthians 11:25, "In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood." (The "New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" has not yet been made; for we read that it will be made after these [Gentile] days. See Acts 15:13-16.) When our Lord said therefore, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood," He must, we believe, refer to that covenant of Heb. 13:20; to which covenant, as we have said, the Father and the Son were parties. Even concerning the New Covenant to be made in the future with Israel, God says in Rom. 11:27: "And this is the covenant from Me unto them, when I shall take away their sins." It is no longer blessing conditioned on their obedience, but it is the day of Jehovah s "power" to Israel (Ps. 110:3), not merely a "visitation" (Luke 19:41-44).

[197] Some accurate book setting forth the absolute difference between the Church and Israel should be read, such as Israel and the Church, by James H. Brookes; or Mr. Blackstone's (W. E. B.) always excellent Jesus Is Coming.

[198] The questions concerning both Romans 9:5 and I Timothy 3:16 have arisen from the mists of doubt rather than from the heights of childlike faith in God's revelation of the deity of Christ. See Alford's excellent and exhaustive note on 9:5, from the end of which we quote: "No conjecture arising from doctrinal difficulty is ever to be admitted in the face of the consensus of mss. and versions. The rendering given above is, then, not only that most agreeable to the usage of the Apostle, but the only one admissible by the rules of grammar and arrangement. It also admirably suits the context: for having enumerated the historic advantages of the Jewish people, he concludes by stating one which ranks far higher than all,--that from them sprung, according to the flesh, He who is God over all, blessed forever."

[199] Here the apostle shows Israel from their own history that they must leave God to His sovereignty or else they must lose their promises; and then that in the exercise of this sovereignty He will let in the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. If, says Paul, you Israelites will take your promises by descent, we will just see what comes of it. You say, we be Abraham's seed, and have a right to the promises by descent; for these Gentiles are but dogs, and have no right to share with us in God's promises. Well, if God has His sovereignty, He will in grace let in these Gentile dogs! But now I will prove to you that you cannot take the promises by descent. In the first place, They are not all Israel which are of Israel'; yet if it is by descent you must take in all Abraham's seed, And if you take in Abraham's children, then you must take in Ishmael--those Arabians! Oh no, say they, we cannot allow that; what! Ishmaelites in the congregation of Israel, and heirs of promise? Yes, if by descent! You must take it by grace; and if it is by grace, God will not confine this grace to you, but will exercise it toward the Gentiles. "But now, to go further down in your history, you have Jacob and Esau; and if you go by descent, you must let in the Edomites by the same title as yourselves. But in verses 5 and 9, it says, The children of the promise are counted for the seed': so that it must rest on Isaac and Jacob, and Ishmael and Esau remain outside: therefore your mouth must now be closed as to descent, for your mouth is bound up by God's saying, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.' He has chosen, according to His sovereign title, to bless you, and on that alone your blessing depends; as your own history shows, and your own prophetic testimony proves. You cannot rest it on a mere title by descent. But further, see how their (the Jews') mouth is stopped: for when did God say, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy'? When every Israelite had lost all title to everything God had to give, then God retreated, if I may use the expression, into His own sovereignty, that He might not cut them off." [See Exodus 33:19, after the great breach made by Israel's worshipping the golden calf, while Moses was standing in the mount with Jehovah!] "By this act, Israel had forfeited everything: they had cast off the promises, which they had accepted on the condition of their own obedience (Ex. 19:8), and the God who made the promises, and who alone could fulfil them. Could God overlook this sin? Israel had undertaken to have the promises by their obedience; if God had dealt with Israel in righteousness, every one must have been cut off. What could God do, but retreat, as I said, into His own sovereignty? There He had a resource; for if any of them are to be spared, it must be in this way of mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.' Man is entirely lost, so now God says, I will act for Myself. Taking a truth in connection with all other truth gives it its right and proper place, and its own Divine force. "Say now, you Jews, (and you, my reader, ask yourself the question), will you be willing to be dealt with in righteousness? No, you would not! Then do not talk about it, until you can go to God on that footing. But if you have such a conviction of sin as stops your mouth about righteousness, and so excludes all boasting, you will rejoice in the mercy' and compassion' of God, who retreats into His own sovereignty, that He may know how to spare; because in this sovereignty He can show mercy."

[200] God has come forth at Calvary! He has set forth Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood. Here is infinite love, displayed when human sin was at its topmost height of frightful guilt and malignity. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34) were the words spoken in tenderness to God the Father by God the Son at the moment wicked hands were nailing Him to a cross of agony--spoken by One whose face was "marred more than any man." Therefore in the gospel is power to turn men's hearts, for it is the goodness of God that leadeth us to repentance. "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in my Name," said our risen Lord, He of the pierced hands and feet and side!

[201] Nevertheless, we must let certain Scriptures lie Just as they are, whether or not they consort with our conceptions, or whether we find ourselves able to "reconcile" them with our "theological system" or not. We quote a few of these Scriptures:

The wicked are estranged from the womb;

They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Ps. 58:3).

Jehovah hath made everything for its own end;

Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov 16:4).

They stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed" (I Pet. 2:8).

"Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall . . . die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he hath done shall not be remembered (Ezek 3:20). "Because they had not executed Mine ordinances, but had rejected My statutes, . . . I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances wherein they should not live" (Ezek 20:24,25). However, even in these passages, solemnly terrible as they are, we must separate God's actions from man's responsibility. God is not the author of evil; He tempteth no man; "He would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."

[202] Hodge's remarks here are excellent: "The passive participle may be taken as a verbal adjective, fit for destruction. Of the vessels of wrath, it is simply said that they are fit for destruction; but of the vessels of mercy, that God prepares them for glory. Why this change if the apostle did not intend to intimate that the agency of God is very different in the one case from what it is in the other? God does not create men in order to destroy them. God did not make Pharaoh wicked and obdurate; but as a punishment for his sin, he so dealt with him that the evil of his nature revealed itself in a form, and under circumstances, which made him a fit object of the punitive justice of God."

[203] See Gen. 45:7; Isaiah 1:9; 10:21,22; 11:11, 16; 46:3; Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 6:8; Amos 5:15; Mic. 2:12; 5:7, 8; Zeph. 2:7, 9; 3:13; Zech. 8:6, 11, 12.

[204] ln these passages brought by the Spirit from the Old Testament and fitting present times precisely, we are again face to face with the marvels of God's inspiration. William Kelly well says: "What a witness of Divine truth, of indiscriminate grace, that the gospel, in itself unprecedented and wholly distinct both from what was seen under the Law and what will be when the Kingdom appears in power and glory, does nevertheless find its justification from words both of mercy and of judgment uttered hundreds of years before by the various servants God sent to declare His message to His people! But, as they blindly despised them and rejected His word then for idols, so now they fulfilled them yet more in the rejection of Christ and hatred of the grace which, refused by them, was sought and received by Gentiles, and thus yet more proved the word Divine, to the confusion of the unbelief which is as blind as it is proud and selfish" (Kelly, Notes on Romans, in loc).

[205] So Paul to the Galatians: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not HEAR the law?" (Gal. 4:21.) Paul himself, he tells us, was "alive apart from the Law once,"--although he knew the Law and gloried in it and observed its outward ordinances. But the day came, as he showed in Chapter 7, when he "heard" it; it became a distinct spiritual command to his soul to do the righteousness commanded.

[206] Sir Robert Anderson relates: "A lady of my acquaintance, well known in the higher ranks of London society, called upon me one day to ask for police help, to relieve her from certain annoyances. Her evident distress at my inability to give her the protection she sought, led me to remark that the peace of God in the heart was a great antidote to trouble. "Ah," said she, "if I were only like you!" "If it depended on my merit," I replied with real sincerity, "it is you who would have the peace, not I", Presently her manner changed, and with tears in her eyes she told me something of her spiritual struggles. If she could be more earnest, more devout, more prayerful, she was sure that God would accept her. "I was greatly interested," I remarked, "by what I heard about the supper you gave the tramps last week. Did they offer you anything for it? Of course, they had no money, but they might have brought you some of their coats and shirts!" "If you had only seen their coats and shirts!" she exclaimed with a smile. "Filthy rags they were. I'm sure," said I, "and what you don't believe is that in God's sight all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.'" __________________________________________________________________