God's Soverign Will

God's Soverign Will
Exodus 38-40 | Psalm 30 | Romans 9

Today we finished our reading of the Book of Exodus, and have found in the preceeding text (Genesis and Exodus) an account of the creation of the world, and the history of the early Israelites. We saw how God chose Israel of all the nations, to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation". Israel was not a large nation, nor was it powerful, yet God chose to reveal Himself to that nation, to guide it and use it for His glory.

Out of Israel, we will learn, comes the great King David, who authored the Psalms read so far, and His Son, King Solomon: the wisest King on earth. More important still, from the line of David, and from the nation that God chose, comes the human ancestry of Christ.

Though we have seen the constant failure of the Israelites to obey God (e.g., the lack of trust in the exodus from Egypt, and the golden calf), He has remained faithful to them, and still delivered them and used them. The Book of Exodus conlcudes with Israel now set to worship God as He desires: with the priesthood set up, the tabernacle built and all other of God's instructions to the people through Moses completed satisfactorially. The Israelites are physically prepared to worship God as He desires, yet we will find that they fail constantly and consistently.

But as Paul points out in our reading from Romans today, God will often choose the unlikely for His purposes - it is up to Him - He "has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden"(v.18).

It is similar in the lives of all Christians. There is a clear stream of teaching in the Bible that all believers were chosen by God before creation, not by any merit of their own but only because of God's soverign good pleasure, to be believers. This is called the teaching of predestination.

Many people take offence at the notion that the only way they will be saved is if God has chosen them to be one of the saved - and they remark similar to the imagined opponent of Paul's: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists His will?"

It is not uncommon for people, believers and non-believers, to view this world from their own perspective and claim a proportion of fairness from their own viewpoint and in relation to the impact upon themselves: it is often forgotton to seek to understand God's viewpoint, God's perspective, God's position. He created us for His purposes, yet we do not trust Him or see His position!

In this case, Paul replies to such an objection with: "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the Potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"

God nevertheless has shown His love in this matter by saying elsewhere that it is His will that all be saved (1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9), and that any who ask will be forgiven and granted life (Matt. 11:28, Rev. 22:17). It is from the meeting of these two concepts - that God has elected some and not others, and that it is His will that all are saved - that the confusion arises in the teaching of predestination.

Yet there should be no frustration with this, as predestination as a concept does not impact people in any way: it is for God to understand. We do not know whom God has chosen to believe in Him, we are simply called to preach His word faithfully and seek the salvation of the lost. Those who accept the truth of God into their lives are those that God chose; those whom reject God to the grave, are not part of the elect.

It remains that God is soverign: He did create us and in the very act of doing so, knowing all things and living outside of time, committed His creation to a destiny He already knew. Perhaps this is the extent of predestination, or perhaps God works actively in everyone to see the slavation only of the elect.

We must simply trust that the God who loved us enough to send His Son to die for us, who has given us His Word in the Bible, and who cares for us and guides us in everyday life; knows what He is doing.

Praise God for choosing you before He knew you, and pray that you may proclaim His gospel faithfully, in words and deeds, so that others may know Him as well.