Is This Offensive?

Romans 9:14-18 (NASB)
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 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. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

Is this offensive to you? Does it interfere with your sense of "fairness"? I have come to the conclusion today that Romans 9 is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. It tells me more about God and His glory than any other chapter in the Bible ... maybe.

We are discussing a book by Erwin Lutzer in Sunday school: Ten Lies About God. In the three lessons I have lead the discussion, each seem to have at their core the desire to exalt man over God. Whether it is God's command over nature and the horrible natural disasters that occur, the condemnation of non-believers who never had a "chance" to hear the gospel, or God's freedom in election, each lie wants to exalt man and blame God. The old question of "Why do bad things happen to good people" pops it's head up. In a moment of clarity during one f the lessons, I asked the question, "From God's perspective, who is innocent?" If Romans 3 does not come to mind, go read your Bible. Paul concludes that there is none righteous and that all have sinned. We never learn God's perspective do we? That's what theology does and that's just for the academia and for the preachers and Bible-thumpers. Jonathan Edwards would disagree.

Although a Calvinist, and in this day and age that's a bad word and labels people as uncaring and impractical, Edwards life and view of all things flowed from his belief about who God is. For Edwards, obedience to the commands of Christ was preeminent to the Christian life. What were Christ's commands? Love God and love your neighbor, and not in word only but in DEED and in TRUTH. People also hate the book of James, but James is pointing to the obvious fact that real faith requires an attitude of the heart followed by a subsequent act of obedience. If we say we love Christ but do not love others around us and meet their needs as Christ did, are we fooling ourselves? C.S. Lewis says that what we are comes out in what we do. That's a good statement because it agrees with Jesus words in Mark 7. At our core we are and always will be sinners thus none of us are innocent before God. So to charge God with guilt over bad things happening to "good" people is false.

Why then do we as the creatures say to the Creator, "That's not fair"? It is a symptom of the sin in our heart. Although we have sinned like Adam, we want to make God obligated and bound to our will and desire and free ourselves from responsibility. If you have children or work with children this concept should be easy to grasp. When the child does wrong they want to justify and blame us and make excuses, thus charging us with guilt for their transgression. Does this remind you of Adam's response to God seeking him in the garden? "The woman whom YOU gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." It's your fault God!! If you had not given me this woman, I wouldn't have eaten!! It's her fault God!! Yet in the end if you look at scripture, Adam freely took of the fruit and ate it. 


So, why do Christians have a problem with free election of God in salvation? I think there are at least a couple of things I can point to. First is our sinful nature. As a Christian we still have to deal with and subdue those old desires. We still say to God; "That's not fair!" We still want to shackle God with our perspective and sense of fairness. Second is the American culture. We have developed a deep abiding sense of entitlement in America. We believe that we are exceptional people and we are. We do more than any other nation to help the poor of our nation and those of other nations as well. Unfortunately we ascribe our greatness to our people or our form of government rather than God. We can see the influence of Christ's teachings in taking care of the sick and the poor, yet we ascribe it to our innate goodness. Once again we exalt man and dethrone God.


Even so, scripture says that God "has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." You can either accept it or stand with those who accuse God and say, "That's not fair!" I think I am with Joshua on this one.