This week, we are going to continue addressing this third question raised by Paul, “Why does God still find fault?” (Romans (9:19-29).  As a reminder, this question brings to the forefront the most common argument raised against the doctrine of election and predestination.  Since God is sovereign, how then is He right, how then is He just to punish those who could never stand against His will?  Why would God judge them?  Why would God choose to operate in this way, when He can show mercy?

We began addressing this question by looking at the contention (v19) between the created and his Creator, which manifests in the attitude, a critical spirit, brought forth by the created through the question being asked.  This person is not seeking truth; he simply wants to be self-justified.  We looked at how God’s word stands against this attitude. Next, we examined the contrast (vv 20-21), what it is God is doing with the lump of clay that makes up all of humanity.  Some of the clay He fashions for honorable use, some for dishonorable use, for judgment.  Finally, we concluded by looking at the consultation (vv 22-23).  Here, God reveals that He has determined it is His sovereignty over the lump of clay that gives Him the most glory.  Here, in these two verses, God gives one of the answers to this third question in that everything He does is a manifestation of His character.  God’s glory is the sum of His character, the sum of who He is and herein lies the problem: in this truth, people are brought face to face with who God is and the way He operates.

And in v23, we find that God truly operates this way, “in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory–”.  In this verse, in this skimmed over, breezed through, confused by, disdained section of Scripture, God is leading us to the cross, face to face with Christ.  We know this because we see in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God,...has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Not only is God through Paul leading us to the cross of Christ, Paul is also revealing God’s hidden mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16), that God is producing a sanctified people to include both Jews and Gentiles.  He still finds fault because He has decided that the riches of His glory are reserved for vessels of mercy He prepared beforehand, both Jews and Gentiles.

That is where we find ourselves today, in vv 24-26: God actively fashioning an “unlikely” people…us…into vessels of honor.  Here (vv 25-26) we find the very essence of our testimony unfolding in four merciful acts by God: a calling, a possession, a love and a position.

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Romans 9:22-26 (ESV): 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,  23 in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory–  24 even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed He says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people’, and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved’.”  26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’.”

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There are two key points to cover in this section of Scripture, only one of which we will cover today: salvation is (also) for the Gentiles.  As we think about our salvation, our testimony, we see in this passage that there are four merciful acts we each experience by the hand of God. The first is…

1. His Calling (v25) - from Hosea, which the Holy Spirit is inspiring Paul to truth, previously not fully understood, a hidden meaning, we see that God’s predetermined plan included us, Gentiles: a people (Gentiles) who are not God’s people, He will call them.   The Jews thought only they were God’s elect. Paul is confirming that God has other elect people, including Gentiles, a very pagan people who historically fought against God’s people and literally worshiped everything under the sun.  In this election, in this calling of Gentiles, so very offensive to the Jews, we find the mercy of God so fantastic, so incomprehensible. In His sovereignty, God is effectually calling sinners (us) to Himself, drawing them to Himself.  This drawing is internal, irresistible and it takes the sinner to repentance.  It so overwhelms the innate rebellion in the sinner with a willingness to place his faith in Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:13). Jesus emphasizes this call in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  And I will raise him up on the last day.” To God’s elect, this calling by Him is an “aroma of life”.  God is going to be in them and they are going to be in Him.  God is going to lay hold of them, He is going to draw them to Himself as they respond to the voice of the Shepherd.  Paul is drawing attention to this calling, this sovereignty of God and how we are saved…by His calling.  It is God who calls, saves, elects and makes known the riches of His glory.  This is why Paul changes Hosea’s words from “saved” to “called” to emphasize what God is doing.

Where were we when God called us?  We were not His people, we were aliens, we were wanderers in the world: then, God finds and calls us.  

Consider: It should be a fantastic truth to think about where we were when God called us, when His gospel called out to us.  No matter where we were, no matter what we were doing, we were not “His people”, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, as physically dead as was Lazarus. Just as Christ called Lazarus out of the grave to physical life, God, through Christ, called us out (John 10:3) and we were regenerated with life, eternal life.  It is fantastic to see how God calls us individually, calls us personally, calls us powerfully, overcoming this bondage of the will to which we are shackled, enslaved, all for people who are against Him.  “While we were still weak (sinners), Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

But, God not only calls believers from among the Gentiles, He also …

2. (Makes them His) Possession (v25) - “those who were not my people, I will call, ‘my people’.”  Yet again, God through Paul, is revealing a meaning not previously understood by the nation of Israel with regards to the prophecy of Hosea.  Unbeknownst to Hosea, God was including a calling of another people, Gentiles.  From the very beginning of his letter to the Romans, Paul has been very clear that Gentiles are included in God’s plan of salvation (Romans 1:4b-5, 13-14) and have been from the very beginning, “prepared beforehand”.  Paul continues referring to this inclusion in subsequent chapters.  The result of this calling, of God’s proclamation of peace to us who were far off and not near (Ephesians 2:17), is becoming the people of God, His possession; that is who we are and this is confirmed in I Peter 2:9-10: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 

This brings us to the third merciful act in that God…

3. (Calls them) Beloved (v25) - It is typical for Paul to closely associate the call of God with the love of God.  Paul is being inspired by God through His Holy Spirit to express exactly what God is doing in salvation: although God is granting us mercy, He is calling us for the purpose of love, to share in His love.  Happening before our eyes in this text is the coming to fruition of Christ’s priestly prayer offered in John 17:23, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  God is beginning to graft us into this “trinitarian” love; however, it is not until we truly enter His presence where we will be fully enveloped in this love.  When a believer advocates holding onto this life,  he clearly has no concept of the love of God to be experienced when we are with Him in eternity.  God removes us from the status of being unloved and places us as the beloved bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-32), intimately loved, the marriage of which will be fulfilled in eternity (Revelation 19:6-8). 

Yet, our testimony does not stop there with being called beloved by God because He now moves us into a different…

4. Position - You are now, “...sons of the living God.”  God finds us where we are and He shows us that He can/will work in our lives no matter our past, no matter our upbringing.  Our environment does not save us, our location does not save us, the influence of man does not save us; but, if we are to be honest with ourselves, is that not how we strive to live our lives and raise our children? God requires two things of us, those who are His called: first, we are to be faithful…the message of Romans, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17)...with the message of God, and second, we are to be faithful in living out that message, which we will see later in Romans 12.  Yes, we are to create a Christian environment in which we live and operate and to exert a Christian influence for our children; but, we cannot have in our minds that it was those efforts that saved them.  We must humbly submit to God and recognize/acknowledge that God has to save them and we trust Him in His saving, His calling.  We praise Him because He does the saving.

Where we are in life has no bearing on our salvation nor does it hinder us. We were against God, He called us, He took us out of foreign lands and placed us under the pinions of His wings and now cares for us as His own.  Spiritual orphans have become His sons and daughters!  This is our testimony – God works in our lives to save us, we receive His call, we are exiles who    become His possession, we are unloved and become loved by Him, we are spiritual orphans in a foreign land and He brings us to be sons of the living God.

Some still ask, “Why does He still find fault?”  So, that God’s glory is on display and is set on a backdrop of how He saves people.  The next time someone asks you to share your testimony, simply take them to Romans 9:25-26.  25 As indeed He says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people’, and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved’.”  26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’.”

Praise God for how He works in our lives!

SELAH:
 

• Where were you and what did your life look like when God called you?

• When was the last time you honestly considered the fantastic truth of God’s calling on your life and praised Him for His merciful calling you out from certain (eternal) death?

• Does the truth of who God is and what He has done for you in your election, in God’s calling on your life, in making you His possession, generate in you a desire to, “...proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”?  If not, then why?

• Do you, as one who has been called out, really know the God who has called you and is the truth of your understanding of God’s call on your life on display throughout your realm of influence, where you live, work and play?