unfair

Romans 9:16-33

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

The Mysterious, Yet Merciful Ways of God

Romans 9:16-33

Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” – Romans 9:25 NLT

Paul has been emphasizing the point that God shows mercy on whomever He so chooses. And he knows that this difficult-to-understand reality about God is going to cause some of his readers to cry, “Foul!” They’re going to wrestle with the apparent fairness of a God who chooses some and not others. And in doing so, they will really be questioning the justice of God. But if God ever failed to be just, He would cease to be God. Yes, from our limited perspective, it would appear at times that God is acting in ways that are inconsistent with His character. But we can’t always see the bigger picture. We don’t have the ability to see what God is doing behind the scenes, orchestrating events and even sovereignly ordaining the affairs of men to accomplish His divine will. Paul uses the example of Pharaoh. Over and over again, God had spared Pharaoh, in spite of his open rebellion against God and his ongoing resistance to release the people of Israel from captivity. God would have been just in punishing Pharaoh for his stubborn opposition and open insolence, but God spared his life so that He might accomplish His will for the people of Israel. God always has a purpose behind His actions. What may appear to us as unfair and unjust can always be written up to the problem of our own limited perspective.

It is so easy for us to question God’s motives and doubt His goodness based on what we see. As human beings, we over-value our own importance, and under-appreciate God’s sovereign will. We look up from our restricted vantage point here on earth and shake our fist at God, demanding that He explain Himself. Which is why Paul uses the analogy of a potter working with clay. “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:21-23 NLT). The potter has the right to do as he wishes with the clay. He need not ask for permission or take a vote. He fashions the clay, forming it into vessels of various kinds, to be used according to his own purposes and plans. The same is true when it comes to God’s interactions with mankind. God has created us and He is fully just and right to do with us as He sees fit. Paul has clearly indicated that all men stand as guilty and condemned before God and worthy of death. All men and women have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. And yet, God has chosen to redeem some. He has chosen to show mercy on some and not on others. The very fact that God shows mercy on any should blow us all away. That God would extend His grace and mercy to Gentiles, when it appeared all along that His chosen people had been the Israelites, should show us that God is anything but unfair. Remember that God’s mercy and grace are always undeserved and unmerited. No one has the right to demand God’s goodness or should expect to receive God’s grace. Jew and Gentile alike, stand as guilty before God. “No one is righteous—not even one” (Romans 9:10 NLT). “No one does good, not a single one” (Romans 9:12 NLT). Even the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, were undeserving of God’s love and mercy. In spite of all that God had done for them, they continually and openly rebelled against Him. Yet, while He would have been justified in destroying them for their rebellion, God regularly preserved a remnant of them, so that His divine will could be fulfilled. God would have been fully just had He decided to destroy the entire nation, but He had made a promise to Abraham, and His divine character required that He keep that promise.

As Gentile believers, we stand before God as fully righteous and restored to a right relationship with Him, not because we deserved it or somehow earned it. We weren’t trying to keep God’s righteous standards, and yet we were shown mercy and received His grace. The Jews spent generations attempting to keep God’s righteous law in order to make themselves right before, but failed time and time again. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem both Jews and Gentiles. Neither group deserved to be shown mercy. Neither group was worthy of God’s grace. “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT). The very fact that God saves any of us should amaze and astound us. Somehow we have mistakenly assumed that God can be good only if He saves ALL. But we fail to remember that God would be fully just and right if He destroyed ALL. All men are deserving of death. All have sinned and fallen short of His glory. All are under a sentence of death. But God, in His mercy, has chosen to redeem some. He has graciously provided a way of escape for a remnant. And rather than rejoice in that amazing display of grace, we mistakenly and ungratefully question His goodness and fairness. And yet, the very fact that the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected Him as their Messiah and refused to accept Him as their Savior and as the Son of God, opened up the door so that we as Gentiles might be recipients of the Good News and the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Unfair? Hardly. Difficult to understand? Most certainly. But amazing grace nonetheless. God’s ways are not our ways. He is God and He does not need to report to us or explain Himself to us. Like a lump of clay, we are in no position to question the motives or mind of God. “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?” (Romans 11:33-35 NLT).

Father, while I may not always understand Your ways, I am growing ever more comfortable with them. I still question how and why You do things at times, but I am learning to trust You because You know what You are doing. You are God and I am not. You have a perspective that I do not. What appears as unfair to me, is right, just and holy from Your vantage point. The day will come when I am finally able to see things the way You do. “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT). In the meantime, give me a growing trust in Your sovereign, divine and holy will. You know what is best and You can be trusted at all times. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 11 – Matthew 14:4-12; Luke 3:19-20; John 1:26-27

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

Can This Be God’s Will?

Matthew 14:4-12; Luke 3:19-20; John 1:26-27

“So John was beheaded in prison.’” – Matthew 14:10 NLT

How many times in life does something happen that makes us ask the question, “Can this be God’s will?” Usually, it involves an event or situation that appears tragic, unfair, unexplainable or, in our minds, unacceptable. It could be the death of a child or a spouse. Someone innocent who is treated unfairly or accused unjustly. At those times in our lives, it is easy to question God and wonder about His will. Was He in charge? If so, why didn’t He do something about the situation? Why didn’t He intervene? Doesn’t He care? If it was all a part of God’s will, how can a loving God allow something so tragic or unjust to happen? Invariably, we begin to measure God based on our understanding of the circumstance, rather than the other way around.

Here in the opening days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we read the tragic story of the death of John the Baptist. John had been arrested by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, for publicly reprimanding him about having an immoral relationship with the wife of his brother, Phillip. Here was John, the cousin of Jesus, and the one chosen by God to herald the coming of the Messiah, locked in prison for speaking the truth of God. He and his disciples had to be wondering how this could have happened. He had a God-given job to perform. He didn’t have time to sit in prison. He had a message of repentance to preach and more people to baptize. But not only was John confined to jail, he was about to be beheaded at the request of Herod’s wife, as a party favor for a dance her daughter performed for his friends. John’s head would literally be handed over on a silver platter, ending his life and putting an end to his career as God’s voice in the wilderness.

But why? How could God allow this to happen? How could this tragic event be a part of His divine will? Those are legitimate and yet difficult questions. And there are no easy answers. But we must not allow ourselves to question the wisdom, righteousness, or justness of God. We must remind ourselves that at no point was God up in heaven shocked by these events, or caught off guard by the outcome. He was fully aware and fully in control – otherwise He would cease to be God as we know and understand Him. As difficult as it is for us to understand the why behind events like these, we must refrain from questioning the Who. God reminds us, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT). God does not always act in ways that we can understand or comprehend. He does not operate according to a rule book devised by men. There are things happening behind the scenes that we cannot see. There are outcomes we are not aware of. We tend to equate the activity of God with those events we deem good and that produce for us a measure of happiness. A job promotion most certainly be God’s will. The birth of a baby must be His will. A bride and groom exchanging vows and rings has to be within the will of God. But should anything seemingly negative or unfair happen in or around our lives, and suddenly we begin to question God and His will. And yet, when Job found himself covered in sores, financially devastated, and having lost all of his children through a tragic event, he told his wife, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” (Job 2:10 NLT).

Yes, John the Baptist died a tragic, undeserved death. From our point of view, it was unnecessary, unfair and far to early in his young life. But God had a reason. There was a purpose behind it all. Does He explain it to us? No. Is He obligated to explain Himself to us? No. But would the death of Jesus be any less tragic, unfair, seemingly unnecessary, and unacceptable to the disciples when it took place just a few years later? No. Would they question the will of God for allowing their Messiah to be murdered at the hands of their own religious leaders? Probably. But God had a purpose. God had a plan. It was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die. And for some reason, it was necessary for John to do the same. Why? I don’t know. We can speculate that God needed to remove John from the scene so that there would be no chance of anyone mistaking John for the Messiah, but the Scriptures don’t tell us. God doesn’t give us His reasoning. But rather than view God through the lens of life’s events, we must learn to view life’s events through the character of God. We must remind ourselves that He is all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful, sovereign, wise, just, righteous, holy, merciful, gracious, and in complete control of ALL that is happening in the world around us. We see only in part. Our perspective is limited. Our understanding is restricted. So we must learn to trust that God, in His infinite wisdom and love, is doing what He knows to be best, according to His divine, perfect will.

Father, open our eyes and help us to see You. It is so easy to concentrate on what we see happening and not recognize that we have a faithful, loving, all-powerful God working behind the scenes in ways that we cannot see or comprehend. We have such limited perspectives and are quick to call You unjust or unfair without knowing the full outcome. Teach us to continue to trust You even when we don’t understand. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org