God Loves… Himself

Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

It may seem as if this whole series on the Gospel of grace alone has been nothing more than a rehearsal of one point. In many ways that is true. There have been so many things that have been brought into professing Christianity under the guise of or in accordance with grace alone that this point needs to be stressed over and over. It does not matter the name or the titles, if a person is pursuing righteousness in any other way than by grace alone through faith alone, that person is stumbling over some law of righteousness. It does not matter if a person is pursuing righteousness by the name of grace alone if in fact that person is not pursuing righteousness by a biblical grace in reality. It does not matter if a person is pursuing righteousness by faith alone if in fact the person is not pursuing righteousness in accordance with biblical faith.

A person can stumble by works while calling them grace and faith. A person can be caused to stumble over Christ as the stone of stumbling while thinking that s/he is seeking Christ. If a person is not pursuing Christ and His righteousness by grace alone through faith alone in truth and reality, that person is stumbling over Christ while using the name of Christ. As in Galatians 1:6, there are many today who are deserting Christ while using the words “grace” and “faith” and thinking that they are seeking Christ. They are either distorting the Gospel themselves or they believe in a distorted gospel.

It does not matter what a person says or what creed a person thinks that s/he believes, but if a person is seeking to be justified by any other method than the true Christ by a true grace that person is seeking to be justified in a false way and that way is antithetical to the Gospel of grace alone. It is not just a minor thing when someone distorts the Gospel and leads others astray, for those who do not have the true Gospel will suffer in hell forever. It is not enough to pray a prayer and be more, even if one is very, very moral and very, very nice, a person must have the righteousness of Christ by grace alone or that person will suffer the eternal wrath of God. The Gospel of grace alone must be preached and taught constantly and consistently or the people will be led astray by distortions from all manners of people.

Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

Once again, this is a passage from Romans 9 that declares that the Gospel is all of grace and nothing but grace. While this is impossible for the natural man to relish and understand with a spiritual understanding, which is why natural men hate this chapter (whether religious, ministers, professing Christians or not), this is a delight to those who love the freedom of God in saving sinners. This passage is sweet to those who have died to all hope in self and see themselves as utterly beyond saving unless God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The soul that sees itself as dead and beyond doing anything spiritual in its own power will delight in this passage as it sees God as having the ability to save sinners without any help at all from sinners. The soul that has lost all hope in its own self-sufficiency and knows that it has no ability and no sufficiency in the realm of salvation is happy to think upon the grace of God which saves sinners, even despite who they are and what they are done rather than look to them for some good in them and/or some decent works.

The doctrine of God’s loving sinners freely and setting His love on them because of who He is rather than who they are strips men of all pride and confidence in the flesh. Indeed men will be inclined to complain and accuse God of injustice, but there is no real complaint against God the Potter that can come from man the clay. As one thinks through this, the conclusion is quite evident. Puny little man has no claim against his Maker who has the right to make of man as He (God) pleases. Is a potter wrong for taking a lump of clay and making one vessel for honorable use out of it and yet from the same lump making another vessel for common use? The difference between the vessels is not what the vessels have done and not the quality of the clay, but in the mere pleasure of the potter. The point is quite clear. It is the potter that makes the choice of what to make out of the clay. In the Divine sense, this teaches us that it is the Divine Potter who has the right over the clay to do with them as He pleases and there is no real complaint that will stand up.

Can we really complain if God does make human beings out of clay and endures with them as vessels of wrath? He is under no obligation to use a lump of clay and make all human beings the same out of that clay. To some, however, He will make known the riches of His glory upon them and in them as vessels of mercy. But again, what we see is the choice of the living God that makes the difference. The Gospel shines so brightly here and in a unique way. The Scriptures are clear that all men are sinners and that God must elect to save sinners or they will not be saved. But in this passage we see that all men are from the same lump of clay and God is free to make them as He pleases. Those who are vessels of wrath in some way make for the shining forth of His glory even brighter toward the vessels of mercy. This is not some ugly and horrid teaching stuffed away in a hidden part of the Old Testament, but instead this is set out to show how sinners are saved by grace alone. This should lead sinners to bow before the Lord of glory and marvel at His sovereign grace.

How this should move sinners to absolute humility and emptiness of self and pride before God. How this should teach sinners how to seek God in terms of salvation. They are not to seek Him as if He owed them anything, but instead as nothing more than a lump of clay that He can do with as He pleases. God has the right and the power to do with any and all sinners as He pleases, which shows us with great clarity that that Gospel of grace alone is true and cannot be wrong. The glorious Gospel of grace alone is that God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace and so He can save the worst of sinners because He saves based on Himself and not on what the sinner has done. He is free and gloriously free to save by grace alone and there is no one who can charge Him with wrong. Oh how beautiful is the glory of sovereign grace!

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 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.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

One of the sobering and yet glorious teachings of Scripture on election is that not only does God have mercy on whom He will have mercy and have compassion on whom He will have compassion, but He also hardens those whom He desires. Oh how this causes the natural man to gnash his teeth at the true sovereign of the universe as the natural man desires to be in control and sovereign over himself, which is to say that the natural man would be a god unto himself. But Scripture teaches us very clearly that it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. But what if God has no desire to choose mercy? He does, after all, have mercy on whom He desires (v. 18). But if He does not desire to show mercy, what are we to say at that?

We are also told that God hardens whom He desires. This is such a hard teaching that is ignored and is the cause for many to avoid teaching Romans 9, but even those who dare to teach it don’t really address many of the issues. This hard teaching is necessary, however, if we are going to understand the true nature of grace. To repeat or quote Scripture again, “He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” For God to show mercy in an aspect of grace, but for Him to harden it is an aspect of His justice. His glory shines either way. While that sounds calloused, we are left with no other place to stand on by Scripture and we should not want to stand at any other point than where Scripture stands.

But this great teaching teaches us to encourage sinners to flee from sin because God may harden their hearts and turn them over to sin. It is not that sinners just sin and their wills are free to sin in this life without judgment, but each sin is judged and judged immediately whether one sees it or not. Sin hardens the hearts of sinners and they are turned over to more and more sin. Sin brings judgment in this life and in the life to come. It is by grace alone that God takes sinners that are hardened in sin and to the glory of His grace He softens their hearts and converts them at His mere pleasure.

Another aspect of this teaching is that the thrice holy God is under no obligation to those who sin and are hardened in their sin. While they continue in bondage to sin and sin makes the bondage worse and worse, sinners are helpless in their sin while they are piling more and more burdens upon themselves. Sinners have no power to undo sin or to take sin off of their backs, but sinners are completely at the mercy of God to do as He pleases with them. It takes the blood of Christ to take the guilt of sin away and sinners cannot apply that to themselves. It takes an infinite power to rescue sinners from the power of sin, the devil, and of self. That infinite power can only be exerted by the living God.

Yes, this is a hard teaching and it is rejected by many in the modern day. But this teaching will also set out the grace of God and put it on display for all to see. While justice screams for God to judge sinners and to harden them, God shows mercy and grace and saves sinners by Christ in a way that satisfies perfect justice and yet puts the glory of grace on display for angelic beings and sinners to admire. The right of God to harden the hearts of sinners as a judicial judgment is one thing to admit as true in accordance with a creed, but to bow before God and confess His righteous judgment on us and look to grace alone is quite another. But until we see how righteous God is to harden us in our sin and damn us, we will not see with great clarity that God saves sinners by His grace alone.

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 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.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

The glorious Gospel is full of glory because it is all about the beauty and glory of God. The Gospel is said to be the Gospel of the glory of God and the Gospel of the glory of Christ. While human beings want to make the Gospel focus on men and men will see a glory in the Gospel as long as it is about them, the true Gospel of grace alone will have no glory for the unregenerate person to see. The unregenerate person does not have spiritual eyes to see the true glory of Christ but instead will only think of that as glorious which has to do with self. The unregenerate person does not have spiritual ears and so cannot hear the voice of God speaking forth His glory, but instead man only has ears for things that do not destroy his pride and self-sufficiency.

The glory of the Gospel is that God has mercy rather than salvation depending on men to will or run. The glory of Gospel is not that God provides men salvation by grace and then leaves it to them to choose it or not, but instead the glory of the Gospel is all about the grace of God in overcoming the obstinate will of man and making him willing in the day of His power. The Gospel is not about man becoming religious or moral in his own strength or even with some help, but about God changing the heart of man and by grace changing man where he will grow to become more and more like Christ by His grace. It is the glory of His grace that is on display rather than the salvation of men depending on their own wills or their own running. This is so hard for the proud heart of men and the focus of themselves on self. Instead of man looking to self and his worth, works, and will for salvation, he must look to the mercy and grace of God alone. This is why in older days men taught that men must be humbled and broken in order to be saved. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

The Scriptures specifically and undeniably teach in this place that God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and that He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. The Scriptures specifically and undeniably teach in this place that salvation does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs (the efforts of man), but instead it rests upon God to have mercy. The contrast is quite clear. On the one side we have many today who focus on the will of man as the issue in salvation. On another side we have many today who focus on the efforts (effort in works and morality) of man. The third side, it seems, is quite small and perhaps even very small. These are the ones who look to the grace of God alone in all things rather than their own will and works or morality. But what we must see is that these are the ones who think of grace as sovereign rather than something man can will or act in order to get God to do something. These are the ones who stand for a Gospel of grace alone looking to the hand of God alone to give grace and nothing else.

Yes, it is true, that sinners must repent and believe. But once again, do sinners repent and believe because of their own wills and their own efforts or because of the mercy and compassion of God? Are those sinners taught to repent and believe from their own strength and their own wills and efforts? If so, those sinners are not hearing the truth of the Gospel of grace alone. Their real hope and their real trust will still be in self as long as their hope and trust are in their own wills and efforts. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, though exceedingly and abundantly free, requires the whole person and all of that person. It requires people to give up all efforts of self and hope in self because when grace comes it gives a person an entire and whole hope in Christ alone. Yes, it requires death to self and death to pride, but it is still the Gospel of grace alone and it will work that death to self in the person by grace so that the whole of the Gospel may be by grace and grace alone.

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 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.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

The Gospel of grace alone stands firm upon the eternal plans and will of God rather than the mortal plans and will of man. The Gospel of grace alone stands firm on the choices of God rather than choices of man. The Gospel of grace alone stands of the mercy and grace of God rather than the goodness of man regardless of whether it is by his birth or by his activity. The Gospel of grace alone stands on the works of God rather than the works of man. The Gospel of grace alone stands on the fact that salvation depends on the will and activity of God rather than the will and activity of man. The Gospel of grace alone stands on the fact that God has mercy on whom He desires rather than on man choosing for God to have mercy on himself.

The fact that God loved Jacob and hated Esau was not found in their own merits, righteousness, or works, but in the fact that God has the right to do with them as He pleased. This is a hard teaching for people to accept, but this is the great safeguard for the Gospel to be by grace alone rather than something that man attains to in some way. The text (above) is very clear on this and one has to try hard to get around that it is so clearly saying. This is to say that it takes a lot of theological and hermeneutical gymnastics to get around this plain teaching. God loved Jacob and hated Esau and so the natural objection (which Paul answers) is that there is some injustice with God. But Paul’s answer to that objection is not some philosophical answer based on some form of human-centered focus, but instead he goes to the words of God to Moses. God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion.

If the natural man (including the natural and religious man) did not rebel against that teaching so much the case would be closed at this point. God is not under any obligation to any particular person mercy or compassion, nor is He under obligation to any denomination or religious circle to show mercy or compassion. God shows mercy or compassion to those whom He is pleased to show. God does not show mercy and compassion because a person is born into a Christian home, nor does He show mercy and compassion because a person works and is good. God shows mercy and compassion because He wills to do so and this is based solely on Himself.

The issue of grace versus human goodness and works comes to the surface with great clarity at this point. God shows mercy and compassion on whom He is pleased to do so and not because of anything found in any one human or all humans together. He loved Jacob and hated Esau precisely because He was sovereign and it pleased Him to have mercy and compassion on one and not the other. God is free to set His love on those whom He is pleased to do so and He is free to pass over all those He is pleased to do so. The showing of mercy and compassion arises from God Himself and His own holiness, but not because of man. God created all things through and for Christ and man is for Christ rather than Christ being for man in the ultimate sense. Christ came in order to manifest the glory of the Father rather than to demonstrate the value and worth of man.

What is seen in this text is that God is utterly sovereign in His showing of mercy and compassion. How this fits with the Gospel of grace alone. What is called “grace” in the modern day is no real grace at all because it depends on man rather than on God. The modern day thinks of “grace” as that which man has to do something in order to receive it, but the Scriptures know of no such thing. There is no condition for man to keep or the Gospel is not of grace alone. The Gospel is all of grace and nothing but grace and as such it rests on the will of God to show grace or not as He pleases. This is a delight to the soul that has been taught of God to delight in Him and His grace.