로마서 2020rom12(9:1-33) God's Sovereignty and Mercy
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Lesson 12 Romans 2020
Word | Romans 9:1-33
Key Verse | Romans 9:16
God's Sovereignty and Mercy
“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
We sometimes wondered why I was born in a poor family? Why do I look like this? Why did God make me born into a shepherd's family? Why do I have this problem?... and so on. There are troubles that remain unanswered. Apostle Paul eagerly preached the gospel to the Jews, but they refuse to accept it which brings us questions. Why do they reject Messiah and disrupt in spreading gospel, though they are a nation chosen by God? I would like to pray that we have faith of sovereignty and think about God’s sovereignty and compassion through Apostle Paul.
There are many spiritual blessings and privileges that Jews have received from God. He saved them from slavery and adopted them, and he showed them the glory of God. No other country has experienced God's ability and His presence as much as Israel. God has made a covenant with them, and he gave them the law, and the ancestors of worship, promises and faith are Jews. Even Jesus was Jewish. Nevertheless, the Jews refused to accept Jesus as Messiah and rejected Him. The Apostle, Paul, was a Jew of the Jews, who was eager for the law. It is greatly indebted to him that he was called an apostle of gentiles from the persecutors. He hoped and confessed that if only his brothers, blood relatives, could be saved, he can be cursed and cut off from Christ. That much, Paul knew God's heart well and was heartbroken by the integrity of his fellow Jews.
From verse 6, it says about God's sovereign choice. Look at verse 6. "It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." Not all Jews are saved. We are children of God for children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:13). I have only been saved by the will of God.
And it says that nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children; on the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, the children of the flesh are not the children of God. Only children of promise are considered as descendants. Besides Ismael and Isaac, Abraham had six children from his concubine after Sarah's death, but Isaac was the only child of the covenant. Israel thinks they have been saved by blood, but God does not choose by blood. Israel had a mission to send Messiah to this world. They also had the mission of the holy people, the priests' kingdom. But just because you live up to your mission doesn't mean you're saved. Saul was appointed king of Israel, but he was abandoned.
Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
God chose the children before they were even born. In Ephesians 1:4, it says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." God chose us before the creation. The reason why God chooses to do this is to make His will stand only by his calling, not by His deeds. It's not because I'm nice or useful or good at something. Everyone is a sinner and is not qualified. Everyone is the one who only deserves to be destroyed, but God has chosen us with compassion. It is no good that I was chosen by God. God's choice was to destroy the righteousness of man, so that he would not boast. But the people of Israel ignored the gentiles, because they considered themselves as righteous people. They did not accept the will to deliver God’s message to gentiles, but was indifferent to them. It is God's grace that we have been saved. Are they all people of God because they were born into a family that believed in Jesus? No. Pastor Ho Seong Gi, the international representative of the Professionals for Global Missions, said, "The most urgent mission of this era is my children and the next generation." We should pray and preach the gospel for their regeneration. God’s future is opened. We cannot tell who has been saved or abandoned, so we must preach, pray and wait. Now a man is in a mess, and if God chooses him, we can hope that he will be changed. If God's will is based on human behavior, no one can be saved because man is weak. Even if you are chosen, you will be abandoned because of mistakes and faults. But, because God chooses His own way, not based on human’s behavior, even unqualified sinners can be saved. And after they're saved, they're not abandoned. God's salvation cannot be shaken and cannot be changed, for this salvation is only by God.
If God chose Jacob, but not Esau in the situation of no one doing any good or evil, it would be unfair. How can you say God is righteous, if He chooses to save people at random, not based on human behavior? In response to this hypothetical question, Paul firmly says, "Not at all!" If He judges according to work, all men will not be saved. It was not unfair that God chose Jacob before he did any good or evil, but because of His compassion. For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. God said this after the people of Israel made and worshipped the golden calf. God said that He will build a new nation through Moses. But Moses puts his life on the line and asks God to forgive the people of Israel and continue to be with them. Moses urged God to forgive His people for sake of erasing his name from the book of life. He knew the heart of God. That's why he was able to pray. God heard Moses' prayer. God is the God of compassion. Apostle Paul devoted chapters 9-11 to explain God's mercy.
Look at verses 17 and 18. "For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” So God has made Pharaoh wicked. Hardening his heart does not instill evil in his mind. God just leaves the evil state of Pharaoh. Pharaoh did not repent, even though he had ten plagues. Ten plagues have shown that idols are all for nothing. Egypt and the whole world knew that Lord God was true God. God spread His power and HIis name to the whole earth through Pharaoh's wickedness. Pharaoh became completely evil to reveal who God was. We don't know why God does this. We can ask endless questions, but we don't know everything. But the most obvious answer is that God liked it.
Look at verses 19-21. "19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?" Who would anyone dare ask back God? We are creation and God is the Creator. God and man are not in the same class. A potter can make celadon, an earthenware pot, or a chamber pot with a lump of clay. It is the potter’s choice. Mud can't argue, "Why did you make me into a chamber pot?" Because whatever he makes, it is his mind. As we have freedom, God has freedom.
What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—? It is God's freedom. God bore with great patience the objects of his wrath, but He has not forgiven it. Jews were the first of all the peoples to hear the gospel. They were also in a spiritual environment where they could trust and accept the gospel more than any other nations. But they were obsessed by the sense of privilege that they were descendants of Abraham by descent, and they thought they did not need God's grace. They thought that they could be recognized by God as righteous through the law, because they lived according to the law. They did not acknowledge how much of sinners they were in the presence of God. As sinners, they had no deep repentance. God has left these wicked Jews in their loss. As a result, the gospel was delivered to gentiles, and many people were saved. So the ultimate purpose of God's use of sovereign freedom is to show mercy to more people and save them.
Life of faith is not living by my way, but by receiving the sovereignty of God and obeying His will. If we resist God's absolute sovereignty over our lives, we will fall down like Jews. Cain was not able to receive the sovereignty of God, who only took the sacrifice of Abel. He struck down his brother Abel out of opposition and envy. As a result, he had to spend his life in fear, anxiety and wandering.
On the contrary, Job tried to live a pure life before God. Nevertheless, in the time of Satan, he lost all his children's property in one morning and was unable to die of a serious illness. But even in this difficult reality, he welcomed and praised God's absolute sovereignty. " and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.” " (Job1:21) He was able to sing like this, because he believed in God's goodness and kindness. In order for our faith to mature, we must recognize God's sovereignty. When we recognize God's sovereignty, we can be humble and move on to the deep world of grace.
God wants everyone to be saved. We complain about why Jesus is so late when He promised to come back, and we doubt His promise. However, if Jesus had already come, we would not have been saved. We wouldn't have enjoyed life in this world. God is enduring for a long time to save one more person. If we know the heart of God, we must preach the gospel to save even one more.
From the Bible, to whom does an “object of His glory” point to? It is us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (24). Those who accept Jesus are objects of His glory. There is a prophecy in Hoshea's writing that gentiles will be saved. Look at verses 25 and 26. "25 As he says in Hosea:
“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” Those who are not my people are non-Jews. But God saved not only from the Jews but also from the non-Jews. Prophet Isaiah says the fact that only the remaining Jews are saved like this: " 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”(27-29)" The idea of saving only the remaining ones is constantly emphasized in the Old Testament. Israel has persecuted but there were people who stayed, and they have formed their first church and have been used in the history of world salvation.
How should we look at the young generation now? Now is the time when Christians are becoming a minority. The mainstream of society is rejecting and attacking the gospel. But there is holy descendant that God has left behind. There are those who fear God even in the midst of corrupt times. They live by the word of God. Even though all men betray God, the rest will not leave till the end. In Elijah's time all the Israelites knelt down to Baal. So Elijah lamented that he was the only one left. God said to Elijah, "There are seven thousand remaining who have not knelt before Baal." The rest who are left, though it is a minority, is the light which lightens this era, it is the hope of this era. God leads to salvation through these few who are left. The work we should do is to teach the rest of the world the word of God and help them live as His disciples.
Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. They pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Look at verse 33. " As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”" For Jews, who pursue their own righteousness, Jesus became a stumbling rock. But those who believe in Him are not ashamed. Man can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, the promise of God. And the salvation is made by God's sovereign choice of mercy.
I wasn't going to be a shepherd. But God chose me and made me a shepherd of a campus. This is God's sovereign right and grace. I am not living as a shepherd, because I am good. It is only grace for me, who has many faults and mistakes, to be a shepherd and serve God and the flock of sheep. I cannot claim to do anything to others, because I know I am not a shepherd by any qualifications. May the Lord help us serve God with the only grace we received.
In conclusion, we have come to see that salvation consists only of God's sovereign history. God has endured long for the sinners and made a history of salvation with compassion. I want that we meditate and learn the nature of God every day. We realize and praise that God's sovereign choice and mercy is God's wisdom in the history of salvation.
Word | Romans 9:1-33
Key Verse | Romans 9:16
God's Sovereignty and Mercy
“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
We sometimes wondered why I was born in a poor family? Why do I look like this? Why did God make me born into a shepherd's family? Why do I have this problem?... and so on. There are troubles that remain unanswered. Apostle Paul eagerly preached the gospel to the Jews, but they refuse to accept it which brings us questions. Why do they reject Messiah and disrupt in spreading gospel, though they are a nation chosen by God? I would like to pray that we have faith of sovereignty and think about God’s sovereignty and compassion through Apostle Paul.
There are many spiritual blessings and privileges that Jews have received from God. He saved them from slavery and adopted them, and he showed them the glory of God. No other country has experienced God's ability and His presence as much as Israel. God has made a covenant with them, and he gave them the law, and the ancestors of worship, promises and faith are Jews. Even Jesus was Jewish. Nevertheless, the Jews refused to accept Jesus as Messiah and rejected Him. The Apostle, Paul, was a Jew of the Jews, who was eager for the law. It is greatly indebted to him that he was called an apostle of gentiles from the persecutors. He hoped and confessed that if only his brothers, blood relatives, could be saved, he can be cursed and cut off from Christ. That much, Paul knew God's heart well and was heartbroken by the integrity of his fellow Jews.
From verse 6, it says about God's sovereign choice. Look at verse 6. "It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." Not all Jews are saved. We are children of God for children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:13). I have only been saved by the will of God.
And it says that nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children; on the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, the children of the flesh are not the children of God. Only children of promise are considered as descendants. Besides Ismael and Isaac, Abraham had six children from his concubine after Sarah's death, but Isaac was the only child of the covenant. Israel thinks they have been saved by blood, but God does not choose by blood. Israel had a mission to send Messiah to this world. They also had the mission of the holy people, the priests' kingdom. But just because you live up to your mission doesn't mean you're saved. Saul was appointed king of Israel, but he was abandoned.
Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
God chose the children before they were even born. In Ephesians 1:4, it says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." God chose us before the creation. The reason why God chooses to do this is to make His will stand only by his calling, not by His deeds. It's not because I'm nice or useful or good at something. Everyone is a sinner and is not qualified. Everyone is the one who only deserves to be destroyed, but God has chosen us with compassion. It is no good that I was chosen by God. God's choice was to destroy the righteousness of man, so that he would not boast. But the people of Israel ignored the gentiles, because they considered themselves as righteous people. They did not accept the will to deliver God’s message to gentiles, but was indifferent to them. It is God's grace that we have been saved. Are they all people of God because they were born into a family that believed in Jesus? No. Pastor Ho Seong Gi, the international representative of the Professionals for Global Missions, said, "The most urgent mission of this era is my children and the next generation." We should pray and preach the gospel for their regeneration. God’s future is opened. We cannot tell who has been saved or abandoned, so we must preach, pray and wait. Now a man is in a mess, and if God chooses him, we can hope that he will be changed. If God's will is based on human behavior, no one can be saved because man is weak. Even if you are chosen, you will be abandoned because of mistakes and faults. But, because God chooses His own way, not based on human’s behavior, even unqualified sinners can be saved. And after they're saved, they're not abandoned. God's salvation cannot be shaken and cannot be changed, for this salvation is only by God.
If God chose Jacob, but not Esau in the situation of no one doing any good or evil, it would be unfair. How can you say God is righteous, if He chooses to save people at random, not based on human behavior? In response to this hypothetical question, Paul firmly says, "Not at all!" If He judges according to work, all men will not be saved. It was not unfair that God chose Jacob before he did any good or evil, but because of His compassion. For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. God said this after the people of Israel made and worshipped the golden calf. God said that He will build a new nation through Moses. But Moses puts his life on the line and asks God to forgive the people of Israel and continue to be with them. Moses urged God to forgive His people for sake of erasing his name from the book of life. He knew the heart of God. That's why he was able to pray. God heard Moses' prayer. God is the God of compassion. Apostle Paul devoted chapters 9-11 to explain God's mercy.
Look at verses 17 and 18. "For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” So God has made Pharaoh wicked. Hardening his heart does not instill evil in his mind. God just leaves the evil state of Pharaoh. Pharaoh did not repent, even though he had ten plagues. Ten plagues have shown that idols are all for nothing. Egypt and the whole world knew that Lord God was true God. God spread His power and HIis name to the whole earth through Pharaoh's wickedness. Pharaoh became completely evil to reveal who God was. We don't know why God does this. We can ask endless questions, but we don't know everything. But the most obvious answer is that God liked it.
Look at verses 19-21. "19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?" Who would anyone dare ask back God? We are creation and God is the Creator. God and man are not in the same class. A potter can make celadon, an earthenware pot, or a chamber pot with a lump of clay. It is the potter’s choice. Mud can't argue, "Why did you make me into a chamber pot?" Because whatever he makes, it is his mind. As we have freedom, God has freedom.
What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—? It is God's freedom. God bore with great patience the objects of his wrath, but He has not forgiven it. Jews were the first of all the peoples to hear the gospel. They were also in a spiritual environment where they could trust and accept the gospel more than any other nations. But they were obsessed by the sense of privilege that they were descendants of Abraham by descent, and they thought they did not need God's grace. They thought that they could be recognized by God as righteous through the law, because they lived according to the law. They did not acknowledge how much of sinners they were in the presence of God. As sinners, they had no deep repentance. God has left these wicked Jews in their loss. As a result, the gospel was delivered to gentiles, and many people were saved. So the ultimate purpose of God's use of sovereign freedom is to show mercy to more people and save them.
Life of faith is not living by my way, but by receiving the sovereignty of God and obeying His will. If we resist God's absolute sovereignty over our lives, we will fall down like Jews. Cain was not able to receive the sovereignty of God, who only took the sacrifice of Abel. He struck down his brother Abel out of opposition and envy. As a result, he had to spend his life in fear, anxiety and wandering.
On the contrary, Job tried to live a pure life before God. Nevertheless, in the time of Satan, he lost all his children's property in one morning and was unable to die of a serious illness. But even in this difficult reality, he welcomed and praised God's absolute sovereignty. " and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.” " (Job1:21) He was able to sing like this, because he believed in God's goodness and kindness. In order for our faith to mature, we must recognize God's sovereignty. When we recognize God's sovereignty, we can be humble and move on to the deep world of grace.
God wants everyone to be saved. We complain about why Jesus is so late when He promised to come back, and we doubt His promise. However, if Jesus had already come, we would not have been saved. We wouldn't have enjoyed life in this world. God is enduring for a long time to save one more person. If we know the heart of God, we must preach the gospel to save even one more.
From the Bible, to whom does an “object of His glory” point to? It is us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (24). Those who accept Jesus are objects of His glory. There is a prophecy in Hoshea's writing that gentiles will be saved. Look at verses 25 and 26. "25 As he says in Hosea:
“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” Those who are not my people are non-Jews. But God saved not only from the Jews but also from the non-Jews. Prophet Isaiah says the fact that only the remaining Jews are saved like this: " 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”(27-29)" The idea of saving only the remaining ones is constantly emphasized in the Old Testament. Israel has persecuted but there were people who stayed, and they have formed their first church and have been used in the history of world salvation.
How should we look at the young generation now? Now is the time when Christians are becoming a minority. The mainstream of society is rejecting and attacking the gospel. But there is holy descendant that God has left behind. There are those who fear God even in the midst of corrupt times. They live by the word of God. Even though all men betray God, the rest will not leave till the end. In Elijah's time all the Israelites knelt down to Baal. So Elijah lamented that he was the only one left. God said to Elijah, "There are seven thousand remaining who have not knelt before Baal." The rest who are left, though it is a minority, is the light which lightens this era, it is the hope of this era. God leads to salvation through these few who are left. The work we should do is to teach the rest of the world the word of God and help them live as His disciples.
Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. They pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Look at verse 33. " As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”" For Jews, who pursue their own righteousness, Jesus became a stumbling rock. But those who believe in Him are not ashamed. Man can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, the promise of God. And the salvation is made by God's sovereign choice of mercy.
I wasn't going to be a shepherd. But God chose me and made me a shepherd of a campus. This is God's sovereign right and grace. I am not living as a shepherd, because I am good. It is only grace for me, who has many faults and mistakes, to be a shepherd and serve God and the flock of sheep. I cannot claim to do anything to others, because I know I am not a shepherd by any qualifications. May the Lord help us serve God with the only grace we received.
In conclusion, we have come to see that salvation consists only of God's sovereign history. God has endured long for the sinners and made a history of salvation with compassion. I want that we meditate and learn the nature of God every day. We realize and praise that God's sovereign choice and mercy is God's wisdom in the history of salvation.
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