I love this song. Very uplifting and powerful. Regardless of circumstances, we still have a reason to sing because of our great God!
I hope that it will bless your day!
Romans 9 is probably the most debated chapter of the Bible concerning salvation, along with Ephesians 1. This passage of Scripture typically leads to two trains of thought:
- The Arminian theology that states that God does not arbitrarily elect, and this passage is either speaking of the Church or of the two sections of Israel.
- The Calvinist theology that states that this passage is literal and that God does elect based on His own will and grace, without much of a choice by anyone.
Romans 9 sent me from a somewhat confused Arminian to entertaining strongly the Calvinist view of election. No matter how I tried, I could never make sense of Romans 9 outside of the Calvinist view of unconditional election. I feel strongly that you have to work very hard to make it sound like something else instead of reading the Scripture for what it says.
The only possible way, I think, to understand the sovereignty and power of God is if you embrace the unconditional election that I interpret from this chapter. The entire chapter and the ones preceding it clearly point to grace-based election that is solely in the hands and will of God Himself.
Isaac and Ishmael
Paul is telling Israel that they were never elected as an ethnic group, and this is proven because of their disobedience. Had they been chosen simply because they were Israelites, none of them would have disobeyed God at all. Furthermore, Paul’s mention of Isaac makes it clear that, although Abraham’s seed was meant to extend to his offspring, only one of his sons’ offspring – Isaac’s – were actually blessed. So, not all of Abraham’s offspring were chosen, only a select group. God chose only some, and not all, of Israel to be elect. Many Jewish people in the first century believed that observance of the Torah saved them, and Paul clearly rejects this idea.
Paul also mentions Jacob and Esau who, before they were born, were loved and hated by God. Paul clearly says this to make a particular argument against the Jewish belief of Law-observing salvation and to affirm the grace of God’s election. Jacob and Esau were chosen before they were born and, therefore, God’s grace cannot be based on good deeds or observance of the Torah. Justification and election, as described in Romans 8, are based solely on the grace of God and are not distinguished by ethnicity or any other human indicator. Paul was not being anti-Semitic or trying to take a shot at the election of Israel. He simply wants the Gentiles to know that they do not need to be Law-observers to be saved. Paul was clearly arguing against the idea that God’s Word had somehow failed because of the unbelief of some Jews. Paul believes that the Jewish understanding of election is totally wrong, because God only works through His offering of grace to whom He wants to save.
The Void Word of God?
Isaiah 55:11 is very clear:
So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
The word of God does not return void and He accomplishes His purpose with every breath. If indeed – according to Arminians - we have any control over salvation, then every time someone rejects His offer, God’s word and purpose returns void. As Paul and Isaiah argue, this cannot be the case. If God wants a man to be saved, He will save them. Anything else is in direct conflict with Isaiah’s words.
Though there are certain passages in Scripture stating that God wants all men to be saved, it clearly cannot be so unless God is speaking of all the elect or unless He has a superseding will that causes Him not to actually save all men. On either side of the theological debate, one must accept that God does not want all men to be saved. Again, if the Arminian point is right, then God’s word returns void every time He sends out an offer of salvation that is rejected.
A Bigger (and Better) Plan of Love
I believe that God loves all men, as He shows grace even to the unrighteous, but that He obviously loves in different ways. Just as a parent hates to spank their child even though they need it; they have to in order to achieve their desired outcome. Without God using sinful men to kill His Son, there would be no salvation for anyone. Acts clearly states that God’s purpose was for Pilate and Judas to do what they did in order for His purpose to be fulfilled. The only conclusion is, then, that God’s plan can only be achieved if He does not reveal His glory to all men. There must be vessels of destruction for His children to see His glory and for them to be glorified as well. Though unpopular, I cannot see the Bible any other way than this. We cannot do anything to earn or keep our salvation; it is up to God to act according to the pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5).
God is still God, even if or when you don’t believe in Him. – Luke 19:40
At the end of the last summer, I went into LifeWay to buy a book by John MacArthur. The problem was, that book didn’t come out for another few days, and I was impatient and wanted a book on Jesus. After looking around a bit, I ran across one of the displays for a new book called Your Jesus is Too Safe. I had never heard of author Jared C. Wilson, but the content that I skimmed through seemed great. So, I bought it and realized quickly that God wanted me to read that book (of course, He did… He predestined it, right?). After reading this book, my view of Jesus was raised exponentially. After reading his book and blog (The Gospel-Driven Church), Jared became one of my favorite pastors to read and listen to, and his Tweets are always great. After a few conversations here and there, I asked Jared to do an interview for us and he graciously agreed.
Brandon Smith: Tell us a little about your testimony and calling to ministry.
Jared Wilson: I was raised in the church. I walked the aisle, made a decision, and got baptized at six years old, then did it again at 12 years old after those 70’s rapture movies scared the fire out of me. I was deathly afraid if I wasn’t super-sure I’d asked Jesus into my heart, the antichrist was going to cut my head off. And this sort of colored my Christian walk throughout my adolescence. I was a believer, but a timid, fearful, neurotic, clinging-to-life-insurance one. It wasn’t until real life kicked in, after I was married, had kids, and hit the rock bottom of my own sinfulness in a period of great depression in my early 30s. I was struck by my depravity, my failure, and pondered whether the world would be better off without my presence. In this time, the Spirit was very sweet to my heart despite being very rough with everything else and I had one of those Peter “To whom shall I go?” moments where I was out of options and Christ was truly my only hope. From then on, I have grown in the confidence of the good news that God is for me in Jesus.
I believe God called me into vocational ministry between my 8th and 9th grade years. It was a summer youth camp experience, of all things, but all week long I believed God wanted me to be a minister “when I grew up,” and then at the end of the week, the camp pastor in the altar call invited anyone who believed God was calling them into ministry to come forward. I’d never in my invitational life heard anyone issue that sort of invitation before, and I took it as confirmation that what I had been hearing all week was true. My understanding of “calling” has evolved since then, of course, but I have never doubted since then that God has wired me up to and commanded me to serve in ministry, even during the 9 years or so when I didn’t serve any vocational capacity.
B: In Your Jesus is Too Safe, you describe the Gospel as scandalous. Explain that one.
J: Well, it’s scandalous on the primary level of content, because it demands we accept that God’s Son, who is God himself, died, and that through this death we are forgiven from sins, something our own good efforts can’t do. So that’s a scandal to the flesh.
It’s scandalous also because it demands we accept that this dead God-Man came back to life to triumph over death for us, and everybody knows dead people don’t come back to life and that we all die.
The Bible guarantees this scandal when it says the message of the cross is foolishness. It knows seeing death as the way to life sounds absurd.
But it’s also scandalous because believing it presupposes our dying to our selves, which is something intelligent and “good” people don’t want to do. It goes against our nature to take up our cross, so the call to do that is scandalous.
And it’s always scandalous on the practical level, because living a life centered on the gospel and full of the gospel’s power has us doing things like forgiving people who’ve wronged us, accepting people who aren’t popular or clean or financially advantageous, etc. A gospel-centered life is counter-cultural; it is an offense to people moving according to the way of the world.
B: You told me recently that you were expecting to release your next book/Bible study resource, Abide. Tell us about that.
J: Yeah, it is scheduled for release April 1 (and that is not an April fool’s). It’s a short book/Bible study hybrid sort of thing, which is the specialty of the publisher, Threads Media, who also published Ed Stetzer’s missional Bible study SENT and some other stuff by Jason Hayes and Margaret Feinberg. They are aimed primarily at young adults 18-30’s, but that is mostly a packaging/aesthetic thing, I think. Certainly the material would work with adults of all ages, and probably even upper level youth.
Abide pulls mostly from the Sermon on the Mount, but attempts to answer the question, “How would living the kingdom of God look in the middle of suburbia or other heavily consumerist environments?” And so it takes what I call the 5 kingdom rhythms — Feeling Scripture, Intentional Prayer, Joyful Fasting, Generous Service, and Community — and goes through how to think about and implement those things in the middle of a culture that often shapes our thinking and values another way. One of the unique things about the book, though, is that it is not the typical behavioristic approaches to spiritual disciplines or formation; I tried really hard to center the sessions on the gospel, so it is really a gospel-driven approach to spiritual formation, with lots of learning who you are in Christ and seeing these “things to do” with a sense of Sabbath rest given by the gospel. And that’s why the book is called Abide.
B: I have heard you use the term “Gospel wakefulness,” could you describe that?
J: This is something that has been a passion of mine for the last 3 years or so and should be for the rest of my life. It’s a timely question too, because the book I’m working on now, my official follow-up to Your Jesus is Too Safe, is tentatively titled Gospel Wakefulness: Treasuring Christ and Savoring His Power.
I boil down gospel wakefulness to a sort of quantum leap in how greatly a believer treasures what Christ has accomplished and how sweetly it tastes to his wakened heart. It is neither synonymous with conversion nor really a “second conversion” experience, although for many it is simultaneous with conversion or for others might feel like a second conversion experience. I think it is something that God does at the intersection of our bottomed-out brokenness and the hearing with open ears and seeing with open eyes and feeling with a broken heart the fuller truth of the gospel. I think it’s when the personal gospel goes cosmic in scope for us personally. It is that moment when the prodigal son “came to his senses” in the pig sty, or when the one leper out of ten healed returned to give thanks. But it’s not merely an emotional thing, something transitory. It’s something that the Spirit does to waken us to the astounding wonder of the gospel, in which all other things of this world grow dim and lose their idolatrous luster.
I’m asked not infrequently how to get it. I don’t think you can “get” it; you have to dwell in the gospel daily and ask God to deepen your affections for him, but my theory is that the way God usually brings gospel wakefulness is in times of intense suffering, brokenness, or grief. Most people I know who have what I’d call gospel wakefulness received it during or as a result of some personal brokenness in their life. I’m going to share some of these stories in the book.
B: What do you think is the most dangerous enemy of the Gospel today?
J: Two things: the willfulness of our own hearts to sin and our susceptibility to the devil’s false accusations against our righteousness in Christ.
B: What is the most crucial advice you could give someone who is reading the Bible or studying theology for the first time?
J: Don’t lose sight of Jesus. Keep your theology tethered to Jesus. I am a big doctrine nerd. Debates, discussions, the big books, the whole nine yards. But most of my college years and early to mid twenties were spent heavily invested in things like the rapture, Calvinism, etc. and I wasn’t any closer to loving Jesus or being awed by the gospel for any of it.
I think even being right on the details takes us off the rails in our investment in the Spirit’s work of sanctification when we get Jesus out on the periphery. Don’t talk about eschatology without centering on Christ the King and the gospel of the kingdom. Don’t talk about predestination and free will without centering on Christ who is before all things and in all things and holding all things together and sustaining the world by his powerful word. Don’t get into Old Testament genealogies and sacrificial systems and feasts and festivals and Canaanite slaughters without centering on Christ the fulfillment, Christ the sacrifice, Christ the abundant provision, Christ the joy, and Christ the judge and ruler, the bringer of division and the prince of peace. Winning the theological battles while losing the Christological war is a loss all around.
Jared is the pastor at Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont and author of the book Your Jesus is Too Safe, available here. He also writes a blog called The Gospel-Driven Church.
This video is a nice add-on to my post about God’s sovereignty and love.
Do you ever catch yourself in a bit of a rut?
You know those days. The days where nothing seems quite right. The days when you’re trying your hardest to be positive, but there isn’t much to be positive about.
In Romans, I think Paul describes exactly why we feel this way:
Romans 8:22-25 – We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
The original sin of man has caused the perfect creation of God to be flipped completely upside down. You can look around at the world we live in today and see it as plain as day. This is just not the world and existence that God created.
Paul says that the Holy Spirit knows that things aren’t right. Why? Because the Spirit knows the perfect Creator. Our souls long for something better because deep inside us our Spirit is fighting to get out of this filthy earthly shell and back home to perfect paradise with God.
Anyone who has truly followed Christ for any extended period of time can tell you that once you find Christ, your life has a whole new meaning. Once you meet Him, your expectations of how things should be are lifted exponentially; you are no longer satisfied with what this life has to offer.
I had never thought of it this way until I read this verse. It isn’t just my brain that makes me unhappy with things in my life, it’s my Spirit groaning, “Get me out of here!”
Paul does give us hope in the next part of the chapter:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
So, although we don’t fully grasp the concept and never will this side of Heaven, we can know that our Spirit is speaking to God even when we cannot find the words. The Holy Spirit knows the way it should be, and will constantly be lifting us up and giving us hope in our Lord because He is our hope and our salvation.
Even in the darkest hours, may you wait ever so patiently on Him. You can be assured that there is something more to this life than the daily grind and that we have a God who is pulling us closer to Him daily.
As a Calvinist, I have heard many criticisms and attacks on my interpretation of Scripture. I have heard that it’s the ”Theology of Hell,” I have been called a cop-out, a sell out, an idiot, and that I’m teaching people to sin without regard. I’ve even heard that Calvinists are heretics and blasphemers.
Insults aside, I think the most common criticisms pertain to God’s love. I hope to address some of them in a clear way as I can best understand. Let’s be clear, I do not claim to have all the answers to how God works, but I will say that if Calvinism is in any way right, people who use the word “heresy” could very well be insulting the God of the Universe. Save that word for the cults.
A major mistake that people make is to somehow put themselves in the position to determine how God should act according to what their finite minds expect of Him. Any real attempt a defining His love is an exercise in futility. All I can do, we can do, is look to the Bible and go by what it says about Him.
How can God love all people if He only predestines some to eternal salvation?
Anytime unconditional election is mentioned, the automatic rebuttal is that this cannot be true because “God is love” (1 John 4:16). I think it’s key to understand, above all else, that we cannot and do not love or understand love as God does. As I said, any real attempt a defining His love is an exercise in futility.
I do not believe that God doesn’t love the non-elect, per say. As a matter of fact, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) and “He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35). We cannot make the assumption that the phrase ”God is love” is an overarching, broad stroke, plain-as-day statement. We cannot look in Scripture and say that God’s loving character restrains Him to only act a certain way toward everyone. In Joshua 11:18-20, God hardens the hearts of the Cannanite kings so that they would “receive no mercy but be destroyed” at the hands of the Israelites. We can only come to two conclusions:
1. God loved even the Canaanites in a way that we cannot comprehend.
2. God’s loving character is only directed at His elect accomplishing His will.
I’d lean towards the latter, but either conclusion is acceptable. What we cannot deny is that God doesn’t always act in a way that benefits everyone equally. Yes, the Canaanites got a raw deal in our eyes, but God showed absolute love to His people.
John 6:65 and John 10:26, among a plethora of other passages, clearly state that only God saves and only His people respond to His call. Consequently, those who He does not save and those who are unable (by His choice) to hear Him, do not receive eternal life. In light of this, we see that God’s love cannot be restrained to a universally singular form of love for everyone. Some would argue that those condemned to Hell were shown this universal love but that they did not choose Him, leaving His hands tied. Two major problems arise with this idea:
1. Nowhere in the Scripture does God exhibit love for those either in Hell or destined for it. Actually, Jesus goes so far as to speak in parables so that some would not “turn and be forgiven” (Mark 4:12).
2. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that God’s love has to be aimed at only His elect in order to give them the highest glory and blessing.
“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, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?” (Romans 9:22-23).
God, at the end of the day, shows love to whom He pleases (Romans 9:15). God is love, yes. As the Sovereign King of Creation, we cannot determine to whom or to what God gives His love. Love that we cannot comprehend at any level.
How can God command us to love our enemies if He doesn’t love His enemies?
Good question, one I’ve pondered myself. Here’s the truth: God does indeed show a certain love to His elect, a love that we cannot actually give. Man cannot save nor make any eternal decision about another man’s soul. That’s it, end of discussion.
Now, as far as a more general form of love and welfare, I think God Himself is an example of this. Again, I refer to the most obvious statements in Matthew 5:45 and Luke 6:35. Here, He shows the same kind of patient love and mercy that we should toward our enemies. Again, though, this is the only love we can show. In Romans 9:3, Paul yearns for the lost to be saved, but the rest of the chapter shows that only God can perform that sort of grace on someone. There are different levels and abilities of love and grace. Some are universal for both God and man, and some are restricted to God Himself.
How can we love God freely if He predestines us to love Him? Isn’t real a love a mutual choice?
Yes, it is a mutual choice for us to an extent. My girlfriend must love me in return in order for us to agree on marriage. However, if you are truly in love with a woman, you know that there is nowhere else you’d rather go. As marriage is so often mirrored with Christ and His Church, I think we see our love for God working the same. Hebrews 2:3 begs the question, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” This is not so much a warning of Hell as it is the question, “Where else would you go?” His sheep hear His voice (John 10:26) and no one can snatch them out of His hand (John 10:28). We aren’t going anywhere, we know our Shepherd.
However, we tend to look at relationships from a finite human point of view and attach it to God. We think that because we love someone, we deserve to be loved in return. As with God, we think that He owes everyone the same level of love and affection. Scripture, however, refutes this idea. It sounds wonderful to our prideful minds, but it is not Biblically accurate. Certainly, no one deserves a thing from God, but He extends Himself to some in spite of that.
We should not be upset that God elects according to His purpose (Ephesians 1:11, Isaiah 55:11). Quite the opposite, I believe. We should be absolutely thankful and joyous that God chose any of us. This, my friends, is love. Chosen, particular love. Not because you deserve it, but by the grace He gives (Ephesians 2:8-9).
You did nothing to earn it, He just loves you that much! Rejoice!
I’ve been asked numerous times recently, randomly, if I identify myself as Calvinist.
The answer? Yes. My “About Me” page confirms this as well as basically anything I write!
Pastors Driscoll and MacDonald show just a glimpse of the hell going on in Haiti. Please, if you haven’t helped, give through ChurchesHelpingChurches.com!
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” – Galatians 6:10
Great testimony (and tattoo!) from Carlos Whittaker of RagamuffinSoul.com. Always amazing to see someone representing Christ on national TV!
