“Justified by the Call”

Scripture: Romans 9:10-18

Have you ever thought about your life, and tried to figure out why God has called you into a relationship with him? If you have, I expect that you are still trying to come up with an answer! The truth is that the Lord’s ways are so radically different than ours that we will never understand them. And that’s OK. We like things nice and tidy - logical, sensible, and we like to see things in a natural and normal manner. But God works in his own way, and in Isaiah 55:8-11, the prophet tells us that the Lord’s thoughts are not only not our thoughts, but that they are totally out of reach of our standards. We need to just give up trying to make sense of God, and just rejoice in whatever he brings to our lives.
But there are still many folks who, when they try to figure God out and can’t, they attempt to make their ways prominent and God’s ways subordinate. Their attitude appears to be “If it doesn’t make sense to me, then it must be wrong!” Of course, that is so far from the truth, it shows that it is their attitude that doesn’t make sense!

In our text today, Paul lifts up several issues in the life of Israel that, quite honestly, don’t make a lot of sense. And the answer to each is that “God will do what God will do.”

Read Romans 9:10-13

Last week, Paul raised up the question of why his chosen would only be the descendants of Jacob, and not all the descendants of Abraham. And the obvious answer is “Just because!” And now the issue of the third generation in Jacob and Esau comes to the fore – Why wasn’t the eldest twin to be favored, instead of the younger? And the answer is the same – so that God’s purpose can be satisfied. It had nothing to do with whether Jacob was deserving, or that Esau was not, it had nothing to do with which brother was smarter, or more handsome, or more faithful. The Lord’s promise to Rebekah came before the boys were even born! (Genesis 25:21-26) It was simply God’s will! As a matter of fact, Jacob would be the cheat in the family – he would use his brother’s exhaustion and hunger to get him to trade a bit of food for the birthright, and would deceive his nearly blind father to get the blessing that was rightly Esau’s! (Genesis 27:1-40)
Why would God allow his plan to flow though such a man as this? Why would, essentially, a thief be so blessed? Again, it’s one of those questions that has no answer! It just is. And it always seems that God works great wonders in divisiveness and conflict. Not only with the brothers in this early part of Genesis, but between Moses and Pharaoh, with the prostitute Rahab, Saul and David, the Persian king Cyrus, Herod and Pilate, Saul of Tarsus, and many, many others. Is there anything that God can’t use to his purpose? The answer to that is also very simple – There is nothing in all of creation that can stand in his way!

And as for the statement “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated”, the New Interpreters’ Bible implies that this isn’t so much a case of liking one of the brothers more than the other, but more that God’s love would shine though one more than it would the other. After all, how could God “hate” his own creation? The truth is that the Lord hates sin, but loves sinful people. This is just one more example of conflict and contention being the means that God uses to work his great acts.

Read Romans 9:14-18

God’s justice is a tough thing to get a hold on. In the statement in v. 15, the Lord is telling Moses that mercy and compassion will be meted out to whomever is chosen to receive it. Moses was about to experience the backside of God’s glory as a sign that the Presence of God would always be with him and Israel. (Exodus 33:13-23) It has nothing to do with the Lord’s being random in his bestowing of grace, nothing to do with goodness or unfairness, nothing to do with an arbitrary attitude toward our lives, nothing to do with our weak and inadequate attempts to understand his ways. It is simply because God is.

Paul even reminds us that Pharaoh could have so easily been taken out of the way even before the plagues began – The Almighty didn’t need the plagues, but he chose Pharaoh and his hard heartedness to allow his great and glorious power to be displayed. Was that mean – to keep Pharaoh from letting the people leave, just so his might and authority could be experienced by the world? Not at all – the Lord God is anything but vindictive. But Israel had to know just who was leading them through the wilderness, and that they could, and must, trust him. And Pharaoh would be the means for them, and for us, to learn that lesson.

But some lessons are not so easily learned, and we’re no different than Israel. Why does it take us so long to decide to trust God explicitly? Without hesitation. Without concerns. Without doubts. Without fear.
Haven’t we heard enough about his limitless power? Haven’t we seen his power and authority in action? I’m not suggesting that we should have any understanding of his power – just that we should believe in it and trust that it will work to the good of those who he chooses to bless.

So who does God choose, and why does he choose them? In the case of Israel, he chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to carry out his will in that time and place. In our case, he chooses those who confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and to do the same today. It’s not an arbitrary decision in either case. He chooses those who, in his infinite wisdom, will satisfy his plan. And when his “chosen” try to go against the Plan, the Lord prevents it through the setting of obstacles and hardening. So was the case with Pharaoh. So was the case with Israel. So is the case in our own lives.
And the opposite is also true. When his “chosen” need encouragement and renewing, his mercy comes into play. Are we beginning to doubt? Mercy! Are we beginning to stray? Mercy! Are we beginning to fade in faith? Mercy! Are we beginning to slip in our actions? Mercy!

Whatever our need, the Lord is there to fulfill it. And it is in his actions that we are justified in our relationship with him. Now understand that this use of the word “justify” is slightly different than when John Wesley talked about Justification by faith. Wesley referred to Justification as the Lord’s act of salvation in the moment when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But I believe that every time that we respond to God’s call on our life, every time that we seek his lead for life, every time that our faith grows a little stronger, it is then that we are being renewed and strengthened in Christ. When the Spirit gives us the courage to take that next difficult step, we are being justified – we are being made right in the Lord.

Why? Only God knows! “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9). There is no way that we will ever understand God, and we have to know that this is OK. It is enough to know that he is, and that he does, and that he always will.

That’s the blessing of mercy and hardening – we can never appreciate the how and the why, we just rejoice that they are and that God is God, and Jesus is Savior, and he has called us to made us right in him.