Romans
9:11-13
From Signs of the Times—July 15, 1869.
Brother
Beebe: If it is not too much trouble, please give your views on Romans 9:11-13,
and thereby oblige your sister in the Lord, if a sister at all.
Sarah J. Oneal
Palmetto,
Reply: The words on which we are requested to write are as
follows: “[For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth,] it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the
younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
The great theme of the apostle, in vindication and
illustration of which he used the words proposed for consideration was the
righteousness of God, of which his Hebrew kindred after the flesh were so
profoundly ignorant, as to excite his passionate sympathy as a man; for he says,
They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their
own righteousness, have thereby repudiated the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God, especially as it is demonstrated in
his absolute sovereignty in the election, redemption, and everlasting salvation
of his people, has never been palatable to the depraved taste of men in their
fallen state; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, and they have a much
more exalted appreciation of their own fancied righteousness than they have of
the righteousness of God. In vindication of the supreme sovereignty of God, Paul
did not attempt to apologize for God, or to soften down what God had said upon
the subject, in order to make it seem less objectionable to carnal reason.
Knowing perfectly well what would be the caviling and blasphemy of men, he could
even anticipate their very words, which have been reiterated thousands of times
since he foretold, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For
who hath resisted his will?” (Rom. 9:19). Such out-breaking blasphemy fully and
fearfully demonstrate that they esteem their own righteousness as far superior
to that of God, while they would arraign him at the bar of their carnal judgment
and condemn his government, inconsiderate of who, and what they are; “things
formed saying to him that formed them, Why hast thou formed me thus?” They are
ignorant of God’s righteousness, nor can they ever understand it but by
immediate revelation. Should they be humbled under his mighty hand, and
reconciled to him, by the death of his Son, then will they with all the
sanctified gaze, admire and adore and praise him, and with humble reverence
confess that, as the heavens are higher than the earth, even so God’s ways and
thoughts transcend our ways and thoughts. The righteousness of the sovereignty
of God appears to the enlightened child of grace, in all his works, of creation,
providence and grace; for it is right that he shall work all things after the
counsel of his own will. This must be right unless it can be made to appear that
he is bound to work all things after the counsel of some other will. How blindly
infatuated must he be who fancies himself capable of suggesting an improvement
upon the will or works of the supreme God. A more sublime subject than this, of
the righteous sovereignty of God, has never been contemplated by men or angels.
Go back with us, in thought, into the ancients of eternity, strike from
existence all created beings and things, and what would remain? Only the
self-existent, independent and eternal God. There being none with whom to take
counsel, was it possible that he should consult any but his own will in creating
all beings and worlds that he has called forth into being? Being alone, and
having the power and the wisdom, was it his right to create all things? If so,
can we deny that he had a right to create just such worlds and things as were in
accordance with the counsel of his will? We are told that “For his pleasure all
things are and were created.” Was it right or wrong that he should work all
things after the counsel of his own will? If it was right, then he is a rightful
Sovereign. But if we say it was wrong, what law has he violated, and who shall
call him to account? “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast
thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, to form one vessel
unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
“Shall the vile race of flesh and blood,
Contend with their Creator, God?
Shall mortal man presume to be,
More holy, wise, or just than he”
If the righteousness of God’s sovereignty shines in such
resplendence in creating all things. If it be admitted that God had a sovereign
and unquestionable right to make all beings and things just as seemed right to
him, then let every mouth be sealed in silence that would complain because men
were not angels, and angels were not Gods.
Waving for this time, for lack of time and space, a
discussion of the righteous sovereignty of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, in
his works of providence, we will come to the subject more immediately embraced
in the Scriptures on which our views are solicited. The righteousness of God’s
sovereignty cannot shine with less resplendence in the economy of grace, than it
shines in creation and providence.
In the purpose of God according to election, the
discrimination set forth by the apostle in our context, in the family of
Abraham, between the children of the flesh, and the children of promise, and
between the twin sons of Isaac, clearly shows the sovereignty of God in
election, and rejection or reprobation. “For the children” [namely, Jacob and
Esau] “being not yet born,” [that is, they were not born when God told Rebecca
that] “the elder of them should serve the younger.” God’s decision therefore was
not influenced either by the good or bad works of the children, but upon his own
unbiased decree. “That the purpose of God according to election might stand.” If
we admit then that God had a purpose in the matter, and that his purpose was not
influenced by the good or bad works of either the elected or the rejected, we
cannot avoid the inevitable conclusion that God’s purpose was a sovereign
purpose. But here arises the enmity of the carnal mind of man. If God had rested
the destiny of these two children on the purpose of their own will, Arminians
would have been satisfied; but in resting his decision on the counsel of his own
will, they rage and blaspheme.
In this part of our text, marked by parenthesis, as
explanatory of the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty, the decree of God fixing the
irrevocable destiny of Jacob and Esau before they were born, or had done good or
evil, was, and is a purpose of God according to election, and therefore a
divinely established exemplification, or illustration of God’s sovereign and
immutable purpose in the election of his people in Christ Jesus, irrespective of
their works, as influencing his choice of them.
2. As the purpose of God controlling the birthright
privileges of Jacob and Esau was according to election, even so God’s purpose
which he purposed in himself before the world began, controls the election of
grace, otherwise the case referred to could not be according to election.
3. The irrevocability of the purpose of God in assigning to
Jacob and Esau respectively their place and position in the family of Isaac, was
cited to illustrate the inflexible perpetuity of the purpose of God in the
election of his people to salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. “That the purpose
of God according to election might stand.” God has provided against any
or all opposing powers or influences, so that his counsel shall stand, and he
will do all his pleasure. He is of one mind, and none can turn him; his purpose
of election therefore must and will stand.
4. It is also infallibly provided as to how God’s purpose in
the election of his people shall stand, both negatively and positively.
Negatively, “not of works.” Neither the willing of Isaac, nor the vigorous
running of Esau could shake or disturb the standing of God’s purpose concerning
them; and as the infallible standing of his purpose in their case is “according
to election,” so the election of grace shall stand unaffected by the will or
works of men. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth;
but of God that sheweth mercy.”
In the affirmative, it is positively asserted that the
purpose of God in election stands, and its unshaken standing is “of him
that calleth.” “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many
brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he
called them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified,”
(Rom. 8:29,30). All is of him that calleth, their predestination to be conformed
to a conformity to the Son of God, their justification and ultimate glory, is of
him “who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began,” (2 Tim. 1:9). That which was done before the
world began, could not have been induced by anything done by us after the world
began. Then let earth rebel, and hell despair, the purpose of God in and
according to election stands firmly as stands the throne and government of the
eternal God, nor can the gates of hell prevail against it.
In further confirmation the apostle repeats what is written
of what God has said, in Malachi chapter 1. It is addressed to Jacob, as the
type of his elect people. “I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein
hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved
Jacob, and I hated Esau, and I laid his mountain and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. Whereas
In answering the request of sister Oneal, it has not been our
aim to palliate or apologize for the Supreme Potentate of the Universe, nor dare
we. God will vindicate the righteousness of eternal sovereignty, and crush
beneath his wrath all opposing powers. His secret is with them that fear him,
and to them he will show his covenant. They who love this doctrine and rejoice
that the Lord absolutely reigns, have the unmistakable evidence that God has
chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. He has reconciled them to himself, [not become reconciled to them; for
there is no change in him] and being reconciled to him, he cannot be exalted too
high, nor invested with too much power and majesty to suit them. The doctrine
that exalts their God and Savior and abases the creature, feeds and feasts their
spiritual appetites; and their most exalted theme is to exclaim with all the
heaven-born saints, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord, God Almighty: just
and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,” (Rev. 15:3).
