What if or What then

DEVOTION

ROMANS

WHAT IF OR WHAT THEN

Rom 9:22-33

22 What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? 23 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— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 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, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"  

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."  

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33 As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."  

NIV

So often people want to read this as God does choose some people to show his wrath to and they are prepared for destruction. Some people make this to mean that God chooses who he will save and who he will not. But this whole dissertation starts out with “What if God”. The point starts with “What then shall we say?” All that he said from the “What if God” to the “What then shall we say?” is a “What if” and if is not the “What is”. God does not choose who his objects of wrath are and who his objects of mercy are. When we get to the point, he makes it clear Israel was his chosen people, however that does not mean the gentiles are objects of wrath. What is being said is that a person becomes the object of mercy through faith in Jesus Christ. Whosoever pursues righteousness will find it through faith. Although Israel is God’s chosen people, they have not received mercy, but have received wrath because they pursued righteousness through the law. The gentiles who did not have the law, pursued righteousness through faith. The whole “What if” scenario was to bring to the truth that God desires all men be saved through faith in Jesus Christ and not by some set of laws or rules or bylaws, or denominationalism, or lists of do’s and don’ts, but by faith. Because it is by faith, then whosoever believes will not perish, will not become the object of his wrath. People who choose to refuse to believe, although they have the opportunity to believe and be saved, will be the objects of his wrath. It is not by God’s choosing who will be shown mercy or wrath, but by man’s choice. Even if we go back to the idea that God will show mercy on who he wants to have mercy and harden who he wants to harden, does not mean the opposite of what was just say about righteousness. God did not choose to harden Israel’s heart and decide to have mercy of the gentiles. Although he raised Pharaoh with a hardened heart does not mean he decided in advance Pharaoh is an object of his wrath. He said he raised him up that way so God’s power and might could be shown to the world.  Who is to say that Pharaoh was not later shown mercy? Certainly it seems the very people God showed his mercy to by delivering them out of the hands of Pharaoh, became objects of wrath by their refusal to accept his mercy in Christ Jesus, and those who were once objects of wrath, the gentiles, like Pharaoh, became objects of his mercy through faith. It all boils down to the fact that we are saved by faith, not by works. A person is either in or out and it is by the choice of that person. It’s man’s choice to live under the what if or the what then.