Romans [Season 2]- Ian Graham- Romans 9vv18-33: The Potter and the Clay

Pastor Ian Graham leads us into the thorny question of predestination.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to jump right into it.
We've been in a series on thebook of Romans, which is a
famously easy book to read ifyou have been a Christian for a
while.
Biologist Robert Sapolskyargues that human beings are
deterministic animals notexercising any volition, but
simply responding to externalfactors and causes at the

(00:22):
neurobiological level, toexternal factors and causes at
the neurobiological level.
Sapolsky argues, in the case ofmore ambiguous choices where it
seems like you're thinkingabout what you're going to do
next and making some sort ofdeliberative decision that even
those complicated choices arethe expressions of values that
are predetermined by factorssuch as genetic and
environmental factors.

(00:43):
Sapolsky says this by factorssuch as genetic and
environmental factors.
Sapolsky says this we arenothing more or less than the
cumulative biological andenvironmental luck over which we
had no control.
That has brought us to anymoment.
So I don't know why you're heretoday, but something in your
past has preceded you being hereright now.
It's interesting if you read alot of high-level neurobiology.

(01:05):
A lot of the scientificresearch, especially biological
accounts, are sympathetic to theidea that humans don't actually
exercise much in the way ofvolition and agency.
Many scientists arematerialists and assume that
everything in the universe hasan imminent cause and effect.
And if you're curious aboutsome of the intersections

(01:25):
between faith and science, ourvery own Dr Chris Galea where is
he?
No, chris is teaching a classnext week.
He's a rocket scientist, likethink Tony Stark, that kind of
situation Teaching a class nextweek before our 1030 gathering
at 930, so you can see him afterand see how that class is going
to go.
But a little plug for that.
I don't know about you, but forsome of you you've never read

(01:46):
the Bible and we're so honoredthat you're here.
For others of us, we have triedto read these words and live by
them, and I don't know if itwas necessarily the first time I
ever read Romans 9, but I doremember reading it the summer
before my freshman year incollege, and I read this section
which comprises much of ourteaching text.

(02:06):
For today I'm going to read itfor you.
Romans 9, beginning in verse 18,says this so then, he, being
God, has mercy on whomever hechooses and he hardens the heart
of whomever he chooses.
You will say to me then, whythen does he still find fault
For who can resist his will?
Why then does he still findfault For who can resist his
will?
But who indeed?
Are you a human, to argue withGod?

(02:27):
Well, what does molded say tothe one who molds it?
Why have you made me like this?
Has the potter no right overthe clay to make out of the same
lump one object for special useand another for ordinary use?
What if God, desiring to showhis wrath and to make known his
power, has endured with muchpatience the objects of wrath

(02:47):
that are made for destruction?
And what if he has done so inorder to make known the riches
of his glory for the objects ofmercy which he has prepared
beforehand for glory?
And I gotta say I don't knowhow you read that, but the first
time I really read that andreally paid attention to what it
seemed like was being said, itmade me really uneasy.

(03:11):
Really, god is just arbitrarilychoosing who receives mercy and
whose heart gets activelyhardened by God.
It's not just that they don'treceive mercy, it's that God by
God.
It's not just that they don'treceive mercy, it's that God is
an active agent in removing themfrom the fountain of that mercy
.
And then Paul seems to suggestin verse 20 that to even raise

(03:34):
objections is somehow out ofbounds At this point in my life,
I'd committed to trusting God.
I'd been a Christian for alittle over a year and I had
committed to abide by thesewords.
But I gotta be honest, readingthis and reading what I thought
it was saying, made this very,very difficult.
So today, what I want to do isdraw out some of the

(03:59):
implications of this passage.
I will say that I don't thinkthis passage is saying what it
seems to be saying at firstglance.
Now, there's a long, pronouncedhistory of people reading the
Bible and making it say whateverthey want it to say.
So I have to be honest as wellthat my reading may not stand up
to historical scrutiny orscholarship.

(04:20):
So I'm trying my best to dealwith the text as it is.
But also, you have aresponsibility in the midst of
all this to say is that whatPaul seems to be saying?
And I commend that to you Again.
There's no dictatorship here,and so you are welcome to think
and to disagree.
I think this passage is actuallysaying something much better

(04:42):
and more beautiful than it mayfirst appear.
The traditional options forinterpreting this passage are
classically labeled Calvinistand is actually saying something
much better and more beautifulthan it may first appear.
The traditional options forinterpreting this passage are
classically labeled Calvinistand Arminian.
I find it quite ironic that theoptions available are labeled
for 16th century Dutchmen, whenthe church had been reading and
living these words in Romans 9,some 1500 years before John
Calvin and Jacob Arminius showedup.

(05:02):
I am going to lean, as you willsee, in a much more Arminian
direction, but I want to honor afew things that are pronounced
in the Calvinist approach.
First, if you've ever met aCalvinist, they have a high
regard for the glory of God andthe sovereignty of God.
Second, a trust in God that isoften admirable and beautiful.
Second, a trust in God that isoften admirable and beautiful In

(05:25):
the sense that if God isordering everything that happens
, then a lot of people havesubmitted themselves to this
trust and saying God, thank youWhatever comes my way.
Third, a holistic dedication tothe truth that it is God alone
who saves through grace, byfaith, completely independent of

(05:46):
us.
These are beautiful commitments, and I want to acknowledge that
any sort of speculation aboutour degree of relative freedom
is, at some level, quitepointless.
Whatever measure of freedomhumans have, we obviously can't
resolve it beyond any shadow ofa doubt because these
disagreements still exist.
So, at one level, whether youbelieve God controls the

(06:07):
movement of every molecule ofthe universe or you believe in a
completely open theism, it'skind of immaterial, isn't it?
But on another level, romans 9is a text that has been used to
prove something that I don'tthink it proves, to say
something about God that I don'tthink it says, and thus
something about God that I don'tthink it says, and thus the
message of Romans 9 often goesunheard.

(06:29):
Now, we, as Ecclesia, are not anArminian church.
We are a church of Jesus Christ, and there is a beautiful
diversity of theological streamshere.
We have Calvinists in our midstthanks be to God and Arminians
in our midst, thanks be to God.
We stand, as we are worshipingright now, some 500 yards from
the gravesite of JonathanEdwards, and so to say that

(06:53):
Princeton has a pronouncedhistory with Calvinism would be
an understatement.
This is a place deeply formedby this line of thinking.
I want to put up a few chartsthat I think help illustrate the
sort of the bounds that we'replaying with today.
First of all, if we just again,these, these xy axes are always

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oversimplifications, and thusI'm hesitant sometimes to use
them because I want to caveatthem to death, but avoiding that
for a moment, if we just put iton its face divine freedom,
human freedom we have thesethings going in divergent
directions.
So first, if there's no divinefreedom, no human freedom, then

(07:34):
there's atheism and we areanimals.
You are simply responding tothe chemistry in your brain and,
yes, you have no choice andthere's no purpose to life.
So that sounds like terriblenews.
If you go up the quadrant here,top left, arbitrary this.
Again, if you read Romans 9,this would seem to be what is
suggested here Potter clay, allthat kind of metaphorical

(07:58):
implication that God has simplychosen before the history of the
world who will receive hisgoodness and who will not, and
thus his life.
Again, there is a sense inwhich a lot of Calvinists honor
the choice that humans have andstill somehow tap into the

(08:19):
mystery of that.
But at base, I still find thatif you trace it to its
philosophical assumptions, totheir conclusions, you find that
if you trace it to itsphilosophical assumptions, to
their conclusions, you find thattruly, god has ordered
everything.
Okay, if we go down to thebottom, right here, this often
is the story we tell ourselves.
In our world there may be a God, he's fine.
He's sort of an add-on to mylife, my consumerist life, my

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political life, and so, really,human beings are at the center.
It is about our freedom, andGod's freedom is relative at
best.
The last quadrant, the onewe're going to try to see if
we're glimpsing in Romans 9today, is that God, in fact, is
so sovereign that he can respectour freedom, that he can work

(09:01):
with the material of it, that hecan work with the material of
it.
I want to start with a premise,because I think this is helpful.
You can put up that next slidethere, craig.
All right, so the Calvinistpremise.
And again, this is veryoversimplified, very
oversimplified.
If you're a Calvinist in theroom, both forgive me and bear
with me.
If there's divine sovereigntyand God is omniscient and

(09:26):
omnipotent, then it would followthat he must be able to
influence human choice, he mustknow what humans will choose and
his plans will not befrustrated.
Again, this all tracks theequation balances right, and
what I want to do is just simplystart from a different place, a
different question.
You can put up that next slide,craig.
My question is if human beingshave true agency, then what

(09:51):
shape of divine sovereignty isrevealed in scriptures like
Romans 9?
So when reading this passage Iwant to kind of operate with
this question.
All right, let's hear the firstpart again.
Let's go back to Romans 9,verse 18.
So then he has mercy onwhomever he chooses and he

(10:11):
hardens the heart of whomever hechooses.
This concluding sentence fromthe previous paragraph evokes
one of the most poignant andformative scenes in the Old
Testament, exodus 33.
And if you want to just kind ofmajor in the Old Testament and
just really kind of survey someof the different high points of
the book Exodus 32 through 34,definitely pay close attention

(10:36):
to those.
Those are formative chaptersthat set the direction for so
much of what happens after.
But Exodus 33, there Moses asksGod to see his glory.
Moses said God, I want to seeyour glory, hello.
And God says no one can see myglory and live.
But God decides he'll tuckMoses in the cleft of the rock

(11:00):
and cause all of his goodness topass by him.
Exodus 33, verse 19, says thisI will make all my goodness pass
before you and will proclaimbefore you the name the Lord and
I will be gracious.
To whom I will be gracious andwill show mercy?
On whom I will show mercy.
Hardening of heart is notmentioned here in Exodus 33, but
we have seen earlier in Exodus,and Paul has referenced earlier

(11:23):
in Romans 9, the hardening ofPharaoh's heart.
We talked about this because itprecedes our section for today.
Last week, if you want to checkthat out on our podcast, verse
19, paul goes on.
You will say to me then whythen does he still find fault
For who can resist his will?
Paul's question here framesthis entire section.
Why does God still find faultfor who can resist his will?

(11:48):
I think there's a subtlerhetorical nature to this
question that Paul is sort ofsaying who can resist his will
or who has resisted his will?
I think Paul is sort of sayingwe have, but the question has
all the markings of some of hisearlier rhetorical questions.
Paul will often employ this as adevice in outlaying his

(12:10):
argument.
Paul is often paying attentionto how his argument could be
disproved, as he's giving it.
So.
Romans 3, he says but if ourinjustice serves to confirm the
justice of God, what should wesay?
That God is unjust to inflictwrath on us?
I speak in a human way?
By no means, for then how couldGod judge the world?

(12:32):
But if, through my falsehood,god's truthfulness abounds to
his glory, why am I still beingjudged as a sinner?
Do you see what Paul is sayinghere in Romans 3?
He's saying, through theinjustice and the falsehood of
human living, that God revealedthe goodness of God, the
faithfulness of God, the mercyof God.

(12:54):
So Paul's kind of saying hey,as humans, god, we kind of
helped you out here by ourinjustice, by our falsehood, we
were just moving things along.
Why would you find fault withus?
And Paul's like easy, that'snot quite what happened there.
He goes on it's the truth.

(13:17):
Through my falsehood, god'struthfulness abounds to his
glory.
Why am I still being judged asa sinner?
And why not say, as some peopleslander us by saying that let
us do evil so that good may come.
Their judgment is deserved.
Similar arguments made in Romans6.
What then?
Should we sin?
Because we are not under thelaw but under grace?
By no means, paul says.
He says if where sin abounds,grace increases all the more,

(13:45):
then should we sin more sothere's more grace?
And Paul says absolutely not.
You have completely missed thepoint of what I was saying to
you.
The summary point that Paul ismaking here in Romans 9 is
essential.
He asked the question in Romans9, verse 6, has God's word
failed?
Because, from Paul's vantagepoint, he's looking out at his

(14:05):
ethnic brothers and sisters, forwhom, if you read the early
part of Romans 9, he is willingto be accursed, to be cut off
from Christ himself because he'sso sad at the state of his
nation.
But from this vantage point,the whole of Israel, paul's
people, have failed to receivethe promise of covenant
blessings in Jesus the Messiah.
But Paul is arguing, throughRomans 9, that God has always

(14:28):
demonstrated that merely beingpart of the ethnic people of
Israel did not make one a partof the true Israel, and that
Israel, part of Israel, havebeen hardened by their injustice
, by their ignorance, by theirsin, and that God has actually
redeemed Israel and the worldthrough this hardening.
And that seems to have beenpart of the point all along.

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And so the question then Paulraises is so how can God find
fault if that's what he wasalways doing?
To my mind, a couple things areimportant.
First of all, this passage hasto be read collectively, not
about the predestination ofindividual souls to glory or
perdition, but the collectiveunfolding of the plans of God.

(15:13):
We are looking at this at awide angle, from the angle of
Jew and Gentile to broad peoplegroups.
Now there are several scholars,beautiful New Testament
scholars like Douglas Moo,people like DA Carson, who would
completely disagree with what Ijust said, and so I commend

(15:34):
them to you.
There are pastors who woulddisagree with what I just said
John Piper, rc Sproul, thatwould disagree with that
conclusion, and so I trust youto go and listen and to do your
own investigating.
Paul goes on in verse 20.
He says but who, indeed, areyou a human to argue with God?
Well, what does molded say tothe one who molds it?

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Why have you made me like this?
Has the potter no right overthe clay to make out of the same
lump one object for special useand another for ordinary use?
So if Paul seems to be sayingwho are you to argue with God?
He has consigned some of you toeternal damnation.
All we have to do is go back toExodus 32.
Again, exodus 32 through 34,very formative in the overall

(16:20):
story that the Old Testament istelling and the overall story of
grace that unfolds in Jesus ofNazareth Just before Moses sees
the glory of God.
In Exodus 33,.
In Exodus 32, moses' fellowIsraelites make a golden calf
and worship it, and it's areally funny scene.
Moses takes a long time comingdown from the mountain.
They are anxious for somethingto worship.

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I don't know why that is Maybeit's perhaps the way we were
made but they want to worshipsomething, and so they gather up
all the gold in the camp, goldthat they had no less plundered
from Egypt.
They throw it in the fire andlook, a golden calf emerges and
they bow down and they worshipit.
When Moses comes down themountain, he hears the revelry
of this golden calf worship andhe is indignant.

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And God tells Moses I'm goingto wipe all these people out.
And Moses says will not theLord of all the earth do right?
So again Paul's question whoare you to argue with God?
In that moment?
Moses absolutely argues withGod.
If you read the scriptures, youhave complete warrant to argue
with God.
Everybody, from Abraham toJacob, to Moses, to Job, to

(17:27):
Jonah, to the Psalms, has peopleliving a vibrant relationship
with God and saying really God.
And it doesn't mean they alwaysget their way, but God is the
kind of God that has such arelationship with us that he
welcomes our disagreement.
Then, to underscore his point,paul employs the metaphor of the

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potter At one level.
Again, this would seem todemonstrate that God is the
potter who exercises completecontrol over that which he makes
.
But this doesn't track fromeither a biblical angle or a
metaphorical angle.
First, biblically, the mostfamous potter passage is found
in Jeremiah 18.
I'll read that for you.

(18:12):
It's an extended section, soprepare thyself.
Verse 1.
The word that came to Jeremiahfrom the Lord Come, go down to
the potter's house, and there Iwill let you hear my words.
So I went down to the potter'shouse and there he was working
at his wheel.
The vessel he was making ofclay was spoiled in the potter's
house, and there he was workingat his wheel.
The vessel he was making ofclay was spoiled in the potter's

(18:32):
hand, and he reworked it intoanother vessel as seemed good to
him.
Then the word of the Lord cameto me.
Can I not do with you, o houseof Israel?
Just as this potter has done,says the Lord, just like the
clay in the potter's hand, soare you in my hand, o house of
Israel?
At one moment I may declare,concerning a nation or a kingdom

(18:55):
, that I will pluck up and breakdown and destroy it.
But if that nation concerningwhich I have spoken turns from
its evil, I will change my mindabout the disaster that I
intended to bring upon it and atanother moment, I may declare,
concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will build and plant it
.
But if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice,

(19:16):
then I will change my mind aboutthe good that I had intended to
do to it.
Now, therefore, say to thepeople of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, thussays the Lord Look, I am a
potter shaping evil against youand devising a plan against you.
Look, I am a potter shaping evilagainst you and devising a plan
against you.
Turn now all of you from yourevil way and amend your ways and
your doings.
Now it's so important to payattention to what's actually

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being said here.
Right, god is pronouncingjudgment.
That is clear.
I am planning evil against you.
I am bringing judgment in theform of the Babylonians and they
will lay waste to your nation587 BC.
But at the same time, god issaying there is still a
possibility that you would turn,that you would change your

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heart and the direction that youare going, echoing the words of
Moses in Deuteronomy, I setbefore you life and death.
By all means, choose life Again.
If God has merely chosen, fromthe beginning of the foundations
of the world, who will chooselife and who will choose death,
then all of these instructionsto choose life are completely
meaningless.
But also, as we see Jeremiahtalking about the potter, we see

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that that which he is workingin his hands doesn't quite turn
out the way that he wanted it tothe first time.
And so the image of the potter.
We see that that which he isworking in his hands doesn't
quite turn out the way that hewanted it to the first time.
And so the image of the potteris not about God so unfailingly
shaping something every time.
It's about God patientlyworking with the material of the
clay, responding to it, andthis, so often, is the image

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that is associated with God as apotter.
There's other places Isaiah 45,isaiah 29, where God is talking
about God as a potter, and itusually entails the people are
trying to figure out how Godcould bring about his plans of
redemption in such a way.
Usually, those plans ofredemption are brought about
through judgment that is carriedout by Gentiles, and it seems

(21:13):
to the people that this is notthe way.
All right.
Carl Holliday, a New Testamentscholar, says this.
He says, though Yahweh, adonaiGod, is sovereign, the people
have a will of their own whichthey exert against him.
Yahweh is capable of bothuprooting and demolishing, on
the one hand, and of buildingand planting on the other.
He may intend the one, but ifthe response of the people

(21:35):
demands it, he will do the other.
Jason Staples writes this thisis the lesson of the potter.
Some pots turn out fine thefirst time, some do not.
So the potter changes histactics.
It is a striking presentationof divine sovereignty and human
freedom.
All right, how are we doing?
Are you with me?
You're just going to say yes,I'll just keep going.

(21:57):
All right, you're like I wantlunch Then?
All right.
So we got the biblical kind ofthat sort of metaphorical world.
Now let's just get into themetaphor of being a potter in
general.
If you were going to choose ametaphor to demonstrate complete
, unchallenged authority overthe texture and the material of
your artwork, you would not picka potter and clay.

(22:18):
Ceramicist Jeff Zamek says thisonce you've learned that clay
has a mind of its own, the nextstep is to convince it to behave
.
Another ceramicist, carterGillies writes this extended
reflection.
Having intention, as in havingsomething that you want to make,
does not simply mean that weare absolutely in control as

(22:39):
people at the potter's wheel.
It can also mean that we are inegalitarian association with
something outside ourselves.
The intention to be in arelationship doesn't mean that
we make sure things unfoldentirely to a script of our own
devising.
Rather, we enter into apartnership and learn to
accommodate the newcircumstances and desires of
that other.

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Making pots with this kind ofintention means that we are
constantly willing to learn fromthe clay and respond to it at
every turn of the wheel.
Sometimes it's entirelyappropriate that the clay is
allowed to express itself.
With the right intentions, wecan turn the energy and will of
the clay into somethingharmonious.

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Okay, so this guy you know verywoo-woo with the clay, but he's
saying clay does things thatyou may not account for.
Plus the image for Paul writingsometime in the 50s AD, of an
artisan with limited resources.

(23:40):
Most artisans were peasantsshaping clay pots, allowing them
the time to dry, heating up theoven to blistering hot
temperatures, firing the plotsin the kiln, letting them cool
down and then, once they areable to be handled, flinging
them against the wall is bothwastefully absurd as it is
disturbing.
Paul tells us that the potteris exercising macrothumia, which

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is a Greek word meaningpatience, long-suffering.
Why would the potter need toexercise patience in order to
destroy these things?
Couldn't he just crush them onthe wheel while it's still wet?
Have you ever seen a potter atthe wheel?
In Romans 2, the makrothumia ofGod is referenced there as well,
and it tells us, verse 4,romans 2, do you presume on the

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riches of his kindness andforbearance and patience, not
knowing that God's makrothumia,his kindness, is meant to lead
you to repentance?
If God's patience and kindnessleads us to repentance, then how
could this passage be sayingthat God has chosen some and not
chosen others?
It also says in Romans 2, verse11, that God shows no

(24:52):
partiality.
2 Peter 3, verse 9, tells usthe Lord is not slow to fulfill
his promise, as some countslowness, but is patient towards
you, not wishing that anyshould perish, but that all
should reach repentance.
And again, if this repentanceis impossible, these words from
the scriptures are absurd.

(25:14):
But if something quite differentis going on here, if you can
picture the potter at the wheel,think of how the potter works
with the material.
It's a very intimate thing thatan artist does in this setting
Shaping, guiding, responding.
This, I would argue, is muchmore the image that we are

(25:35):
getting from Romans 9.
And we're getting them both atthis macro level between Jew and
Gentile, and I think that wecan transpose that to our
individual lives with God, thathe is guiding us, that when we
are wayward, when we areunfaithful, when we are
idolatrous and untrue, he istrying to form us, to conform us

(25:56):
to the image of Christ, toguide us back to flourishing and
shalom and fullness in him.
This is who our God is and thatthat is possible because of the
pronounced mercy of our God forevery single person.
Christ died one for all.
This interpretation is witnessedby the church history that we

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stand under the tradition of 2Clement, a 2nd century anonymous
sermon, says this For we areclay in the hand of the
craftsman, as in the case of apotter.
If he makes a vessel that isturned or crushed in his hands,
he can reshape it again, but ifhe's already put it into the
kiln, he can no longer rescue it.
This is a reference to thehardening of heart, thus also

(26:43):
with us as long as we are inthis world, we should repent
from the evil that we did in theflesh, should repent from the
evil that we did in the flesh.
At the end of Romans 9, paulwill draw all that he has been
complex arguing into a summarystatement and some texts from
the Old Testament.
Verse 24 of Romans 9, he'sincluding us, who he has called,

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not from the Jews only, butalso from the Gentiles, and he
also says in Hosea those who arenot my people, I will call my
people, and who is not beloved Iwill call beloved.
Again, if we're at the registerof Jew and Gentile, those who
were not my people I will callmy people.
And in the place where it wassaid to them, you are not my
people, there they shall becalled children of the living

(27:26):
God.
Isaiah cries out concerningIsrael.
Though the number of thechildren of Israel were like the
sand of the sea, only a remnantof them will be saved, for the
Lord will execute his sentenceon the earth quickly and
decisively.
And, as Isaiah predicted, ifthe Lord of hosts had not left
descendants to us, we would havefared like Sodom and made like
Gomorrah.
What then are we to say?

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And this is Paul's kind ofdrawing this summary Gentiles
who were not looking for theMessiah, who were not trying to
live by Torah, who did notstrive in Paul's words, in verse
30, for righteousness, haveattained it.
That is, righteousness throughfaith.
But Israel, again stepping tothe other side, paul's people,

(28:08):
those ones that he laments thatthey have not received these
promises embodied in Jesus ofNazareth.
Israel, who did strive for thelaw of righteousness, did not
attain that law.
Why not?
Because they did not strive forit on the basis of faith, but
as if it were based upon works.
They've stumbled over thestumbling stone, as it is

(28:28):
written.
See, I'm laying in Zion a stonethat will make people stumble,
a rock that will make them fall,and whoever trusts in him will
not be put to shame.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthiansthat for the Jewish people, the
fact that Jesus was hung on across and executed is a scandal.
How could this one, who died insuch a cursed and wretched way,

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be the blessed one of God, thefulfillment of the ancient
promises?
How could this be so?
And so Paul is saying how is itthat the Gentiles seem to be
responding to the good news ofJesus?
And it's evident in the Romanchurch.
In the Roman church, you haveGentile believers trying to live
life with Jewish believers.
How is it that the Gentiles arereceiving these promises, and

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how does it seem that that sameresponse is not being embodied
by Paul's fellow countrymen?
The Gentiles, who were notseeking the coming of God's
kingdom, have received it, butPaul's brothers and sisters by
ethnicity, by and large, havenot.
And this is the scandal ofRomans 9.
That leads Paul to ask thequestion in Romans 9, verse 6,

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has God's word failed?
Did God just change his mind?
This leads Paul to illustratehow even Israel's rejection,
even their stumbling over thecornerstone, is part of God's
mysterious plan of salvation andthat their acceptance of Jesus
will far outweigh theirrejection.
Again, we're not isolated toRomans 9.
Romans 9 is a part of a longerargument that spans from 9

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through 11.
And as we just scroll ahead, wejust glimpse where we're going.
In Romans 11, paul says this Iask then did God reject his
people?
By no means Skip ahead again toverse 12.
But if their transgressionmeans riches for the world and
their loss means riches for theGentiles, again, pay attention
to the language.

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That gives us insight into theregister that we were working at
.
How much greater riches willtheir full inclusion bring?
For God has bound what's thatword?
Everyone over to disobedience,so that he may have mercy on who
?
Them all?
Huh, it would seem that Paul istrying to offer an apologetic

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for why things are the way theyare Not saying to us hey, some
of you, good news, you're in,others of you, I'm sorry.
A word, then, about God'sfreedom.
It is my estimation that wehave an inestimable freedom and
thus a profound responsibility.
To be made in the image of Godis to be endowed with incredible

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responsibility and the weightof our choices.
The early church dignified thisfreedom Ignatius of Antioch,
who was a disciple of John theApostle, which, incidentally,
john's gospel is one of thecollection of books that seems
to be the most intractable whenit comes to our freedom before
God.
It just seems like God is doingwhatever he wants, but John's

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very own disciple writes thisthere is set before us life upon
our observance of God'sprecepts, aka the acceptance of
Jesus Christ as Savior, butdeath as the result of
disobedience, and everyone,according to the choice he makes
, shall go to his own place.
Let us flee from death and makethe choice of life.
So lest you think this is justa modernist reading, because we

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are very excited aboutindividuals and our power to
choose.
Thank you, disney.
This is from the very earliestmoments of the church.
So how does human freedom workin the face of a God who knows
everything?
Well, for many of us, we tendto think in terms of chessboard
freedom on God's part, ie thatGod has set the board, the rules

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, and that he is actually movingboth sides of the board, both
the divine side and the humanside.
Again, there are elements ofthis that are quite moving and
beautiful to me, but there aretheological problems as well, as
it can tend to make God theauthor of evil and can make God
the one who consigns people todamnation, unless you think I'm

(32:41):
being exaggerative.
Let's look at John Calvin'swriting.
He says we ought undoubtedly tohold that whatever changes are
discerned in the world areproduced from the secret
stirring of God's hand.
What God has determined mustnecessarily so take place.

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Now, again, if God isconsigning some people to
eternal bliss and others todamnation.
Calvin writes this.
I hope I've showed, at least atsome level, that Romans 9 I
don't think is addressing thisparticular problem.
It is decidedly about whereIsrael currently and
historically fits into theunfolding plan of salvation.
It's decidedly about the Israelcurrently and historically fits
into the unfolding plan ofsalvation.
It's decidedly about thereality in the Roman church

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where, after Claudius died, abunch of Jewish believers
re-entered the life of the Romanchurch, as the Gentiles have
been living and worshiping theirown way for a while and they're
trying to figure out how tolive together.
I think that God's freedom isnot so much the chessboard where
he has to move all the piecesthat's a beautiful testament to
his truth but I think hisfreedom is much more like that

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of a master conductor who justso happens to be the inventor of
music and the craftsman of allthe instruments and the people
to play them.
He stands at the center andinvites all of the forces of the
universe to play their partsSpiritual forces.
That, ephesians, bears witnessto the created order of the
universe, humanity made in God'simage, all fitted with their

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instruments.
The conductor is the author ofthe music and he beckons each
section to play along.
There is a beauty so stunningin the conductor, especially as
he is at his craft with suchpassion and joy, that the entire
orchestra, when fixed upon himand playing in response, cannot
help but be caught up in raptureand worship.

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Even as they play, theconductor not only remains at
the center but somehow,mysteriously, paradoxically,
trinitarily, can be present inevery aisle of the vast,
unaccountable orchestra.
And the conductor knows thatwithin this vast orchestra there
will be instruments that areout of tune.
He tunes them.
There will be discord notesthat are played that are out of

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harmony with the song that he isleading.
But in those seemingly infinitenumber of ways that the
orchestra can misplay, can messup, can even try to sabotage the
song by playing in an ugly way,the conductor has infinite more
ways of changing the music, toabsorb the dissonance or to
drown out the ugliness.
Theologians have described evilas absurd, which literally

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means to be without sound, thatit is a nothingness, not a
something.
The conductor knows that thereare those who don't respond to
the guiding of his hands and theinvitation to play, but the
invitation remains.
But those who don't respondfind that they can't overcome
the goodness of the music.
They can't ugly it up withtheir own attempts at discord or

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disharmony.
Their sounds, through thegoodness of the potter shaping,
responding, are whittled down tonothing, a divine diminuendo.
The conductor can allow for theugliness, because he can turn
even the worst ugliness intoextravagant beauty.
If you'll indulge me for just asecond, one of my favorite books
is a book by a man named DavidBentley Hart, and he writes the

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measure of difference isprimordially peace, a music
whose periods, intervals,refrains and variants can
together, even whenincorporating dissonances, hymn
God's glory.
This peace is indiscoverableeven amid discords that
fabricate series of their own,intonations of non-being,
irredeemable magnitudes of noise, for in the light of Christ

(36:30):
following after him, limitlesspossibilities of peace appear to
view.
Listen, I know this analogy hasprofound limits and if you try
to stretch it beyond thoselimits, you would arrive at
things we don't intend to sayabout God.
But I hope you can glimpse justfor a moment the utter freedom
of God and thus the freedom thatwe are given because we are

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called to this free, loving,merciful, just and holy God.
I'm going to invite the worshipteam forward If we wanted to
stretch our analogy just a bitmore.
The conductor can take all thediscord, the disharmony, because
he has in some way taken theminto his very life.
He has endless intervals ofpeace.

(37:15):
Intervals are just the space inbetween the white and the black
keys on a piano.
That's what they are, becausein some way he has worn them on
his very shoulders.
Intervals of violence, hatred,idolatry can be made to sound
beautiful by him, because hisarms were not only outstretched

(37:36):
to lead the orchestra in thesong, but were outstretched to
bring them into his very person,the monstrous, the darkness on
his very shoulders.
There is nothing in all ofcreation that he cannot
harmonize, to echo Romans 8,because there is nothing in all
of creation that he has notovercome.

(37:58):
God absolutely gives freedomand invitation to his people and
he is absolutely sovereign.
Guiding the story, matthew 26,verse 30 tells us, when they had
sung a hymn, they set out forthe Mount of Olives, the place
of Gethsemane, the place ofJesus's arrest, which would set
in motion the events of thecross For the Jewish people.

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On that night, of which Jesusis a part of the Jewish people,
jesus is a part of the Jewishpeople.
This was a Passover meal and onthat night, as Matthew tells us
, the last thing they did,before Jesus would go and set
off the events that would leadto the cross, was they sung a
hymn.
Now, incidentally, it washistorically true, and it's true

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to this day, that that hymn wasnot just any random hymn, but
it was an assigned hymn From agroup of psalms found in Psalms
113 through 118, called theHillel Psalms.
And if you ever just read thosepsalms, in light of what Jesus
was about to do for the world,it's stunning.
But the last in that successionof psalms is Psalm 118.

(39:07):
And Jesus would have had thesewords ringing in his ears as he
went to the garden to pray notmy will, but your will be done.
Listen to this.
The stone that the buildersrejected has become the
cornerstone.
The Lord has done this and itis marvelous in our eyes.
The Lord has done it this veryday.

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Let us rejoice today and beglad.
Lord, save us, lord, grant ussuccess.
Blessed is he who comes in thename of the Lord, from the house
of the Lord.
We bless you.
The Lord is God and he has madehis light shine on us.
With bows in hand, joined inthe festal procession up to the
horns of the altar, you are myGod and I will praise you.

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You are my God and I will exaltyou.
Give thanks to the Lord for heis good.
His love endures forever.
And then they went to the Mountof Olives.
If you just trace all that isconverging in this moment, all
the history of the people of God, all the accumulation of story,

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freedom and darkness gatheringinto this one time, this one
place, in Jerusalem, in 33 AD.
There, the Son of God sings anancient hymn that was written
about him, for him, to him, athis exact hour of need, a song
that would remind him of hisidentity, his mission, that the
darkness that is converging uponhim would not have the last

(40:35):
word.
God wrote a song beforehand forthe darkest hour of God, every
bit of it meticulously set intomotion by the God who absolutely
oversees all the details of ourlives and cares for our lives,
and has given of himself that wewould see.
But, yes, he has mercy on allthat he chooses.

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He just happens to choose allof us and you can be a recipient
of that mercy, not because ofanything you have done, but
because he is that good.
We pray, come Holy Spirit, god.
We ask that, in the midst ofincredible mystery, god, that we

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would see the truth that youleave not shrouded in mystery.
That you love us, god, that younever stop pursuing us.
Jesus, god.
Within that truth, lord, thereis illumination, god, of the
darkness within us a darkness,lord, that we often cling to, a

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darkness that we often make intoour God, lord, and you are
drawing us into the light.
So, god, may we not, in thesemoments, cling to the darkness,
believe the lies of the enemy,lord, the lies of our own small
flesh, lord, but hear the wordsthat you have offered to us,

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that you, by your righteousness,by your covenant loyalty, have
forgiven us, and that we canreceive that forgiveness and
respond to it here today, God,may we see that you are a
sovereign, careful God, god thatyou oversee every detail of our

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lives.
Lord, in the midst of thispronounced freedom that we have,
that creation has, lord, youwill see that nothing will ever
separate us from the love of God, not height, not depth, lord,
not life or death, lord, but weare more than conquerors.
Through you, in Christ Jesus,god, draw us to yourself.

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Here, in this place, we askthese things in your name, in
the beautiful name of the Fatherand the Son and the Holy Spirit
, we pray Amen.
I'm going to invite you tostand here today and, as we do,
to respond to the goodness ofthis God.