SEMESTER 2
228 – Election is Not a Violation of Divine Justice
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: SOTERIOLOGY II LESSON # 28
ELECTION NOT A VIOLATION OF DIVINE JUSTICE
Read Rom 9:10-24
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INTRODUCTION
1. I repeat, my belaboring of this doctrine is necessitated by the multitude of foolish accusations brought against it.
2. One of the most common is voiced thus: “God is no respecter of persons.” “It would be unjust for God to not treat all the same.”
3. Paul anticipated and denied such an accusation against the doctrine of sovereign election in Romans 9:11-14.
I. THE RELATIONSHIP OF JUSTICE AND PARTIALITY
1. Men in the administration of recompense, or of reward, are not to show partiality. (Deu 1:17, Col 3:25)
2. We are not to be respecters of persons, nor is God. (Deu 16:19, Jam 2:1, Rom 2:11)
i. Non-respect of persons, however, has nothing to do with impartiality, it is rather relevant to a favorable response to someone because of their moral or social standing or reputation. (Jam 2:1, Act 10:34, Eph 6:9)
3. However, to interpret this as meaning that God treats all men the same is foolish.
i. Experience will not bear it out, all men are not born equal.
ii. Scripture denies it. (Rom 9:13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, Rom 11:5, 7, 8, Exo 11:7, 1Co 4:7, Rom 12:6, Jud 22.
4. God in ministering grace most certainly shows partiality (making a difference). (Rom 12:6, 12, 13, 22, 23)
i. God shows partiality toward fallen men over fallen angels. (Jud 6)
ii. God shows grace in saving some while permitting other to perish. (Rom 9:22-24)
a) But since all deserve to perish, justice is not the issue here, but grace.
I. GOD OWES MAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
1. Not a “chance to be saved” for if He did, all men would most certainly get that chance. (We owe them the gospel, but God owes nothing.)
2. Not “the ability to chose life or death.” Man had that, and in Adam he chose death and died.
3. Not light, for men love darkness, by nature.
4. To reason that God owes man anything, especially when man is obviously not getting it, is a serious reflection on one’s view of God’s justice and/or power.
II. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SOVEREIGN ELECTION (ROM 9:20-22
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1. This Scripture clearly teaches that God is the shaper of both vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, both vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath.
2. The chief difficulty of this vanishes when we consider the means by which God does this.
i. Upon the vessels of honor He has mercy, He shapes them, He afore prepared them to glory (predestination), He makes known to and in them the riches of His glory.
ii. The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, He endures with much long suffering. He permits them to be born, to live, to sin, etc., but it is their own sin and depravity, which fits them to wrath, and not the efficient action of God. If God could not justly permit this, salvation would not be by grace.
III. THIS IS NOT RESPECT OF PERSONS
1. It is not based on race, education, social standing, or religious fidelity.
2. None are deserving, thus all are under sin, that grace might reign free and sovereignly. (Rom 3:19, 23-24)