Mobile, Mardi Gras and God's Mercy

I was thinking the other day about an experience I had in high school marching band.  The band was invited to march in a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile, AL.  We were so excited!  It was "the big time". Marching in the parade was a hullaballoo.  This little country girl had never seen anything like it.  I have two enduring memories from that night at the parade.  The first is that we were marching behind a group of horses, and the inevitable happened.  The other is that I was marching on the right-hand side, near the curb, closest to the cray-cray.  Band members play while marching and then rest from playing - - you've seen the drill.  In a music-less moment, I saw a boy my age in the crowd, and my heart stopped.  Our eyes met, and that teenage craziness called "love at first sight" hit me like a hammer.  I thought about that encounter for days after, but soon came to realize (sensibly, yet sorrowfully) that I'd never see that handsome, young swain ever again.  You know, today, I can't even remember what he looked like...although the memory persists.

Salvation is sort of like that, except the longing for our Savior never leaves.  Our hearts are changed, forever.  Because of that, we long more and more for Him and for Home.  It is this love nugget in our souls, this longing which makes us eager to study the Scriptures, because we learn more about Him within the Bible's pages.

In Scripture, Christ is often referred to as the bridegroom of the Church, and the Church, the bride. The bride and bridegroom analogy is pertinent here.  A new bride wants to figure her husband out, to please him.  Most men don't want to be "figured out".

As for God, He promises that if we seek Him, He will allow us to find Him.  But, He doesn't promise to explain everything, tell everything, reveal everything.  Many doctrines are paradoxical. Today's passage is an example of that.

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you—a mere human being—to talk back to God?Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?”21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?

Romans 9:14-21

The "doctrine of election/predestination" (which flows from the characteristic of God's sovereignty) is one of the most controversial doctrines in Scripture.  Why?  Because taken by itself, Romans 9 seems to indicate that human beings have no choice as to Heaven or Hell.  Romans 9 seems to say that God is going to send to Heaven ("have mercy/compassion") whomever He wants, and He is going to send to Hell ("to harden") whomever He wants.  Romans 9 is a perfect example of why we must take the Scriptures as a whole in order to have a chance at "figuring out" God, fully realizing we cannot fully know here on Earth our magnificent God.

Just as Romans 9 enraptures adherents to "Calvinism", there are also many other passages which drive home the doctrine of free will ("Aminianism").  If you want to delve into this conundrum more deeply, much theological writing has been done on the subject. (See authors under Sources:).  It is not my purpose here to get into the high weeds in trying to convince you, one way or the other.  I don't think we will ever fully understand the paradox between God's sovereignty and His mercy of saving grace.

I will, however, share this perspective: salvation is the gift of God.  It is not produced by any sort of "good work" of ours.  That being said, salvation faith comes by our receiving God's gift.  The Holy Spirit calls, and we either respond, or we don't.  God knows all - - - always has and always will.  He knows who will choose Him and who won't.  I believe there is room in the sovereignty of God for both His foreknowledge and our free will.  For me, the biggest argument for this balanced view is evangelism: if each person has no choice whether to choose Christ or not, then why did Jesus command us to go into all the world and preach the gospel?

Well, I'm just a Christian woman who loves the Lord Jesus; I'm not some exalted theologian.  I've probably made some of you mad with this post.  That was not my intention.  I wasn't going to shy away from the controversy of chapter 9 while moving with you through the book of Romans. Conversely, I will not argue with you over this point.  The devil loves to paralyze us, to keep us from evangelizing the lost and discipling the faithful, by tangling us up in theological arguments.

Verse 14 hammers home the characteristic of God's justice.  We can be confident and calmed in the knowledge that He is completely fair and totally just in His dealings with mankind.  That's enough for me.  Let's praise our perfectly just, sovereign God, once more affirming that He is God, and we are not!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv5eZbwuBx0

Father, I thank you that you love us and that Your love is absolute, as is your justice.  Furthermore, I thank you that I don't fully understand You, nor do I need to.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

Notable Arminians - -
A.W. Tozer

Andrew Murray

John Wesley

Watchman Nee

R.A. Torrey

David Pawson

Leonard Ravenhill

David Wilkerson

John R. Rice

Billy Graham

C.S. Lewis

Notable Calvinists - - 

Martin Luther

John Calvin (of course...)

John Knox

George Whitefield

William Wilberforce

Charles Spurgeon

R.C. Sproul

John MacArthur

John Piper

Francis Schaeffer

Tim Keller

A Galatian Oreo

Do you like Oreos?  I'm going to show you one in Scripture today.

I guess you could say I'm not a Calvinist.  My belief in God's all-knowingness (omniscience) is secure.  He knows all, from before time began until after it is abolished.  "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God!" (Psalm 90:2) Inherent in that omniscience is the understanding that He knows every single choice we will make, before we even think of making it.  Calvinists fully believe in God's omniscience, but they also adhere to an additional belief --- that He makes those choices for us, deciding who will come to know Him through Jesus Christ, as well as (for some) totally negating the concept of free will.

In a way, the Calvinist position is comforting.  Why witness to the lost if it doesn't matter?  God will see that "the chosen" come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ...somehow.  Why live a life of holiness, struggle with sins "that so easily trip us up" (Hebrews 12:1)?  God knows what we are going to do anyway. We really don't have any choice in the matter. It has been fore-ordained.

You see...if you take away from mankind the ability to choose Jesus Christ, or not....
if you take away man's "free will" about salvation, you must also take away basically all choice from him.  It's not "pick and choose".  And, if we really have no choices, why then did Paul write Galatians 5:16-26?

The passage is an "oreo" passage, or in music we would say it is in ABA form.  The first black cookie (or "A") consists of verses 16-18 (NET)

16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 

Paul goes on to describe what a life lived serving one's own selfish desires looks like.  He calls this "living according to the flesh" (vs. 19-21a), the works of the flesh.  Next, he describes what a life lived led by the Holy Spirit looks like.  He calls this the fruits of the Spirit.  All this is the "B" section, the creamy filling of the Oreo.

The second black cookie ("A" again) is contained in verses 24-26 (NET)

24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.

First, let's examine the "A" sections.  Read them over again, one after another.  Do you see that living the Christian life is all about choices?  There is this spiritual battle raging in each of us who know Jesus as Savior.  Some believe, mistakenly, that the battle is less intense after a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord.  No.  The battle intensifies.  The new believer is ratcheted up in Satan's attention. Satanic attempts to neuter, neutralize, disarm and hamstring the believer begin, from the moment of salvation.

Yes, our salvation is settled and secure from the moment we are saved, from that instant we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.  As we live this life, though, as a Christian, we are faced with a seemingly unending array of choices - - - for the kingdom of God or against it.  God has always dealt with mankind this way.  Don't you remember when Joshua told the children of Israel:
"Choose you this day whom you will serve"?  (Joshua 24:15)

Now, let's look at those two words I underlined in the passages above.  Note that the choices motivated by our own selfishness (the flesh) are called "works".  In other words, these are things we do in our own power, in our own human strength.  By contrast, when we choose to be led by the Holy Spirit, it is HE who produces the characteristics in verses 24-26.  Those are fruits which the Holy Spirit produces in our lives.

If you read verses 24-26 and say, "I'm going to try my best to be more gentle," then you've got it backwards.  As a Christian, you make choices to allow the Spirit of Jesus Christ to possess you ... or not.  That is what Paul means by verse 24, that "crucifying of the flesh".  It is He, then, who produces in the believer those "fruits of the Spirit".

If you are like me, you read that list of "fruits" and think with panic, "I'm not able to do that!"  And, then I realize,  "That's exactly right!"  In my flesh, my own power, I can't.  But, He can.  In so doing, He gets all the honor and glory due Him, for the marvelous works that He does in me.

Dear Holy Spirit, consume in me all the impurity that brings my Savior dishonor.  I want to be led by You, to follow You, so that You may be glorified through me.  In Jesus' name, amen.