Pastor Ostella

8-27-00

Introduction

Last week's study prompted some interesting discussion regarding God's desire that sinners come to the knowledge of the truth. So today I want to discuss the theme of "God's Desire and Ours for the Salvation of Sinners." I will approach it by asking four questions: 1) How does God's desire surface in Romans 10? 2) What is meant by God's desire for the lost? 3) Where is God's desire explicitly presented in Scripture? and 4) What are some implications of God's desire?

1A. How does God's desire surface in Romans 10?

It surfaces as something that lies back of Paul's desire. Two points can be made about his desire in this regard.

1B. First, Paul's desire goes hand in hand with belief in sovereignty.

This should leap up at us from the page. Paul shows us that God's sovereignty does not rule out the concern of Christians for those who are unsaved: "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." It should interest us to hear about this heartfelt concern over the lost on the part of the apostle. This is especially so in light of the fact that Paul probably expounds on sovereignty more than any other biblical writer and his exposition in Romans 9 is classic on sovereign election and sovereign severity.

He moves with ease between exposition on sovereignty and accent on his desire for the salvation of his kinsmen. Let's think about this in the shifts that occur between Romans 8 and 9, and between Romans 9 and 10.

a) In Romans 8 he roots the security of believers in the everlasting love of God which is His electing love (cf. foreknow as forelove). Loving election, to turn the phrase around to fill it out, leads God to foreordain, call, justify, and glorify those upon whom He sets His discriminating love. Then, in the opening of Romans 9, Paul gives us a look at his afflicted and concerned heart for the lost. In the language of 9:2, they are cursed and cut off from Christ. Romans 9:2 also indicates that Paul's desire of heart is associated with great sorrow and unceasing anguish on behalf of the people of Israel.

Thus it is not only striking that Paul will descend from the highest and most exhilarating heights to the dark valley of great sorrow, but it is also striking that Paul does not even flinch when he shifts from God's sovereign election to Christian desire for sinners to be saved. It is so evident that we have to say that if a Christian tends to become callous toward the unsaved then something is terribly wrong. This callous spirit does not arise from sovereignty. It arises from some spiritual sickness, from some distortion of love for the neighbor, and perhaps from some perversion of the doctrine of God's sovereignty.

b) Another example is the shift from sovereignty in Romans 9 to Paul's desire recorded in 10:1. God lays a stone in Zion that causes the Israelites to stumble and fall (9:33). God shows mercy on whom He chooses and He hardens whom He chooses (9:18). This fulfills His purpose in election (9:11-12). Of the same sinful clay He makes some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use (9:21) and He does this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy through patience with the objects of His wrath (9:22-23). But this does not lead Paul to callousness and hardness of heart toward the unsaved. To the contrary, His mind is filled with awe before the sovereign God at the same time that His heart is filled with great and unceasing desire for the lost world. Thus Paul turns to God. When desire arises in his heart, prayer arises from his soul. In prayer, desire for the unsaved and belief in sovereignty merge into a single whole: I desire and I depend on God. His prayer is thus the capstone application of sovereignty.

Belief in sovereignty and desire for the lost are not competing beliefs; instead, they are complimentary. Then from the strength of this fundamental and foundational outlook, Paul suffered all things for the salvation of God's elect seeking their deliverance from sin and their well-being in life. Sovereignty does not remove this desire that manifests itself in proclamation of the gospel to all men everywhere giving an overture of God's grace. It does not remove loving the neighbor and doing good for the neighbor, especially, working for their salvation.

2B. Second regarding Paul's desire: It is rooted in God's desire

On an academic plane one might never move so easily from belief in sovereignty to desire for the lost. This leads us to ask how Paul could have this balance of these issues of sovereign election and Christian concern for the lost. How is this the case for him and for us following his example? From 10:21 we learn that underlying Paul's desire is God's.

In this passage Paul does not draw a line directly from God's desire to his (verse 1 is 20 verses from verse 21). Still, we can note two things that account for the intense desire he has for unsaved Israelites in this context of sovereign election and sovereign severity.

a) He looks at the Israelites. He sees their misinformed zeal (v. 2) coupled with self-righteous insubordination to God (v. 3), their unteachableness, flagrant ingratitude, and rebellion (v. 21b, disobedient and obstinate). In chapter 9 Paul focussed on the privilege against which they have sinned (4-5). Their sin is great as is their plight under the firm hand of God's judgment. In a word, they are in desperate need. Pondering this need, weighing it (not just glancing or feigning a look as the Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan) fans compassion in the heart.

b) But Paul also contemplates the picture presented by Isaiah of God holding out His hands all day long to disobedient and obstinate Israel (v. 21). This is an amazing picture to ponder: the outstretched hands of God. These hands do what? They beckon, invite and offer welcome. The fact that God persists and endures disobedience and obstinance shows that His invitation is rooted deep in His heart. The offer is genuine, warm and sincere. It reflects something about the attitude of God regarding those who are perishing, including those who die in their sins under His severe hand of judgment. These things imply the desire of God as a root from which this overture grows. Paul's overture is rooted in God's.

2A. What is meant by God's desire for the lost?

It is a disposition in the heart of God that lies behind the overture He gives in the overture that we give. The booklet titled The Free Offer of the Gospel by Murray and Stonehouse is very helpful on this subject. They define God's desire as a "disposition of lovingkindness" that is "a real attitude, a real disposition of lovingkindness inherent in the free offer to all, in other words, a pleasure or delight in God, contemplating the blessed result to be achieved by compliance with the overture proffered and the invitation given" (4). In God there is "a disposition of love, kindness, mercifulness" that is not conditioned on repentance (7). It is a delight that the wicked turn from their wickedness "even if the actual occurrence should never take place" (17). Finally, how it is related to God's decree of election is a mystery that reflects the "adorable richness of the divine will" which can only cause us to "bow in humble yet exultant amazement before his ineffable greatness and unsearchable judgments" (21).

It is a warm welcome that is extended to all according to Psalm 19 and cited by Paul here in Romans 10 (v.18). God shares His wisdom through His creation as a word of communication to people everywhere to share in with Him. It is universally offered to all.

Put in human terms, it means that God wants everyone to come to the water of life and drink and be saved. His heart aches for this. He is not happy with the alienation that separates Him from His creatures who have fallen and are going their own way in stubborn malice of heart toward God and their neighbors. God's desire is like human emotion. It is an emotional aching, yearning, longing for the salvation of sinners.

3A. Where is God's desire explicitly presented in Scripture?

Given the doctrine of sovereign election and sovereign severity, where do we find the truth of God's desire intertwined in the fabric of Scripture? There are three focal passages.

God takes no pleasure or delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11, "Say to them, 'as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'").

He desires that all come to repentance and salvation (2 Pet. 3:9, God is patient "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."). He does not want anyone to perish. It is not a matter of delight in the heart of God when people perish. He judges and takes delight in judgment as a display of His glory, but He does not delight in judgment in and of itself.

He longs over the lost, He desires but they refuse, He is loving but they are willful. He invites with open arms, they rebel with stiff necks and hard hearts (Matt. 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.").

All of these passages support the conclusion that there is a deep-rooted love in the heart of God for all people everywhere. He desires that they turn from their folly and foolishness, that they repent and be saved.

4A. What are some implications of God's desire?

1B. How it ultimately squares with election is a secret thing.

Both truths must be held at the same time. It is because they are both Scriptural. How they connect is a secret thing that belongs to God but that they connect is something revealed for us and our children (Deut. 29:29) that we should preach and teach (Each truth and the fact of their connection is revealed in Scripture).

This is a mystery like the deity and humanity of Christ. All such mysteries are to be held with a pure conscience according to 1 Timothy 3:9.

God's desire for the lost is a thread in a profound paradox. A paradox refers to two truths that seem contradictory but there is no actual contradiction which we know because God's word is truth and has no contradictions. The two truths here are God's choice of some and His desire for all. Why doesn't God decree and do what He desires? If He desires the salvation of all then why doesn't He decree the salvation of all? And most pointedly we can ask: since He desires that all be saved, why does He choose only some particular people for salvation? Paradox means that we cannot answer these questions; reason cannot figure it all out; God has told us this much and no more.

And there is a pitfall here. The pitfall is to deny one of these truths by means of the other. One may reason from one doctrine to the exclusion of the other. The church has done this both ways historically. You might think a lot about the teaching on God's desire and then form the judgment that therefore there cannot be election. Or you might ponder election and think that therefore there can be no desire of God for all people. Either way, you fall into an unbiblical ditch.

Practically speaking, we deny one or the other by how we live. We deny God's election and we deny the Lord when we live as if our salvation depended on ourselves or teach others that their salvation depends on them in any way. We deny God's desire and we deny the Lord when we fold our hands and become uninvolved. This "hand folding" may come out in a "what will be will be" attitude. We might have this about our health: "I'll eat what I want when I want, if I die, I die, what will be will be." It may come out in our work: "so what if I am sloppy and haphazard, whether I keep or lose my job is in God's hands, whatever will be will be." It may come out in our relation to the church: "My involvement means nothing anyway, what will be will be, so why should I expend the energy to be involved?" Or, it may come out in counseling in the statement: why bother to try helping some struggling couple having difficulties, since they won't change anyway? Or, in witnessing, "I don't need to be concerned, if God is going to save them, He will save them, it doesn’t matter what I do."

All of these statements are ungodly. They are perverse when the ungodliness is cloaked behind a biblical truth – really behind a ½ truth, which is not a biblical doctrine but a "no truth." Again, half -truths presented as whole truths are no truths.

The illustration of the well with two ropes shows this need to hold to both. Picture yourself half way down a well on a ledge but there is no way out except two ropes hanging there in front of you. You look up and see that the ropes lead to the light above. This is the way out. But note, if you grab onto one rope you will plummet to the depths of the well and if you grab onto the other rope you will free fall to the bottom of the well. Why? Because they make up two ends of one rope, the rope simply loops over a pulley at the top of the well. You cannot see the connection above, you cannot see how they are one. But the only way out of the well is to hold on to both of the ropes at the same time. If you hold to only one or the other you are asking for "deep" trouble.

How could the climbing be done in the story? How could you climb if you have to hold to both ropes at the same time? If you try to reach up, you have to let go for a moment with one hand and raise it higher, then do the same with the other hand. But when you let go like this you will fall. There is a way: you must spin and intertwine the ropes; then each hand will hold to both as you make your way up hand over hand.

You must hold to both all the time, with each grip, in each act.

My claim is that this is just like the two ropes of Scripture as the word of God and the word of man, the two ropes of Christ as God and man, the two ropes of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We must hold both all the time. Likewise, regarding election and desire, we must hold both in order to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is the way of safety for our thinking and our living.

2B. God's desire encourages gospel proclamation.

It encourages preaching, witnessing, and missions! Election gives hope and desire gives heart to our task.When I look at this fallen world and see how evil, and cruel people are, I see how impossible the task is to reach them. But I have hope (1 Pet. 3:15) because it does not depend on him who wills or runs but on God who shows mercy. I know that He has a reason in all He does and He will see to the accomplishment of His purposes in the saving of His elect that He gave to Christ. All the given ones, all the elect, will come and will not be cast out. That is encouraging to missions and witnessing! In all the darkness, all the obstacles, they will come. Furthermore, when I get close to the heart of my Savior I feel His desire and it stirs up my desire, it creates in me a longing, an aching. It makes me want to preach the gospel through thick and thin, both here in church and out in the world. I see my calling as a life long task to make the gospel clear and to do what I can to proclaim the overture of grace clearly and boldly.

On one hand, this paradox is God's promise to us saying, "I have much people in this city and that, here in this country and that" (cf. Acts 18:10). From Judea, to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth, and to the end of the age, the Lord says: "I have a people in this city so do not be afraid, go and preach the word, preach the whole counsel of God, preach sound doctrine, I will bring them in from the fields of sin." He says, "I must bring them (Jn. 10:16), I will bring them from all nations (Jn. 12:32), they will come (Jn. 6:37), I will build my church (Matt. 16:18), and "my word will accomplish all I sent it to accomplish" (Isa. 55:11; 46:9-10).

On the other hand, this paradox tells us to listen to our Father's heart underlying His promises. He desires and longs. Jesus said, "How oft would I but you would not." Every person we meet, however far gone, should be seen as God's image, fallen, and in need of restoration in the image of God. We should see every person as one for whom the heart of our Lord aches. Then in love to our Lord, we must ache too. We must go too. When our hearts sink into this side of the paradox we are nourished in desire, longing, and passion for the salvation of sinners according to the desires of our heavenly Father and our risen Lord Jesus.

The bottom line in our fallen world with the great commission in our hands is this: election and desire encourage us to passionate and confident prayer for the lost.

Here, holding both ropes of truth intertwined, we have both a strength in our outlook and a spring in our step. Here we march out into the world with confidence and passion - knowing that today we are a little flock, tomorrow we will be the world!!

Contemplating God's desire is the ultimate ground of our desire. When we listen to the lament of Jesus over Jerusalem we hear both the sad condition of Israel and of all fallen sinners and we hear our Savior's throbbing heart. Both of these perspectives tug at our hearts. You cannot dwell in this environment of thought and not be affected. Here we are brought to love God all the more and to desire what He desires. The desire does not end the story. We pray because it is a matter of God's electing purposes and His will to call particular people to Himself (to make Himself known to those who do not seek and who do not ask for Him). We come full circle regarding the paradox of God's desire and God's decree when our heart's desire and prayer to God for family, friend, and neighbor is that they may be saved.