Obtaining What You Did Not Seek
Pastor Ostella
8-6-00
Review and Introduction
Listening to Paul defend the sovereignty of God is like listening to the work of a carpenter when the head of the nail and the head of the hammer reach the surface of the wood with a loud thud. To nail his point, Paul returns again and again to what Scripture says. What Scripture says is what God says. Hardening whom He chooses to harden is taught in Scripture so it cannot be unjust, unfair, or untrue. That is a brief summary of Romans 9 up to the conclusion reached in v. 18.
Beginning at v. 19, the direct challenge to God's righteousness becomes an indirect challenge: "he cannot blame us, because we cannot resist his will." Paul replies that this challenge is absurd and irreverent. Imagine a vessel of clay there on the potter's table with a mouth speaking out against the potter and demanding an explanation: "why have you made me like this?" How absurd! But the complaint has a stinger: it is back talk; we hear an attempt to not only shift blame away from man but onto God: why does he blame us for doing His irresistible will?
Paul's reply is that God has every right, just as the potter has the right to make of the clay vessels for noble use and vessels for common use. It is absurd and irreverent for the creature to demand an explanation from the Creator and to do so in a way that shifts true blame from man to God, from yourself, O complainer, to the righteous and sovereign Lord.
Having shown the tone and tenor of the complaint, Paul then ventures forth to answer the question head on. He says it is for His own glory: through hardening as He chooses and through showing mercy as He chooses God sets the riches of His glory in bold relief (9:22-23).
Returning to the potter, the clay and diverse vessels, Paul then makes a shift in his literary audience from "one of you, O man" (2nd person) and objects of wrath versus objects of mercy (3rd person) to "even us (1st person) who are called from the Jews and from the Gentiles. This personal level is beautifully expressed by quotes from the OT that pertain to Israel but that take in the Gentiles (addressed to Israel but applied to the Gentiles). According to Hosea, the Israelites were blended with the Gentiles, in effect they became Gentiles, by God's judgment for their sin (not loved, not my people; go around Israel and hear the parents calling out the names of their children: "come here 'not loved'"; "where are you 'not my people'?"; "stop your horse play 'not my sons'"). But there, in the midst of well-deserved judgment, it is promised that God will spare descendents of Abraham or they would be as Sodom and Gomorrah. And gathering His people therefore involves gathering the nations into which they have been blended (if you blend units of hydrogen with units of Oxygen to make water, then when you scoop up the water you scoop up both hydrogen and Oxygen units).
So Paul took the indirect objection as an opportunity to place an accent on the sovereignty of God as something that is both righteous and merciful in a personal way. It reaches you and me, Gentiles, with the Jews. God is faithful to His promises to Abraham and his descendents. He is faithful to them though they are ever rebellious and deserve His judgment. He keeps His word by choosing an Israel within Israel showing mercy on whom He will and hardening whom He will. But His mercy extends even beyond the undeserving Israelite sinners; it extends to undeserving Gentile sinners as well. How can anyone object to the display of glorious mercy that fulfills what Scripture says and what God says about His salvation in Christ that was promised to Israel and through Israel to the nations?
In light of these facts, in light of the richness of God's sovereign mercy to both Jew and Gentile, what further comment can be made? What response lies now at our fingertips? (v. 30a). Paul's focus is on the Gentile/Jew relationship and he again grounds his comments in OT Scripture. He centers attention on righteousness.
The Gentiles have what they did seek while the Jews do not have what they did seek. The Gentiles have a righteousness that they did not seek. The Jews fail to have a righteousness that they did seek. Is this the same righteousness? Yes, so how can this be? How can we explain this difference?
1A. Paul's Explanation With Respect to the Gentiles
They obtained a righteousness they did not seek. Not seeking describes their lost estate (no one seeks after God, Rom. 3:11). They were lost in the wilderness of the world outside of Eden. Alienated from God man became a threat to his neighbor (cf. Cain and Abel then the flood as sin escalated beyond the fall; only evil all the time, Gen. 6:5; every inclination…evil, Gen. 8:21).They were oblivious to the issues at stake in God's redemptive dealings across OT history (they were strangers, without hope, outside, in darkness, hard of heart, Eph. 2:1; 11-12; 4:17-19).
Thus, we can forcefully say that they did not pursue righteousness. They had no fear of God before their eyes. They had no interest in finding a way to please God and avoid His judgment.
But, notably and remarkably, they obtained righteousness by faith. This is not something they sought as if those out in the world are seeking Christ. It is not something they sought yet it is something they found. This can be compared with the treasure hidden in the field that was found by the tenant farmer. I picture him going about his business as usual. Imagine him there in the dusty field, perhaps with oxen plowing away. Then out of the blue, in the flash of a moment, His work took on a new light, and his life would never to be the same again. His plow hit something. On closer inspection, he found a treasure lying there patiently begging to be opened and possessed. A treasure was virtually dropped into his lap. So, he went his way and sold all that he had to buy the field in which the treasure was hidden. Perhaps his conduct is suspect; he pulls a shady deal. But Jesus uses this parable to illustrate how the kingdom is found; it is found by people who are not looking for it. It is found by sinners who are looking for everything else but not the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Receiving righteousness that was not sought is described as selling all to buy the field. That illustrates faith. This faith is not man's contribution to his salvation. Justifying faith is the gift of God's effectual call (Rom.9:24; 9:12; 8:30, 28).
Gentile inclusion in justification by faith is what is described here. Justification is a declaration of not guilty to those who have sinned and deserve the wrath of God that they store up for themselves. That is all the Gentiles were doing: storing up wrath against the day of wrath. But God gave them His righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. This is the righteousness that justifies. It is appropriated by faith.
Gentiles have this. We have this righteousness and thus acceptance with God. So when we return to Eden, when we come home in repentance and faith. When as prodigals we come to the Father's house with a radical sense of our unworthiness, we are not simply greeted by the servants who describe the provisions made for us. No, we are greeted by the Father Himself and with open arms. This is because of the righteousness procured for us by the person and work of the risen Christ. In His death He took our punishment and from His life we receive righteousness. His own righteousness, the very righteousness of God, is imputed to our account. Marvelously, this includes, "even us" (9:24).
2A. Paul's Explanation With Respect to the Jews
Paul speaks here of the nation Israel. Hence Romans 9-11 treats what has been called "the Jewish problem." On the whole, the Jews stand under the curse of their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They stand accursed under the wrath of God who made an everlasting covenant with them.
How this can be involves a new twist. Earlier Paul tackled the faithfulness, sovereignty, and righteousness of God in connection with the people of His promises. "Has God failed?" was the question (9:6). Now in a new twist of thought Paul emphatically states that it is not the case that God has failed. Instead, Israel has failed. Sovereignty does not eliminate this fact in any way, shape, or form. Sovereignty and responsibility go hand in hand.
Israel failed to attain the righteousness she sought (v. 31). She had the promises, oracles, and the law. She sought to be justified before God. This is a strong contrast to the Gentiles who did not seek justification before God. This raises the Jewish problem to new levels. They did seek righteousness before the God of Scripture who revealed His character in the law. Thus the question is acute: why the failure? They pursued righteousness (justification) but it was the wrong kind of righteousness. It was not a faith righteousness but a works righteousness (v. 32).
What is this works righteousness, this righteousness by works? It is a righteousness of human attainment, by observing the law. This is the use of the law as a ladder by which we climb our way into God's favor and up to heaven. But justification by God and before God involves a righteousness of Christ's attainment that has nothing to do with anything we do. This righteousness is received by faith; it is God's gift (cf. Rom. 3:28-29; 4:1-5).
Thus they stumbled at the stumbling stone; they stumbled, fell, and failed though very religious. Responsibility is placed squarely on their shoulders. Note that the Gentiles have righteousness by faith due to God's merciful call. Israelites do not have righteousness by works, their efforts only seal their true failure. This is a hard saying biblically for it informs us that our good works are nothing but filthy rags when brought out into the bright light of the noonday sun.
Consider people who pride themselves in the good deeds they do. Doing good for them is a matte of good habits. This was Aristotle's view: make a habit of hitting what he called "the golden mean." For example, the right kind of fear (courage) is somewhere between cowardice and foolhardiness. Aristotle proposed that children be taught virtues by using experiences of pain and pleasure. Have a child cross a creek on a log and reward him on the other side with some delicious grapes. Repeating controlled experiences like this forms the control of fear into a habit so when that child becomes a man of war he will follow through with courage despite the prospects of pain (virtues like courage are enculturated)..
Many modern actions that appear to be righteous are habits based on personal gratification and selfishness. They aid in survival in the jungle out there, in the economic wars, where we are taught how to play the game or run bravely through financial land mines that may sever a limb or even decapitate. Some of the tactics of this warfare overlap in kind with Christian graces. But do not be deceived; these are filthy rags, all of them.
Again the good act is one that accords with the right standard, motive, and goal, with the law of God, love for God and for the glory of God. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Regardless of outward appearances in which some sinners come out smelling like roses for the moment, below the surface all are dirty rotting sinners with a stench that rises up from the earth like a heavy mist from a garbage dump; it ascends with offense to the nostrils of God. Thus the Jew and all who seek righteousness before God as a human attainment fail miserably and painfully to attain it.
Conclusion
1) It all follows Scripture (9:33).
What is taking place with the people of Israel, Zion for short, is in accord with the pattern laid out in Scripture that a judgment stone and rock causes stumbling and makes for falling. But Gentiles, and all who trust in Him, will not be put to shame. Another way of describing justification by faith is this grand thought of not having to face the ultimate shame and run away in disappointment (cf. Murray on the nuances of both shame and fleeing in haste from the Hebrew and Greek OT).
2) Thus there is an experiential side of justification: the relief of the conscience from shame. We stand exposed before the eyes of God: "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account" (Heb. 4:13). This could be a terrifying thought. It could haunt you day and night; you are never alone, you have no space that is your own, you are always being watched. This thought was captured by the novelist, Sartre, when he argued for atheism because he felt that it is impossible to live under the constant gaze of another and not be reduced to a shameful thing. The way he ran away from this sense of shame was by removing God from the scene. He paints a comfortable but false picture of the heavens above his head. Because God is absent from this picture, Sartre feels a little bit better in the midst of his meaningless existence on the earth.
3) The answer to this sense of exposure, to this unclothed state of the soul before the eyes of God is to be clothed with righteousness by trusting in the stone of stumbling and judgment: the risen Lord Jesus. This floods the soul with peace instead of being overwhelmed with shame. There is an ongoing aspect to justification with regard to all of our sins, past, present and future. That is, we may get our feet dirty coming back from the beach but we can never be called unclean again (no charge can be made to stick finally and ultimately, Rom. 8:33).
4) We may have remnants of shame as we have remnants of sin in the now and not yet of our salvation. It is important that confession of sin be part of our daily prayers (and not stored up as it were for a confessional either in a Roman Catholic confessional booth or in a Protestant communion service or altar call). Thus, all we have to do for daily cleansing of our feet is acknowledge our sins. Own up to them. Don't rationalize, don't excuse and accuse, and don't shift the blame onto someone else and ultimately back to God.
Owning up to them is like going to the water spout near the porch as you come in from the seashore. Confession and acknowledgement does not take away sin but it is like going to the water spout where Christ pours out the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. Can you feel the grit between your toes and the dust clinging to your ankles? Look at the sand and feel the irritation that is like the disturbance, the aggravation, and the pain under foot caused by sin. Now feel the cold water that is like a powerful stream that carries away the debris in a flood. Look at your feet now: the skin is clean and you can walk without limping. That is what it means to look to Christ in an ongoing faith.
This peace is like the return of health after a bout with aches and pains. Last week I had one of those bouts with pain in the small of the back. It took seven full days before the pain began to subside. Interestingly, the whirlpool at the health club was out of order all that week. On the eighth day, I went into the pool with remaining soreness but came out refreshed and moving without pain. This penetrating heat illustrates the convicting work of the Spirit and the bubbling, cleansing and restoring of the soul. Mediating on His righteousness in all His sovereignty and reflecting on His righteousness as a gift given to us through Christ, the heart is cleansed and the soul is refreshed. It may take a while for the hot water to penetrate to bones and joints but when it does you come out a new man or woman. So it is to meditate on justifying grace, on sovereign, merciful, and undeserved justification; in time and in the process of reflection on God's word, He warms the soul and enflames the spirit for newness of life.
Trust Him. Those who trust in the Lord will not be put to shame.