God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
In our last post from Romans we explored the fascinating story of how a Chief Rabbi became a Christian. If you’re interested you can read more here: A Chief Rabbi Follows Jesus: The Controversial Conversion of Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli–Romans 9:4-5. In today’s post, we’ll look at what Paul said about God and injustice in the world.
Romans 9:6-24
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Who’s Your Father?
Paul is explaining here about how not all who are descended from Israel are true children of God (or Abraham). As usual, Paul is aligned with Jesus:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. (John 8:31-40)
So it’s not about the DNA here. Not all who biologically descended from Abraham are Abraham’s children in God’s sight. Those Jews who do as Abraham did, those who do the will of God, are Abraham’s children, and God’s children, in His sight. And those Jews who had believed him, and who abided in Jesus’ word, were Jesus’ true disciples. (John 8:31)
Is There Injustice on God’s Part?
Paul goes on to talk about how God loved Jacob, but hated Esau, even before they were born.
And Paul talks about how God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so God could demonstrate His power throughout the earth.
Having done that, is there injustice on God’s part? “By no means!” Paul wrote.
Paul points out that the creator has the right to create whatever he desires for whatever purpose he chooses. The bowl made of marble can’t complain to the sculptor that it’s unfair it’s not Michelangelo’s Pietà. Paul suggests one possible explanation for God’s position regarding Esau and Pharaoh is that he created them with a specific purpose in mind, to make known the riches of his glory.
Concerning Esau, another possible explanation could be that God knew what Esau’s choices would be before Esau made them. Even as mere mortals we adults do this with our children. When a dad puts a piece of candy in front of his three year old, he knows what’s coming before it happens.
God’s foreknowledge could also explain the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. As I once heard a man say: When the sun shines down on wax, it melts. But when the sun shines down on clay, it hardens. I’ve seen this in different friends over my lifetime. One person chooses to be soft toward God, and when trials come he draws closer. Another chooses to be hard toward God, and when trials come, he chooses to revolt.
A Tale of Two Fathers
In the book Love Like Jesus I tell the story about two fathers and their very different responses to tragedy. When I was growing up in Chicago, I had this friend named Danny Rodriguez. He was a great kid from a great family. And his father, Mateo Rodriguez, was one of the nicest most likeable people in the neighborhood. Everyone loved Mateo. Tragically, Danny died in a car crash when he was still a young man. His father, the nicest and most likable person in the neighborhood, turned to alcohol for comfort. Not long after, he began beating his wife. His abusive behavior became worse and worse until she finally obtained a restraining order. One night Mateo showed up at his wife’s house drunk. He began banging on the door. She called the police. He pulled out a gun. There were shots fired. And when it was over, Mateo Rodriguez lay there dead on the doorstep.
There was another man in my neighborhood, the same age as Mateo. His name is Alex Rivera. But in the beginning, he had an entirely different reputation from Mateo. Alex had a reputation for his own crazy kind of meanness. He liked to hit women, rob the homeless, and engage in other cowardly behavior. Everyone in the neighborhood was sure Alex would die young or land in prison. And like Mateo, Alex also suffered a tragic loss. But he didn’t lose just one son; he lost two. The first died of cancer, the second died in a car crash. But unlike Mateo Rodriguez, Alex turned to Christ for comfort. And in the process, he died to himself and was transformed. He became a committed follower of Jesus who, to this day, loves God and loves people.
And today, everyone seems to love Alex.
God and Free Will
The more I study God and Christ, the more amazed I am with how serious God is about our free will, and how committed He is to preserving our free will. “In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus said. (John 16:33) And how we respond to tribulation is up to each one of us. Paul is an example of a believer who endured tremendous tribulation. And he chose to have a soft heart toward Jesus. Over his lifetime, the tribulations Paul endured brought him closer to Christ.
Both Mateo Rodriguez and Alex Rivera suffered a brutal loss, but each responded differently. What was it that caused one to go one way, and the other to go God’s way? I submit that it was the respective choices they made. When Alex lost his two sons, he decided to die to himself. He gave himself up for dead so to speak, and he submitted himself to God.
He recognized he would never understand the why behind the loss of his two sons. He recognized God’s sovereignty. He realized God was his maker. God made his heart, soul, and mind.
Alex recognized that it makes sense that he, Alex, didn’t understand the tragedy in his life.
Not understanding is exactly what we would expect concerning the God who is the Creator of all things. He is the One who created the neutron star, a teaspoon of which would weigh six billion tons. He is the One who created the flea which can accelerate 20 times faster than the space shuttle. He is the One who created the people who built the space shuttle. He is the Creator of the caterpillar that metamorphosizes into a butterfly. And He is the Creator of the Butterfly Nebula. He is the One who created atoms, and the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up atoms. He is the One who created the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons. And He is the One who created the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, a structure made up of galaxies that may be the biggest thing in the universe.
Why would we think that we would understand the actions of a being like that?
That would be like a flea understanding the actions of the man who wrote the article about the flea accelerating faster than the space shuttle. It makes sense that the flea doesn’t understand the actions of the author of the article describing him.
In the same way it makes sense that you and I don’t understand the actions of the Author of the human being, who is also the Author of the universe the human being lives in.
Alex recognized that “these are but the outer fringe of his works.” (Job 26:14 NIV) Alex recognized he will never understand all the whys behind the business of a Person like Him. He knew he could never understand why.
But he also knew his personal pain could not be because God does not love him. Because God lost His son too. And He suffered that loss so we can be with Him in heaven.
So Alex softened his heart toward God, and Alex decided to die.
Do you see the irony here? When Alex lost his sons yet decided to surrender his will, when he died to himself in that way, that is precisely what allowed him to be reborn — as a follower of Jesus.
Then there’s Mateo. Mateo lost his son but made a decision not to die. Mateo decided he would rather rage than to surrender his will like Alex, and like Paul, and like Jesus. And when he made that decision to remain in his rage, and not to die, he lost the opportunity to be reborn. And do you see the irony here as well? The irony is, in the end, Mateo’s own rage consumed him, and he died anyway. But not in the way that leads to rebirth, but in the way that leads to a dark and tragic end.
The bottom line is this: Each one of us decides how we will respond to tragedy.
In the end, in my experience:
Faith in God, complete humility, and absolute surrender are the keys to successfully surviving suffering and tribulation.
Notes:
See also Turns Out Life Is Not A Hotel: Suffering Part 3
The Love Like Jesus Book
Available on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Audible!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
In this heartfelt, Scripture-rich journey, Kurt Bennett invites you to study not just the words of Jesus, but His actions—His love, His mercy, His boundaries, and even His naps.
Honest. Practical. Deeply human.
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus.
(Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon, the ebook is now available on Google Play Books, and the audiobook is available on Audible.)
Now you can take Love Like Jesus with you wherever life happens.
We recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. And it’s available on the following platforms:
It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.
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