doesnt it seem a little unfair about the whole "potter uses his vessels for His own purpose" thing that God saves some people and just kinda throws other peoples' lives away to glorify Himself. (i know that's not the way it really is, it just seems that way to me)
1 comment:
First off, I really appreciate your honesty. That's the reason why this post exists.
I won't act like I've never asked the same question that you pose or that it is an easy concept to understand. Might I encourage you to remember, that God doesn't accept you based on your faith in Predestination, but your faith in Jesus Christ. It's easy to focus on the things that we cannot fully understand which can deter us from our mission to preach the saving Grace of Jesus to the world. I don't have all of the answers, but here is an approach that helped me to work through this question and many others.
If we are going to ask the question about fairness, then we must be willing to apply the question to all of Scripture. If we are going to apply the question to all of Scripture, then we must take into account what Scripture has to say about God and man in relation to God.
When classifying what Scripture has to say about God, most scholars would say that Scripture speaks of Incommunicable and Communicable attributes of God. An easier way of saying this is that God has Incommunicable Attributes (How God is Different from Man, things such as Complete Independence, Being Eternal or outside of time but also being able to enter into time being that He created time) and Communicable Attributes (What God shares with man, for example love, goodness, though man does not fully represent these things). We must be careful to recognize that man is never on the same level with God. God is the great original, everything else is in one way or another a reflection of Him.
So, all that said, we would not be able to think or ask questions if God had not first made our minds and mouths. Now, in relation to fairness, in human terms, it may be said that something like election can sound unfair, but we must be quick to let Christ hold "every thought captive". Captive to His grace. When we do that, we can begin to see that our definition (as man) of fair is extremely tainted by a need to glorify ourselves.
By saying that God isn't fair in punishing some, is to actually question God's right. To question God's right is to lower God to a level lower than us and to bring Him into a court of questions where we become the judge.
As Christians, we must remember that God made us, He is the only judge. I often think of the fact that I never asked to be born and I don't know when I'm going to die. Those two facts lead me to an understanding that I'm not in control and that there are some things in this world that are beyond me. It is then that I remember my Creator and His reign over the universe.
So, then I must submit to Christ in not only my actions, but my thoughts as well. This leads me to ask..."What is fair God?" Then I'm quickly reminded of the fact that God is Holy, Righteous, Good, as Scripture clearly teaches. If this is True, which it is, then God cannot be God unless He punishes sin.
Then I remember that I'm sinful. If I'm sinful, yet God punished His son for my sins instead of me, I begin to think, wow...is that fair? Then I remember just how loving God is towards me and towards all of humans. He forgave me. When viewed in that light, I begin to redefine the term fair and ask the question, why is anyone saved?
If we really deserve punishment, then why are any allowed to live? So, I hope that you see, we often times ask the wrong question. We can only attempt to fully understand God, but predestination/election is one of those mysteries that only God can fully understand.
If He made the universe, then I rest in the fact that He has a great plan for all of it, and biblically, predestination/election is a part of that plan. But even in all of His grace, He doesn't ask me to have faith in Predestination, but in Jesus who died to save me from the wrath that I deserve.
When I think of all these things...i remember just how Great our God is and I begin to understand what Paul meant in Romans when responding to man's question of God's actions as fair or not.
Rom. 9:20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”
Rom. 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Rom. 9:22 ¶ What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?
Rom. 9:23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—
Rom. 9:24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
So rather than ask the question of why...I rest in the solution of Jesus. It's not that God is so mean and egocentric but rather that God is so Holy that He must punish yet so loving that He offers an alternative to that punishment through His son Jesus Christ whom He gave on our behalf. And the doctrine of election drives me to a desire to share the greatness of God and salvation to all who may not have ever heard about it.
I hope that this has been a helpful post for you. Again, you can always ask God what He thinks through prayer. He wants to hear your questions and promises to guide us to wisdom.
Thanks again for your honesty,
Derrick Harris
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