Time to read some Romans…
This year we’ve been going through The Reason for God in the group I’ve been helping lead. Tim Keller uses the book to address some of the most common doubts concerning Christianity while pastoring his church in downtown NYC. Last night, we asked the question of how a good God can condemn seemingly good people to hell (fun, I know!).
At the end of the night, one of the guys I love dearly was itching to ask a question. He asked Kris about election. Essentially, he asked why, if you believe that God is the one who initiates salvation and draws people to himself (as we do), God doesn’t redeem everyone. Surely Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was powerful enough to atone for all our sins. So then, why doesn’t God reconcile all of us? Wouldn’t that be a glorious display of his power? To redeem the earth and bring it back into communion with himself?
My buddy is Iranian, and he said this thought started to grow in his mind after visiting his family overseas. His immediate family, those he sees on a daily basis, are all Christian. He was raised in a Christian home, and has always been taught the narrative of God’s redemption through the cross. However, these concepts are completely foreign to his family in Iran, where Christianity has never thrived. He calculated that among his family, if we believe that God is the one drawing those to himself, God is batting about 4%. That’s a tough thing to think about.
This problem is expanded when one thinks about the fact that we are two thousand years removed from Christ. God has been building his kingdom for two millenniums, and there are still places on the earth where people have never heard about Jesus. We know from Romans 1 that people are “without excuse” as “his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (20), yet it just seems unfair. What about those that can’t believe, because they’ve never heard? I believe God to be sovereign, but that’s a tough question no matter how you look at it.
We ran out of time for the night, so Kris decided to follow up the discussion next week. As luck would have it, I am in charge of the introduction. I have the challenging task of clearly explaining the concept of election to people at all stages of their walk, and then shedding some light on why I believe God chooses to save some, while allowing others to perish into eternal damnation.
I guess really all I can do is hang my hat with Paul when he writes in Romans 9:
“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.”
Eventually I just have to believe that God cannot diminish his own glory. Therefore, in some way that I might not understand on this side of heaven, God is most glorified by choosing to redeem some, and condemn others. If nothing else, this has to increase my gratitude for what God has done in my own life.
