190908 Sermon on Romans 10:8-17 (Trinity 12) September 8, 2019

190908 Sermon on Romans 10:8-17 (Trinity 12) September 8, 2019

The doctrine of election is the teaching that God has chosen who will be saved from death and hell from before the foundation of the world. God has known from eternity who his own people are. He has loved them even before they have done anything right or wrong. God says, “Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated.” Jacob was to become Israel with his twelve sons. Esau was to become Edom, a nation that was not chosen as God’s own.

The teaching of election easily brings to mind many difficulties for our reason. For example, if God is the one who chooses for salvation, does that mean that he also chooses who is going to be damned? If God is the one who chooses who will be saved, then does it not matter whatever else might happen through the course of history? Can those who are predestined sin all that they want and still be saved? Can those who are not chosen not be saved no matter what? Plus it can seem as though God is arbitrary and random—“I’ll take this one and this one and this one; the rest I leave behind.”

Because of all the difficulties that our reason immediately throws up when it hears of this teaching, it is often neglected. I, also, tend to neglect this teaching. It seems more prudent to just leave this teaching be. It’s safer and easier that way. But that’s no good. The Scriptures clearly teach it, and I suppose that that’s enough justification for speaking about it right there. But there’s also the fact that the doctrine of election, the teaching that God has picked us for salvation, is quintessential to the Gospel. Why should you be saved? The Gospel says that God picked you. He foresaw you, predestined you, called you, justified you, and he is glorifying you. All these gifts are because of God’s good will towards you from eternity, without any reference to what you have done or left undone. God has chosen you and no one can take you out of his hand. If God is for you, then who can be against you?

As for the difficulties that God’s election brings up for our reason, what we must keep in mind is that the doctrine of election has not been given to us to satisfy our curiosity. He has not revealed it so that we could master it with our reason and give our consent to God’s plans.  As the Scriptures say, “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” God has revealed how he chooses those who will be saved in order that we can believe it and be drawn near to God with our trust in him. We should trust him, because he has said that he has chosen you.

You might be wondering, “When did God ever say this to me? I’ve never heard him talk?” To the contrary! Of course you have heard God talk to you. It is true that he has not spoken to you directly. God doesn’t normally interact that way. He works through means instead of directly, but it is him doing it all the same. And so he has brought it about that you should hear of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, who has been sacrificed for you. You’ve been baptized. Baptism is God saying, “You are mine.” You have heard Jesus’s own words where he says that God has loved the world in this way, that he sent his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He is the Good Shepherd. His sheep hear his voice and they follow him. His sheep hear his Words in the Scriptures.  And there are also those holy and sublime words of Holy Communion, that are also Jesus’s own words. He says that this bread is his body, given for who? Given for you. And this cup is the new testament, the new arrangement between God and us, the new binding agreement. What is the nature of this arrangement? Jesus says that this blood is what has been shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Wherever God’s revelation of salvation is made in accordance with the Scriptures, there you have God’s voice that says, “I pick you. You are mine.”

This is the way that it has always been. God has always called those whom he has chosen through the preaching of his Word. The reason why Adam and Eve knew that they were reconciled to God, that God had picked them in spite of their sins, was because God told them so. The reason why Abraham knew that he was chosen by God is because God told him. The reason why the children of Israel knew that they were chosen is because God told said so to Jacob. The reason why the people at Pentecost knew that God chose them is because St. Peter said, “This is for you and for your children, for those who are near, and for those who are far off.” It is the same way still today. The way that you can know that God has chosen you is by hearing him say this to you in his Word and his Sacraments.

In our Epistle reading this morning St. Paul says that if we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead, then we will be saved. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. … Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. … But how can anyone know about Jesus if they are not told about him? And how can anyone speak about Jesus unless they have been sent by God to do so? Beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of peace, who preach the Gospel of good things!

This reading is about the way that God calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the ones that he has chosen by the preaching of Jesus Christ. God’s choice, God’s election of those who are to be saved, is made known by the preaching of the Gospel. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. What makes the difference is the preaching of the Word of God. Preaching is the way that God’s kingdom comes. It is the way that he reigns and rules in the hearts of his children by the power of the Holy Spirit when they believe in Jesus and are saved.

The goodness of the preaching of the Gospel is spoken about in our Old Testament reading in a poetic way:

Isn’t it true that in a very short time

Lebanon will be turned into an orchard,

and the orchard will seem like a forest?

On that day, the deaf will hear the words of a book,

and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

The humble will rejoice in the LORD once again,

and the poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel.

When the Gospel goes out into any place it is a life giving and a life enriching force. It makes orchards of sweet fruit spring up, and the orchards are so bounding with life that they seem like a forest. The Gospel makes the deaf hear and the blind see. All people by nature are deaf and blind to the truth of God. We won’t tolerate either his Law or his Gospel. Unbelievers live in rebellion against God so that death is a dreadful prospect and the life of this world is held on to as the only thing that is hopeful. But the words of a book, the Bible, make people understand God. Their ears are unstopped and their eyes are opened. They come to know and to believe Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, and are excited by the prospect of beholding the glory of God in the merciful face of Jesus.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. It reveals God’s election. It says, “God has chosen you,” so that you may have peace and be glad.

We can see from this that the most important thing in this world is the preaching of the Gospel. It has always been this way. It was this way with the very first preaching of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden whereby Adam and Eve believed in Jesus who would crush the serpent’s head. It is the most important thing that happens today. What does it matter that the world advances in this way and that way? What does it matter that each one of us sits on mountains of money that our ancestors could only dream of? If we do not have peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is all for naught. Everyone will die, and what will all the trinkets and gadgets mean then? This world is even going to melt as it burns, so the institutions of this world will turn to nothing. The thing that endures forever is the Word of God, the Gospel, God’s reconciliation of sinners to himself in the crucified Son of God who is risen from the dead and sits at God’s right hand. When he comes in glory, you will be raised in glory to be seated with him at his heavenly banquet.

To the extent that we are hearing and believing the glad tidings of great joy—to that extent we are in good stead. Our strength is not in ourselves or in any earthly thing. Our strength is from our head, Jesus Christ, who gives life to his body, the Church, to which he has joined himself. That is God’s own strength, given to us, so that we may have peace and joy in the God who has loved us, chosen us, and brought us to himself.

But what about those who have heard this Word of the Gospel and have not believed? What about those who hear God’s Word that says that he has chosen them, but they do not believe it? This happens. St. Paul interrupts his hymn of joy and gladness about the preaching of the Gospel to say, “But not all obeyed the Gospel, for Isaiah said, ‘Lord, who believed our message?’” What does this do to God’s election, and the proclamation of God’s choosing, when I or any other Christian says that God has chosen you?

Here we are getting to the border of what we are able to say. Remember, the doctrine of election was not revealed to us to satisfy our curiosity or to know all things.  There might be questions that we have that the Scriptures do not give answers for. But St. Paul does say this about those who hear the Gospel but do not believe—he asks this rhetorical question, “Will their unfaithfulness undo the faithfulness of God who has made his promises to us in good faith? God remains faithful, even if nobody else does. The promises he makes he keeps, and he wants us to believe them.”

An analogy might help here. We all know that a one hundred dollar bill has great worth. We know that it will work when we want to buy something. We know that it will do what it is supposed to do. But suppose someone took their hundred dollar bill and flushed it down the toilet because they mistakenly believed that it was worthless? Does the fact that they don’t believe in the value of that hundred dollar bill do anything to actual value of the hundred dollar bill? No, it doesn’t.

In a similar way, when God says, “Here, this salvation is for you. I choose you and I give it to you,” that is true. Something much greater in value than a hundred dollar bill is given to us. If we walk away from this promise of God, and do not believe it and hold to it by faith, it doesn’t change the nature of God’s promise. We know that God’s will is that no one should perish, but that all should repent and come to a knowledge of the truth.  The things God says to us are trustworthy and true whether they are believed in or not. But if we do not believe them, if we turn away from them, then they won’t be any good to us personally. It will be like we have flushed the Gospel down the toilet. We have treaded the blood of Christ underfoot.

What we should take from this, then, is that if we hear the voice of God today, we should not harden our heart against it. It is not an accident that you are here today. God is in control of all things. He has brought you here to hear the Gospel, to have your ears unstopped, your eyes opened, and your tongue loosed. What I have said to you today is not my own thoughts. I have not come up with this stuff out of thin air. It’s what the Bible says. Go and look for yourself, and see that this is what St. Paul says in Romans chapters 9 and 10. I say this not so that you think that I’m some great, smart person, but so that you believe it when God speaks to you, telling you that he has chosen you for salvation from before the foundation of the world. He has brought about that salvation by the redemption that is in Jesus, and by the preaching of the Gospel, so that you may believe it and by that faith be saved. When you take the Lord’s Supper, just listen to what Jesus is telling you. This is his body. It’s given for you. This is his blood. It is shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Isn’t it amazing that our salvation is given to us in such a way, in such a place as this?