One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for disposal of refuse? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 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— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one.”

Romans 9:19-25 (TNIV)

Here we see Paul tackle the sometimes thorny question of God’s justice, especially in light of Paul’s teaching about God’s elect. Before tackling this issue, let us acknowledge that we will never understand completely this issue of God’s election, especially this side of the grave. Hence any answer we provide will be incomplete at best.

Paul asks the fifty cent question here. Why does God blame us for our sins if we are unable to resist his will for us? That does seem awfully unsporting of the Almighty, doesn’t it? In response, Paul has a two-fold answer. First, it is awfully impudent on our part to question that which we do not fully understand. We are not God, but rather are his creatures. We do not have an eternal perspective. We are not all knowing (omniscient). Hence, like young children who often foolishly question the wisdom and practice of their parents, we are questioning that about which we really don’t have a clue. In biblical language, this is our pride rearing its ugly head and we are warned repeatedly to work to put it to death.

As the second part of Paul’s answer, it is helpful for us to go back to Genesis and look at God’s original intent for creating humans. He created us to have a relationship with him where we  love and enjoy him, and worship him for being God. But things went south and human sin entered the picture. And sin changed everything. Human sin introduced a whole host of evil and consequences we still do not fully understand. Human sin caused alienation between God and humans and caused us to be separated from him. When we are separated from God, the Source and Author of all life, we have death. So in this regard, if God were really intent on executing his justice, everyone would be condemned and no one would live because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But thankfully God has shown himself to be merciful by becoming human and bearing our just punishment himself on the cross. After all, he created us for relationship, not destruction. So instead of pondering the apparent lack of justice on God’s part, Paul reminds us we are better off to ponder the wondrous mercy of God as made manifest in Jesus Christ.

The mystery of God’s election will surely remain that to us because we are mortal, finite, and lack full knowledge. By contrast, the great love and mercy of God in Christ is quite knowable and God’s gracious invitation to each of us to enjoy life in him through Christ is something we can understand and make sense of. Consequently, let us choose life. Let God be God and let us enjoy his great love and mercy to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

If we really believe in God’s goodness and mercy, if we really believe God is trustworthy and true to his promises to us in Christ, we can surely stand to live with a bit of ambiguity and uncertainty for a season.

How great Christ’s grace is in that he set us free from condemnation [by God].

—Gennadius of Constantinople, Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church

Miracles are unpopular today—to the scientifically minded because they seem to conflict with s0-called scientific miracles, like bumping television programmes across the world by satellite, or going to the moon; to the ostensibly religiously minded because they remind them of miraculous claims made in the past and now discredited, which they wish to forget.

—Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God

Here Muggeridge points us to the problem many moderns and post-moderns have with some of the biblical story. They have made science and its methodology god and king. But why should we elevate science to that level? What about science makes it the arbiter of truth? Why should we allow science to be more authoritative than God’s word contained in Scripture or in the very Word of God, Jesus?

Few are those who suffer no pains in this life. Only a few reach old age without losing their peace of mind or their health. Most of us can agree with Job’s sober observation that “The life of man upon earth is a pain” (Job 7:1). Children begin life knowing nothing and unable to do anything and must be forced to learn their letters or a trade. We begin life by crying, not laughing, and that is a prophecy of how the rest of life shall be.

—City of God 21.24

We should not interpret Augustine’s bleak outlook on life as a command for us to be gloomy and pessimistic. Instead, Augustine’s point was to remind us that we had best not put our ultimate hope and trust in the things of this world because we will be ultimately disappointed if we do. No, there is a better life waiting for those of us who put our hope in Christ. So we must live our life with hope and optimism in this world, even when we are up to our eyeballs in alligators. Doing so is the best indicator of the nature and quality of our faith in Christ.

But mark this carefully: there is more than one road to destruction. There are differing ones, and wide apart from one another. For they who are like the wayside [in Jesus’ parable of the seeds and different kinds of soil] are the coarse-minded and indifferent and careless; but those on the rock such as failed from willed weakness only.

—John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 44.4-5