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Why God’s Grace is Sovereign and Free By Jay Wegter (With Added Highlights from The
Justification of God, by John Piper) The Sinner’s Condition Jonathan Edwards frequently emphasized the sinner’s exposure
to infinite divine wrath, thus dramatically underscoring the need of
grace. Romans 5:6-10 describes the
unbeliever as under wrath, helpless, ungodly, and an enemy of God. Ephesians
It is not only the natural man’s will that opposes God, but
also his darkened understanding. The
unregenerate individual falsely imagines that he may perform in some way for
salvation (note the rich young ruler – Mark All moralistic, religious zeal turns out to be a refusal to submit to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:1-4). True repentance does not begin until there is an apprehension of the seriousness of sin and an apprehension of the mercy available in Christ Jesus. It is solely by the conviction of God’s Spirit that a man is enabled to look completely away from self as source of salvation. (ILLUSTRATION: Because of the weight of water, two and one half feet of rapidly moving water can carry away a truck. Sinners are “floating” downstream in a “river” of personal lusts. Because they have never put their feet on the bottom amidst the current, and lived a life of mortifying sin, they falsely imagine that it is within their power to be morally acceptable to God if they gave it their best shot. God often allows the awakened sinner to experience the impotence of his own fleshly efforts against sin. In preparation for salvation, God’s Spirit brings conviction of sin to these failed attempts at personal reformation.) It is only by the Spirit’s convicting work that the awakened
sinner longs for deliverance from the reign of sin. Through Spirit conviction, the sinner is
shown the pollution of his whole nature and the chains that bind him to his
sin. God’s sovereign free grace brings
to him the reign of life in Christ (Rom Prior to salvation, the sinner’s pride animates his refusal to have any sentiment for God’s glory. But, in his unbelief, the sinner opposes himself. Since the whole universe exists to manifest God’s glory, it is only rational for the creature to seek God’s glory by running to Christ for forgiveness. (The very first act that glorifies God is faith in Christ.) God’s glory is manifested in mercy and in hardening. God has annexed His glory to the fulfillment of His Word in its promises and threats. This is a powerful argument to seek God with all one’s might. Since God magnifies His name by the unbreakable fulfillment of His Word, no sandier foundation exists than the spurious hope that God’s Word will fail, and that His threats are idle. Unbelief generates sin.
Unbelief is a commitment to live independently of God, even though God
is the source of all life, truth, blessing and, light to the creature. The sin of unbelief takes the creature’s
worship elsewhere – he worships and serves the creature and the creation (Rom To be wrongly “adjusted” to God’s Person, purposes, claims, and precepts, is to be careening toward damnation. Each descendant of Adam must be either destroyed, or reconciled to God through Jesus Christ; there is nothing in between. Sinful man’s only hope is the exercise of sovereign grace
toward the defiled creature. In order
for a sinner to escape eternal judgment, he must be rightly adjusted to God
through Christ. God’s gracious work of
justification by faith through grace provides that “adjustment” to God. In justification, God puts the sinner right
with Himself (Rom The Sinner’s Need
for Conviction One cannot overly stress the need for the Spirit’s conviction (Jn 16:8-11). The wise pastor will counsel sinners to labor to obtain deep conviction of sin. “Don’t shun it – the knowledge of the wrath your sin deserves inspires reverential fear of God. It brings your focus squarely upon God’s character.” The Gospel is utterly great news only to those who have been slain by the law of God. Only those who have received a mortal wound to their consciences will cherish divine compassion. God’s mercy provides a God-approved righteousness that no sinner has any hope of achieving in himself. Shocking as it may seem, we must admit that the sinner’s nature resists mercy! He resists because the kind of mercy needed is not in the form of repair, nor renovation, nor resuscitation, but RESURRECTION from spiritual death. To truly be prepared for divine mercy, the sinner must be shown the utter bankruptcy of his whole nature before God. He must be shown that self can provide nothing. His eyes must be opened so as to face his ill desert – only then will he despair of attempting to work his way out of condemnation and wretchedness. Salvation is not a cooperative, synergistic effort between God and man. No amount of self-reformation can change the human heart. You cannot have a part in your deliverance from sin and wrath. God in Christ is your only hope. But sinners resist at this point. They loathe the idea of being utterly beholden to Christ forever. If they could but pay five cents of a trillion dollar debt, at least they would have the satisfaction of contributing something. But Christ must have all the glory because salvation is all of grace. The saved person understands in the depths of his being, that allegiance, obligation, devotion, and loyalty to Christ’s lordship are absolute. The moralist, the pagan, the religionist, the legalist, and the antinomian all come short of true salvation. They have never been brought to complete bankruptcy. They have never taken God’s side against their own sin natures. Therefore they have never fallen at the feet of Christ with His mercy as their only possible hope. General conviction of sin brought on by an accusing conscience is not the same as the Spirit’s conviction that prepares one for salvation. In Spirit-produced conviction, the sinner is crushed over his sin against God and will therefore not seek an exit short of true Gospel salvation. (Peter’s hearers were cut to the quick -- Acts 2:37). It is the grace of God to see your sin as God sees it. God’s grace will inspire you ONLY to the degree that your sin inspires dread. God’s grace will promote gratitude and filial reverential worship ONLY to the degree that you have trembled before the Word of God. God’s mercy provides a God-approved righteousness for
believing sinners that Christ’s work on Life Under Grace In the new covenant in Christ’s blood, God condescends to
bind Himself by oath. He desires that the elect know for certain that He is
their eternal refuge (Heb God’s name, honor, mercy, and goodness are the source of all eternal welfare to the creature. The redeemed individual is an object of mercy and a vessel of honor. He has been given a new nature as a gift of divine grace. In justification, the redeemed creature has been radically adjusted to God so as to conform to God’s ultimate purpose of glorifying Himself (his heart now beats in tune with God’s ultimate purpose to magnify His glory). The redeemed creature is “exhibit A” in God’s sovereign display of the reign of righteousness. Faith, love, honor, and esteem towards God’s name drive our practical righteousness. We glorify God by taking delight in Him. As creatures of dust, we glorify God by continually entrusting ourselves to Him and magnifying His majestic trustworthiness in so doing. We glorify God by keeping a humble, childlike posture of heart before Him. Christ is our “Source Person.” A child-like dependence acknowledges that every divine blessing is in Him, and purchased for us by Him. God has joined His eternal glory to our good. Our commitment to His glory is completely
rational BECAUSE, His highest glory is our highest good. Our former suspicions about God’s glory and
our former reluctance to give ourselves wholly to God’s glory have together
been dispelled by the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6).
Addendum: Highlights from The Justification of God, by John Piper pp. 79-80 – Ex 33:12-34:9 Moses’ prayer of petition has two
themes -- Moses asks that God will go
with Moses wants to probe the heart of God to assure
himself that God, in His deepest nature, is the kind of God who pardons our
iniquity and takes us as His inheritance, even after such spiritual
defeat. This is the context for Moses’
request to see God’s glory. Thus the
request to see God’s glory springs from the desire to have God confirm His
astonishing willingness to favor a stiff-necked, idolatrous people – the
confirmation will be the revelation of God’s glory – that glory being
the ground and source of such great mercy. p. 81 – The exercise of God’s grace involves His full
freedom – there’s no appeal to the merit of self (in Moses), or to the merit of
the people. In essence, Moses’ anxiety
(about p. 82-83 – “I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful” (Ex 33:19). There are no stipulations outside of God’s own counsel and will which determine His disposal of mercy. The freedom of God is self-contained. He is free to bestow grace or not – it is His own free, sovereign choice. p. 88 – Ex 33:18-19
-- There are three realities in this revelation of God: 1.) God’s glory and name, 2.) God’s propensity to show mercy, and 3.) God’s sovereign freedom in His distribution
of mercy (also showing wrath as He pleases). p. 89 – To demonstrate compassion or wrath apart from constraint originating outside of His will is the essence of what it means to be God. (This is His name and His nature – it is His essential glory.) p. 93 – The mercy God bestows is not owed to the man’s
willing or running (Rom p. 100 – God is free from human distinctives in determining the distribution of mercy. Rather than merely consisting of the moral quality of absolute
righteousness, the righteousness of God is His commitment to His name. p. 112 – God’s righteousness is the display of His honor in showing mercy (and wrath). p. 113 – Ps 31:1-3 – In giving refuge to the sinner in Himself, God acts on behalf of His own name. The righteous deeds of God are done out of respect to His own glory and honor (Dan 9:7, 13-19; Is 48:9-11). p. 114 – The most fundamental characteristic of
divine righteousness is God’s unswerving allegiance to always act for His own
name’s sake. p. 112, 115, 116 – God’s faithfulness is grounded in the display of His glory (Is 46:13; 51:5, 7, 8; 43:25; 48:9-11; Ez 36; Ps 79:9). p. 119 – God’s righteousness is His unswerving commitment to preserve the honor of His name and display His glory. In light of this all-encompassing truth, man’s righteousness will be seen as radically God-centered (thus human righteousness is inseparable from the love and honor of God’s name, and esteeming His glory above all). Our righteous deeds, as regarded by God, are a fitting
expression of our complete allegiance to maintain the honor of God’s name and
display His glory. Thus, “righteous” and “love Thy
name” are interchangeable. p. 120 – The righteous man esteems God a trustworthy
refuge, and loves His name (Ps 34:21; 37:39; 64:10). We do righteousness out of love for God’s
name, and that His name might be honored.
The motive of the righteous man’s deeds is that he esteems God’s name. To know God is to fear God. If you fear God, you esteem His name (Mal God must preserve and display His name to maintain His righteousness. He is committed to act unswervingly for His own name’s sake and for the display of His glory. He is unconditioned by external constraints – He has complete sovereign freedom. He is free from all human claims. He has no debts to pay – He cannot be obligated. p. 122 – He must always act out of full allegiance to
infinite value of His own glorious, sovereign freedom. Therein His unimpeachable righteousness
consists. Therein the contrite heart who
flees to Him will find hope (Ps 71:1-5; 143:1, 11). God must pursue His electing purpose, apart from man’s willing and
running, for only in His sovereign, free bestowal of mercy on whomever He wills
is God acting out of a full allegiance to His name and esteem for His glory. p. 150 – God has accomplished His two-fold purpose in sending Christ: He has manifested and preserved his own righteousness, and yet, has justified the ungodly merely through faith. The glorification of God and the salvation of His people are accomplished together. (See Rom 3:23-26). p. 174 – God’s purpose in hardening Pharaoh was to demonstrate
His power and magnify His name – the ground of God’s choice to do this was not
in Pharaoh. He hardens not those who meet a
certain condition, but “whom He wills” (Rom p. 180 – God’s freedom from human “running and
willing” is at the very heart of what it means to be the all-glorious God (Rom p. 186 – The “objector” to God’s absolute sovereignty in Romans 9:19ff. presumes that man’s sense of values is ultimate. The objector falsely concludes that by this human sense of values man can prevail against God’s sense of values. According to the Apostle Paul, this is as ludicrous as a raving clay pot (v. 20). p. 189 – The acts of God do not come forth as a continuous
reaction to autonomous external stimuli, but from God’s unified sovereign purpose. All of God’s acts cohere with one great end:
the magnification of God’s great glory for the eternal enjoyment of His chosen
people. p. 214 – The ultimate purpose of God is the manifestation of the wealth of divine glory. God’s chief end in creation and redemption is to display (for the benefit of the elect) the fullness of His glory, especially His mercy. p. 215-216 – People have no right to ask God to cease being
God by surrendering His sovereignty.
God’s purpose is to show the full range of His glory. He works with creation in such a way as to
externalize all aspects of His glory. He
delights to show mercy more than wrath (Ezek 18), but He shows mercy against a
backdrop of wrath. God acts consistently with His love of His own glory, ONLY as He opposes all who disdain finding delight in His glory. He would cease to be God if He acted otherwise in a world He freely created. These truths about God’s nature, freedom, and ultimate purpose overturn the objection that God should not blame those whom He hardens (Rom 9:19ff.). p. 218 – God preserves complete freedom in determining
who will be the beneficiaries of His saving promises (Paul stresses that
this applies to the “true” God does not base His decisions on distinctions a person could claim by birth or effort – He’d be unrighteous if He did so. (Effort apart from utter dependence upon the grace of God constitutes a refusal to submit to the righteousness of God – Rom 10:1-4). It is the human value system, not the divine, which says
that God should elect people on the basis of their real and valuable distinctives, whether racial (Jewish), or moral (law
keepers). This is not God’s concept of
divine righteousness, for God states “I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy” (Ex 33:19). (Note that
God has removed human merit from the face of the earth. All are “shut up in disobedience.” See Rom God caused His glory and His goodness to pass before Moses
(Ex 33). Thus God’s glory and name
consist fundamentally in: 1.) His propensity to show mercy, 2.) His sovereign
freedom in its distribution. p. 219 – It is the glory of God in His essential
nature to dispense mercy (also wrath) on whomever He pleases, apart from any
constraint originating outside His own will.
This is what it means to be God!
This is His name. Thus, election makes good sense in light of Exodus 33:19,
because God has an unswerving commitment always to preserve the honor of His
name and display His glory. For
God to be righteous is His sovereign freedom to have mercy on whom He
wills. The exercise of His sovereign
freedom in mercy and in hardening is the means by which He declares the glory
of His name. (See God’s purposes
in hardening – Ex p. 220 – CONCLUSION: If we cry “fatalism,” and abandon
evangelism and holy living, we betray our failure to be grasped by Paul’s
theology. For Paul prayed without
ceasing (1 Thess If we are genuinely grasped by God’s glory, we will be deeply sobered
and humbled by the awful severity of God, we will be brought down to the dust
by the absoluteness of our dependence upon His unconditional mercy. We will be irresistibly allured by the
infinite treasury of His glory – glory that is ready to be revealed to vessels
of mercy and honor. We will be moved to
forsake all confidence in human distinctives or
achievements. We will be motivated to
trust God’s mercy alone. And, in the
hope of glory, we will gladly extend this mercy to others that they may see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in
heaven (Matt 5:16). (For an additional resource that lists the benefits and effects of believing in the sovereign grace of God, go to www.desiringGOD.org and locate the article entitled, Ten Effects of Believing in the Five Points of Calvinism, by John Piper.)
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