Does God have a Casting Vote?

Does God have the casting vote in our salvation?

Does God have the Casting Vote in Our Salvation?

Yes, I know, the title is a little provocative. Think of it as a little of bait to get you thinking, nothing more, nothing less. I am certainly not claiming, that God would reject someone who calls on him for salvation, as if to say there are human beings who chose to believe and trust in Jesus Christ and his redemptive work on the cross, and yet God simply decided to turn them down.

There are off course Christians -- Christian denominations even -- who believe in a form of “earning your salvation” through doing good works, through obedience to the commands in the Bible & through not committing certain sins mixed with believing in Jesus. The types of Christians who hold to this view, also therefore believe that God will indeed turn some people away -- who have genuinely believed in Jesus -- but through some form of moral failing or sinning whether acts of sin comitted to God or to their fellow man -- will be denied salvation finally when we must all appear at the final Judgement.

In that sense God has a casting vote that can change everything. That is not what this post is going to be about. Firstly, let me say -- categorically -- that I believe in the protestant doctrine called ***”salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone”**, along with the five Protestant maxims:

- Grace alone

- Faith alone

- in Christ alone

- by God’s word alone

- to the glory of God alone

These are commonly known as the “five solas” of the Reformation, and historically all the major protestant denominations believed in these. Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, Methodists etc..

Now that we have got this out of the way, we can get back to the actual topic at hand.

> Romans 9:16 tells us quite clearly that salvation is not something caused or proceeded from human activity -- whether actions of willing, but solely due to God having mercy.

- Romans 9:16 in an array of modern English renditions:

- ”So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (ESV)

- ”It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (NIV)

- ”So then it does not depend on human will or effort, but on God who shows mercy” (HCB)

- ”So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (NASB)

> And for good measure the Old King James..

- ”So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (KJV)

The astute reader will notice, off course, that I took this verse out of context. Yes, indeed I would recommend you read the whole chapter, preferably even read chapter 8-10 to get a well rounded idea of what is going on.

Noone denies that Romans 8 pertains to salvation. It starts out asserting that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Verse 11, promises us that, those who have the Spirit of Christ will indeed be raised up, just like Christ was. It’s undeniable that this chapter is speaking of the eternal life promised to those who believe in Jesus.

But, is Romans 9 still speaking of salvation -- and indeed this is the common retort to verse 16, I quoted earlier. This is the question we must answer before we can dig deeper into what that verse aims to communicate.

Verses 28-30 (in chapter 8..) are what theologians call “the golden chain of salvation” -- read them slowly, and the read them again. It’s a list of interlocking and co-dependent assertions that should give every believer great comfort. Your salvation is secure because of what Jesus has accomplished, not due to anything of your own doing.

Finally the chapter ends, with a glorious promise of God’s love, and importantly there is no change of subject. With this realisation in hand, now read the first few verses in chapter 9, asking yourself what is it referring to?

Paul is so distressed about his fellow Jews, he is hypothetically wishing he could give up his own salvation, in order to save his fellow Jews. If this passage was just referring to some kind of national blessing for Jewish people -- as many suggest -- why would Paul be willing to quite literally go to “hell” in order for his fellow man to receive a blessing?

Is that really making sense of the context? I don’t think so.

What we have here is a lament over the spiritual state of many of Paul’s fellow Jews, who rejected their Messiah.

Verses 6-13, in chapter 9, do indeed refer to blessings that could be understood in relation to the nationhood and special status awarded to the Jews in the Old Testament -- if read in isolation of the context they are in -- but not when one realises the severity of the issue.

These verses spell out again and again -- one all important fact -- salvation is not based on the works of man, the choices man makes, but ultimately on the mercy and grace God gives. This becomes so unmistakably clear when Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau -- the one being chosen over the other, BEFORE THEY WERE EVEN BORN.

It’s at this juncture that we have verse 16:

- ”So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Rom 9:16)

In light of everything Paul has written in Romans so far -- especially given the context of Romans 8 & the lament of his own people rejecting their own Messiah -- who didn’t just come to bless them, but came to die for them, an honest reading of this verse, must include a humble submission to God, that salvation is not due to human action and yes, not even human willing, but on God’s mercy.

The perhaps frightening, certainly very sobering fact here is that God will in the end run, have had mercy on some and others will have been passed by.

In the death of Christ, the mercy and love of God -- meet the holiness and justice of God squarely!

This fact, is beautifully expressed in an earlier chapter in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

”But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it⁠the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26)

Let me summarise what I have said so far: (using (a) and (b) so we can refer back to major views..)

- (a) Our will is not the casting vote in Salvation, God’s will (expressed in his mercy) is.

> The objecting view -- as perhaps held by the majority of Christians today -- is this:

- (b) God will give mercy to all, if only we will receive it.

Which of these two assertions or views, actually fits the passage we read?

If (b) is true we should be able to turn the assertion by Paul around and re-state like this, basically saying that all the verse really means is that our willing is insufficient on it’s own, it needs the mercy of God to assist the will. If you didn’t follow me so far, stop and re-read that slowly -- bearing in mind the two opposing views as expressed in (a) and (b).

So if (b) is true then:

”It is not in God that has mercy, but in man that willeth, even if that willing is insufficient on it’s own, it must be aided by God’s mercy.”

In short then,

”It is not in God that has mercy, but in man that willeth”

Let’s juxtapose what Paul wrote in verse 16 again:

- ”So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (ESV)

And again, I ask you to consider, which of the two views (a) and (b) comports with the assertion of Paul? At this point I would like to acknowledge that the realisation that God is in charge of whom he gives mercy to, is uncomfortable for the human mind -- especially us moderns.

We are prone to think -- don’t we humans deserve to be saved from our sins? The answer to that is

absolutely not. Does the man on death row, who committed a terrible crime -- such as murdering his wife and kids, deserve mercy? No, he deserves justice -- mercy is something one is given, against all odds, mercy is not mercy if it is deserved.

The reality -- the bitter pill -- of human sin is that we have committed cosmic treason, and that not

just by accident, no, we willingly and decidedly sin and rebel against our creator!

Now, if our interpretation of a passage is right -- one way to find confirmation of this, is to check with or whether there are other passages in the New Testament, that corroborate what we have found.

In his letter to the Philippians Paul wrote this:

”Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philipians 2:12-13)

The context here is the ongoing obedience of the Philipian Christians, theologians like to call this “sanctification”. What is all important here is the fact that Paul -- both -- calls the Philipian believers to be faithful & obey Christ, and in the same breath exclaims that it is in reality, God who not only works this obedience in them, but even their very own willingness to obey is God’s doing.

If that is not a sobering reality, I don’t know what is.

In the end, the only possible escape hatch out of the obvious view expressed here -- and I am not saying this smugly, since I held the opposite (b) view for most of my Christian experience -- is that Romans 9 as a chapter is either a topic diversion or even a different letter altogether that happened to end up being inserted into this letter, and yes various combinations of views exist to get out of this conundrum.

The most popular being that Romans nine is simply about “national election” of the Jews, and that it has nothing to do with salvation at all. Even if one granted that the passage is only about the election of a group of people -- the jews -- and I am only granting that hypothetically here -- it is kind of obvious that groups consist of individuals, isn’t it?

Ultimately the hard question one must ask -- as a Christian -- do all men have faith, and some simply operate that faith savingly as opposed to others, or do all men have the “ability to believe”, but God in his saving mercy -- working by the Holy Spirit -- calls some men to himself in such a way that he supernaturally works saving faith in those whom he choses?

I shall leave you with a few more verses to ponder:

”And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”” (Gal 4:6)

> Note the logical progression here. Paul did not say, “he sent the Spirit to make you a son, no he sent the Spirit BECAUSE you are sons”, much like Jesus who said: “My Sheep hear my voice” and not “believe in me and you will become my sheep”

”And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

”And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:27)

God, indeed has the casting vote..