Due to my attending a fellowship meeting in Holtville, California, this week’s Gospel Gleanings is a few days late. The meeting was a very special, spiritual meeting. Elders David Montgomery and Mike Rodgers, both of the San Antonia, Texas area, were our guest ministers. Both were blessed with unusual preaching liberty each time they spoke. They covered both insightful doctrinal or theological topics and practical discipleship topics with grace and clarity.

     In our study verses this week Paul presents us with two choices, two options. We have no other options in our life choices. However we complicate our decisions, Scripture reduces them to simple, straightforward issues, always coupled with the consequences that God has imposed on each choice.

     At times Bible students choose to reject or ignore the Bible’s language regarding God’s governance of the universe in which we live, substituting their words for Biblical words. Whereas Scripture reveals that God “…endures with much longsuffering…” the sinful actions of sinful man (Romans 9:22), those who reject the moral principles of Biblical teaching will use such words as God “manipulates, orchestrates, or controls” the conduct of man. Each of these terms conveys a certain moral link between the “manipulator,” the “orchestrator,” or the “controller” and the events that unfold because of his actions. That being is morally responsible for the conduct that he/she “manipulates, orchestrates, or controls.” Several decades ago in our country a sitting president was implicated in a burglary of the opposing political party’s offices. His “orchestration” was viewed with disdain by members of his own party and by our country. His moral responsibility resulted in his resignation from the office of president in shame. This episode serves to illustrate the truth that I here assert. If a person “manipulates, orchestrates, or controls” the outcome of certain actions, he is directly and morally responsible for those actions. If God “manipulates, orchestrates, or controls” man’s sinful choices, to the extend of that divine control, God, not sinful man, is morally responsible. This notion is morally reprehensible to the moral teachings of Scripture and to the moral conscience of God-fearing people. And well it should be.

     Contrary to this deterministic view of the universe, Paul in our study passage presents us with two moral choices and with the certain moral consequences of our choices. If we choose God’s way, the morally correct way, God promises that we shall experience the incredible blessings of divine goodness. Conversely, if we choose the rebel’s way and reject God’s way, Scripture promises that we shall experience the frightening consequences of God’s severity against sin. In no way does Paul imply that God manipulates or orchestrates our choices of either goodness or severity.

     May we choose God’s way, the moral way, and realize the incredible depths of divine goodness. May we equally reject the sinful way that rejects God’s commandments and thereby avoid the dreadful experience of God’s severity.

God bless,
Joe Holder

Divine Goodness or Divine Severity: “If…”

"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:22-24) "

     As active Christians and for obvious reasons, we prefer to emphasize God’s goodness over His severity. To be sure, Scripture affirms that emphasis, but Scripture does not ignore the “other side of the coin,” God’s severity. Throughout Scripture God affirms the absolute principles of His moral character and His equally moral law to humanity, particularly to His people. He equally affirms that He has chosen to govern the world in which we live as a “moral government,” not as a robotic universe in which divine decrees absolutely control and manipulate or orchestrate every event that occurs. According to the search feature of my Bible software, our King James Bible uses the word “if” one thousand five hundred ninety five times. Perhaps on occasion the meaning of the word is “Since” or “Because,” a logical “If-Then” point, but by far the majority of times the word introduces a moral condition that is followed by the consequences of human moral choices. God thus leaves us with His full instruction and affirmed moral principles to know right from wrong and to know what He directs us to do. He further informs us fully in advance of the consequences of our moral choices. “If” we choose an immoral course that contradicts His specific moral teachings, He makes sure we understand the consequences of our immoral decision and action. If we choose the right—the moral—course of action, He equally makes sure that we understand the blessings that shall attend our righteous actions.

     In no way does this concept diminish God’s sovereignty. He is God! He chose the rules, the moral rules, by which He would govern the universe that He created. Beginning with Adam in the Garden of Eden, He consistently reveals His will, and He consistently reveals the consequences of our actions. Whether we are dealing with Isaiah’s warnings at the beginning of his prophecy or with New Testament instructions to believers and churches, God always reveals both the moral right and wrong of the matter, and He always commands the righteous course, fully warning us in advance of the consequences of our choices. Consider these two examples.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 1:19-20)

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8)

     In both passages God informs His people of the consequences of their choices and actions. Neither eating the “…good of the land” or being “…devoured by the sword” are presented as divinely orchestrated events, but rather they are presented as God’s certain promise/warning in either approval and blessing or disapproval and judgment to our choices and actions.

     I grew up on a farm. In the Galatians passage Paul equates the consequences of our actions to the sprouting and growing of seeds sown. When you plant a particular kind of seed, you know exactly what kind of plant will sprout and grow from it. If you want to grow vegetables, you don’t plant weed seeds!

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God….

Paul did not in any way indicate that divine severity is inappropriate or unfair. Quite the contrary, he affirmed the righteousness and appropriateness of both.

…on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

What forms the basis for God’s response? How may we predict whether to expect divine goodness or divine severity? Paul makes the point with clarity. Divine severity was served against “…them which fell….” Divine goodness is available to us on the stated condition, “…if thou continue in his goodness.” Even as the recipients of goodness enjoy that blessing, Paul warns them to continue faithfully in their course.

…otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

     In a robotic universe the “master robot” would control, manipulate, and orchestrate every finite detail of unfolding events. There would be no right or wrong; only the will of the “master robot” matters, and he dictates every event. However, the universe in which we live, the universe described in the Bible that God created, is not such a place. It is preeminently a moral universe. The God who created it is a moral God, and He has declared His moral Law to all intelligent, moral creatures in that universe. That moral declaration appears in nature and more fully in Scripture.

     When God created the universe, He indeed created the immaterial components of that universe with certain specific characteristics and qualities. Those immaterial elements respond with robotic predictability. Put two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen together in the right setting and with the right catalyst, and you can predict that you will always see water formed from those two gases. Drop a solid object and you can universally predict that it will fall based on the laws of gravity. It will not slip from your hand and move upward or sideways. Based on its density and mass, you can predict its reaction to your releasing it from your grip. It will fall based on the consistent laws of gravity.

     Did God create humans and angels, the two “moral” creatures in His universe, under similar natural laws and with similar programmed and predictable unthinking, unintelligent, and amoral qualities? Or did He impose His moral code on them and give them a moral commandment that they were commanded and expected to obey? The concept of a moral universe necessarily requires that the subjects within such a moral universe have intelligent discernment, a sense of the right and the wrong of the matter covered in the moral commandments, and are given the ability to either comply or not to comply. Based on the presence of God’s moral law and His specific commandment, these intelligent moral beings then may reason through the consequences of their choices and subsequent actions. If they choose to obey the divine commandment, they rationally anticipate the blessed consequences of their choice. If they choose to ignore and disregard God’s commandment, they should rationally anticipate God’s righteous judgment, precisely what He reveals in Scripture.

     It is this moral foundation that Paul accepts as he presents us with the two options in our study verses. We may not recreate the passage and add our own third option. Nor may we make our own choices and expect to avoid the revealed consequences that God sets forth in the passage. Make the choice and you choose the consequences that Paul presents—the consequences that God has declared in His righteous judgment and associated with the two options set forth.

     Neither Paul nor any other inspired writer of Scripture leaves our conduct open for private personal—and often relativistic—determination. God has fully declared in Scripture what He commands, what He has decided is right and what is wrong. Further Scripture distinctly and consistently affirms that God has commanded the right and never the wrong.

     While belief in the Bible doctrines of grace rightly reject man’s “free moral agency,” a term that historically has been used to refer to the broad (and errant) concept that fallen man retained the ability to reverse the consequences of his fall and return to God, thus accomplishing his own salvation, but the doctrines of grace should never be so interpreted as to reject the Biblical truth of man’s free will. Man’s free will means that man exists as a moral being under God’s moral government. He may choose to do right, or he may choose to sin. He is not robotically or machine-like orchestrated to do a certain thing, moral or immoral. He weighs the information he has, applies his discernment to that information, and decides which course to take. The point of Scripture, including Paul’s teaching in our study passage, is that man’s choice is never independent of God’s moral Law. We do not create our own moral code. We are subject to God’s Law, including both the blessings of obedience and the “severity” of disobedience.

     Do you prefer divine goodness to divine severity? Have you not at times experienced some of both? Talk about a “no-brainer” question! When you make the decision and take action on it, you are fully informed by God in Scripture of what you should expect. He never surprises anyone regarding moral issues! He always consistently declares what is right and what is wrong. He also consistently declares the consequences of our choices and actions.

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

There is no indication of cultural or racial preference here. Jew or Gentile alike; both live under the same divine Law. A Jewish believer and a Gentile believer receive the same divine response of insurmountable and unexpected goodness from a gracious—and moral—God. Jewish and Gentile children of God who refuse to believe and obey God also receive the same divine response. The divine severity that they receive is divinely measured and appropriate to their unbelief and their rejection of God’s declared moral truth.

     Do you want to experience God’s goodness? God makes it rather simple. Order your life within the clear framework of His moral teachings in Scripture. Goodness is sure to follow.

     Nothing in Paul’s teaching, or in the thoughts here considered, ignores or rejects God’s intervening providence. At times God may—and does—step into the human experience and works His will. However, He never manifests His intervention in any way contrary to the moral principles presented in Scripture and consistently affirmed as His personal moral character. God is not double-minded. He is not moral today and immoral tomorrow. He does not “orchestrate, manipulate, or control” human sin and then punish the very thing He caused. If He in fact were to so control human sin, He, not the sinner, would be the guilty criminal who should face divine punishment, divine severity! Thank God for occasions of gracious providence. Thank God for the assurance in Scripture that providence consistently appears in perfect harmony with His holy moral character. Which “If” course will you choose today? Will you choose the way of willing, voluntary obedience? If so, Isaiah assures you that you shall “…eat the good of the land.” If you choose the way of sin, Isaiah equally assures you that you shall experience the frowning face of divine severity. In the words of Moses:

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20, KJV)

     In order to “…love the LORD…to…obey his voice…to…cleave unto him…to…dwell in the land…Moses requires that we choose the way of life.

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Elder Joseph R Holder
Gospel Gleanings

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