As I was reading through John Piper’s devotional, I could remember the times I was still not a Calvinist. Even non-Calvinist brethren quote Exodus 33:19 from the KJV because there will be some KJV Onlyist brethren reading:
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy whom I will shew mercy.
This was later quoted by Paul in Romans 9:15. Back then, I still read Calvinist materials while not being a Calvinist. I wanted to stay in the fundamentalist position. I could love the Calvinist brothers and sisters. However, I must acknowledge that people tend to put a Bible teacher above the Bible. I wonder if it’s more than time to get rid of the term Calvinism because it sounds like putting Calvin above the Bible when John Calvin put the Bible above him.
Today’s devotional goes with this message:
Moses needed hope that God really could have mercy on a stiff-necked people who had just committed idolatry and scorned the God who brought them out of Egypt.
To give Moses the hope and confidence he needed, God said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” In other words, “My choices do not depend on the degree of evil or good in man but solely upon my free, sovereign will. Therefore no one can say he is too evil to be shown grace.” That would imply God is not free, and election is not unconditional.
The doctrine of unconditional election is the great doctrine of hope for the worst of sinners. It means that when it comes to being a candidate for grace, your background has nothing to do with God’s choice. That’s good news.
If you have not been born again and brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, do not sink into hopelessness thinking that the excessive rottenness or hardness of your past life is an insurmountable obstacle to God’s gracious work in your life. God loves to magnify the freedom of his grace by saving the worst of sinners.
Turn from your sin; call upon the Lord. Even in this daily devotion, that you are reading or hearing, he is being gracious to you, and giving you strong encouragement to come to him for mercy.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
What Piper said about the doctrine of unconditional election is absolutely striking. Many times, Christians want to make it look more palatable by believing that God chose them because they would respond in faith. The doctrine of election says in Ephesians 1:4 that salvation is for those chosen before the foundation of the world. Nobody can take credit for their eloquence, well-done research, etc. because none of these will matter to a spiritually dead person. I used to argue a lot thinking I could convince people. That would be intellectual pride which makes Christians fail to remember that they were saved by grace, not by works.
Charles Spurgeon in his November 25 evening devotional also wrote:
In these words the Lord in the plainest manner claims the right to give or to withhold his mercy according to his own sovereign will. As the prerogative of life and death is vested in the monarch, so the Judge of all the earth has a right to spare or condemn the guilty, as may seem best in his sight. Men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God; they deserve to perish for their sins–and if they all do so, they have no ground for complaint. If the Lord steps in to save any, he may do so if the ends of justice are not thwarted; but if he judges it best to leave the condemned to suffer the righteous sentence, none may arraign him at their bar. Foolish and impudent are all those discourses about the rights of men to be all placed on the same footing; ignorant, if not worse, are those contentions against discriminating grace, which are but the rebellions of proud human nature against the crown and sceptre of Jehovah. When we are brought to see our own utter ruin and ill desert, and the justice of the divine verdict against sin, we no longer cavil at the truth that the Lord is not bound to save us; we do not murmur if he chooses to save others, as though he were doing us an injury, but feel that if he deigns to look upon us, it will be his own free act of undeserved goodness, for which we shall forever bless his name.
How shall those who are the subjects of divine election sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord’s will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it.
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