ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth ... it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." Even before the children were born, acting on the principle of electing grace, God passed over Esau in favor of Jacob. This has been His method from the beginning. Paul took these instances from the Jews' own Scriptures. Therefore, they furnished a complete answer to their question concerning God's action in setting aside Israel and in blessing the Gentiles. Do not stumble at verse 13, my friend: "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." God was speaking from a dispensational sense. And His offer of salvation was just as free in Esau's day as it is now. If Esau had wanted to go to God, God would have welcomed him. But did Jacob deserve this grace? No; God chose Jacob before he was born. You say this is terrible? Yes, it would be if our God were a tyrant instead of a God of love and mercy. He brought selfish, grasping Jacob into the place of blessing. He brought the poor, lost, alienated Gentiles into the place of blessing. Our lives are described in the first chapter of Romans: yet God loved us and in His mercy turned to us, offering salvation. And He will yet make Israel, as a nation, "a praise and a fame" throughout the whole earth, even though Israel thrust Him out of the world at the point of a spear nearly two thousand years ago. God always re~ serves the sovereign right to act according to His perfect will-and that any are saved, is only because of His grace! (c) The Illustration of God's Sovereign Mercy Upon Israel. The same thought is implied in verses 15 and 16, where we read that it was only the mercy of God that allowed Israel to continue as the nation of promise-or to continue to exist at all, for that matter. Let us bear in mind that verse 15 is quoted from Ex. 33: 19. Israel had been worshipping the golden calf not long [Page 183
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