When I first started seriously studying the Bible, I didn’t like Romans 9 and its extreme emphasis on the sovereignty of God over salvation. When God said “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion,” (Rom 9:15), it seemed like it was a bully talking. “I’ll do what I want, and I don’t care what you think about it” is how it sounded to me. And if salvation “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom 9:16), what motivation do we have to share the gospel? Why not just take a nap, and let God do all the work?
But the more I studied and meditated on this difficult section of Scripture, the more I saw God encouraging me and empowering me for evangelism. Why?
Because I wasn’t saved by “human will,” which means my salvation didn’t depend on anything I thought, felt, decided, or chose. And I wasn’t saved by “exertion,” which means my salvation didn’t depend on anything I did, or said, or didn’t do. My salvation didn’t hinge on my actions or my choices, it rested completely on God’s decision to have mercy on me.
As a result, there’s no room for me to have any kind of holier-than-thou feelings. When I see someone do something stupid or sinful, there’s no way I can feel morally superior to them. Any goodness in me depends “not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy,” so if it weren’t for God’s mercy, I would be exactly the same as them.
When I get to heaven, and somebody asks me how I got there, I won’t be able to say, “Well, unlike the guy who lived down the street from me, I was smart enough to see the truth of the Bible, and I was spiritually sensitive enough to see God at work, and I was humble enough to see that I was a sinner, and I was strong enough to make a decision to follow God.” I’ll say, “What got me here was Jesus and his mercy.” Which motivates me to have the same kind of compassion and mercy for others that Jesus had for me.
It also motivates me to be bold and courageous in the way I interact with others. If their salvation doesn’t depend on human will or exertion, then that frees me to prayerfully and skillfully share the gospel with them, and leave the results up to God.
I don’t need to worry about messing things up. God’s in charge. I don’t need to worry about saying things exactly the right way. God is sovereign. I don’t need to worry about how people will respond. God will decide. Believing that God is sovereign frees me to evangelize more than I ever did before!
It used to be that I would meet someone and immediately say to myself, “There’s no way a guy like that would ever become a Christian.” So I wouldn’t even try. Or I would share the gospel over and over with someone, and they wouldn’t respond, so I would just give up. “Obviously, it’s just not going to happen,” I would say to myself.
But if God is sovereign over salvation, then he can save anyone. No matter who they are, what they’ve done, or how many times they’ve rejected him. “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” And if he sovereignly chooses to have mercy, then that mercy will never fail.