6.4 - I brought you to Myself (Exodus 19:4)
God as Creator chooses us by creating us as we are. Whether strong or weak, dark or light, bright or dull, God chooses by creating us as we are, by grace. God as Redeemer also chooses or elects who He redeems by His grace. Grace is the nature of God’s being in relation to creation. He does not choose by any judgment of us, accepting or rejecting because of who we are. God as Redeemer chooses freely but not fairly in the same way our model of free and fair elections requires. The fairness of God’s grace can’t be measured on a scale to prove it is evenly balanced. God’s fair grace is His impartial giving to all that is equally free from any merit we claim to possess
The closest comparison to God’s grace as Creator is parents who accept the child born to them, without setting any preconditions. Before they know who their child will be, they unconditionally accept that yet-to-be-born life as their own. Extending this analogy further shows something of God’s electing grace as Redeemer. Not only do parents accept their baby, but their baby also accepts them. As far as we know, babies don’t wrestle to get different parents. They cry and squirm when they’re discontent or uncomfortable but as far as we know, they don’t seek different parents from the ones they have. The baby’s unspoken acceptance of his parents is essential for a bond to form between them. Similarly, any bond with God depends on our acceptance of Him. God’s electing grace reveals not only His acceptance of us but our inability to accept Him without HIs grace. Our life’s running commentary is fueled by beliefs that God should be someone or something other than He is. God’s grace as Redeemer enables us to know and accept God as He is. God’s will to elect us surpasses both His will as Creator and His will in the Mosaic Law. The justice of God’s election has no reference to His justice in the Law of Moses or of nature. His election follows the Law of mercy that surpasses judgment (James 2:13) and cannot be explained by the Law’s understanding of fairness or equality. God’s election explains to everyone the holy nature of His grace that zealously guards His love from anything seeking to compromise or set conditions on it, including - especially - those we set for Him
Let us look at how the Bible demonstrates God’s grace of election. The overarching theme of the Bible is the revelation of God’s relationships with Himself and His creation. His central relationships with creation are the ones He has with His elect. In the Hebrew Bible, the nature of God’s election is expressed in his choice of Israel over all other nations. God made clear that choosing Israel has nothing to do with her credentials or natural appeal. He chose her when she was in the helpless and humiliating position of slavery to an alien nation. Her life had no value to Egypt. She was merely Egypt’s property to be used or killed as needed. Israel possessed nothing to attract others to her. Still, God chose her as His treasure
The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).
God chose Israel in love that only love can justify. He reveals His grace by freely loving Israel without setting any preconditions on her. He does, however, set a condition for Himself. His choice of Israel is certain because of His promise to her forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God’s love for Israel is inseparable from His faithfulness to her. God’s faithfulness - His reliability in keeping His promises - is essential to His goodness. How can God be good unless He does the good that He promises? How can He do what He says unless He is both able and willing to keep His word? How is a promise kept by an eternal God except that it is kept eternally? God’s promise to Israel is forever because He is faithful (e.g. Romans 11:29). Both God’s love and oath explain His choice of Israel. Both reveal the nature of God’s will and grace for His elect
We also see God chose a people for Himself and not merely individuals to inhabit a specific land. God wants His children to live in relationship. The Mosaic Law prescribes all the ways Israel is to live with God, others and self. His elect would be a unique people whose relationships with each other would reflect HIm. God chose Israel not only as His people apart from all other nations but also to come together as one and be a family in the Spirit of her Father, God Himself
The Biblical history of God’s relationship with Israel reveals a God who is not remote from His people nor disinterested. What we learn is that God is far more engaged and pivotal in the lives of His elect than they even are to themselves. He does not watch and wait to see what Israel will do, but instead He calls her to watch and wait on Him (Exodus 13:13-4), to listen to and follow Him. God shows Himself to be real and present in her history. God manifests His desire to be intimately involved in the lives of His elect as a good father wants to be intimately involved in the life of his child. That God has sustained Israel for thousands of years of persecutions and destructive intentions by many nations is a witness to God who is real, engaged and faithful to the promises He gave Israel, His firstborn (4:22)
But what we witness in this history is that God’s faithfulness was met by Israel’s betrayal of Him as a nation. What hope, then, remains for her? The covenant God made with Israel required her to either keep His commandments or die. Why is it that Israel has not yet died and will never die? The Hebrew Bible contains the law of Moses from Mount Sinai, but throughout this same Bible are God’s promises that are not contained by the Law but rather contain the Law. The foundation of God’s covenant with Israel, what ultimately united God and Israel has always been the sacrificial matrix of the law. At the heart of the Temple was the the ark of the covenant where the tablets of stone and Aaron’s rod and a jar of desert manna were kept. Over all these objects that had to do with the covenant of the law was the ark’s lid called the mercy seat, more accurately translated the propitiatory seat or kipporah in Hebrew. God’s requirement that Israel live by His commandments was always covered by His sacrificial mercy that alone provided communion with Him. Israel’s hope has always been in His promises that establish His sovereign will, independent of terms and conditions and laws. God’s gracious will has been present in His dealings with Israel from the beginning, His unique will that originates from who He alone is and what He alone does
God has always intended to fulfill His promise of election. He chose Israel for Himself and she will never be forsaken as a people. What, then, has God decided to do with Israel’s rejection of Him? He will make a new covenant with her, not based on the law of Moses written on tablets of stone, the covenant she broke. In this new covenant that has sustained Israel from the beginning, God will engrave His laws upon her heart, on tablets of flesh, written by His Spirit who will also enable her to live in it (Ezekiel 36:24-8). It is a covenant of blood between God the Father and God the Son, to be kept forever by Him. This new covenant is promised not only to Israel but to all nations
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers . . . My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:31-3).
I will say to those who were not My people, “you are My people!” And they will say, “You are my God” (Hosea 2:23). Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22)