No Unrighteousness

We noted in yesterday’s study that the doctrine of reprobation sometimes raises questions about the lovingkindness of God. Some would say it makes God into a tyrant who is exceedingly cruel, even evil. It was no different in Paul’s time, as today’s verse indicates.

Anticipating objections to his teaching on election and reprobation, Paul asks: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” In other words, isn’t God unjust to save some people and let others perish? This is the typical human reaction to these doctrines: “That’s not fair. Everyone must have a chance.” But Paul answers this objection to his teaching just as he has earlier ones (Rom. 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2, 15; 7:7, 13)—“Certainly not!” Essentially, he is putting anyone who would ask such a question back in his place, reminding us that God is God and we are not. The idea that God could be unrighteous in any way is simply preposterous. In fact, it is a contradiction in terms. God, by nature, is righteous; if He is unrighteous in any way, He cannot be God. And besides, humans, who are created, limited, and dependent beings, not to mention fallen, are in no position at all to evaluate God’s ways. We simply cannot say that election and reprobation are unjust. We must seek another way to understand these actions.

The fact that we always must keep uppermost in our minds as we study election and reprobation is that we are sinners. We deserve nothing except God’s wrath for eternity. It would be perfectly just of Him to save no one. But as we have seen from our earlier studies in Romans, God wished both to save some and to uphold His justice. This is why He sent Christ into the world to stand in the place of His elect people and receive the punishment due them for their sins. Because of Jesus’ sinless life and substitutionary death, God is able to be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Interestingly, as Paul notes in that same verse, this plan of salvation demonstrates God’s righteousness.

That leaves us with the question of why God did not simply exercise His justice and let all sinners perish. The answer is that He possesses more attributes than justice alone. In tomorrow’s study, we will examine the attribute that motivated Him to elect some to salvation and to provide a way by which they might be justified.