We read in Romans 9:11-13, “For the children being 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. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
The righteousness of God, especially as it is demonstrated in His absolute sovereignty in the election, redemption, and everlasting salvation of His people, has never been palatable to the depraved taste of men in their fallen state; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, and they have a much more exalted appreciation of their own fancied righteousness than they have of the righteousness of God.
In vindication of the supreme sovereignty of God, Paul did not attempt to apologize for God, or to soften down what God had said upon the subject, in order to make it seem less objectionable to carnal reason. Knowing perfectly well the blasphemy of men, he could even anticipate their very words, which have been reiterated thousands of times since he foretold, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” Such out breaking blasphemy fully and fearfully demonstrate that they esteem their own righteousness as far superior to that of God, while they would arraign him at the bar of their carnal judgment and condemn His government, inconsiderate of who, and what they are: “things formed saying to him that formed them, Why hast thou formed me thus?”
They are ignorant of God’s righteousness, nor can they ever understand it but by immediate revelation. Should they be humbled under His mighty hand, and be reconciled to Him, by the death of His Son, then will they with all the sanctified gaze, admire and adore and praise Him, and with humble reverence confess that, as the heavens are higher than the earth, even so God’s ways and thoughts transcend our ways and thoughts.
