92SermonsofJonathanEdwards
known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory."
3. God can deny salvation to anyone and never dishonor His faithfulness.
God has in no way obliged Himself to any natural man by His Word to bestow salvation upon him. Men in their natural condition are not the children of promise; but lie open to the curse of the law, which would not be the case if they had any promise to lay hold of.
III. God does actually exercise His sovereignty in men's salvation.
1. God exercises His sovereignty by calling a people or a nation, and giving them the opportunities of grace, and leaving others without them.
According to the divine appointment, salvation is bestowed in connection with the provisions of grace. God may sometimes make use of very unlikely opportunities, and bestow salvation on men who are under very great disadvantages; but He does not bestow grace wholly without any means. But God exercises His sovereignty in bestowing those means. All nations are by nature in like circumstances towards God. Yet God greatly distinguishes some nations and peoples from others by the opportunities and advantages which He bestows upon them.
The American Indians, who in our day (the 1700's), live in the remote parts of this continent, and are under the grossest heathenish darkness, as well as the inhabitants of Africa, are naturally in exactly similar circumstances of sin towards God with us in this land. They are no more alienated or estranged from God in their natures than we are; and God has no more to charge them with, then He would us. And yet what a vast difference has God made between us and them! In this He has exercised His sovereignty. He did this long ago, when
He chose only one people, to make them His covenant people, and to give them the opportunities of grace, and left all others, and gave them over to heathenish darkness and the tyranny of the devil, to perish from generation to generation for many hundreds of years.
The earth in that time was inhabited with many great and mighty nations. There were the Egyptians, a people famous for their wisdom. There were also the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who were great, and wise, and powerful nations. There were the Persians, who by their strength and policy subdued a great part of the world. There were the renowned nations of the Greeks and Romans, who were famed over the whole world for their excellent civil governments, for their wisdom and skill in the arts of peace and war, and who by their military prowess subdued and reigned over the world. These nations were rejected! God did not choose them for His people, but left them for many ages under gross heathenish darkness, to perish for lack of vision; and chose one only people, the descendants of Jacob, to be His own people, and to give them the opportunities of grace. The Bible tells us that, "God has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws" (Psalm 147:19, 20). Israel was a small, insignificant people in comparison with other people, but the Bible declares this about God's chosen people, "The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7). And neither was it because of their righteousness; for they had no more of that than other people. God says, "Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Deuteronomy 9:6). God shows them clearly, that it was from no other reason but His free electing love, that He chose them to be His people. That reason is given why God loved them; it was "because He loved them"-He simply chose to love them. (Deuteronomy 7:8). Which is the same as saying that it was agreeable to His sovereign pleasure, to set His love on them.
God also showed His sovereignty in choosing that people, when other nations were rejected, who came of the same ancestors. Thus the children of Isaac were chosen, when the descendants of Ishmael and other sons of Abraham were rejected. Likewise, the children of Jacob were chosen, when the descendants of Esau were rejected: as the apostle observes in the seventh verse, "Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned' [Romans 9:7]: and again in verses 10, 11, 12, 13. "Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls-she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" [Romans 9:10-13].
The apostle shows that the election extends not only to the persons of Isaac and Jacob over Ishmael and Esau; but also to their descendants. In the passage, already quoted from Malachi, God chooses nations, which were the descendants of Esau and Jacob; Malachi 1:2, 3. "'I have loved you,' says the LORD. 'But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' 'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' the LORD says. 'Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals'" [Malachi 1:2, 3]
God showed His sovereignty, when Christ came, in rejecting the Jews, and calling the Gentiles. God rejected that nation who were the children of Abraham according to the flesh, and had been His special people for many ages, and who alone possessed the one true God, and yet God chose the idolatrous heathen Gentiles over them, and called them to be His people. When the Messiah came, who was born of their nation, and whom they so much expected, He rejected them. "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him" [John 1:11].