Is God Unfair?
(A message delivered by Dr Jeffrey Khoo at True Life BPC on 29 March 2009)
Text: Romans 9:14-24
Today, many are questioning the goodness and righteousness of God. Why? Because they do not see that God is going to save everyone, only some. Salvation is not universal. Some will get into heaven, many will not; in fact, most will go to hell. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” “Why must so many suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire? Why does not God save everyone? Why does He save only a few? He is so unjust and unfair!” Have you heard such objections before? A PhD student recently questioned me when I spoke on how unbelievers will all one day be cast into the lake of fire to be punished forever: “How about those who have not heard the gospel,” he asked; “Will they also be cast into hell? God is so unfair!” How would you as a Christian reply to such charges against God?
The Apostle Paul tells us how in Romans 9:14, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid;” verse 19, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisteth his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
Know God, Know Yourself
We will never charge God with unfairness or injustice if we know who and what He truly is and who and what we really are. Knowing God and ourselves humbly and honestly will cause us to marvel at God’s grace and goodness. That is why to those who think that God is unfair, Paul has only one short, unequivocal answer, “God forbid!” God is never unfair or unjust. To those who want to find fault with God, Paul has only one reply, “O man, who are thou that repliest against God?” In other words, “Who do you think you are?” “Do you know who you are talking to?” In Hokkien we call this, Boh tua boh suay, “No big, no small” (used against someone who has no respect or regard for authority); or Mm tzai si, “you don’t know death” (used against someone who denies the fatal consequences of his arrogance and audacity). In Thailand, if you say anything against the Thai king, you will be jailed. How much more severe the judgement if we say anything against God who is the King of kings and Lord of lords!
To prove his point, Paul used the analogy of the potter and the clay: “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom 9:20-21). This illustrates the omnipotence and sovereignty of God. He is all-powerful, in absolute control, and does whatever He pleases. The clay is totally at his mercy,and has no rights or say whatsoever. This puts the proud and arrogant sinful man in his place. Why do the atheists and the agnostics question God and His existence? They question and doubt God because they think they are superior to God, they think they can be their own god, they want to be gods themselves. So they define God in their own minds—God must be like this and like that according to their own sinful and corrupt imaginations. If God does not fit their picture of Him, then He is not God. If God does not do things the way they expect things to be done, then He is not God.
God Answers the Sceptics and Atheists
Have you heard sceptics say, “If your God is so powerful, can He make a rock so big and so heavy that He cannot carry?” Such are foolish questions; for why would God want to do such a stupid thing like that. Our God is very wise, and it is against His nature to do anything stupid or foolish.
Man thinks he is very clever, smart and intelligent, but Psalm 14:1-3 says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Romans 1:22 tells us that the atheists and agnostics have become “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Man is so smart, clever, and intelligent that he traces his ancestry back to the monkeys, and is so grateful that he is not so backward like his great, great, great … grandfather, but much better, a hairless gorilla, a handsome baboon, a talking chimpanzee! We are so blind towards God that we cannot see we were made special, not as animals but in the image of God. We rather see ourselves as no different from the monkeys and then say God must look and behave like us, and if He does not look and behave like us, He is not God, and He does not exist. What foolishness!
If man is so smart, clever, and intelligent, why is the world in such a mess today? Man is so clever that he pushes the blame away from himself, “Not me, not me, blame God.” When I succeed, it is all me, my work, I did it. When things fail, we say, “Don’t look at me, I didn’t do it, it is his fault, blame him.” This is how sinful, corrupt, evil, wicked and crooked we are, and we have the arrogance and audacity to question God and find fault with Him—the thrice holy God who made heaven and earth? Is it no wonder that Paul in holy anger wrote these words, “But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man). God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom 3:5-18)?
And that is why the final verdict and indictment is this: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). All stand condemned before God and all deserve eternal punishment. God would be absolutely just to cast every single human being into the lake of fire. But He on His own decided to save some by His Son whom He had sent to save them from their sins: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forebearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom 3:24-26).
God’s Election
Is God therefore unfair because He chose some and not all? No, not at all! It is all up to Him, and He does things according to “the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5; suka is the Malay term to describe this). God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” (Rom 8:15-16). If the Lord, out of all the people in the world, chose only me to be saved, I can only say with deep gratitude, “Lord, I thank you. Who am I? I am nothing, I am a sinner, I have broken your commandments, but you are holy, just and good, you loved me and chose me and gave your only begotten Son for me. What can I say Lord? I can only say, ‘Thank you’.”
How about those who have not heard the gospel? Is it not unfair of God to condemn them to hell if they have not even been given the chance to hear the gospel? Well, that is why we evangelise as much as we can, and we will be amazed how many have already heard the gospel.
But how about those who have not heard, like those in the jungles? Well, there is the testimony of Rev Dan Ebert III a missionary to the Palawano people, a primitive tribe in one of the islands of the Philippines. They had only a spoken tongue, but no written language. He learned their language, converted their language into written form, and translated the Bible into their language. Many of them got saved by the grace of God.
How about those who are mentally retarded? The mentally retarded still have an IQ, but we must understand the work of salvation is God’s work and He works supernaturally. When the gospel is preached, God can by divine intervention give them a heightened intelligence at that moment, make them understand the gospel, believe in Christ and be saved. “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jon 2:9).
How about babies who have died in infancy? The Westminster Confession of Faith states, “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ.” Exactly who the elect infants are, only God knows and we leave it to His sovereign grace to save those whom He had chosen to save. Again, “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jon 2:9).
Let us humble ourselves before God for He says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9). “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Rom 11:33-36).
Unless we humble ourselves, and become zero before God and think His thoughts which are communicated to us through His inspired words which He has preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures, we cannot see the Kingdom of God. Do you see?
