What If?

Have you ever considered two 'what ifs' recorded in the Bible?

1.) “For WHAT IF some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3) The majority of Israel of old fell in the desert in unbelief. Did their unbelief thwart the truth or will of God? No! God is sovereign even in an unbelieving world, saving whom He will by the death of His Son, leaving the rest to live in their unbelief and ultimately bringing them into judgment. His will is that ALL whom He has chosen, redeemed and justified by His Son should be called from unbelief to faith in His Son, resting in His work accomplished for them, John 6:39. What a merciful God He is! They have been redeemed and justified unto life, Romans 5:21.

Many say that Christ died for every sin of every sinner except for unbelief and for that reason, many for whom He died are therefore condemned. Is the unbelief of sinners stronger than God’s purpose to save and Christ’s death to redeem and justify? God forbid. Shall unbelief disannul the Faith of God? His faithful promises made to Abraham and his seed, especially of sending His Beloved Son into the world, can He not effect the redemption of those He came to save? Can unbelief destroy God’s faithfulness and the efficacy of Christ’s blood shed unto death to prevent Him from fulfilling His promise to save everyone for whom He died? If any remain in unbelief we may rightly conclude that God never promised them salvation and Christ never paid their sin debt, or else God would faithfully draw them by His Spirit of Grace to Christ, Romans 8:35-39.

2.) “WHAT IF God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.” (Romans 9:22-23) There are vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. Any who are vessels of mercy, it is only by God’s free and matchless Grace because of the LORD Jesus Christ and His death in their place. He is a just God and Savior!

There is no tension or discrepancy between God’s willingness to save those He has purposed to save and those who continue in unbelief. These verses reflect God’s sovereignty over all His creatures to save whom He wills and condemn whom He wills. It says that in His sovereignty God is exercising patience even toward the vessels of wrath, not immediately executing His eternal judgment on them until He has finished drawing to His Son those that He has made as vessels of mercy. Herein we see both the mercy and the judgment of God.