Jacob and Esau

Spurgeon begins by insisting that the text means exactly what it says — God loved Jacob and did not love Esau — and that election is not a doctrine to be debated away but an undeniable fact visible in daily life, where God plainly gives different people different gifts, opportunities, parents, dispositions, and gospel access, so arguing against it is simply arguing against reality. He then separates the two questions most people wrongly tangle together: why God loved Jacob is answered entirely by sovereign free grace, since Jacob's own character — his bargaining with God, his cunning with Laban, his unbelief despite repeated promises — shows there was nothing in him to merit God's love; while why God hated Esau is answered entirely by Esau's own choices, since he voluntarily sold his birthright, repented only in order to get it back cheaply, and harbored murder in his heart, proving that damnation belongs to human sin, not divine decree. He closes with a crisp summary of his theology: salvation is all of God's grace, and damnation is all of man's fault — God gets all the glory when anyone is saved, but no blame for any who perish — and he urges every sinner to recognize that if they are lost it will be their own doing, while the gospel remains wide open to anyone who will simply believe in Christ.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on January 16th, 1859.