Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Romans 9:14-29
“The Divine Prerogative and Power”
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? — Romans 9:20-21
Background Information:
- Paul has been showing that we are only able to come to Christ (God) as the Spirit of God assists us. This means that God elects those who are able to come to Him. This election is purely by grace. There is nothing anyone can do to earn this opportunity. But, this idea of election by God’s grace (predestination, foreknowledge, the elect) was repulsive to some. Paul encourages those who find this doctrine of God’s election as repulsive to consider the God of the Universe. Why do you find it repulsive? Are you suggesting that God is unjust? That man is therefore no longer responsible? Do you dare suggest that man has the right to limit God and His purposes? Don’t you know that God . . . “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” — 1 Tm 2:4?
- Again, Paul quotes numerous OT passages to verify that his position is accurate and can be validated by the OT.
The questions to be answered are . . . Why does the doctrine of God’s sovereign, autonomous authority over all creation seem like such a bitter pill for us to swallow? How can we better understand this doctrine from Paul’s perspective?
Answer: Our American, Western Civilization idea of authority always has within it the idea of“balance of powers”, and “Lex Rex”. For us, the idea of an almighty, all-powerful ruler who has comprehensive sovereignty and autonomy sends chills down our spines because all we have seen of rulers with a similar kind of authority and power is abuse, perversion and corruption. We’ve even developed the maxim . . . “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. But, we have forgotten what Paul remembered. God is God. God is holy. God is not a man. So when God says that He has absolute power, He in essence maintains his righteousness, compassion, mercy, love, patience and forgiveness. God is holy. We are not. Our problem indealing with God as an autonomous, sovereign, almighty dictator is we have forgotten God is God; who is and will forever be holy, holy, holy.
INTRODUCTION:
The wonder is not that some are saved and others not, but that anybody is saved at all. For we deserve nothing at God’s hand but judgment. If we receive what we deserve (which is judgment), or if we receive what we do not deserve (which is mercy), in neither case is God unjust. If therefore anybody is lost, the blame is theirs, but if anybody is saved, the credit is God’s. This antinomy contains a mystery which our present knowledge cannot solve; but it is consistent with Scripture, history and experience. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 269-70) (red bold emphasis is Pastor Keith’s)
The Word for the Day is . . . sovereign = supreme in power and authority along with autonomous = self-law “self-governing”
What questions does Paul’s message here in Romans 9:14-29 raise?:
I. Since God elects some and not others to be saved, is not God therefore unjust?(Rom 9:14-18 & Ez 18:25-29)
Determining right or wrong, what is just or unjust, demands a standard for measurement. That standard is ultimately nothing less than God’s character. God, therefore, acts justly when he acts in accordance with his own person and plan. This is precisely the point Paul makes in 9:15-18. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 310)
The answer rebukes the questioner for his impudence and for his imbecility; for his shamelessness and for his senselessness. The objector calls in question God’s justice, and is therefore impudent, arrogant. He forgets that if that which is molded has no right to say to its molder, “Why did you make me thus?,” then all the more, human beings have no right thus to address their Sovereign Maker. The objector is stupid. (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 327)
From Genesis to Revelation we see that God’s abandoning a sinner to wickedness is not an act of unrighteousness on his part; it is a manifestation of his perfect justice. It is as if he is saying, “You want to sin? Be my guest. I am not going to strive with you anymore. I am going to take the wraps off. I am going to loosen the leash and let you do what you want, because I know that the desires of your hearts are only wicked continually.” (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 330)
When God chose Jacob, He rejected Esau. When He chose the nation of Israel, He rejected all others. If a human judge did that, we’d cry “foul!” And it would be unfair because human knowledge is so limited. No human judge can read a man’s heart, neither does he have foreknowledge. But God has such knowledge. He is able to make JUST choices between people. Even if He didn’t, He would still have the right to do anything He wanted in manipulating the affairs of men. After all, He is God. This world is His to do with as He pleases. He made it and everyone in it. Beyond that, the Scriptures reveal Him to be a JUST person. It is His nature to be just. Therefore it is impossible for Him to make an unjust decision. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 244)
To hint that God could be unjust implies that one is more righteous than God, and has a right to censure Him. The apostle finds that ridiculous. Since when does something created have a right to challenge its creator? For man to sit in judgment on God implies that man has a greater sense of justice than God. But how can this be, when man’s ability to know right from wrong comes from God in the first place? There is no way for God to create a man with a greater sense of justice than His own. For that reason alone it would be foolish to question God’s fairness. (C. S. Lovett,Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 249)
Many critics of such doctrine, supposedly coming to the defense of God’s justice, fail to acknowledge that every human being since the Fall has deserved nothing but God’s just condemnation to an eternity in hell. If God were to exercise only His justice, no person would ever be saved. It is therefore hardly unjust if, according to His sovereign grace, He chooses to elect some sinners for salvation. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 37)
II. Since God elects some and not others, then are not we humans relieved of all moral responsibility and no longer accountable to God? (Rom 9:19-21)
Logically, at this point we might be moved to echo the question which was put to Paul: “If salvation is by the will of God, then why does God find fault if some are not saved, if they could have been if he had been pleased to quicken them as he did those whom he chose to make alive in Christ?” The question is a loaded one because it implies that God is responsible for man’s lost condition. The Bible definitely teaches the contrary. Men are lost simply because they have rebelled against the light and truth which God has given them. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God” (Jn 3:19-21). (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 46)
God is sovereign, but we are also responsible. The Scriptures place these two ideas side by side, without apology and without much explanation. In fact, we see this principle throughout the Bible. Here are a few examples. You undoubtedly could add others:
- “In his heart a man plans his course [our responsibility], but the LORD determines his steps [God’s sovereignty]” (Proverbs 16:9)
- “The horse is made ready for the day of battle [our responsibility], but victory rests with the LORD [God’s sovereignty]” (Proverbs 21:31).
- “Unless the LORD builds the house [God’s sovereignty], its builders labor [our responsibility] in vain” (Psalm 127:1)
- David wrote, “I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies (Ps 44:6). David didn’t trust in his bow, but in God. But neither did he throw his bow away. He used it with all the skill he could muster.
- Paul wrote, “To this end I labor [our responsibility], struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me [God’s sovereignty]” (Col1:29).
- Paul wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it [our responsibility], but God made it grow [God’s sovereignty]” 1 Cor 3:6. (Patrick Morely, Ten Secrets for the Man in the Mirror, 96-97)
There was no resource left in man. They were entirely lost. It is then that God announced that He would act for Himself. If we may say so, the doctrine of election was God’s secret weapon which made it possible for some men to be saved. If He had not retreated into His sovereignty, as one expositor has described it, there would have been nothing but a curse and no one would have been saved. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 38)
The main idea Paul is putting across is this: If even a potter has the right out of the same lump or mass of clay to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor, then certainly God, our Maker, has the right, out of the same mass of human beings who by their own guilt have plunged themselves into the pit of misery, to elect some to everlasting life, and to allow others to remain in the abyss of wretchedness. (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 327)
III. Is it not God’s rightful prerogative to do as He chooses? (Rom. 9:14-29)
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (9:15). That means: I will have mercy on whom I intended to have mercy, or whom I predestined for mercy. This is a hard saying for the proud and prudent. But it is sweet to the lowly and humble who despair of themselves. For that very reason the Lord has mercy on them. Indeed, there is no other reason for God’s justice, nor can there be any other than His own will. Why, then, should man complain that God acts unjustly, when this is impossible? Or, could it be possible that God is not God? So, since God’s will is our supreme good, why should we not desire that his will be done? Since God can in no wise do evil, why should it not be our greatest concern that His will be done? (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, 138-9)
If there are those who hate God because He announces the divine prerogative of choice, it only reveals their own rebellious hearts. As long as we have God’s Word for it, that should suffice. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 37)
God is holy and must punish sin; but God is loving and desires to save sinners. If everybody is saved, it would deny His holiness; but if everybody is lost, it would deny His love. The solution to the problem is God’s sovereign election. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Right, 104)
Jesus faced his enemies. There was Caiaphas the high priest; there were the members of the Sanhedrin. Jesus was condemned by Pontius Pilate, who spoke on behalf of the Roman magisterium. However, the most vicious and hateful opponent of Jesus on the pages of the NT was the man who wrote the very words we are studying. The apostle Paul had hated Jesus more than Pilate or Caiaphas or the scribes and Pharisees. There was never a day when Paul walked along the street and said, “Maybe I had better think this over a bit more clearly,” and after giving it further scrutiny changed his mind and decided to exercise his free will and become a disciple of Jesus. No, Paul became a disciple while breathing out animosity and hostility. Jesus knocked him off his horse, blinded him with the brilliance of his glory, and called him to be his apostle. Jesus intervened in the life of Paul in a way he called him to be his apostle. Jesus intervened in the life of Paul in a way he did not do for Pontius Pilate or Caiaphas or for the scribes and Pharisees. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 324)
“But,” says an imaginary opponent, “you are making out God’s choice of who comprises the real Israelto be a merely arbitrary choice. Isaac is chosen, not for any merit of his or for any merit of his descendants which God was able to foresee; and Jacob was preferred to Esau in the same arbitrary way.” Paul answers: “Well, suppose I am; suppose the choice is purely arbitrary. Even so, God is not unjust. Does he not have the right to have mercy upon whomever he wills?” God’s mercy, Paul suggests, quoting from Ex 33:19, would not be mercy if it were not in this way arbitrary–i.e., if it were dependent upon man’s will or exertion. (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 244-5)
CONCLUSION/APPLICATION: What answer does Paul want us to see that gives peace to these questions?:
A. God is God: As sovereign He does as he wants and He accomplishes what He desires. (see Is 29:16; 40:12-31; 45:9; 64:8; Dan 4:34-37; Mt 20:15; Phil 2:13; 2 Tm 2:20)
– God is sovereign over nature
– God is sovereign over Law
– God is sovereign over the disposition of His grace (Ex 33:19; Hos 1:10; 2:23)
Were there even one datum of knowledge, however small, unknown to God, His rule would break down at that point. To be Lord over all creation, He must possess all knowledge. And were God lacking one infinitesimal modicum of power, that lack would end His reign and undo His kingdom; that one stray atom of power would belong to someone else and God would be a limited ruler and hence not sovereign. (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy , 108)
So had God not hardened Pharaoh’s heart, he would have been gracious to Pharaoh. But Paul is emphasizing the point that grace is voluntary. God doesn’t owe Pharaoh any grace. So God lets him go on, knowing full well that he is going to sin, and knowing full well that when he sins he is going to be brought into judgment. Hence God’s activity towards Pharaoh is an act of punitive judgment. Pharaoh gets justice. The people of Israelget mercy. So there is no injustice involved in this act of hardening. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 172)
The idea that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh can be baffling if we don’t handle it right. Now does God really harden a person’s heart? Yes, He does. But as soon as we say that, we have to explain HOW He does it. He does it with mercy and kindness. In no way does God ever PUT hardness in a person’s heart. But He does work with them so as to bring out the hardness ALREADY THERE. By His foreknowledge He knows it is there. He also knows how such a person will react to His mercy. The plagues which God sent against Egyptcould have easily tenderized the heart of another king. But not this one. God deliberately put a man in power whom He knew would get harder with every appeal made to him. Yet, between each plague, respite was given during which the king could have repented if he wanted to. But instead of repenting, he became more determined than ever that the Israelites shouldn’t leave. So we can see that God, in sending the appeals and the plagues, did harden Pharaoh’s heart with them. But it is also true that Pharaoh hardened his own heart against each appeal. That’s why the Scripture says in 10 different places that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex 8:15). But that’s not Paul’s main point. He wants his readers to see how God PICKED this man for the role. He brought about everything that belonged to the history of this wicked heathen as a means of advertising His own glory. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 247)
We might still be tempted to say, “Doesn’t that seem a bit unfair?” But by asking such a question we are claiming a higher understanding of fairness than God himself. We must remember that God has no obligation to show mercy or compassion to any of us–not one of us deserves his slightest concern. For God to even choose anyone is evidence of his great mercy. These words of God reveal that he does show mercy and compassion, but they are by his sovereign choice. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 183)
The essence of the message is that God brought Pharaoh onto the stage of history (“raised [him] up”) to accomplish his own purposes, namely, to display his power and broadcast his name. By resisting God’s determination to release his people from captivity, Pharaoh forced Moses to work a series of miracles, culminating in the parting of the “Seaof Reeds,” to bring Israelout of Egypt. This display of God’s power became known throughout that part of the world (cf. Jo 2:10). (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 310)
That God did indeed fulfill his purpose of displaying his power in Pharaoh, so that his (God’s) name might be proclaimed in all the earth, is clear from Dt 6:22; 7:18, 19; 11:3; 34:11; 1 Sm 4:8; Ps 135:9; Acts 7:36. These passages prove that what God did in Egyptwith Pharaoh and his people made a very deep impression on the minds and hearts of later generations. Even today when, in the home, in Sunday School, ChristianSchool, or church, the story of the ten plagues is told, or when that story is read, is not God’s name and greatness being proclaimed? (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 325-6)
B. God is God: He always does what is right, holy, pure and good. (see Gn 18:25; Dt 32:4; Dn 4:34-37)
God’s character guarantees his actions. — Edward James
The word “fitted” [“prepared”- NIV] in verse 22 does not suggest that God made Pharaoh a “vessel of wrath.” [“destruction” – NIV] The verb is in what the Greek grammarians call the middle voice, making it a reflexive action verb. So, it should read: “fitted himself [prepared himself] for destruction.” God prepares men for glory (v. 23), but sinners prepare themselves for judgment. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Right, 106-7)
Pharaoh was already wicked, he was already ill-disposed towards the things of God. Out of Pharaoh’s heart came only wickedness continually. To do something evil was Pharaoh’s sheer delight. The only thing that could stop him would be the restraints and constraints that God placed upon him. This brings in the concept of ‘common grace.’ We distinguish between special grace and common grace. Special grace is for the redeemed: the grace of salvation. Common grace is the favor or the benefits that all men, indiscriminately, receive at the hands of God. One of the most important principles of common grace is the restraint of evil. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 171)
God wanted Pharaoh to resist the Exodus, in order that Israelwould understand that deliverance came not through the beneficence of Pharaoh, but through the redemptive grace of God. All God had to do was remove the restraints. He did not have to create fresh evil in the heart of Pharaoh. The evil disposition was already there, and so through a providential act that was both an act of punishment on Pharaoh, and an act of redemption to Israel, God removed the restraints and therefore passively hardened Pharaoh’s heart. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 171)
Is there anything wrong with God enduring sin? In other words, perhaps we should be raising this objection: why does God tolerate Pharaoh for five minutes? Why does God allow a wicked person to continue to exist? That’s the real theological question. (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 174-5)
God’s judgment on Pharaoh’s great sinfulness was to “harden” his heart, to confirm his disobedience so that the consequences of his rebellion would be his own punishment. “Hardening” occurs when a person has a track record of disobedience and rebellion. From the human perspective, it is difficult to know exactly at what point God confirms our own resistance as hardness. Paul’s implicit warning is to avoid attitudes that lead to hardness of heart (see 1 Cor 10:6; Heb 3:8). (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 185)
Whatever God’s sovereignty may mean in its fullness, it does not mean and cannot mean that He chose for men to become sinful. The perfectly holy and righteous God is not responsible in the slightest way for the sinfulness of His creatures. Making that truth plain, James declares, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (Jas 1:13). “Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil,” Habakkuk said of the Lord, “and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor” (Hb 1:13). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 39)
God is glorified in displaying His wrath, just as surely as in displaying His grace, because both of those attributes, along with all the others, comprise His divine nature and character, which are perfectly and permanently self-consistent and are worthy of adoration and worship. Even God’s anger, vengeance, and retribution poured out on sinners are glorious, because they display His majestic holiness. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16,39-40)
A Targum to this verse reads, “I will spare whomever is worthy of being spared, and I will have mercy on whomever is worthy of being pitied.” The idea of worthiness is exactly what Paul doesnot want to suggest. God chose Abraham before the Torah had been revealed; God chose Jacob over Esau before either had merited or forfeited the blessing; God revealed his Son to Paul while he was still a persecutor of the church; God justifies persons by grace through faith while they are still sinners (5:8) and apart from works of the law. In saying that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, God is not, like a mad dictator, saying he can do whatever he pleases. It is rather a promise that in his behavior towards humanity God will be true to his character of love and justice. God’s character guarantees his actions. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 237)
This passage might be interpreted to mean that if God is almighty, no finite creature dare question his judgments. But that is to transpose an ethics of “might makes right” onto God. Egoistic ethics are involved in either case, resulting in tyranny on earth and fate in heaven. Right is not right because God does it; rather, God does it because it is right. God’s righteous will, as revealed in the Ten Commandments and in the rules of fairness and justice associated with them, is ultimate, and not even God can transcend it. The devil can lie; God cannot (and still be God). There is a moral order in creation only because there is a corresponding moral order in the Creator. This passage does not depict or defend a cosmic bully. God is perfect love and perfect justice, at the same time and forever, with which his creative freedom coincides perfectly. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 240-41)
C. God is God: All His ways are loving. (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8-10; 8:39; Eph 2:4; 1 Jn 4:7-21)
The patience of God, his reluctance to punish sinners, is stressed in several passages; among them being Rom 2:4; Gn 6:3b; 18:26-32; Ex 34:6; 1 Kg 21:29; Neh 9:17b; Ps 86:15; 10:8-14; 145:8, 9; Is 5:1-4; Ez 18:23, 32; 33:11; Lk 13:6-9; Rv 2:21. (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 328)
There is no small irony in the fact that humanity, condemned by its own impure motives and destructive ends, would itself raise a claim against God’s character of holy love! (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 244)
D. God is God: There is great assurance in knowing He has a plan, future and purpose for you. (Ex 9:16; Prv 16:4; Jer 29:11-13; Jn 15:16; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Thes 5:9, 23-24; 2 Tm 1:12; 4:18)
God may conceal the purpose of His Ways but His ways are never without purpose.
There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation—the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands—the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne…for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust. — C.H. Spurgeon.
You can’t be free until you are secure. And you can’t be secure unless you know the sovereign God who is ruling this whole show. (Steve Brown, Born Free, 97)
E. God is God: He is able to allow man to have free will while He is autonomous. (SeeJer 18:1-16; 1 Pt 2:8; see also the lives of Pharaoh, Peter, Judas, Saul/Paul, etc.)
“Who planned the murder of Christ?” (John Piper, Desiring God, 37)
Between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Nearly all of our Reformed forefathers stressed that God is fully sovereign and man is fully responsible. How that can be resolved logically is beyond our finite minds. When Spurgeon was once asked how these two grand, biblical doctrines could be reconciled, he responded, “I didn’t know that friends needed reconciliation.”
He went on to compare these two doctrines to the rails of a track upon which Christianity runs. Just as the rails of a train, which run parallel to each other, appear to merge in the distance, so the doctrines of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, which seem separate from each other in this life will merge in eternity. Our task is not to force their merging in this life but to keep them in balance and to live accordingly. We must thus strive for experiential Christianity that does justice both to God’s sovereignty and to our responsibility. (R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Feed My Sheep, pp. 124-25)
To think of creature and Creator as alike in essential being is to rob God of most of His attributes and reduce Him to the status of a creature. It is, for instance, to rob Him of His infinitude: there cannot be two unlimited substances in the universe. It is to take away His sovereignty: there cannot be two absolutely free beings in the universe, for sooner or later two completely free wills must collide. These attributes, to mention no more, required that there be but one to whom they belong. (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 7-8)
Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so. (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 111)
The case of Pharaoh poses a knotty problem because the hardening of his heart is sometimes attributed to God (Ex 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20; 11:10) and sometimes to Pharaoh himself (Ex 7:14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 35; 13:15). Thus, the same tension is maintained in Pharaoh’s case which Paul maintains with regard to the Jews. Pharaoh freely chooses what God ordains. The Book of Exodus is clear that in his hardening Pharaoh pits himself not against Moses but against God, and that God uses Pharaoh’s hardness in order to demonstrate his glory! The effect of Pharaoh’s hostility, in other words, accomplishes the opposite of its intent, for it results in the liberation of the Israelites. Pharaoh’s hardening thus not only benefits those whom it was intended to harm (the Jews), but it ultimately works to the advantage of his own descendants, for it initiates a process of redemption which will include Gentiles. Thus, through Pharaoh’s resistance God’s power and name are proclaimed in all the earth. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 238)
The proper attitude for clay is to be pliable rather than stiff, receptive rather than rebellious, and grateful for the potter’s touch rather than resentful of the potter’s purpose for us. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 187)
Almost all babes in Christ will wonder if their decision did not have something to do with their salvation. Our text sets forth a categorical denial of any such thought. Salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy. It is not of the willer or of the runner, but of the Pitier. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 39)
The Bible’s answer is that the will is free for man to choose what he wishes to eat and drink, what he wishes to wear, where he wishes to go, and with whom He wishes to go. The will is free to work or to be lazy, to be charitable or to be miserly. There are ten thousand thousand things which the will is free to do, but in many fields the human will is not free. The old man cannot choose to be young; the sick man cannot choose to be well. The slow man cannot choose to be a champion runner. The moron cannot choose to be intelligent. The world may mark your report card and give you an “A” for effort, but you will still fail in many things because you are simply not able in spite of all your choosing. In all these fields we can see the failure of the human will. Then we enter into the deep mystery of sovereign grace. God Almighty says that when the human race sinned, the will died in that fall so far as any choice about God was concerned. Man could choose to jump off the top of a cliff, but once having jumped, he could no longer choose to avoid the consequences of that great fall. In every part of the Bible, we have the divine revelation that man sinned, that in the sin he fell from God, and that in the fall there was spiritual death. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “No man can come to me except the Father draw him” (Jn 6:44). (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 42)
Paul teaches that all people are involved in Adam’s sin and are therefore under a sentence of death because of their sin (Rom 5:12-21). God’s decision to destine some people to wrath comes, we believe, after (in a logical sense) that sin. God’s “hardening,” then, does not cause spiritual insensitivity; it maintains people in the state of sin that they have already chosen. When God chooses people to be saved, he acts out of pure grace, granting a blessing to people who in no way deserve it. But when he destines people to wrath, he sentences them to the fate they have already chosen for themselves. It is perhaps for just this reason that we find the shift in construction in 9:22-23 and that Paul never uses the words “call” or “election” to refer to God’s decision to leave people in their sins and the wrath they deserve. For this same reason, I prefer not to use the expression double predestination, as if both God’s acts of predestination are of the same kind. (Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 317)
Why would anybody think of God as unjust, unrighteous, or iniquitous for choosing people on the basis of the decisions they make–either good or bad? What could be fairer than that? (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 321)
Perhaps you have heard it said that God’s sovereignty ends where human free will begins. Maybe you have even said it. It is blasphemy, of course, because if God’s sovereignty is limited by our free will, then we are sovereign. We do have free will. We have the ability to choose what we want to be. That is true freedom, but it is always and everywhere limited by God’s sovereignty. Any time man’s free will bumps up against God’s free will, who wins? It is no contest. It is God’s good pleasure to save his elect that he may show forth his grace in salvation. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 324-5)
The Bible does say, not only here but throughout the exodus account, that God repeatedly hardens the heart of Pharaoh. How are we to understand that? First, both Pharaoh and God were involved, so in a very real sense God was actively involved in the hardening of the heart of a human being, but how exactly did God harden the heart of Pharaoh? How does he harden anybody’s heart? He does so not by mere permission but by a divine decision that we see again and again, particularly in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, where God deals with impenitent sinners by giving them over to their sin. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 329)
Being an absolute monarch, Pharaoh assumed that, certainly within his own realm, everything he said and did was by his own free choice to serve his own human purposes. But the Lord made clear through Moses that Pharaoh was divinely raised up to serve a divine purpose, a purpose of which the king was not even aware. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 33)
Moses was a Jew, whereas Pharaoh was a Gentile; but both of them were sinners. Both were murderers, and both witnessed God’s miracles. Yet Moses was redeemed and Pharaoh was not. God raised up Pharaoh in order to reveal His own glory and power, and God had mercy on Moses in order to use him to deliver His people Israel. Pharaoh was a ruler, whereas Moses’ people were slaves under Pharaoh. But Moses received God’s mercy and compassion, because that was God’s will. The Lord’s work is sovereign, and He acts entirely according to His own will to accomplish His own purposes. The issue was not the presumed rights of either men but rather the sovereign will of God. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 35)
The Exodus account of Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh speaks ten times of God’s hardening that ruler’s heart (see, e.g., 4:21; 7:3, 13). That same passage also informs us that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (see, e.g., 8:32; 9:34), confirming God’s act by his own. Such passages point up the humanly unreconcilable tension between God’s sovereignty and man’s will. Esau was rejected before he was born, and, also before he was born, Judas was appointed to betray Christ (see Acts 1:16; Jn 6:70-71). Yet both men themselves chose to follow sin and unbelief. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 35)
It is not, of course, that we can fully understand what God reveals about His sovereign election and predestination. It can only be accepted by faith, acknowledging its truth simply because God has revealed it to be true. As believers, we know that, in ourselves, we deserve only God’s rejection and condemnation. But we also know that, for His own sovereign reasons, God has elected us to be His children and, in His own time and way, brought us to saving faith in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we also know that our human will had a part in our salvation. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me.” That is the choice of God’s will. But Jesus immediately went on to say that “the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (Jn 6:37). That is the choice of man’s will, which God graciously accedes to for all who believe in His Son. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 37)
Sometimes Paul implies that God predestined Israelto unbelief (11:7-10) and other times that Israelis responsible for its unbelief (9:32). In contrast to many interpreters who regard the dilemma of Rom 9-11 from the side either of predeterminism or of Israel’s failure, Paul preserves a tension between the two, similar to the tension which Exodus preserves regarding Pharaoh’s hardness of heart. The tension, in fact, is the very tension of faith, which is both a divine gift and a human response. At present divine providence and human free will look like two rails of a train track which will never meet. There is, however, a point in the distance beyond human knowing where they converge, in God’s “unsearchable judgments” and “inscrutable ways” (11:33, RSV). To speak otherwise on such matters is to confess with Job, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3). (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 237)
F. God is God: God’s logic may appear to be illogical. Submit to God. (Job 38:2-42:6; Prv 3:5-6; Is 55:8-9; 1 Cor 2:14)
Try to explain election, and you may lose your mind; but explain it away and you will lose your soul! (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Right, 104)
The essential issue is between the authority of autonomous man and of the Sovereign God. To allow God into the universe, provided that we open the door, is to say that the universe is our universe, and that our categories are decisive in human thinking. We can accept the Scriptures as inerrant and infallible on our terms, as satisfactory to our reason, but we have only established ourselves as god and judge thereby and have given more assent to ourselves than to God. But, if God be God, then the universe and man are His creation, understandable only in terms of Himself, and no meaning can be established except in terms of God’s given meaning. To accept miracles or Scripture on any other ground is in effect to deny their essential meaning and to give them a pagan import.
Thus, the consistent Christian position must be this: no God, no knowledge. Since the universe is a created universe, no true knowledge of it is possible except in terms of thinking God’s thoughts after Him. (Rousas J. Rushdoony, By What Standard?, 17)
There are, no doubt, objections that occur to one at once when he hears the matter presented so badly…All the objections that we are brought against such a position spring, in the last analysis, from the assumption that the human person is ultimate and as such should properly act as judge of all claims to authority that are made by anyone. But if man is not autonomous, if he is rather what Scripture says he is, namely, a creature of God and a sinner before his face, then man should subordinate his reason to the Scriptures and seek in the light of it to interpret his experience. (Rousas J. Rushdoony, By What Standard?, 147)
Needless to say, this view of human reason contradicts the biblical point of view as it has been explained in previous lessons. The fall of man involved the entirety of man; all aspects of his personality were corrupted by sin. As a result, reason is not the judge of truth; only God can act as such a judge. Moreover, sin has so affected mankind that even rational abilities are not neutral. Christians seek to use their reason in dependence on God. Non-Christians seek to be independent in their thinking; there is no neutral ground on which to deal with unbelief. Human reason can be as much a hindrance as a help to faith in Christ. As St.Augustine once said, “Believe that you may understand.” To rest our faith on independent reason is to rebel against God. Reason must rest on our faith commitment to Christ and our faith must rest on God alone. (Richard L. Pratt, Jr., Every Thought Captive A Study manual for the Defense of Christian Truth,74)
Biblical authority must never depend on human verification for it is the unquestionable Word of God.
The problem with much of the popular tactics used by many defenders of the faith today may be summed up as a problem of authority. The apologist must see clearly that the non–Christian is in need of forsaking his commitment to independence and should turn in faith to the authority of Christ. If however, trust in Christ is founded on logical consistency, historical evidence, scientific arguments, etc., then Christ is yet to be received as the ultimate authority. The various foundations are more authoritative than Christ himself. . . . if beliefs in Christian truth comes only after the claims of Christ are run through the verification machine of independent human judgment, then human judgment is still thought to be the ultimate authority. (Richard L. Pratt, Jr.,Every Thought Captive A Study manual for the Defense of Christian Truth, 79-80)
God allowed misery and sin and death to proceed on their terrible way in order that when He moved to deliver someone from them, His own grace and power might shine forth all the more brightly. Thus it was that Christ, though He had the power to heal Lazarus at a distance, allowed him to sicken and die, and allowed his body to be corrupted for four days. He did this on purpose so that His own power might be the more abundantly visible and glorious. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 51)
If we say God cannot be fair and be a God who elects, we show a faulty concept of God. If we think of God as an enlarged man, with human emotions and motives, how misled we are. God is infinite–we are finite. He knows all–our knowledge is incomplete and ephemeral. A. W. Tozer wrote: The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 6) (R. Kent Hughes,Preaching the Word: Romans, 177)
The unfathomable truth that God chooses some men for salvation and others for destruction is not revealed to confuse us or upset us, and certainly not to tempt us to question the character of God’s person. That truth is given to demonstrate God’s glory and sovereignty to all men. It is also given to make believers thankful that He has chosen us, who, in ourselves, were not and are not more worthy of salvation than those who remain lost.
In showing mercy and in judging sin, God makes no distinctions based on race, ethnic background, nationality, intelligence, or even moral or religious merit. He distinguishes only between those whom He has chosen and those whom He has not. That is a hard truth to accept, because it runs directly counter to man’s natural inclinations and standards. To the natural man it seems grossly unfair, and even the best-taught and most faithful believer cannot fully explain it. But the truth is fully biblical and is among the truths taught by Paul that Peter says are “hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pt 3:16).
For those who receive God’s Word as inerrant, there will always be a tension between fully acknowledging God’s sovereign will and fully acknowledging His requirement of human faith. We can only believe what Scripture teaches, accepting in our hearts what we cannot explain with our minds. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 41)
The logical mind asks, Is Israel’s hardening the cause of God’s rejection, or the result of it? That is, has God rejected Israel because of its unbelief, or has Israel been unable to believe because God rejected it? Many theologians have put the question this way, and as tempting as it may be to do so, it runs the risk of channeling the river of providence into a straight and shallow sluiceway of theory. What is logical is not always theological. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 236)
Calvin is right that the limitedness of human understanding cannot fathom the divine purpose, and errs when it tries to do so. There is a “madness in the human mind,” ways the Reformer, which is more ready “to charge God with unrighteousness than to blame itself for blindness” (Romans, p. 354). Paul is not here constructing a theodicy in an attempt to justify the ways of God. A theodicy puts humanity and its questions at the center, whereas Paul maintains the focus on God’s sovereign purposes. (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 240)
Paul’s idea of predestination is not a theory that solves the riddles of this life; it is an expression of the faith that puts life and its insoluble mysteries into the hand of God. (Anders Nygren,Commentary on Romans, 370)
Paul is not wishing to stifle genuine questions. After all, he has been asking and answering questions throughout the chapter and indeed the whole letter. No, ‘it is the God-defying rebel and not the bewildered seeker after the truth whose mouth he [sc. Paul] so peremptorily shuts’. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 271)
G. God is God: We see what God is really like in the life and ministry of Jesus — Immanuel — God incarnate (Jn 1:1-14; 10:38; 12:44-46; 14:6-11; Rom 5:1-21; 2 Cor 5:21;Phil 2:5-10; Col 1:27; Heb 1:1-4; 1 Jn 1:1-3)
This fallacy remains as strong as ever–people still think good intentions are the key to unlock the door to eternal life. By the time they get to try the lock, they will find that their key does not fit. Others imagine that their efforts are building an invisible ladder to heaven made up of service, family, position, reputation, good work, and desire, although none of these rungs will support a feather. People are so busy trying to reach God that they completely miss the truth that God has already reached down to them. We cannot earn God’s mercy–if we could, it would not be mercy. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 184)
Christ is the stumbling stone. This is an astonishing figure of speech until we look at it closely. Then we realize how God presents Christ to us, and how that presentation offends everything that is in the natural heart. Men are willing to accept a Jesus of their own description, but they refuse the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 57)
It is not necessary to give up anything in the world in order to accept another Jesus of human imagination; it is necessary to become spiritually bankrupt before we can come to the Christ of the Bible. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 57)
As believers, we must rest in this: God is not answerable to man for what he does. However, he can be relied upon to act consistently with his character, which has been disclosed supremely in Christ. With such a God, why should any of us question his ways? (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Romans, 179)
H. God is God: All good gifts come from God and His grace (Eph 2:8-10; Jas 1:17)
“Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit . . . Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit . . . {Grace} is treating a person without the slightest reference to desert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God. (Samuel Storms, Grandeur of God , 125)
Some time ago I saw a cartoon in one of our national magazines. It showed a scene in the board room of some industrial company where the president of the company was standing before his subordinates. On the wall behind him was a portrait of a man, dressed in the style of the previous generation, who by the likeness was most evidently his father, the founder of the business. The president was scowling fiercely and saying to his salesmen, “The trouble with you men is that you have no initiative. Why, by the time I was thirty years old, I had inherited my first five million dollars.” Well, believe me, there is a big difference between inheriting five million dollars and earning five million dollars. The two Greek words here set forth that difference. Our KJV says that the Gentiles attained righteousness and Israel did not attain to the law of righteousness. The Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, suddenly inherited, obtained, or received the free gift of life in Christ by grace through faith. The people of Israel who tried to earn it, did not get it. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 56)
Where formerly Christ seemed repugnant, now he is the sweetest thing in the world. We rush to him, we choose him, we embrace him, and we trust him, because God in his grace has given us the pearl of great price. If God does that for us, is he obligated to do it for everybody? If the president of the United Statesexercises executive clemency and pardons somebody in prison, is he then obligated to pardon everybody? No. What Jacob got was grace; what Esau got was not injustice. God withheld his mercy from Esau–mercy to which Esau had no claim–but the withholding was not an act of injustice on God’s part. Jacob got mercy; Esau got justice. The elect get grace; the non-elect get justice. Nobody gets injustice. (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 323-4)
Because all men are sinful and deserve God’s condemnation, no person is wronged or treated unjustly if God chooses to condemn him. That is justice. His mercy toward any person is purely by His grace. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 32)
Scripture makes clear that no person is saved apart from faith in Christ, because God sovereignly requires that human response to His grace. But the primary purpose of salvation is not the benefit it brings to those who are saved but rather the honor it brings to the God who saves them, by making known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy. Believers are saved without any merit or work of their own, in order that God may have a means of displaying His glory, which is seen in the grace, the mercy, the compassion, and the forgiveness that He alone grants to those who come to Christ. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 41)
Worship point: Paul raises these questions to force us to submit to the wisdom, power, authority, knowledge and purposes of God. When we do this, when we really understand Who God is and what He has done for us in spite of our rebellion, arrogance and pride; you will worship Him as you see His grace, mercy, forgiveness, patience, compassion and love towards you.
Spiritual Challenge: Let God be God. You will find it a great relief. Besides you are severely under-qualified for the job. So, stop trying to be Master of the Universe. Stop trying to make the world and God fit into your mold. Stop trying to force the world to fit into your values, agenda and priorities. Allow God to be your Master, your Lord, and your Savior. You truly will find it is a very great relief.
For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone. God accepts penalties which belong to man alone. (John Stott, The Cross of Christ) (Kenneth J. Collins, The Evangelical Moment, p. 50)
If God gave anyone exactly what they deserved the results would be disastrous! Both Isaac and Jacob were scoundrels. God demonstrated unexpected grace when he chose these men in spite of their weaknesses and failures. That same grace is available to us in God’s offer of salvation. If we were to receive what we deserve, we would have no hope. We should come to God for mercy, not for justice. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 183)
God strives with people only up to a certain point. After that, He removes the witness of His Spirit and the sweet influences that would soften his heart. We note from the word “whom” (singular), that the apostle is not speaking of nations here, but INDIVIDUALS. When Pharaoh reached a certain point, he was left to himself. Without the working of God’s Spirit, no man can be saved. The king finally became insensible to any appeal by God. His heart was fully hardened. But the same thing occurs in those who hear the gospel and refuse Christ. Each time they say “no” to Jesus, their hearts become a little harder. The more the Spirit pleads, the more they resist Him. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 247-8)
God gave Pharaoh many opportunities to heed Moses’ warnings. But finally God seemed to say, “All right, Pharaoh, have it your way,” and Pharaoh’s heart became permanently hardened. Did God intentionally harden Pharaoh’s heart and overrule his free will? No, he simply confirmed that Pharaoh freely chose a life of resisting God. Similarly, after a lifetime of resisting God, we may find it impossible to turn to him. We can’t wait until just the right time before turning to God, because we won’t see it when it comes. The right time is now. If you continually ignore God’s voice, eventually you will be unable to hear it at all. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 185)
Man has no authority to call God to account. He can neither earn God’s mercy by well-doing, nor frustrate His will by opposition. The error of both theodicy and a rational doctrine of predestination consists in this, that it sets up the very questions which Paul deems improper and to be rejected. That is exactly what a true theocentric concept of predestination rejects, as it puts all things without exception into God’s hand. (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 370)
Quotes to Note:
Quoting from Isaiah 10:22-23 and 1:9, Paul explained that the majority of Israelhad turned away from God. But God always preserves a remnant for himself, “a remnant chosen by grace” (11:5). The remnant are those people who remain faithful to God whenever the majority doesn’t (see Mi 5:7-8). (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 190)
If our belief in the authority of the Bible means anything, it means that we must submit to what the Bible teaches and bring our own perceptions and ideas into line with Scripture. (Douglas J. Moo,The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, 318)
When a person reviews the ground covered in this chapter, he is surprised about the great number of scriptural quotations (vs. 7, 9, 11-13, 15, 17, 20, 21, 25-29, and, still coming, 33). It is as if Paul purposely somewhat holds his own judgments in abeyance, so that the readers and listeners may be able to see for themselves what God had been saying in the past. And if even Paul, who, after all, was divinely inspired, made this use of Scripture, should not we today? Is not a sermon all the more powerful and effective if the preacher can prove to his audience, “Thus saith the Lord”? (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 333)
His power is manifested in His judgment and punishment of sin. The vivid and sobering events found in the closing chapters of Revelation depict God’s ultimate judgmental wrath. The plagues, the fiery judgment, and all the other curses of the apocalypse leave no doubt that the Lord will judge and remove all sin and sinners from the earth before He establishes His millennial kingdom. When Christ comes from heaven in His blood-stained garments, riding a white horse and carrying a sword, He will defeat Antichrist and all his ungodly followers. God’s power, originally displayed in creation, will be equally glorious in destruction. It will be awesomely manifested in His vengeful, but wholly righteous and justified, conquest of all enemies who would attempt to conquer Him. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 40)
As already noted, the apostle’s primary point is that the unbelief of Israelthat caused her alienation and scattering was not inconsistent with God’s sovereign plan for His people. On the contrary, historically and in regard to the time of Messiah, God foresaw and predicted Jewish rejection and its consequences long before it occurred. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 47)
By reminding man who he is, and who God is, Paul shows him the incongruity of answering back to God–and of attempting to defend Him. Here there is room for no thought of a theodicy. It is disallowed by a reference to God’s unsearchable election. A theodicy assumes that man is central. Predestination shows that that is false. The chief significance of the concept of predestination is that it makes God central, as it should. (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 368-9)
“But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” — Romans 9:20
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