14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
God is not unjust in his choice . God has a right to be merciful to whomever he wants to and use them for his purposes, as it was in the case of Moses, to whom God revealed himself for his own purpose. To be elected for God's purposes does not depend on human desire or effort but God's mercy. Abraham's desire was for Ismael, Isaac's desire to be the blessed of God was for Esau, but God rejected their Choices . He chose Isaac and Jacob in his own sovereignty.
In other words , God did not choose Israel as his people based on their works or on their merit. It was his free choice. For shows mercy to some and fulfills his purpose. God hardens some to fulfill his purpose. God foreknew Pharaoh's action and chose him to be used for his purpose of "declaring his glory among the nations". Pharaoh was not arbitrarily chosen. He could have been destroyed with the plague which affected their body. But God postponed his destruction so that he can use him to declare his name among the nations.
Rahab, the prostitute says, that she heard what God did for Israel . Rahab, of course converted based on this report of what God did to Pharaoh. So Pharaoh served a higher purpose of God and God turned around what would have been a useless death by pestilence into a Glorious splitting of the red sea and drowning the Egyptian army.
Moreover ,Pharaoh hardened his heart in spite of clear revelation , several times. God hardened Pharaoh's heart after that , to serve his own purpose. God foreknew and he planned to use Pharaoh , for a higher purpose , a purpose which would be fulfilled , when Pharaoh did what he wanted to do.
Even here it's not about choosing Pharaoh to damnation and choosing Moses to eternal salvation. It is about God's free choice to use any of his creation according to his ways and purposes.
God should not blame us, says the hypothetical objector ,because it is all God's work , showing mercy to some and hardening some. As clay in the hands of the potter , so are we in his hands. How does God the potter choose to make vessels? God has the right to make choose some nations for noble purposes and some for common purpose . It is his wish . God is sovereign. God in his foreknowledge plans things in a such a way that both Moses and Pharaoh serve his purposes.
God has a right as the creator to shape one vessel , Israel as an instrument of noble use. God has a right to shape other nations as instruments of common use. His choice is his will. Now Israel becoming unfitting of this noble purpose , does not nullify God's sovereignty. God will still use their unfaithfulness and bring gentiles into the kingdom as he explains in chapter 11.
Again it is not as the Calvinists say, that election will lead to non resistance on the part of the elect. Here Israel in spite of being chosen , resisted and disobeyed and was ultimately rejected by God for rejecting him.
God's free choice did not interfere with man's free choice to choose to say yes or no to God's purposes. Whatever man's free choice was God was sovereign and still did what he exactly wanted to do . The loser in the deal being the unrepentant and disobedient side. God has no problem fulfilling his purpose , through our obedience or disobedience.
"The words of God to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, show that God has a right to dispense his blessings as he pleases; for, after he had declared that he would spare the Jews of old, and continue them in the relation of his peculiar people, when they had deserved to have been cut off for their idolatry, he said: I will make all my goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. As if he had said: I will make such adisplay of my perfections as shall convince you that my nature is kind and beneficent; but know, that I am a debtor to none of my creatures. My benefits and blessings are merely from my own good will: nor can any people, much less a rebellious people, challenge them as their due in justice or equity. And therefore I now spare the Jews; not because either you, who intercede for them or they themselves have any claim upon my favour, but of my own free and sovereign grace I choose to show them mercy and compassion. I will give my salvation in my own way and on my own terms. He that believeth on my Son Jesus shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is God's ultimate design; this purpose he will never change; and this he has fully declared in the everlasting Gospel. This is the grand DECREE of reprobation and election." - Adam Clarke, Commentary on Romans 9
"I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. This is in Exod. 33:19 , and is in answer to a request of Moses for a high privilege. The Lord grants it, not because he merits it, but of grace, because he "will be gracious to whom he willeth, and will have mercy where he will." The passage, as applied by Paul, asserts that God favors nations according to his pleasure. He exercises free choice. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth. When God is gracious, it is not because a human will (him that willeth), or a human work (him that runneth) lays him under obligation, and forces him to give, but the gift is of him, due to his mercy, which he has the right to bestow where he will. Isaac willed to bestow the blessing on Esau, and the latter run to obtain the venison ( Gen. 27:5 ), but Jacob had been chosen to become the founder of the chosen people, and received the blessing, which promised that he should be the father of a great nation. 17. The Scripture saith to Pharaoh. Exod. 9:16 . It is not said that Pharaoh was born for, but was raised to the throne for a particular purpose. That purpose was that I might shew my power in thee. It is not said that God raised him up to destroy him. His power might have been shown by Pharaoh yielding to his power. Pharaoh's conduct made it necessary to abase him. Here, again, the election is not of an individual to destruction, but of a man to be a king for a particular purpose. The destruction came upon him because, in that position, he resisted God. 18. Therefore hath he mercy. Verse 15 has shown that he hath mercy according to his own sense of right, not according to any human code. The case of Pharaoh shows, in addition, that whom he will, he hardeneth. "What must not be forgotten, and what appears distinctly, from the whole narrative in Exodus, is that Pharaoh's hardening was at first his own act. Five times it is said of him that he himself hardened, or made heavy his heart ( Exodus 7:13 Exodus 7:22 Exodus 8:15 Exodus 8:32 Exodus 9:7 ), before the time when it is at last said that God hardened him ( Exod. 9:12 ), and even after that it is said that he hardened himself ( Exod. 9:34 ). Thus he at first closed his own heart to God's appeals; grew harder by stubborn resistance under God's judgments, until at last God, as a punishment for his obstinate rejection of right, gave him over to his mad folly and took away his judgment."--Godet. At first Pharaoh hardened his own heart; God's judgments only made it harder, and then God "gave him over." God only made harder, by his judgments and by leaving him to his folly, one who had already hardened his own heart. That he was given over to madness is shown in the record. Even his magician said, "This is the finger of God" ( Exod. 8:19 ). He himself once said, "I have sinned; the Lord is righteous" ( Exod. 9:27 ). Had he not hardened himself again, the result would have been different. Then God gave him up to his own folly, "to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind." The Jews approved of all this in the case of Pharaoh, but held that God could never abandon them on account of their sinful course. Paul's argument is, that if they, the favored people, should pursue Pharaoh's course, they might experience Pharaoh's fate. They, also, hardening themselves, might be "delivered over to hardness," for God is not limited by race, or by any limitation, but hardens whom he wills. He wills to harden those who harden themselves. I have dwelt upon this passage at greater length than usual because it is so little understood. Godet well says that in this whole passage Paul is not writing theology, but answering the arrogant pretensions of Jewish Pharisaism, and hence he asserts the Divine liberty. Had he been replying to those who have exaggerated this liberty into a purely arbitrary and tyrannical will, he would have brought out the opposite side of truth." - People's New Testament, Romans 9
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For
Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that
I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in
all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[h] 21 Does
not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some
pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
What
then shall we say? - Denotes conclusion. What is the conclusion made
from the election of Isaac and Jacob for the purposes of God?
In other words , God did not choose Israel as his people based on their works or on their merit. It was his free choice. For shows mercy to some and fulfills his purpose. God hardens some to fulfill his purpose. God foreknew Pharaoh's action and chose him to be used for his purpose of "declaring his glory among the nations". Pharaoh was not arbitrarily chosen. He could have been destroyed with the plague which affected their body. But God postponed his destruction so that he can use him to declare his name among the nations.
Rahab, the prostitute says, that she heard what God did for Israel . Rahab, of course converted based on this report of what God did to Pharaoh. So Pharaoh served a higher purpose of God and God turned around what would have been a useless death by pestilence into a Glorious splitting of the red sea and drowning the Egyptian army.
Moreover ,Pharaoh hardened his heart in spite of clear revelation , several times. God hardened Pharaoh's heart after that , to serve his own purpose. God foreknew and he planned to use Pharaoh , for a higher purpose , a purpose which would be fulfilled , when Pharaoh did what he wanted to do.
Even here it's not about choosing Pharaoh to damnation and choosing Moses to eternal salvation. It is about God's free choice to use any of his creation according to his ways and purposes.
God should not blame us, says the hypothetical objector ,because it is all God's work , showing mercy to some and hardening some. As clay in the hands of the potter , so are we in his hands. How does God the potter choose to make vessels? God has the right to make choose some nations for noble purposes and some for common purpose . It is his wish . God is sovereign. God in his foreknowledge plans things in a such a way that both Moses and Pharaoh serve his purposes.
God has a right as the creator to shape one vessel , Israel as an instrument of noble use. God has a right to shape other nations as instruments of common use. His choice is his will. Now Israel becoming unfitting of this noble purpose , does not nullify God's sovereignty. God will still use their unfaithfulness and bring gentiles into the kingdom as he explains in chapter 11.
Again it is not as the Calvinists say, that election will lead to non resistance on the part of the elect. Here Israel in spite of being chosen , resisted and disobeyed and was ultimately rejected by God for rejecting him.
God's free choice did not interfere with man's free choice to choose to say yes or no to God's purposes. Whatever man's free choice was God was sovereign and still did what he exactly wanted to do . The loser in the deal being the unrepentant and disobedient side. God has no problem fulfilling his purpose , through our obedience or disobedience.
"The words of God to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, show that God has a right to dispense his blessings as he pleases; for, after he had declared that he would spare the Jews of old, and continue them in the relation of his peculiar people, when they had deserved to have been cut off for their idolatry, he said: I will make all my goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. As if he had said: I will make such adisplay of my perfections as shall convince you that my nature is kind and beneficent; but know, that I am a debtor to none of my creatures. My benefits and blessings are merely from my own good will: nor can any people, much less a rebellious people, challenge them as their due in justice or equity. And therefore I now spare the Jews; not because either you, who intercede for them or they themselves have any claim upon my favour, but of my own free and sovereign grace I choose to show them mercy and compassion. I will give my salvation in my own way and on my own terms. He that believeth on my Son Jesus shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is God's ultimate design; this purpose he will never change; and this he has fully declared in the everlasting Gospel. This is the grand DECREE of reprobation and election." - Adam Clarke, Commentary on Romans 9
"I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. This is in Exod. 33:19 , and is in answer to a request of Moses for a high privilege. The Lord grants it, not because he merits it, but of grace, because he "will be gracious to whom he willeth, and will have mercy where he will." The passage, as applied by Paul, asserts that God favors nations according to his pleasure. He exercises free choice. 16. So then it is not of him that willeth. When God is gracious, it is not because a human will (him that willeth), or a human work (him that runneth) lays him under obligation, and forces him to give, but the gift is of him, due to his mercy, which he has the right to bestow where he will. Isaac willed to bestow the blessing on Esau, and the latter run to obtain the venison ( Gen. 27:5 ), but Jacob had been chosen to become the founder of the chosen people, and received the blessing, which promised that he should be the father of a great nation. 17. The Scripture saith to Pharaoh. Exod. 9:16 . It is not said that Pharaoh was born for, but was raised to the throne for a particular purpose. That purpose was that I might shew my power in thee. It is not said that God raised him up to destroy him. His power might have been shown by Pharaoh yielding to his power. Pharaoh's conduct made it necessary to abase him. Here, again, the election is not of an individual to destruction, but of a man to be a king for a particular purpose. The destruction came upon him because, in that position, he resisted God. 18. Therefore hath he mercy. Verse 15 has shown that he hath mercy according to his own sense of right, not according to any human code. The case of Pharaoh shows, in addition, that whom he will, he hardeneth. "What must not be forgotten, and what appears distinctly, from the whole narrative in Exodus, is that Pharaoh's hardening was at first his own act. Five times it is said of him that he himself hardened, or made heavy his heart ( Exodus 7:13 Exodus 7:22 Exodus 8:15 Exodus 8:32 Exodus 9:7 ), before the time when it is at last said that God hardened him ( Exod. 9:12 ), and even after that it is said that he hardened himself ( Exod. 9:34 ). Thus he at first closed his own heart to God's appeals; grew harder by stubborn resistance under God's judgments, until at last God, as a punishment for his obstinate rejection of right, gave him over to his mad folly and took away his judgment."--Godet. At first Pharaoh hardened his own heart; God's judgments only made it harder, and then God "gave him over." God only made harder, by his judgments and by leaving him to his folly, one who had already hardened his own heart. That he was given over to madness is shown in the record. Even his magician said, "This is the finger of God" ( Exod. 8:19 ). He himself once said, "I have sinned; the Lord is righteous" ( Exod. 9:27 ). Had he not hardened himself again, the result would have been different. Then God gave him up to his own folly, "to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind." The Jews approved of all this in the case of Pharaoh, but held that God could never abandon them on account of their sinful course. Paul's argument is, that if they, the favored people, should pursue Pharaoh's course, they might experience Pharaoh's fate. They, also, hardening themselves, might be "delivered over to hardness," for God is not limited by race, or by any limitation, but hardens whom he wills. He wills to harden those who harden themselves. I have dwelt upon this passage at greater length than usual because it is so little understood. Godet well says that in this whole passage Paul is not writing theology, but answering the arrogant pretensions of Jewish Pharisaism, and hence he asserts the Divine liberty. Had he been replying to those who have exaggerated this liberty into a purely arbitrary and tyrannical will, he would have brought out the opposite side of truth." - People's New Testament, Romans 9
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