Sunday School Notes: Romans 9:14-20
14 What shall we say, then? Surely there is not unrighteousness with God, is there? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I shall have mercy on whomever I have mercy and I shall have compassion on whomever I have compassion.” 16 Therefore, it is not of the one willing, nor of the one running, but of God mercying. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “Unto this very thing I raised you up, that I might demonstrate in you my power and that my name might be proclaimed throughout all the land.” 18 Therefore, whomever He has mercy on whomever He wishes, and He hardens whomever He wishes.
19 Then you shall say to me, “Why, then, does He yet find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, answering back to God? Shall that which is molded say to the molder, “Why did you make me this way?”
This week we went back over some of the verses we skipped last week in order to get to the Play-Doh fun! We also fielded some questions which I will deal with briefly here, though the answers given in class were fuller. Hopefully these brief notes will be helpful, nevertheless.
We recapped the background of Romans once again to remind ourselves of the context within which this chapter was written (bearing in mind, of course, that to Paul this wasn’t a new chapter–this was all part of a single piece of prose, his letter to the church in Rome). The church in Rome was a divided church, where Jewish and Gentile converts to Christianity were sniping at each other over their faithfulness to the Law, or their salvation apart from the Law. Paul is trying to bring some balance, saying that, on the one hand, yes, salvation is by grace through faith, and always has been. The Law was never able to save, and no-one is able to find forgiveness from sin and a right standing with God apart from Christ, regardless of ethnic identity. However, this doesn’t mean the Old Testament was a mistake, or God’s dealings with the Jews is irrelevant to the church. Paul feels very strongly about his fellow countrymen. These people were the recipients of so much from God: the Law, the temple, the covenants and promises–and yet they have rejected the Messiah.
Romans 9 through 11 actually deals with the whole question of where the Jews stand now that Christ has come. For now, Paul’s point is that just because you belong to ethnic Israel, that doesn’t guarantee you anything before God. He tells them that not all Israel are truly Israel. Indeed, he makes clear that God’s selection of who will be saved is based on God’s sovereign decree–it’s His will, not ours that reigns supreme. As we saw a few weeks ago, God chose Isaac over Ishmael, and He chose Jacob over Esau, although these were all from the same father (Jacob and Esau from the same father and mother), and had done nothing themselves to garner either favor or disfavor. God simply chose one over the other for His own purposes. “Jacob I loved,” Paul quotes in verse 13, “but Esau I hated.” I believe I discussed the question of what “hated” means in this context in the notes from a couple of weeks ago, so I won’t repeat that here.
How can God do this–choose people’s eternal destiny without consulting them, or giving any consideration to that person’s deeds, or their free will? God is not unrighteous. In fact, He is completely just in His dealings with us, and, in light of the fact that we are all sinners worthy of the deepest pit of hell for our sin and rebellion against God, God is perfectly at liberty to deal us the justice we deserve, or bestow His grace upon us. As He said to Moses in Exodus 33, in that scene where He says He will reveal His glory to Moses, “I shall have mercy on whomever I have mercy and I shall have compassion on whomever I have compassion.” Paul goes on to emphasize the point: it’s not up to the man who wills, or the man who runs, but of the mercying God. We don’t have a verb “to mercy” in English, but there is one in Greek, and Paul uses it here. God’s mercy is active, and it is the only thing that God takes into account in His decision to save anyone. It has nothing to do with a man’s thinking or beliefs (“the one who wills”), or a man’s actions, good or bad (“the one who runs”).
Paul then reminds his readers of God’s words concerning Pharaoh–and if you think about what God says here, this can be a rather unsettling piece of divine revelation: “Unto this very thing I raised you up, that I might demonstrate in you my power and that my name might be proclaimed throughout all the land.” Think of who Pharaoh was and what he did. This was a man who enslaved the Israelites, and under whom many were beaten and killed. He was not exactly a benevolent, God-fearing ruler. And yet God “raised him up”–it was because of God that Pharaoh was raised in Egypt, was in the household he was in, had the parents he had, and hence developed the attitudes that characterized him. God had complete control over Pharaoh’s environment, and in that way molded him into the person he would be, so that he would do the things he did. And these were not good things; and he was not a nice person. But God did this for His own glory’s sake. Yes, Pharaoh was a God-hater, but look at what God did because of him: the Exodus. God put this particular man on the throne of Egypt at that time, and hardened his heart, so that what appeared to the Israelites as a hopeless situation would be turned by His hand into a scene of miraculous deliverance. The Israelites saw God’s mighty hand move in a spectacular way because of who Pharaoh was–and this in turn was because God raised Pharaoh up for that very purpose. So Paul is saying that God is even at work in the lives of those He has not chosen for salvation in order to bring glory to Himself, to demonstrate His justice in the condemnation of the wicked (consider the fate of the Egyptians in the Red Sea), and His grace and mercy to His people.
God does, indeed, have mercy on whomever He wants to, in accordance with His plan and purpose; and He hardens whomever He wants to–again in accordance with His plan and purpose. By the way, the Greek verb sklêrunô, “to harden,” is where we get the English medical term “sclerosis.”
In light of God’s sovereign decree, and the fact that salvation, and whether someone is fit for eternal glory or condemnation is totally in God’s hands, it seems unfair that God would hold us responsible for our sin. If Pharaoh had no control over where he was born and who he would grow up to be, then why should he be condemned? This is a legitimate question, but it should be asked with humility. The answer is, as we have alluded to above, that we all deserve condemnation for our sin, and God has the right to do as He pleases with us for His eternal purpose. We should note, too, that Pharaoh didn’t once object to the way God was using him. Note that while God promised Moses in Exodus 4 that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, not once do we read of Pharaoh saying “Look, Moses, I’m sorry, but God is hardening my heart. I really don’t want Him to, but what can I do? I can’t resist His will, so I’m afraid–as much as I hate to–I’m going to have to refuse your request.” Never happened! Indeed, throughout the whole episode between Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus, the text speaks both of Pharaoh hardening his heart and God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Exodus 4 tipped us off to the fact that it really was God doing the hardening all along, but clearly Pharaoh’s will was totally in line with God’s plan.
But Paul anticipates that the person asking the question is not doing so out of humility, but rather like the petulant child folding his arms and saying “Well, I can’t help my sin–it’s God’s fault for making me this way!” Paul chides the hypothetical questioner for “answering back” or “talking back” to God (Greek: antapokrinomai–literally, “I answer back”). We are the creation, He is the creator. As we saw last week, we are but clay in His hands, and we will be whatever He deigns for us to be.
We’ll pick up from here next week, and hopefully continue to the end of Romans 9.
Program Note: We plan to finish Romans 9 next week. The following week we will have an open question-and-answer session where people in the class can raise any questions they have about Romans, or general theological questions for the group to consider and, hopefully, answer. I might post some of those questions and answers in the following week’s notes, but if I don’t then next week will be the last week of Sunday School Notes on the blog until after the Summer. The current plan is to pick up with Romans 10 the week after Labor Day. I will let you know if this changes.
