Romans 9:14-24 - Grace and Reprobation

Romans 9:14-24

14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

Message: Grace and Reprobation

Time:  Paul wrote Romans from Corinth as he prepared to leave for Palestine. Phoebe (16:1,2) was given the great responsibility of delivering the letter to the Romans believers. At this time, Rome had a population of 1 million, many of whom were slaves. The Romans church was doctrinally sound, but it still needed rich doctrine and practical application. Rome had massive buildings but also slums.

What the Lord is Saying:

God rescues us
Man is forever fooling himself to think that he can earn his own salvation. This again is the way of the world in which we live. We work hard, continually improving and along the way our hard work pays off. It merits dividends. Even when it comes to eating or taking care of our bodies, we are focused on the idea that what we eat and the exercise we do pays off by living in a healthier manner. Thus, we are trained over and over in life in this kind of living and this living resulting in good outcomes.

Yet, God's salvation does not work like this. Over and over in scripture is the reminder that we are saved by grace. This grace does not have anything to do with our performance. Man does make choices in life but is incapable of choosing righteousness as a sinner. He needs to be rescued by God.

Paul responds to a question
In this passage, Romans 9:14-24, Paul is addressing an objection that is not said but implied or he thinks the objection is coming. The objection is - "Is God acting in a righteous manner when He chooses one over another?" This sounds quite familiar to what we hear all to often from people in this world. They say, "God would not let that happen because God is love and God being love wants all people to have good outcomes." Those are not the exact words that are spoken by people but it is something that is mentioned over and over that a good God would not allow suffering; a good God would not allow a person to hurt or have pain. When we ask these questions, are we not asking the same question that Paul is responding to here? The question is: Is God acting in a righteous manner when He chooses one over another?

In essence, God is being God and we don't like it and because we don't like it, then there must not be a God.

God has mercy
Paul wants to make it very clear that God is always righteous. He starts with a quote from Exodus 33:19 - And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." Paul is speaking to the Jewish people and his responses or His arguments go back to the text of the Old Testament. God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. As man, our role is to not be judge or jury of God. Yet, most of us have a God given compassion for others, and we hurt for others, for ourselves. We see some people living seemingly good lives while others don't and it saddens us that everyone can't be equal. Yet, we are the ones that have defined what is a good life. But, there is also injustice in this world because people are sinners and they act in a sinful manner. But, God is not the one who is acting in an injustice way. Paul says (verse 16) - it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. It does not depend on man's hard work. Paul is simply making a natural conclusion here. The Lord will have mercy on whom I have mercy....it does not depend on the man. 

If it depended on man, then man would get the glory. It is one or the other. It cannot be a two-way thing where man does a little, God does the rest. This goes back to the earlier discussion that man is incapable in his fallen state to do even a little.

Demonstrates His Power
Paul continues his response and once again goes back to Exodus with the following quote from Exodus 9:16 - But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Paul states - FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH. God is to be glorified. God acts the way He acts so His name might be proclaimed. We have a jealous God. Albert Barnes states - "The design is to show that God has a right to pass by those to whom he does not choose to show mercy; and to place them in circumstances where they shall develop their true character." God has this right. Again, it is the character of man to take care of only himself. It is the character of God to try to think man is the one that solves life's problems. This passage in Exodus is Paul taking his audience back to Pharaoh to show that even the most mighty and wicked monarchs are in God's control. The true character of man is selfishness, of seeking out his own self interests and God placed Pharaoh in circumstances where this character is further developed. While others he chooses for salvation.

Once again, this is an idea about God that I don't think we like. The reality is God does choose some for salvation, but most he does not. And the selfish way of man is pleased with this.

Don't Ask Why
Thus, what follows next is man's natural response to all of this - The Question: "Why?" But, the issue I think of the "why" question can be better understood in the idea that man lives in a fallen condition. This is the basis of man. This is the intent of man. This is the predominant way of man. I think in the United States and even throughout the world, for a time, leaders were Christians, and the notion of right and wrong prevailed in human thought. Many today think we need to return to the founding of our country. And it is true religious life was more predominant in leaders early in our history. But as time has gone by, this notion slowly evaporates. It is like a pot boiling. After a while the water leaves and there is no more water. There is just steam. And over time this is what we are seeing is the way of man is becoming more and more the way of man.

Paul speaks here that we are all simply lumps of clay. In my daily reading through the Bible that I began recently, I came across these words in Isaiah 29 that I now see Paul was quoting in this passage. The Lord speaks these words (Isaiah 29:16) - You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? We are lumps of clay and we think we have the right to now speak to the potter. I think this language is used to show the absurdity of the situation. The makeup of man and God is completely different. And here we see it is difference by looking at a piece of clay that the potter has formed. Clay is an object. The potter is a man. Man and God have a similar relationship. Yet, we question God all the time. The clay speaks.

Paul echoes this sentiment in these words recording in Romans 9:20-21 - On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

Thus, here is the conclusion. Don't ask why? It is foolishness for us to ask why. Clay does not speak. But we do ask and we ask over and over and though we don't hear answers, we make up our own answers to the questions. And suddenly the clay thinks it has arrived at the correct conclusion regarding life and everything in it. It is absurdity and yet we sit back and define it as reasonable. We are pots. We are clay. Let the potter be the potter. Let God be God.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
And now Paul will take us back to the chief problem and that is man is fallen. Man had what he wanted in the garden - nothing but good outcomes, but his problem was he wanted to be the potter and so he ignored the plan of God and took matters in his own hands. The result was a roadway to wrath. Paul makes this clear. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known. Man has this insatiable desire to be in charge and he gets this from God. Think about some of the great dictators - Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong. We watch them carry out their wicked ways as they demonstrate their wrath and make their power known. What they exhibit is something we all have - a desire to be in control. Sure it is grotesque to see what they do with that control. And we would be appalled to see God act this way. Yet, our deeds are like filthy rags. These dictators carry out a wrath on people that don't deserve the wrath and yet God would be just in carrying out wrath on disobedient sinners. Would we not have a little understanding with these dictators if there adherents were in fact disobedient toward them?

The point Paul makes is that God, could demonstrate His wrath and could make His power known, but he doesn't, and instead He endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. God has mercy. He has patience. He does not want any to come to judgement, but all to repent. And could it be that His feeling toward sin is so appalling that most people will end up receiving that wrath, but a few will be saved. The irony of this all is God is actually acting in a manner that is reasonable and justified.

Rich in Mercy and indeed Good Outcomes
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. God is rich in Glory. And this Glory has been his plan. And He has set us apart for this glory. He chose Jews and Gentiles. He chose from every group under the Sun. We are all included. If we would just focus on this. If we would just focus on His mercy and being included in His glory. If we would let Him be the potter - wouldn't it all just work out?

Promise: From TableTalk Magazine for this entry - Since we deserve only eternal death apart from God's intervention, we cannot complain if the Lord shows grace and mercy only to some of us. Reprobation is God leaving some in their sins and to the just consequences of those sins. We are in Christ only because God chooses to love undeserving sinners.

Prayer: O God the Father, you are indeed rich in mercy. You have saved me by your grace and your grace alone. There is no fiber in me that is worthy. I am no different from anyone. The only difference is you have lifted me up. Lord, I pray that I would surrender to you and let you be God. Help me to rise above all those voices that continue to question you. Your power is made known simply in saving anyone. And your glory is so great because of all who you have saved. Lord, you have reminded me that I am clay, a lump of clay and You are the potter and I have no place in ever questioning You because clay and a potter are entirely two different compositions. I only can surrender to You God. That is my only choice, my only way. You didn't have to but you did, you showed me Your mercy and then you somehow have promised me to share in Your Glory. How?



Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with the April devotional being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.

Ephesians 1:3-4a - The Grace of Predestination

Ephesians 1:3-4a
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world

Message: The Grace of Predestination

Time: At the end of his second missionary journey and 2 years into his third, Paul ministered at Ephesus. Many came to Christ during His time though Paul was not popular among the pagans. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians sometime in AD 60–61, around the same time he wrote Colossians and Philemon, as he sent all three letters by the hand of Tychicus, accompanied by Onesimus. It was during this time that Paul sat in Rome undergoing his first Roman imprisonment, making Ephesians one of the four epistles commonly known as the Prison Epistles. The others are Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

What the Lord is Saying:

RC Sproul stated that the doctrine of predestination is difficult. It is complex and difficult to study and requires a lot of care in studying. But, it is still important to study. In my life, it has been difficult for me to understand. I go back to the study of it very often and at times, I never feel like I have it figured out. But rather, I approach it from the ground up over and over. I'm not sure I'm correct in thinking this, but the study of predestination to me is closely related to the understanding of human free will.

I take a moment here to look at the definition of predestination:

the divine foreordaining of all that will happen, especially with regard to the salvation of some and not others

I suppose the reason I see this link with predestination and human free will is there is at times a conflict within me as to whether the two can work together.

This particular lesson has the focus on salvation. As I have discussed in previous recent entries, there is at times the idea in history that each person is responsible for his salvation. In the Edenic covenant God bestowed his blessing completely on Adam and Eve. They were in the garden, with the tree of life and therefore in constant fellowship with God. They were given tasks to do and they did those task completely for there was no sin. In Genesis 1 and 2, in the garden of Eden, God provided man and woman everything needed to live. He commands them to be fruitful, to multiply. to fill the earth, to subdue it, to rule over the animals. They had a mission and God had a plan for them. There was no right and wrong, no good and evil. There was only a mission and they would be successful in this mission. Life was fluid.

Sin, however, broke that original Edenic covenant as man's mission and God's promise of salvation was broken or veered off from the plan when sin was not known. Thus, Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, from the perfect fellowship with God. [Note: Covenants are established but often man does not fulfill his part of the covenant, resulting in another covenant and eventually a new or final covenant that would never be broken because man had no responsibility in it.] Outside of the garden, Adam and Eve would receive the curse of painful living. They would now toil and experience pain and loss. And the tree of life, which was in the garden, was now not with man and woman.

Both in the pre-sin world and the post-sin world man had tasks to do. But, in the post-sin world man was working outside of the garden, away from the tree of life, and thus curses resulted, like working by the sweat of a brow and toiling. And maybe it is because man broke this fellowship with God, this union, by sinning, that man thinks then he or she must then be the one to bridge fellowship with God. Yet God makes it clear that man is incapable of bridging that fellowship because the sin makes him incapable, makes him imperfect. Thus, Grace follows for God is our provider for peace with Him.

Again, the point here is fellowship with God. The point here is to be in union with God. Union was broken because of sin. Without sin, union was present as man was in the garden, with the tree of life. Man goes from being perfect to now being imperfect, but perfection is what is needed to be in fellowship with God. There is no idea of being "good enough" or "all that we can do."

Paul says in I Corinthians 15:22 -In Christ all shall me made alive. This is the pinnacle statement, I believe, of the identification of eternal life for all who are in Christ. In Christ all... In Jesus man now has complete fellowship with God.

So even as we try to believe that God's grace brings us to salvation - which is a point of theology, Many people today still think that certain works bridge the gap. For many Jewish people, it was circumcision or being a holder of the Law and today for many it is being in the right church, following the correct directions or rules, or being of the right religious system. The deception is these things yield our salvation. But, as a sinner man is incapable of being perfect, being righteous, And therefore incapable of choosing for himself salvation.

As I have discussed previously, man naturally thinks that he is involved in this process of being made alive and if this was so, wouldn't Paul saying the words God chose us in Him hint of controversy? Or can God choose someone and yet when that person come to faith be decided by that person. On the contrary, He is not involved and here in Ephesians 1:3-4 is Paul making it clear that God chooses us in Christ before creation (the foundation of the world). That is a loaded thought and immediately it makes us wonder about prayer, about sharing our faith and other things that the Bible prescribes us to do. We are to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Paul tells me in I Thessalonians to pray about everything. Jesus continually told us to ask of Him. Yet, saying God chooses us does not nullify other commandments of God.

Throughout scripture God's promises are given first, followed by obedience (e.g. Covenants, Giving of the law, Ephesians 2:8-10). Works are never intertwined with salvation in our New Testament. But, I think this is normal for us as humans to think this. We gravitate towards what we can do and moving past what we have done. We learn from our mistakes. We are constantly changing and improving. We become more wise. Most of us are trying to make today better than yesterday. This is normal and this is good, but the danger lies in us equating this mission with the conclusion that we then earn our salvation.

In addition, some have that God foresaw our natural obedience and therefore knew our choice would one day be for Him. This again focuses only on foreknowledge. And it focuses on our ability to make a good choice towards righteousness. But, this verse in Ephesians says God chose us in Him not God knew our choice would be in Him.

Good works can be present at any time, but obedience to God follows faith. In the eyes of God, our entire lives are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Eternal life comes about by faith or believing (John 3:16). Then once we are in Christ, good works follow (Ephesians 2:10).

God chooses those to be in Christ. It is His work. Yet, the idea of God choosing and man making choices in life are still compatible. Thus these ideas seem opposed to one another, on the surface, and so I turn to a video by RC Sproul on Free Will.

RC Sproul discusses Free Will:

1. Humanist View - The ability to make choices is spontaneous. There is no prejudice, prior disposition, or prior inclination toward making a choice. A choice comes comes about on its own. But, if there is no prior disposition toward making a choice, then we can conclude that there is no reason or motivation for the choice - and thus no moral significance.

The Bible, however, focuses not just on choices, but a predetermined reason for choices. In the Bible, it refers to our intention for the choice and the motivation from our heart. As an example, in the Bible, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Later, when there is restoration and Joseph speaks to his brothers he says to them that "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." Thus, what motivates often can be evil, but God's intent is for good. Here is this thought again I am seeing that man can only choose God is God is in Him.

The humanist view is that the will is neutral, thus there is an effect, but there is no cause to that effect. On the contrary, the Bible states that man's natural tendency is toward evil or away from the things of God - toward pleasing his/her own needs or desires.

2. Jonathon Edwards states that will is the mind choosing. Thus, the mind approves of our choices. The mind and the will work in conjunction; the mind is not independent of the will. Edwards states "Free moral agents always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice." When we sin, our desire at that moment is greater than our desire to obey Christ.

Coercion is doing things that we really don't want to do. These are external forces that come into our lives and force us to do things that we don't want to do. Human desires fluctuate. In moments of coercion we can at times be presented with two options, but it is still our desires that help us to choose. Yet when Paul tells us that "I do what I don't want to do" this seems to conclude that Paul believes a person can choose against their desires. As a Christian I have a desire to please Christ, but that desire does not always play itself out when I am given choices in life.

3. RC Sproul says, "Every choice we make is free and every choice we make is determined." Determinism, on the contrary, says that we make choices based upon external forces.  Atheists hold to determinism and believe our choices are automatic based upon our traditions, upbringing, environments. But RC Sproul states that what determines our choices is me, thus this is self-determination. Thus, we always choose according to our desires.

Jonathan Edwards also speaks of moral ability and natural ability. I have the natural ability to think, speak, walk upright. I cannot fly or live underwater for lengths of time. Moral ability is the ability to be righteous as well as to be sinful. In his fallen state, man no longer has the ability in his moral state to be perfect because he is born in sin. He can still think and make choices. Augustine said that man has free will but man lost moral liberty in the fall. “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good,There is not even one.”
Overall, I think the difficulty of this text and this idea is this is contrary to the way in which we have been trained. It is rather self-defeating to realize that I have gained the greatest gift imaginable without doing anything to earn it. Ever since the curse from Adam and Eve's sin work has been a toil and that work that we do does merit results. Thus, in life, we are naturally conditioned to think that rewards follow good habits of work. But, God is saying in relation to salvation that rewards are not based upon the person receiving them, but rather the person giving them. This is hard because there is so little in our life that is based upon a gift rather than a work. Thus, this is why so many have a problem with substitution atonement.

Promise: God loves us. God knows us. God wants us to be in fellowship with Him. He provides the way and because of sin each of us is incapable of choosing God because there is none righteous.

Prayer: O Father, thank you for loving me with a love that is incomprehensible to me. Despite my failure -- past, present, and/or future -- you still love me and want me to be yours. It has everything to do with You and nothing to do with me. You take my fallen condition and make me acceptable Continue to help me to understand these doctrines. You are explaining more and more what it means.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with the April devotional being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.