Daily Thoughts from Romans: God’s Will, Man’s Choice (9:14-21)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: God’s Will, Man’s Choice

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?  (Romans 9:14-21 ESV)

If Israel hasn’t as a whole embraced Jesus as Messiah because God didn’t choose many of them, isn’t that unfair?  Paul answers this objection by quoting the Scripture that says God has mercy on whomever He wants to have mercy.  If Scripture says that about God it must be fair.  It also says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to show His power, so it is fair no matter how He chooses to work in someone.  From this Paul concludes that a person’s spiritual disposition is not determined ultimately by that person’s own choice but by God’s choice.

Then, in the only passage in Scripture where this apparent contradiction between human accountability and divine judgment is discussed, Paul puts this objection in the mouth of his supposed debater, “Why does God still find fault when the person only did what God willed for him to do?”  This is Paul’s chance to explain that he means God merely knew beforehand how the person would choose and then determined his fate on that basis, or for him to explain that the objector has it all wrong, or employ the concept of middle knowledge to remove the seeming contradiction.  Instead, he accepts both seemingly contradictory ideas without any explanation other than God made it this way.  God does judge us, and we only do God’s will.  He is the potter molding the pots, some for good use, some for bad, all out of the same clay (we’re all sinners) and humans have no right to challenge this order of things.

We must conclude that (1) as human beings we are accountable for our every decision, nevertheless, (2) our wills are not free but are subject to the determination of God’s purpose.  In our minds that is unfair, but God understands and though He cannot explain to us why it is fair, it is fair.  No one will be able to stand before God in the judgment and argue that he only did what God made him do so he is not responsible.  I feel responsible and I am responsible for all my decisions.  If I reject Christ I will perish for my faulty decision.  If I’m born again I will be rewarded for my faith.

If we do not hold to both these propositions, divine sovereignty and human accountability, we will depart from God’s revelation to us in Scripture.  How we explain the two is another matter.  The best human minds have sought to “divine” the solution to this issue, sometimes referred to fatalism versus freedom, sometimes as Calvinism versus Arminianism, but they have never found a solution that satisfies all.  I believe this is because only an infinite mind can comprehend how the two can both be true.  And if that is true, we will never understand it completely because we will never have but finite minds to comprehend it.  Our job is merely to hold both concepts as sacrosanct, as inviolable truths in God’s world.

 

Can peach renew lost bloom

or violet lost perfume?

Or sullied snow turn white as over-night?

Man cannot compass it, yet never fear

The leper Naaman shows what God will and can

God who worked then is working here

Wherefore let shame, not gloom, betinge thy brow

God who worked then is working now.

(Cristina G. Rossetti, quoted in Warfield, Plan of Salvation, p 50)