Paul concluded his first principle defining God’s sovereignty saying, “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” He now proceeds to a second Jewish objection to God’s independent sovereignty, as he speaks to his family, the Israelites:
“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’” (Rom 9:19-20)?
Who has not heard Christians ask similar questions? Who has not questioned God’s purposes in their lives? Is God showering mercy on others, while hardening me for his purposes? How can this happen to me since I have been saved through faith in Jesus? Read on – is it fair if God chooses you specifically to suffer with Jesus, such that your testimony will bring others to faith in Jesus?
“Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable us and another for dishonorable use” (Rom 9:21)?
If you are feeling lumpy, remember that Paul is speaking to his family, the Israelites, who believe they are the only people of the world chosen by God. Not so:
“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles” (Rom 9:22-24)?
The question of election turns not on Jewish or Christian or agnostic or liberal or conservative. It turns on vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. Those of us chosen for grace because of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ are created to be vessels of mercy, and similar vessels of mercy have been created as Jews and even as people of other faiths or no faith at all. It is God’s desire to endure with great patience the vessels of wrath created from the beginning for destruction. Why? Simply to make known by contrast the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy among all people who were created and elected for that glory.
Paul underlines this endurance with Old Testament warnings for vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy:
“As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people,” and her who was not my beloved I will call “my beloved.”’ And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they will be called “sons of the living God”’” (Rom 9:25-26; Hosea 2:23).
“And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.’ And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah”’(Rom 9:27-29; Isaiah 10:22-23; Isaiah 1:9).
To us, the hundreds of years it took for this judgment and sentence on Israel to be carried out took a long time, but to God it was “without delay.”
By parallel, this raises a question that is very painful to ask: Are we Christians today in a period of judgment “without delay” because of our disunity?
It is a valid question for our troubled times. Has God elected vessels of wrath among his vessels of mercy for not practicing unity and not focusing on the commandments of Jesus?
Do we find ourselves caught up in these times to make known once again God’s power of judgment, to contrast it with the riches of his glory in obeying Jesus’ commands?
Hurry back for Part 2 of this challenging passage!