Romans Chapter 9:17-33/Commentary

Romans Chapter 9:17-33

Remember in this section Paul is dealing with the argument that “does not God’s choosing Israel for covenant service imply that all Jewish people should be automatically saved?”

The answer is no! God choose both the nation of Israel and Pharaoh for a role of service, and He used both of them despite their hardness of heart.

Romans 9:17 “For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee My power, and that My name might be published abroad in all the earth’” “For: Pharaoh is an example of someone selected to fulfill God's purposes (9:17), just like the nation of Israel had been (9:5), yet being used in God's plan, did not mean automatic salvation to those so used. Pharaoh could have glorified God by bowing to God's power and voluntarily letting Israel go, but he chose another route. “The Scripture saith”: Exodus 9”16. “Obviously ‘Scripture’ id not say this to Pharaoh. God himself, through Moses spoke these words to him. But thus personifying Scripture and thinking of it as interchangeable with God himself, Paul shows us his very high view of the nature of the Bible. The ‘Scripture says’ is essential the same as ‘God says’” (Cottrell p. 97). “For this very purpose did I raise thee up”: Compare with 9:16 “allowed you to remain”. “The Exodus passage seems to be saying God has been sustaining Pharaoh through six terrible plagues so as to draw the lesson out. Moses had been asked by Pharaoh: ‘Who is Jehovah?’ and Moses signed him up for a 10-lesson course. God could have slain Pharaoh immediately but preferred to make the lesson a prolonged one for its teaching value” 1 “The reference may be not merely to God's raising up Pharaoh to be king, but to His patience in preserving him alive, in spite of his disobedience” 2 “Stresses the fact that Pharaoh was being used by God, even when it seemed that he was most empathically opposing God” (Cottrell p. 99). “That I might show in thee My power”: “In showing My power in dealings with thee” (TCNT).

“That My name might be published abroad”: See Exodus 15:14ff; Joshua 2:10; 9:9; 1 Samuel 4:8. These passages stress the effect produced on other nations by the news of the Exodus and attendant events.

Observations 1 2

McGuiggan p. 294 F.F. Bruce p. 194

Pharaoh did not have to resist God's will. Even wicked, rebellious, and head-strong people can change when confronted with God (Ezek. 18:21-23; Jonah 3:4-10; 1 Timothy 1:13-16; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). God's will could have been worked out in two ways. Pharaoh could have submitted to God, and everyone would have heard that the great king of Egypt even bows before the God of Israel. Thus God is glorified and His name is published. Or, Pharaoh could foolishly resist, and God could destroy Egypt to the point that Pharaoh would be forced to let Israel go. God would still be glorified as the other nations hear about what He has done for Israel (Joshua 2:10). Even here, in dealing with a rebellious man, God demonstrates tremendous mercy and forbearance. God allows this man to survive through ten plagues, to give him the opportunity to repent (Romans 2:4-5; Exodus 10:3).

Romans 9:18 “So then He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth” How does God harden? It is the result of God deliberately forcing a person to choose. God gave Pharaoh a command that Pharaoh did not like, yet Pharaoh could have obeyed. He was able, but unwilling. God kept pressing the issue, and Pharaoh kept refusing. The Bible points out that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15,32; 9:34). It reminds us that Pharaoh was a willing contributor to his stubbornness. "It is well within God's right to demand obedience of any man. It is God's right to demand obedience of any man even if He knows that that man will not obey . It is never unjust of God to demand obedience of one of His subjects” 3 Someone might say, “But why did God “pick on” this particular Pharaoh?” First, being “picked on” can result in my salvation! God “picked on” the people of Nineveh, they repented! (Jonah 3). God “picked on” Saul, and he became a Christian! (Acts 9) In the final analysis, God “picks on” everyone in one degree or another. God “picked on” you when someone confronted you with the truth and challenged your former view of life. The question is never, “It's not fair that God picked on me”, but rather, “How am I going to respond to the commandments given by my Creator?” (Matthew 28:19-20). In fact, we might also add, that a number of times, what seemed to make Pharaoh more stubborn, was when God showed Pharaoh some mercy. (Ex. 8:28; 9:27; 10:24; 8:15 “but when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart”). Some people grow more stubborn when it seems that God is slow in exercising his wrath (2 Peter 3:4ff). Cottrell notes that some people can only serve God’s over all purpose by choosing to harden themselves and resist His will. God can use anyone, if for nothing more than a bad example. Compare this section to Hebrews 3:8,15.

Romans 9:19 “Thou wilt say then unto me, ‘Why doth He still find fault?’ For who withstandeth His will?”

3

McGuiggan p. 295

“Why doth He still find fault?”: This seems to be an argument that is raised that says, “If God is glorified by our disobedience, if His will is still accomplished, then how can He blame us or hold us accountable for our sins?” “Just because God is capable of working His will out of the rebellion of man is no ground for excusing man's rebellion (Isaiah 10:5ff)” 4 Remember, Paul is making the point that being part of God’s program never guaranteed salvation to anyone. Israel and Pharaoh both played roles in God’s plan, yet salvation is not owed to either. “For who withstandeth His will?”: God’s will in the context is His purpose in using individuals and nations to bring about His purposes. From other passages it is clear that man can resist God’s will, that is, His laws and commandments, for that is sin. But there is another will of God, that is, His purpose to bring about Christ—this is a will that no man can frustrate. Yes, Pharaoh resisted, and Israel rebelled, but God’s plan was still fulfilled.

Romans 9:20 “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?”

“Nay but, O man”: “Nay, but who are you, a mere man” (Wey). “Repliest against”: “Lit., to contradict in reply; to answer by contradicting, the spirit of contention” (Vincent p. 106).

“The present tense--go on answering back to, i.e. engage in quarrelling” (Lenski p. 619).

“Skeptics constantly reason about God in this arrogant way” (p. 618). “It is the reply of a wicked man who is now denying God's right to use evil for His holy ends. It is a wicked man saying (in essence) that God has no right to make use of him (or his wickedness) without crediting him with doing God's will. It is as if he were saying: ‘God has no right to use me and then punish me since I carried out His purposes. I mustn't be used this way. I have rights’” 5 This is not talking about predestinating someone to eternal damnation, regardless of our own choices, because that would be something to protest.

Romans 9:21 “Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”

“As clay belongs to the potter so people belong to God. And God has a right to work with men as He sees fit” Note this illustration is from Jeremiah 18:1-12, a text that does not teach predestination, but stresses free will. “The potter takes the clay as he finds it, but uses it as he wishes” (Robertson p. 384). “God makes it clear that this potter-clay relationship does not mean that He arbitrarily determines the destiny of the nation. He declares that He tailors His final decision regarding any nation or kingdom to the way it responds to His warnings” (Cottrell p. 120).

Romans 9:22 “What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction”

4 5

McGuiggan p. 296 McGuiggan p. 296

“Willing to show His wrath”: His wrath against sin. God is not indifferent to sin, we have already learned this from the earlier chapters in this book (Romans 1:18). “Endured with much longsuffering'”: “Bore most patiently with” (TCNT). “Has tolerated most patiently”(Mof). “But how can anyone accuse God of injustice in view of the way He actually has dealt with men? He had been patient and long-suffering toward His impenitent people, Israel” 6 In the context, God was both extremely patient with physical Israel in the Old Testament, because more often than not they were not serving Him. The same is true with Pharaoh. God gave him many opportunities to let Israel go and did not bring immediate destruction upon Pharaoh. This must have been a very convicting chapter for physical Jews to read, for the Holy Spirit places physical Israel and Pharaoh in the same category. As one reads the Old Testament, one finds that endured is a perfect word for the relationship that God often had with the nation of Israel. Just read the prophets! “For hundreds of years God endured with great patience the unbelieving multitudes of ethnic Israel because it was His purpose to produce through them, in the fullness of time, the true Israel” (Cottrell p. 129). In addition, one reason that God is enduring, is because He is giving men time to repent (2 Peter 3:9). “Vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction”: “Ready, ripe for judgment” (Vincent p. 107). “Perfected, made quite fit or ripe (2 Tim. 3:17)” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 664). Other Scriptures reveal that one ends up ripe for judgment, through one’s own foolish and selfish choices, and then only compounds such by refusing to repent” (Romans 2:4-5; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Thess. 2:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:19-22). Such was the case with Pharaoh, and such was to be the case of the unbelieving Jews (1 Thess. 2:1516; Matthew 23:32-39). It might occur to the protesting Jew to make the point that God's longsuffering with the Jew proves God is still (and has always been) in favor with the Jew Paul is excluding. But longsuffering is to lead to repentance (2:4f; 2 Peter 3:9) and if that doesn't follow it only serves to highlight the justness of the wrath. What a disgusting thing it would be to say: “Isn't God wonderful for enduring those He eternally predestined to damnation?”

Romans 9:23 “and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory” "Afore prepared unto glory": We have already read that glory is only for those that endure (8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12-13). Thus, this is not talking about an unconditional election. "Prepared": When I accept the gospel call (9:24), I become a vessel upon which God exercises mercy. God planned that He would save man in Christ (Eph. 1:4), and when I choose Christ, I get to share this before prepared glory. “That He might”: “And He did so in order that He might” (NASV). Thank God for His patience! Thank God that God did not wipe the often rebellious Jewish nation off the face of the earth because through them came the Messiah: 9:5. God's patience with self-made ungrateful and evil men, enabled Christ to come, die, and rise again, so that this wonderful message could be preached to all. All of this section reveals a great truth about all the judgments in the Old Testament, such as the flood, various times that the Israelites were punished (1 Cor. 6

Erdman pp. 119-120

10:5-11), and the judgments that came upon heathen nations, all these judgments that skeptics and unbelievers complain about were judgments tempered with mercy! Man deserved much more severity! Yes, 23,000 Israelites fell in one day (1 Cor. 10:8), but due to the mercy of God, many others that deserved a like fate, did not. “Vessels of mercy”: Jews and Gentiles who respond in faith to the gospel message. Remember, faith is the access to grace (Romans 5:1), and not unconditional election. In fact, the problem that the nation of Israel had was that they thought they had been unconditionally chosen for salvation.

Romans 9:24 “Even us, whom He also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?”

“Even us”: Christians are people that have experienced God's mercy. “Whom He also called”: One is called through the gospel (2 Thess. 2:14); and this is a call sent to all nations (Mark 16:15). Yet only those that accept this call become vessels of mercy (Matthew 22:14; Acts 2:38,41). That is, God only shows mercy, in the sense of salvation upon those who embrace the gospel (Romans 1:16). “Not from the Jews only”: Seeing that salvation is not based on physical ancestry or merit, Jews as well as Gentiles can be called. Paul had already noted that the gospel message is for both Jews and Gentiles.

Romans 9:25-26 “As He saith also in Hosea, I will call that My people, which was not My people; And her beloved, that was not beloved. And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, There shall they be called sons of the living God” Paul quotes here from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10. Note that Paul says that God spoke through Hosea, what Hosea recorded was “said” by God. Here is proof from the very Scriptures that the Jewish people possessed and accepted which clearly taught that God was going to bring salvation to the Gentiles. The passage is talking about God embracing a people that in times past had not been His people, the only “people” that had not been God’s people in the Old Testament were the Gentiles. By the way, this is a great passage against predestination, because if God has from eternity already selected and known the specific individuals that He wanted saved, then the sons of God have never been a “no people” (See also 1 Peter 2:9-10; Ephesians 2:12-13). Truly predestined people never would have been in a “no-hope” or “no-people” condition. Some commentators argue that these verses in Hosea also applied to the Jews. The Jews of the northern kingdom had forfeited their status as the people of God by their ungodliness. Paul's argument here is that the O.T. even taught that the Jews too were in need of mercy. “The ten tribes, by their lapse into idolatry, had put themselves upon the same footing with the Gentiles” (Vincent p. 109). .

Romans 9:27 “And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be save”

“Crieth”: “An impassioned utterance” (Vincent p. 109). “Isaiah cries in anguish over the outlook of Israel, but sees hope for the remnant” (Robertson p. 385). “Remnant”: The remainder, the few. Paul's doctrine, that every Jew is not a true Jew, is supported by the Old Testament prophets, this verse (9:27) agrees with the claim made in 9:24. Salvation belonged to objects of mercy called out of the Jewish nation, as well as Gentile nations.

“The Jews wished to know how Paul can dare limit salvation to a remnant of Israel since the whole of Israel was elected and he (in essence) says: ‘This isn't my story! This is Hosea's and Isaiah's! The general election (selecting) of Israel as a nation did not guarantee them a saving relationship with God back in Isaiah's day”” 7 Romans 9:28 “for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short” “Finishing it and cutting it short”: This is a quotation from Isaiah 10:22-23. “Thoroughly and quickly” (NASV). “Bringing that to an issue, winding up” (Lenski p. 631). “Because of their unbelief, God would cut off His people, exercising sharp and decisive sentence upon them” (Erdman p. 120). The remnant would be saved, the unbelievers punished. In Isaiah's day Israel would be punished by the Assyrians. In like manner, the good and honest hearts in Judaism had come to Christ (Acts 6:7) (a remnant), the rest would face judgment in A.D. 70. God did move quickly.

Romans 9:29 “And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah” “As Isaiah”: The quotation is from Isaiah 1:9. “Sabaoth”: This term is not a reference to the Sabbath, but rather is a military word, and means “armies”. The Lord of the heavenly hosts, the commander in chief of the armies of heaven that no human power can stand against successfully. “A Seed”: This refers to the remnant that was mentioned in verse 27. This verse proves that the vast majority in the Jewish nation were never true to God, because Isaiah says that without this remnant of the faithful, God would have wiped the nation out long ago. Isaiah says that the Jewish nation would have become a second Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, cities in which there were not even 10 righteous people, and as a result they were removed from the face of the earth.

This section (Romans 9:30-10:21) demonstrates that individuals determine their own eternal destinies according to whether or not they place their trust in God’s saving promises.

Romans 9:30 “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith”

7

McGuiggan p. 301

“Followed not after”: As a whole, as noted in chapter 1, the Gentiles had not made righteousness their chief concern in life. Isaiah 65:1 “I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me”. The contrast here is on a national scale, for as a whole Israel had always been a religious nation. The Gentiles, on a whole, had been people which had little to do with such spiritual pursuits. Yet these very people who seemed to be so unconcerned about righteousness, flocked to it when it was introduced to them (Acts 13:48; 17:12; 18:6-8). “Which is of faith”: Please note that this section is not teaching an unconditional election. The elect are those who choose to believe. The difference between physical Israel and spiritual Israel is that spiritual Israel are those who chose to believe! Physical Israel continued to attempt to seek justification on their own terms, and spiritual Israel decided to accept God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. This same difference continues to this day.

Romans 9:31 “but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law” “A law of righteousness”: “Seeking justification by law’ (Nor). “Righteousness which is based on law” (RSV). “A Law that could give righteousness” (Wey). Here the mentality of the Jewish nation is stressed. Many Jews were looking for a Law, the keeping of which would bring a right standing with God, but a law keeping that did not originate from a genuine faith. “Did not arrive at that law”: Since no one can keep the law perfectly (3:23); they failed to achieve a law-based right standing with God. Not that law is unimportant, but rather, the Jew wanted to base his acceptance by God on the merits of his law-keeping ability, and all such efforts had failed. The Jewish nation forgot about trust and faith. “Paul will go on to show that the only reason Israel didn't attain to what they were looking for was because they refused to accept themselves as objects of mercy, that is needing God’s mercy and hence the need for faith (McGuiggan p. 302).

Romans 9:32 “Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works.

They stumbled at the stone of stumbling” “Wherefore?”: “Why was this” (Knox). “Because they sought it not by faith”: “Because their efforts were not based on faith” (NEB). Their whole religious attitude was that they thought they could put God under obligation to save them by means of their moral performance, what they did, and to whom they were related. Throughout the Old Testament we find the Jewish nation demonstrating this attitude. They wanted to trust in Assyria or Egypt, in their own ingenuity, foreign militarism, alliances, and their tribute to other nations and the gods of other nations. The one object of trust that they could not seem to allow themselves to believe in was God. Do we ever demonstrate the same type of failure to trust in God? “They stumbled at the stone of stumbling”: Other passages reveal that the stone they tripped over was Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:42-45; Acts 4:10-11; 1 Peter 2:6-8).

Romans 9:33 “even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence: And he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame” “As it is written'”: Isaiah 28:16 This failure to trust God, had manifested itself in the rejection of the Son of God. “When Jehovah manifested Himself in Christ the spirit of the Jew was no different (Acts 7:51-52). To save themselves, the Jews made a covenant with death (Acts 2:23; John 11:47-50) and used Roman power in an attempt to gain their ends” 8 “I lay in Zion a stone”: As God had been the only true foundation for His people in the past, Jesus Christ would be the only true foundation for those in the New Covenant. “A rock of offence”: This verse is interesting. Reading it carefully you find that the verse is saying, “The only people that God offends are those that cannot bring themselves to trust in Him. Which God will always be a turn off to people who are arrogant. “Shall not be put to shame”: Jesus has never failed those who put their trust in Him, but everyone else will be ashamed of the things or people in whom they placed their trust (Matthew 7:24ff).

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McGuiggan p. 304