“What then shall we say?”

[Romans 9:14-29]

We have already meditated on Paul's heart for the Israelites, centered on Romans 9:1-13, under the title of “Inseparable love.”  We learned that because of God's inseparable love, Paul had "great sorrow" and "unceasing anguish" toward his brothers, the people of Israel, his kinsmen according to the flesh.  Why did Paul have great sorrow and unceasing anguish when he thought of the Israelites?  The reason was the unbelief of the Israelites who refused to believe in Jesus.  Even though there were privileges that God gave only to the Israelites, they did not accept the only begotten Son as their own Savior.  Therefore, Paul had great sorrow and unceasing anguish.  However, in the meantime, there was something that comforted his heart.  It was the word of God's covenant that could not be failed (v. 6).  The core of the word of the covenant was God's sovereign election.  Speaking about God's sovereign election, Paul said, as an example, that God chose Isaac and did not choose Ishmael, and also, of Isaac's two sons, he chose Jacob, the second son, but not the firstborn Esau (v. 13).  In particular, in Romans 9:11, Paul said that Jacob was chosen, and Esau was not chosen before Esau and Jacob were even born, and before they did anything good or evil, and argued that God's sovereign election was not due to human merit or actions. 

Then, starting today's text, Romans 9:14, apostle Paul says, “What then shall we say?”  What does this mean?  The apostle Paul teaches that the saints in Rome and we who are listening to this message not only have nothing to say about God's sovereign election, but also should not have anything to say.  In the meantime, Paul is asking two hypothetical questions and one challenging question in Romans 9:14-29.  The two hypothetical questions are (1) “Is God unjust?” (v. 14) (2) “Why does He still find fault?” (v. 19)  And one challenging question is, “For who resist His will?” (v. 19)  As we meditate on these two hypothetical questions and one challenge question today, I hope and pray that God will raise us up as humble Christians who acknowledge God's sovereignty.

                The first hypothetical question is “Is God unjust?”

                Look at Romans 9:14 – “What then shall we say?  Is God unjust?  Not at all!”  This first hypothetical question, “Is God unjust?” (v. 14), is a question about God's unconditional election.  It is a hypothetical question, whether there is any injustice to God, when we see the word, that God chose Jacob and not Esau without any conditions before they were born and before they did good or evil (v. 11).  In other words, this hypothetical question is 'Isn't God unfair?'  What do you think?  Don’t you feel that God is unfair, choosing some and not others?  Don’t you think that God is unfair because He loved someone and chose them before the foundation of the world, gave them faith as a gift, made them believe in Jesus, justified them, and gave them eternal life, while He left someone to die in their sins?  I still remember that someone came to our church almost 20 years ago, and he said to me after the service on the stairs in front of the main entrance of the church that God is unfair because He chose some people and not others.

                Paul's answer to this first hypothetical question is found in Romans 9:15-16: “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’  It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.”  God is a God who has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and who has compassion on whom He will have compassion.  This word is Paul's quotation from Exodus 33:19, which means that people are saved not by human merit, but entirely by God's grace (Park).  In other words, God chooses His people unconditionally and grants them salvation without any conditions, that is, not based on human good or bad deeds.  No matter how much we want to be saved and how hard we try to be saved, we cannot save ourselves.  It is only through God who is merciful that we are saved and go to heaven.  As an example, Paul cites “Pharaoh,” the king of Egypt in the Old Testament book of Exodus: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth’” (v. 17).  The background story of this word is that when God wanted to deliver the chosen Israelites out of Egypt, He used Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Although Moses, the Israelites, and Pharaoh the king of Egypt were all sinners in the sight of God, God was merciful to Moses and the Israelites and bestowed the grace of salvation on them because of His compassion.  But King Pharaoh was not saved in his transgression because God had no mercy on him.  Rather, God used Pharaoh in His own way to deliver His chosen Israelites.  How did God use Pharaoh King?  God hardened Pharaoh's heart, so He sent 10 plagues on Egypt to show God's power and to spread God's holy name throughout the land.  This does not mean that God actively created unbelief or any evil thing in Pharaoh's heart.  But it means that He simply withdrew from Pharaoh all His divine influence, the restraint from sin, and caused Pharaoh to change his evil heart to follow sin (MacArthur).  In conclusion, Paul says the answer to this first hypothetical question in verse Romans 9:18 – “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”

The second hypothetical question is “Why does He still find fault?”

            Look at Romans 9:19 – “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault?  For who resists His will?’”  This second hypothetical question relates to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, whom Paul cites in verses 17-18 as 'How could God, in His sovereignty, decide a man's destiny and then impute to him the responsibility for sin and unbelief?' (MacArthur).  In other words, the question is, ‘Since God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (the heart of the unelected), isn’t there anything He can find fault in Pharaoh?” (Park)  Doesn't it make a lot of sense from a human point of view?  We can ask how God, in His sovereign will, chose the Israelites, rescued them from Egypt through Moses, and hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king whom H did not choose, and then transferred the responsibility to Pharaoh.  What is Paul's answer to this question?  Look at verse Romans9:20 – “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”  What does it mean?  In a word, ‘You O man, what are you that you dare to presumptuously respond to God?’  And Paul gives an example of this.  He said that the thing that was created can ask the person who made it why he made me like this.  Look at verse 21: “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?”  Doesn't the potter have the right to make out of the clay vessels for honor and for dishonor as he pleases?  Does the dishonorably made bowl have the right to argue back and argue with the potter why he made me like this?  At the same time, Paul refers to the wicked, like King Pharaoh, who have hardened themselves according to their own evil hearts because God did not advise them and allowed them to do so, and said that they were “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (v. 22), and that God in His sovereign will referring to the Israelites whom He loved and chose ‘vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand for glory’ (v. 23).  At the same time, Paul says that God endured with much patience toward vessels of wrath, like King Pharaoh, prepared for destruction (v. 22).  And he says that God did to make known the riches of His glory to vessels of mercy, like the Israelites, which He prepared beforehand for glory (v. 23).  What does it mean?  It means that God does not quickly destroy even the vessel of wrath but endures for a long time (Park).  Nevertheless, these vessels of wrath do not repent to the end but harden their hearts and walk the path of evil.  The Israelites are no different.  However, God loved them with sovereign love and chose them before the foundation of the world to make known the riches of His glory.

                This is absolutely God's total grace.  It is entirely God's sovereign will and sovereign grace that God loved, predestined, and set apart the Israelites as a holy people among all the many peoples of the world.  Then, who is the vessel of mercy who truly enjoys God's sovereign grace?  Look at Romans 9:24 – “even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”  Paul says that “us” is the “vessel of mercy” whom God has lovingly predestinated and set apart as a holy people.  In other words, Paul is saying that he himself and the saints in Rome who receive the letter to the Romans, and all those who believe in Jesus, whether Jews or Gentiles, will know and enjoy the riches of the glory of God.  In the meantime, he quotes Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 in Romans 9:25-26, and also quotes Isaiah 10:22 in Romans 9:27-29, concluding that Paul says, “only the remnant will be saved” (Rom 9:27).  In other words, only God's beloved people, chosen by God in His sovereign will, will be saved.  It doesn't matter whether the people are Jews or Gentiles, but only as God's "called" (v. 24) will be saved by God's sovereign election and grace without any merit on their part.

            Third and last, the final challenging question that Paul is throwing to the saints in Rome and to us is ‘Who resists His will?’

                Look at Romans 9:19b – “…  For who resists His will?”  What does this question mean?  If Paul's two hypothetical questions we have already meditated on were questions related to God's sovereign and unconditional election, then this third challenging question is related to God's irresistible grace.  What does God's irresistible grace mean here?  God's irresistible grace means, just like Jesus Christ said in John 6:36, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” the person whom God has determined to give faith cannot but believe in Christ (Internet).  In other words, when God determined to give faith to His people who have been chosen unconditionally (unconditionally election) among those who have completely fallen (totally depravity), those people cannot resist this grace of God, but have no choice but to believe in Jesus by receiving the gift (irresistible grace).  What Paul is saying in Romans9:19b, “For who resists His will?” means ‘who can dare to resist the sovereign will of God?’  In other words, who can resist the sovereign will that God chose and saved before the foundation of the world?  Here Paul expresses those whom God has chosen before the foundation of the world as ‘those called’ (v. 24) and “the remnant” (v. 27).  Paul's conclusion is that God will save only those whom He called, the remnant.  But the question is, who can resist the zeal of God's salvation?  When God calls the predestined people, those people cannot refuse (reject) or resist this call of God.  In conclusion, Paul says: “For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality” (v. 28).  What does it mean?  It is the word that God must completely fulfill what He said.  What is that word of God?  It means that God saves only “the remnant,” that is, those whom He chose before the foundation of the world.  The faithful God is the God who must and completely fulfills this word.  So, what can we say? (v. 14)