Paul declares God’s Sovereign Will with Man on the Earth,
First Objection-Is God Unjust?
Romans
9:14-15 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I
will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever
I will have compassion.” NKJV
Paul now sums up the former two examples laid out of
God’s Divine Election of His adopted children by again asking a question that
surely he had been asked by many Jews and Gentiles alike who heard Paul explain
this doctrine of God’s Divine Election. The question is simply, “Is God being
sinful or unrighteous Himself for predestinating some people to be saved before
they are ever even born? Paul, reflecting back upon his own days of spiritual
darkness and blindness did not shy away from such a question, but still he
gives an emphatic “God Forbid” or “Certainly Not” response. Paul wanted then
and now for all people to understand the Nature and Character of God is
unchanging and He can only do that which is good (Deuteronomy 32:4 & James 1:17-18). Paul recounts the time when
Moses inquired of the Lord that he might see His Face, but the Lord had to warn
Moses with these words, Exodus 33:20 “You
cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live”, but the Lord had compassion
on Moses and let him see His Back. Paul uses this quote from God the Father to
show forth again that it is God solely who chooses to show compassion to an
underserving sinful human being.
Paul also said it very clearly early on even before
he comes to this point in the epistle of answering the objections that were
surely made of God being unjust to lowly little man with these words, Romans 3:3-4 For what if some did not
believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly
not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are
judged.” NKJV Let us be perfectly clear that the elect are again as we said in the
last study not some random names God pulls out of His Divine Hat like we human
beings do at a raffle, but God’s Sovereign Elect children are those who believe
or trust God without waver. As it is written, Romans 10:17 So then faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. NKJV All of those who are not
the elect don’t believe God and don’t trust Him and they don’t believe or
listen to or obey His Holy Word. If all have sinned and fall short of God’s
Glory as Paul said in Romans 3:23, then the fact that God the Father
chooses some to be forgiven, redeemed, and delivered by His Grace (Ephesians
2:8-9), then the un-forgiven, unredeemed, and undelivered have no
objections to be made, but are simply getting what they justly deserve.
However, it is their own willful choice that keeps them from God’s pardon of
their sins and not God electing them to damnation (Luke 13:24 & Luke 13:34
& Luke 22:67). Election is all of God, but damnation is all of man.
Genesis 18:25
“Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the
wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You!
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” NKJV
Psalms 92:15 To
declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no
unrighteousness in Him. NKJV
Micah 7:18 Who
is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because
He delights in mercy. NKJV
Romans
9:16-18 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of
God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very
purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name
may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills,
and whom He wills He hardens. NKJV
Paul
could clearly relate to this statement in verse 16 for it was surely himself
that he had in mind when writing this because Paul was zealous for the Jewish
Religion and rituals, but rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah and ran from Him
with such fervor that he even persecuted the followers of our Lord Jesus. Paul
is here saying that it does not matter whether the sinner is religious or pagan
trying to find God or running as far away from God as possible in sinful rebellion,
the Lord Jesus has His elect people who are going to come to Him as the Father
draws them by the Holy Spirit and the gospel (John 6:44). Paul then uses
the Egyptian Pharaoh as an example of God’s Election and Elective Power and
Purpose because the man God allowed to ascend to the Throne was a man whose
heart was bent on evil and rebellion. God used the stubbornness of this one man
to convince the whole Nation of Egypt how vain all of their false idolatrous
worship was by bringing plagues upon them that were associated with the very
objects of their worship. None of the Pharaoh’s magicians, witches, wizards,
and sorcerers could match the power of YAHWEH and it was due to the Pharaoh’s
hard rebellious heart that every wicked idol they worshiped was turned against
them to plague them (Exodus 9:11-12).
Notice
that first Pharaoh hardened his heart toward Moses and YAHWEH whom Moses came
on behalf, but then as he continued to stubbornly refuse to let Israel go, then
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or in other words God allowed or gave Pharaoh what
his heart wanted and desired, just as Paul says of God with these words, Romans
1:24 “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness” and Romans 1:26 “For
this reason God gave them up to vile passions” and finally Romans 1:28 “God
gave them over to a debased mind.” This is the same thing God did for
Pharaoh leaving him to his stubborn rebellious hard heart and it ended in his
and the Nation Egypt’s destruction as Pharaoh and every other Egyptian lost
their first born male son to death, just as the people Paul speaks of in Romans
1 no doubt the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah who perished under the
falling fire and brimstone from heaven. Most sadly Pharaoh and the inhabitants
of Sodom and Gomorrah are all presently in the torments of hell, by Divine
Election to hell, “God Forbid” or “Certainly Not”, no of their own will and hardened hearts taking pleasure in
unrighteousness and rejecting the love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
God wanted them (the Egyptians and Sodom and Gomorrah) to see the futility of
their idols and turn from them to embrace Him the One True God.
Exodus 7:13 And
Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said. NKJV
Psalms 110:3 Your
people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of
holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. NKJV
Proverbs 16:4
The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
NKJV
“How
is it that some of us are converted, while our companions in sin are left to
persevere in their godless career? Was there anything good in us that moved the
heart of God to save us? God forbid that we should indulge the blasphemous
thought!” Charles Spurgeon
“The
various dealings of God, by which He makes some to differ from others, must be
resolved into His absolute Sovereignty. He is debtor to no man, His grace is
His own, and He may give it or withhold it as it pleaseth Him; we have none of
us deserved it, nay, we have all justly forfeited it a thousand times, so that
herein the work of our salvation is admirably well ordered that those who are
saved must thank God only, and those who perish must thank themselves only, Hosea13:9.”
Matthew Henry
“Grace
is perhaps the most beautiful word in all of the English language to us the elect
children of God, because we were not seeking it nor do we deserve it.” Clifford
D. Tate, Sr.
If you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus,
I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You
shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead
proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my
sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my
life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely
in Christ,
Author
of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and
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