Romans 9:14-21 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Romans 9:14-21. Let’s go!
Romans 9:14-21 (NIV)
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
17 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.”
18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?”
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?'”
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?
On verses 14-21: If it is God who chooses in advance who will be saved and who won’t be, then how can God blame those of us who don’t believe in Him? When we looked yesterday at Romans 9:1-13 I shared with you one reason why we cannot accuse God of being unfair for choosing in advance to save some and not others. That’s because we are not privy to God’s election process. God stands outside of time and space, whereas we live inside time and space. So in God’s eyes, our entire lives have already played out. He knows exactly how it is all going to go and what choices we will end up making. It is therefore silly for us who only see a part of the picture to judge as unfair the One who sees it all. When God makes an election to save someone or instead chooses not to, we can trust that God in His far greater wisdom knows better than we do.
Here in verses 14-21, Paul provides another reason why it is not right for us to call God unjust for electing in advance who He is going to save and who He is not going to save. That is because He is God. Just as God did with Pharaoh (v17) in the book of Exodus, God has the right to do whatever He wants with any person He created. As Paul says in verses 20-21:
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?'”
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?
Paul rightly reminds us that God is completely entitled to choose whoever He wants to choose and reject whoever He wants to reject. That’s because He is God. No matter how smart we think we are, we can never fully understand God’s ways and are in no place to judge Him. As verse 20 says, “who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?” God’s ways and plans will always be higher than our ways and plans.
Here’s how I think of it: while God may have chosen in advance who will be saved and who won’t be, I also fully believe (because the Bible teaches it) that all of us have the freedom to make our own choices, and in particular whether to receive Jesus or to reject Him. For as long as we live on this earth, we will never know for sure whom God has chosen and whom He hasn’t. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, right now we only see in part, later we will know in full. Right now we don’t know and can’t know how God’s sovereignty and our own free choice mix together exactly. All we know is that God makes choices and so do we.
So rather than being hung up on whom God has chosen and whom He hasn’t chosen (something which we can’t fully know on earth anyways), our focus needs to be on the choices WE are making. Are we doing our best to respond to Jesus in faith? Are we doing our best to encourage others to respond to Him with faith as well? Since God has given every person the ability to choose, and since God watches how we respond to Him, may we choose Him and find that it was He who first chose us.
Father, may I not concern myself with matters beyond my control or beyond my finite ability to understand. May I simply do the best I can with whom and what You have given to me. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
