Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 9:14-20

Read here: Romans 9

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25.
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works.
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
• Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times.
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5).
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur, who went home to Jesus in 2025, described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. 

Intro

• It’s really important to read all the verses, even reviewing all of Ch. 8 and 9, to keep things in context and not cherry-pick and get “triggered” about individual verses.
• Key words: will of God/man (6)[God’s will(5), human will (1)], mercy (4), God (3), compassion (2)
  • Just from looking at key words, this section is about God’s will trumping man’s will, with an emphasis on God’s compassion, justice and mercy. This is in contrast to those who read this and scream “It is not fair!” One thing we discussed in verses 1-13 is that Jacob and Esau’s election was based not on what they would do during life, but on what God would do. Their election was not based on their works, in other words. I believe this is always the case. Grace wouldn’t be grace if it was up to us in any way. Mercy wouldn’t be mercy if it weren’t granted by a sovereign lawmaker who was absolute in administering justice. 
• It’s interesting to note that in Sproul’s commentary on verses 14-20, rather than starting at verse 14, he adds quite a bit more to Paul’s discussion of Jacob and Esau in v. 13, and also goes into a discussion of philosophy and Paul’s teaching skills.
  • Sproul describes that when debating, we should know the opponent’s side well, so that they know that we know their position, which allows you to address the issue head-on.
  • Sproul says Paul was “the greatest theologian ever,” and that he had the equivalent of two PhDs by the time he was 21! (Remember, he references the OT almost 50 times in Ch. 9 alone.) So, when we deal with someone as smart as Paul and find ourselves struggling with what he wrote, one thing to consider is that it might be us, not Paul that is confused. The other thing we need to ask is “what problem is he trying to solve and what question is he trying to answer?” 
  • In verse 13, Paul wrote about God hating Esau and loving Jacob, not an emotionalism-based thing but more of a federalism type of hierarchy, of preferring one over the other. But, Paul anticipates the reaction his students and opponents might have to God’s sovereignty in choosing this way.
• Verse 14
  • Paul asks a rhetorical question,is there injustice on God’s part? Paul is using the term adikia, which defines injustice or unrighteousness. The Latin translates this as iniquitos, or iniquity.
  • Rightly, Paul answers his question By no means! This is actually the 8th “by no means!” Paul has used in Romans, this emphatic and absolute “no”. There is no way God can be unrighteous and it is totally opposite His character.
  • Paul is trying to address those who might read verse 13 and get triggered (yes, people got triggered back then, too!), crying “that’s not fair!”. Back then as today, people get triggered by love/hate contrasts, ignoring the first part of the verse that this is about service, that the older will serve the younger.
  • In a way, it does seem better that God would choose people based on the decisions they make. It does seem like the just and righteous thing for God to do would be to choose people this way. But, what Paul is saying here is that this is NOT the way. 
  • Note all the OT verses that are referenced in verse 14! Deut. 32:4, 2 Chron. 19:7, Job 8:3, Job 34:10, Psalm 92:15.
• Verse 15
  • Paul quotes Exodus 33:19, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
    • In describing God’s sovereignty over wielding mercy or compassion, Paul is reminding us what grace is. Sproul writes: “Obviously, if God is not sovereign, then He is not God.”
      • Sproul describes 3 domains of sovereignty:
        • 1) Over the universe, His creation.
        • 2) Over law, and His right to legislate the manner of behavior and response His creatures should render to Him. As Christians, we know (or should know) that God has the authority to command that we do what He says is right. If He says “no stealing,” then no stealing. If He says “no murder,” then no murder. 
        • 3) Over grace. Sproul says most Christians are good with God’s sovereignty over creation and law, but not grace. They say God is not sovereign in His disposition of grace (that it depends on us, in other words), because, if He were, He would show the same mercy to everyone.
          • Sproul says (rightly) that “no sinner has the right to say with impunity, ‘God, you owe me grace.’ If grace is owed to someone, then it is not grace! The very essence of grace is its voluntary character. God reserves to Himself the sovereign, absolute right to give grace to some… and withhold it from others.” 
      • In describing God’s sovereignty, Sproul goes into an explanation of logic, and how logic studies include categorizing things.
        • Syllogisms are an example of this They include 3 parts, a major premise, minor premise, and conclusion, in that order.
          • Example: All adult bald eagles have white heads. That bird is an adult bald eagle. That bird has a white head.
          • Logic doesn’t always lead to truth. If the major premise is flawed, then all the conclusions are flawed. We can end up building an entire circle of false conclusions, or an entire category of true conclusions, based on the veracity of the major premise. Another word for major premise is presupposition, or self-evident, as in the first line of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” or, assumed to be true without proof.
            • So, Paul is trying to get the point across that, for believers, God’s sovereignty over everything should be a self-evident truth.
      • Regarding justice, Sproul says there is a category, or circle, of righteousness, or justice. Non-justice would be outside this circle. But what about injustice? Injustice falls into the realm of non-justice. Injustice is a bad thing, it is evil. But God’s mercy is not evil, yet it also falls in the realm of non-justice. God’s mercy is not justice, and it is not injustice. It is non-justice.
        • With God, there is justice, and non-justice in the form of mercy and grace, but never injustice. 
        • The whole epistle of Romans has been about how all humans are sinful. None are just (Romans 3:10). But the grace of the gospel is that God provides us a justice not our own. That justice is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us.
          • Remember Ch. 8. Believers are adopted as sons, transferred to His family, not by our righteous acts, but by Christ’s.
      • Sproul uses an analogy of the president pardoning someone in prison. If he pardons one person, is he obligated then to pardon everyone? No. The pardoned one got mercy, the unpardoned get justice, not injustice. In the same way, Jacob got mercy, Esau got justice, not injustice. Like Romans 3:10 says, “none are righteous”, including Esau. This is how the world works. It is part of His plan. God will have mercy and compassion on who He wants to. Believe it, or not.
  • Think of the way God called Abraham out of paganism, or how Boaz redeemed Ruth, or how He brought Henry Obookiah out of basically slavery to become the catalyst for the gospel arriving in Hawaii. Think of Paul, who hated Jesus more than Pilate or Caiphas the high priest, yet here we are, reading God’s word transmitted through Paul. For Paul, Sproul says “Jesus knocked him off his horse, blinded him with the brilliance of His glory, and called him to be His apostle. Jesus intervened in the life of Paul [and Henry O, and Ruth, and Abraham, and our lives], in a way He did not do for Pontius Pilate or Caiaphas or the scribes and Pharisees.” 
• Verse 16
  • Paul puts the nail in the coffin for any human free will to be part of the salvation process. For it depends not on human will, he writes. It is by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved, that is what verse 16 is saying, and Ephesians 2:8-9, and many other places in Scripture.
    • Sproul says you cannot read Romans 8 and 9 and conclude “my free will is the basis of my salvation.” Agreed! And that doesn’t mean human free will doesn’t matter, it’s just unbiblical to say it’s the basis of your salvation, that “I chose God”, that I initiated this by “asking Jesus into my heart.” No, God initiated it.
• Verses 17-20
  • Sproul titled his Romans 9:14-20 chapter “Predestination,” even though the word is not used in these verses. I think Sproul used that title in part because the OT verses Paul quotes here show God actively involved in Pharoah’s life. As if predestination is a plan being carried out moment by moment. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it goes against ideas that God “wound up the universe and now is sitting back watching it tick.” The verses Paul cites display God’s active involvement.  
    • Calvin said election/predestination is one of the most difficult doctrines in Scripture and should be handled with care, caution, tenderness and patience, but should not be neglected. Sproul said he would do call-in radio programs, and the topic would inevitably come up, but he preferred not to answer, because it takes more than 2 minutes to talk about predestination and election.
      • I also think this is yet another reason why Luther said we should memorize ALL of Romans. We’ve really been talking about this topic since 1:1. The “set apart” of 1:1 is really no different than God having mercy on some and hardening others. 1:28-32 is clear on the hardening part, but so is verse 9:18.
    • As you read these verses on hardening and mercy, remember the “much more” of God’s mercy and grace from Romans 5. And also how God shows pity on those like the Israelites (Isaiah 63:9, in His love and pity He redeemed them). And those like today’s believers. If God was merely sitting back watching all that he had predestined and elected, there would be no need for pity, or the mercy and compassion we just read about in verse 15. 
    • Whether it’s predestination, election, or setting apart, the Bible is clear that God is the one who saves. And God is the one who gives them over as well. Ignores them basically. So, there is a “double” aspect to predestination, either towards Heaven or Hell. Sproul calls this a positive-negative distinction in predestination:
      • Positive: God positively intervenes to save sinners. This is what Providence is about.
      • Negative: God basically ignores them, “gives them over.” There is no intervention on His part, no orchestration of evil, they are on their own. God doesn’t orchestrate evil, only good. We orchestrate our own evil.
    • Verse 17 is a reference to Exodus 9:16.
      • God appointed Pharoah to his position, not to display Pharoah’s power, but that I might show my power in you.
        • Luther said the Israelites enslaved under Pharaoh were machtlos, meaning “without any might.” God showed the Israelites that the true power of their salvation lied with Him. 
    • In Verse 18, God hardening whomever he wills is basically the release of divine restraint, the “giving them over” of 1:28-32. Sproul says other places that help us understand this include Jeremiah and Rev. 22:11. God is not manufacturing new evil, we have that on our own. Mercy is God actively intervening, His Spirit entering in to give us new life.
      • Sproul here mentions TULIP, an acronym that wasn’t invented by John Calvin but that is often used to describe some Christian beliefs attributed to Calvin. Sproul says he doesn’t like the T in TULIP, which stands for total depravity. He thinks radical corruption is a better description. Total makes it sound like we are as bad as we possibly could be before we get saved. Sproul says (and I would agree) that theoretically, someone as bad as Hitler could have been even worse, not because of his righteousness, but because of the restraining power of God, like a bridle keeping all in check. Remember Romans 2:4, His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. Paul says this immediately after describing how God “gives them over”, those who are unthankful and do not acknowledge Him as God. This “giving over” is not an act of unrighteousness on God’s part, it is a manifestation of His perfect justice, the release of divine restraint before a person dies.
        • Sproul describes the release of divine restraint as God saying, “You want to sin? Be my guest. I am not going to strive with you anymore. I am going to take my wraps off. I am going to loosen the leash and let you do what you want, because I know that the desires of your hearts are only wicked continually.” Being given over to sin is a judgment on sin. 
        • With Pharoah, what God did was harden a man who already had a hard heart. If you read Exodus, you will read that God hardened Pharoah’s heart, and that Pharoah hardens his own heart. Pharoah, like all of us, was born a sinner. He already had the ability to harden his own heart. His free will was in making choices that would eventually lead to death and Hell. God hardening his heart is about releasing “divine restraint”, a restraint that is part of God’s kindness, compassion, and patience. 
      • Verses 19-20, again, Paul anticipates a question, how does He still find fault? If God is doing the hardening, which, if you think about it, is now inherent in all humans, how does He say “see you’re a sinner!” It’s like God is setting us up to fail. Paul answers in verse 20, but not in a rational and logical way. Paul answers in a way that defies logic and reason. He is basically saying this is something man cannot fully understand, especially if you are asking questions like this.
        • Can you count to infinity? No. Nobody can. Can you have an idea of infinity, and that it exists? Yes. Can you measure something that is infinitely small, an infinitesimal in other words? No. Nobody can. Can you have an idea of an infinitesimal? Yes. It’s actually the whole basis of how calculus works. Because we don’t fully understand infinitesimals, nor will we ever, we trust that they (and infinity) exist. So, all that to say, while Paul isn’t talking about calculus here, he is telling us to trust God. We are rational creatures, but there is a limit to our reason.
        • There are quite a few OT verses referenced here. Read them all when you have time. Job in particular. From Job 38-42, God rebukes Job with questions from physics, astronomy and biology, basically saying “You have no actual idea how all this works together, but I do, so just trust me, okay?” 
        • On a recent trip to Wyoming, we went to an art gallery in Jackson Hole filled with amazing bronze sculptures, with several that were under construction, including a giant moose. You could touch it and push the clay around! While I was in there, not once did I hear the moose cry out, “why did you make me into a moose, I wanted to be an elk!”
          • Verse 20 is addressing this Why have you made me like this? question. Paul is addressing this Creator/creation distinction in a very real, and honest way. In the same way a sculpture doesn’t ask the sculptor “why did you make me this way?”, it is equally ridiculous for us to think we can ask, but also understand fully, why God made us the way He did. Why we got picked and others didn’t. Us asking an infinite God why He made us a certain way is as ridiculous as a clay moose asking its sculptor the exact same question. 
        • Sproul concludes that God didn’t owe Pharoah an explanation, and Pharoah NEVER shook his fist at God and screamed “why have you hardened my heart?” We are the ones crying “unfair!”, but look at the one whose heart was hardened, he wasn’t! Why? Because his heart had no inherent righteousness anyways, something Paul has been going back to the entire epistle. Again, in modern Christianity, we make SO MUCH about our wills, and then freak out when God flexes his own will. Ultimately it is God who does the choosing and electing, and Paul is going to keep driving this point home as we continue Chapter 9.
• Up next, Romans 9:20-24