Romans 9:14-18
Note: This is a revised version as of 1/20/09.
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.
It is appropriate that we ended the last study with some hesitancy and with some questions rolling around in our minds. Paul was prepared for those questions. He transitions from his prior statements and immediately addresses the expected doubts. His initial response is really one that holds up God’s sovereignty (“I will have mercy on who I have mercy”). As much as we might want to call that an easy way out for Paul, and God for that matter, it is the pure and simple truth. God ultimately has the sovereignty to choose whom he will have mercy on. We must be willing to bow humbly to God’s sovereignty even when we don’t fully understand. We mustn’t let our pride get in the way. Now, of course, there are ways we might be able to look at this to understand it and illustrations we might use to illuminate it to some degree, but the truth is we can’t fully explain it [election]. And we must not do damage to the text simply to feel better about the truth.
Based on what we have looked at so far, I would like to give a contrary view to the pure election arguments that have been made thus far. Dr. William Lane Craig is a man whom I admire greatly for his arguments on behalf of the historicity of the resurrection. Even though there are some aspects that I disagree with him on, including this one, I believe he is worthy of providing some thought here. He says on Romans 9:
The problematic, then, with which Paul is wrestling is how God’s chosen people the Jews could fail to obtain the promise of salvation while Gentiles, who were regarded by Jews as unclean and execrable, could find salvation instead. Paul’s answer is that God is sovereign: He can save whomever He wants, and no one can gainsay God. He has the freedom to have mercy upon whomever He wills, even upon execrable Gentiles, and no one can complain of injustice on God’s part.
So-and this is the crucial point-who is it that God has chosen to save? The answer is: those who have faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul writes in Galatians (which is a sort of abbreviated Romans), “So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3. 7). Jew or Gentile, it doesn’t matter: God has sovereignly chosen to save all those who trust in Christ Jesus for salvation.
Reference: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6675
This is a view of Romans 9 that simply does not work and I provide it for one reason. It is an intellectual argument that falls short because it does not hold it entirely within the right context. For instance, I don’t believe this view by Dr. Craig takes into enough consideration, Paul’s references to the Old Testament here in Romans 9. Both in the example of Pharaoh, as well as Jacob and Esau, it is difficult to apply them other than to affirm the narrower view of election. Still, Dr. Craig goes on to talk about God’s foreknowledge and how that plays into this doctrine of election. Dr. Craig’s view is that God can see our response to his grace not just in the future, but given any situation in the future (this of course would deny Calvin’s view of irresistible grace, or at least redirect it). Therefore, God knows how we’ll respond and acts accordingly. This goes back to what I said about illuminating the topic. It cannot fully explain it, but instead, helps to understand it minimally from God’s view. This would for instance, explain why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or chose Jacob over Esau. The problem is that it is merely a theory and we have no way in the text of knowing that. We must stick to what we know. The text reserves the right to God in His sovereignty to choose and so we must bow to our creator and humbly do the same.
Now, after much reflection and reading, I have come back to edit this study (as indicated at the outset of this page). I have done so because I have been forced to accept the absolute truth of election. As you go through Romans 9, you are first struck by the clearly communicated fact of the doctrine of election. So much so, that our own objections to election are anticipated by the Apostle Paul. Think about that. Read a few verses, feel your initial objections welling up, and then hear Paul refute them. And then as you think back through the Bible, you have to acknowledge that virtually all of God’s interactions with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and all of the stories of the Old and New Testament are themselves examples of election. You and I must bow humbly to this doctrine that is so clearly demonstrated in the scriptures.
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