Romans 9:19–24

"Why does He still find fault?" Who has resisted His will? If God hardens a man, how can the man help himself, and how can God find fault with the man? The Apostle's first answer to this objection is a very direct one. He asks, "Who are you to find fault with God?"

boulema only occurs in Acts 27:43, translated "purpose," and Romans 9:19, "will."

Here it is not simply righteousness, but power exercised according to His will. It is the objection of man, based on the impossibility of resisting. God's sovereign exercise of His will is really no answer on man's part to the guilt of the exercise of his own. But man uses it that way, because if God does what He pleases, man pleads it as an excuse: it rests with God, so why blame man? The apostle does not argue about how unreasonable this is, but, as is most fitting, puts God in His place and man in his.

When God says "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" notice how man's voice falls silent. There are no more objections. God has the final word.

The objection seems to rest on how absolutely the apostle had just stated both God's mercy and His hardening. The unbroken will of man uses this to resolve every question of good and evil into the divine purpose. But this is only a human conclusion. It loses sight of God's moral glory and of the creature's responsibility. So it goes against the most basic truths, and would destroy all truth, holiness, and righteous judgment.

Scripture never says that sin was God's purpose. But man, fallen under sin, is the platform where He does display His ways, His counsels, and even Himself. God did not make any man to be evil. But from all of them — who are evil already — He does choose according to His sovereign will. He shows mercy to some, not all, though all are no more guilty than the some may have been. It would be perfectly just to destroy all. But if it pleases Him to spare whom He will, who can tell Him not to?

To say no to Him would be to claim to stand above God. It is really an attempt to judge Him. Now whenever a sinner is converted, he feels and owns the just judgment of God... yet he never gives up in despair. He looks and cries — feebly at first perhaps, but with growing earnestness — for mercy.

Undoubtedly the purpose of God does stand, and there is no creature that does not in the end serve His will... Take the cross itself as the plainest and most unanswerable example. But should this weaken our moral judgment of the creature's wickedness? Does it deny that Satan and man are responsible for all they do against Him, or that both must be punished for it? ... God has His determinate counsel and foreknowledge. The Jews played their evil part, the Gentiles theirs.

If God hardens a man, how can the man help himself, and how can God find fault with the man? The Apostle's first answer to this objection is very blunt. He asks, "Who are you to find fault with God?" Suppose you do not understand — is God to give you an account of His matters? We have to remember that we are only men and that God is God, and we do well to give Him His place as God. God is the One who forms. Man is the thing formed. Shall the thing formed complain to the One who forms, "Why have you made me like this?"

It has the sense of "yes, indeed, if you talk of that."… Romans 9:20, "Ah, indeed, you talk of calling God in question; who are you then?"

If the creature is to be allowed to judge the Creator, there is an end of all government in the vast universe of God. So we hear men daring to pronounce judgment on the ways of God. They undertake to decide what is or is not fit for God to do. One great question always comes first: "Who is to be judge?" Is man to judge God, or is God to judge man? If man judges God, there is no God at all. If God judges man, then man must bow his head in reverent silence and admit his utter ignorance and folly.

Men may reason and argue on and on. Why did God permit sin to enter? Why did He not at once destroy Satan and his angels? Why did He allow the serpent to tempt Eve? Why did He not hold her back from eating the forbidden fruit? In short, the hows and whys are endless. But the answer is one.

Does the potter not have absolute power over the clay? He may make one vessel for honour, or, if he wills, a vessel for dishonour. In this way the Apostle establishes God's absolute right to act as He will, without giving man an account of His matters. The illustration of the potter asserts God's absolute right to do as He pleases in the strongest way. Yet it does not teach that God has made any vessel for dishonour. The illustration only asserts and maintains God's rights.

The purpose of God does stand. In the end every creature serves His will… But should this weaken our moral judgment of the creature's wickedness? Does it deny the fact that Satan and man are responsible for all they do against Him, or that both must be punished for it? So Peter charges the men of Israel with the guilt of crucifying the Messiah… How different is the holy and perfect word of God! Everything is in its place — not one side only, but both.

Man may think his question is quite reasonable, little realizing the actual deceit in it. But it is completely dishonourable. God closes the discussion with a strong statement of His sovereign right to do as He pleases. If man, like a stubborn child, will not learn by instruction, God tells him at once who is in authority… man's voice is silenced: there are no more objections. God has the final word.

Man complains about God's righteousness when it touches him. He dislikes just as much the grace that justifies others freely and absolutely. This is what the question comes down to: is God to judge man, or is man to judge God? The apostle's answer has three parts. First, he maintains in all its strength the right of the sovereign God — the authority He has to do just as He will with His creatures.

The language is holy and bold, yet it never leans to one side or the other... The apostle does not say that God has used the right which He clearly has; but God's title stays whole... How seldom do those who talk about rights seem to think that God has any! They are taken up with themselves, with man: God is in none of their thoughts. Yet if any rights deserve respect, surely His come first — His sovereign will gave us our being and everything we have.

Notice, it is not a statement, but a question — "Has the potter no right over the clay?" and so on. Is God not sovereign? It does not say that He has made some for dishonour.

While the illustration of the potter asserts in the strongest way God's absolute right to do as He pleases, it does not teach that God has made any vessel to dishonour. The illustration simply asserts and maintains God's prerogatives.

Nothing can surpass the power and grandeur of the words of Romans 9. They lay all human pride low. They show how completely man depends for blessing on God's sovereign mercy. The illustration of the potter makes plain that everything depends on sovereign power. Out of the very same lump that supplies vessels to dishonour, He chooses to produce vessels to honour.

In Jeremiah 18 we see God's ways with the nations. In Romans 9 we learn something of His ways with individuals. Every individual, like every nation, is a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter. We have all become marred by sin, and by taking our own evil way. Some, like Israel, will not listen to the word of God through His servants, the word of mercy proclaimed in the gospel. God has the power to make these marred vessels into vessels of wrath. Others, like the people of Nineveh, listen to God's message and turn from their evil ways to Him, and God makes them vessels of mercy.

Further on in chapter 9 we read of the potter's power over the clay to make vessels to honour and to dishonour. It speaks of God's patience with vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction. But it never says God fitted them for destruction. It says only that He endured them with much patience. Yet in the next verse, where it speaks of vessels of mercy, it says plainly that God prepared them beforehand for glory.

The vessels of wrath fitted themselves for wrath, by their own sins. But God prepared the vessels of mercy, for in truth no man prepares himself for glory. Grace alone does His work for those He has chosen.

In Romans 9:21 Paul asked whether the potter has power over the clay. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21 we have the other side of the matter. There Paul sets out not the sovereignty of God, but the responsibility of the Christian.

In the entire answer there are three propositions. First, the apostle maintains, in all its strength, the right of the sovereign God — the authority He has to do just as He will with His creatures. Does the potter not have power over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honour and another for dishonour? Next, he comes to the facts. He shows us that God, even when He meant to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction — vessels which He did not fit, but had long endured. Thirdly, there is the revelation that He had prepared vessels of mercy beforehand for glory.

God's purpose was to display His wrath in this evil world and to make known His power where men easily and willingly forget Him. But the way He chose was admirable and worthy of His nature. There was nothing arbitrary about it, but "much long-suffering."… Could man then fairly charge God with having no compassion for him, or with being quick to mark his sins? It is impossible for a holy God to share in evil or be indifferent to it! But He does not quickly blot these rebellious creatures out of this life, though they make the world a field of constant war against what they know of God. Instead, the whole history of the world since nations began is the fullest proof that God endures.

He made His power known, not by fitting the vessels of wrath for destruction, but by enduring them with much longsuffering.… God endured the Amorites of old with much longsuffering until their sins came to the "full" and they had fitted themselves for destruction. Then the judgment fell (Gen. 15:16).

The vessels of wrath are said to be "fitted for destruction." But it is neither said nor implied here, or anywhere else, that God fitted them for it. They were fitted by their sins, and most of all by their unbelief and rebelliousness against God. But when we hear of the faithful, the wording is completely different: "vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory." The evil is man's, never God's. The good is His and not our own.

The word katartizo (Rom. 9:22) means to correct, repair, mend; then in its participial form, fitted, prepared. The word does not suppose a decree of God, but a work of man.

Look at Matthew 25:34. Here the King says to those on His right hand, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Now contrast the words to those on His left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed." He does not say "of my Father." Then comes "into the eternal fire prepared" — not for you, but — "for the devil and his angels." Romans 9 speaks the same way… The grand truth of election is fully established. The repulsive error of reprobation is carefully avoided.

Once you allow that all blessing rests on the sovereignty of God, the Gentile must come into the blessing as well as the Jew.

There is a difference here, small but very real, and no reader should overlook it. Of the vessels of wrath it says "fitted for destruction." But it is neither said nor implied here, or anywhere else, that God fitted them for it. Their own sins fitted them, and most of all their unbelief and rebellion against God. When we hear of the faithful, the wording is quite different: "vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." The evil is man's, and in no case is it from God. The good is His and not our own.

It is striking to see how Scripture guards against the repulsive doctrine of reprobation. Look, for example, at Matthew 25:34. There the King says to those on His right hand, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Contrast with this the address to those on His left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed" — He does not say "of my Father" — "into the eternal fire prepared" — not for you, but — "for the devil and his angels." So also in Romans 9. The grand truth of election is fully established; the repulsive error of reprobation is carefully avoided.

He picks up and fashions vessels of mercy, in which He will display His riches of glory. Vessels of mercy! Poor, wretched sinners, who could do nothing but own their guilt and shame, and be debtors to mercy alone. Oh, to think that He prepares such — by His grace — for glory!

In connection with His redeemed saints, called "vessels of mercy," God will make known "the riches of His glory." This is not simply a single attribute of God. It is a term so broad and full that time and space would not allow us to list such riches. In these riches the vessels of mercy receive an eternal inheritance, and its wonder and joy will never fade. What comfort and peace it brings our souls to know His supreme majesty at work in counsels so glorious — counsels in which we, poor redeemed sinners, have such a part.

Not the saints, but God prepared the vessels of mercy for glory. More exactly, He prepared them beforehand with glory in view. It was not their own preparing while on earth, with God's part starting only when the glory arrives. It was His doing. No one doubts that by grace they became obedient and holy, and so morally like Him. But the Holy Spirit saw fit to speak here only of God's preparing of the vessels of mercy beforehand for glory.

God's own power forms and fits these vessels for His presence, and makes them fit to be the companions of His own dear Son. Even now, as they pass through this world, the saints of God carry a wonderful heavenly treasure in their earthen vessels... but soon what God has worked within them will be enshrined in a "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." ... Among the ruins of the old creation God is working in new creation. He is forming and shaping the vessels that will display His glory and the surpassing riches of His grace in the ages to come.

From the moment God falls back on His own sovereignty the ground is as open for a Gentile as for a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. If He is sovereign, then it is only natural that His sovereignty should show itself where it would stand out most. The call of the Gentiles gives that occasion. If they were the worst — and they certainly were utterly degraded — then for that very reason they were the fittest objects for God to show His sovereign grace upon.

The apostle now begins a new section of the letter, Romans 9-11. Its main aim is to show how God's call of Gentiles and Jews together fits with the special promises made to Israel. In doing this he tears down the empty pride of those who rested on nothing but a line of natural descent from Abraham. He proves that special promise has been God's principle from the first. He points to sovereign mercy as the only hope for a people such as even Israel had shown themselves to be.

He is sovereign in Himself, preparing for glory "even us," says the apostle, "whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles." He forces the Jew to admit that God is sovereign. If not, the Jew must let in the Ishmaelites and the Edomites, and admit that he himself would have been cut off — all but Moses and Joshua. Then he shows that God uses this sovereignty to call Gentiles, who had no claim by promise, and Jews, who had forfeited theirs.

The moment God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. And if He is sovereign, it is only natural that His sovereignty should show itself where it can be seen most clearly. The call of the Gentiles gives that occasion. If they were the worst — and they had truly sunk that low — then for that very reason they were the fittest objects for God's sovereign grace.

Grace takes for granted that the Jews are as worthless as the Gentiles, and so it goes out and calls in from Gentiles as well as from Jews. Distinctions have their place while there is still hope for man and the testing goes on. It is different once the testing of the most favoured has ended in guilt beyond repair and ruin beyond help. Then the door opens for mercy. He calls in grace, freely to all and closed to none — from Jews certainly, but from Gentiles too.

Vessels of mercy! Poor, wretched sinners, who could do nothing but own their guilt and shame, and be debtors to mercy alone. Oh, to think that He prepares such people — by His grace — for glory! And that this wonderful grace reaches out, not to sinners of the privileged Jews alone, but of the outcast Gentiles also!

It is a call that comes from mercy, and yet mercy that shows no favouritism. It can take in both Jews and Gentiles — yes, souls from every nation under heaven — mercy available for all who will have it. But the call spoken of here is the call that sinks into the soul. It works repentance. It makes us own our need of mercy and receive it with thanks, in Christ Jesus.

Of the vessels of mercy, Scripture says plainly that it is God who has "prepared" them for glory (v. 23). But of the vessels of wrath it does not say that God prepared them, or fitted them, for destruction. It says only that they are "fitted for destruction" (v. 22). Pharaoh, unbelieving Israel, and all who refuse to believe have fitted themselves for destruction. But this does not stop God from showing His abundant mercy.