Romans 9:14-33 - Vessels of both Mercy and Destruction

Romans 9:14-33

Israel's Rejection and God's Justice

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 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." 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 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." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25 As He says also in Hosea:
"I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved."

26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'
There they shall be called sons of the living God."

27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.

28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

29 And as Isaiah said before:
"Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

Present Condition of Israel

30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

"Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

If God chooses to show mercy and compassion on just those He chooses, how can you say that is unjust and condemn those who repeat the word of God which says this is so?  That is a fool’s argument against scripture for those who say that the doctrine of grace must be applied to everyone when God makes it clear the choice is sovereignly His for salvation and not ours in our outrage against His will as we reinterpret the word of God to align with our conception of right and wrong; that is only repeating the mistake to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12, 2 Corinthians 11:3) which brought sin and judgment to us all instead of listening to the word for our instruction (Hebrews 5:14).  We cannot will ourselves or anyone else into heaven by our enslaved will thinking that it is our free choice or good efforts to entitle us to be saved unless God so wills and chooses it to be so.  The example of pharaoh from the bondage of God’s people is given to remind us who sets the conditions and choices for freed to be passed over by the destroyer of judgment.  We have no say if we are not chosen as a vessel of mercy but of certain predetermined destruction like the ruler of Egypt holding the people of God enslaved until the Lord chooses who He will set free under the covering of the atoning blood of the Lamb of God as foreshadowed there.  He hardens the vessels made for the destruction of sin’s condemnation which we are all born into and only delivers the chosen vessels of mercy to be honored according to His will and not our attempts at good works or our unregenerate wills.  We resist His will when we question His right to choose who He saves and who is reserved for darkness earned at the fall to join the disobedient angels in the judgment (2 Peter 2:4-5, Jude 1:6, 1 Peter 1:4-5).  It is as the potter who makes his creation and is free to create vessels for honorable and dishonorable uses alike.  We are all made of the same clay He created and breathed life into and therefore His determination in the purpose and end of each is up to Him and not as we demand in our imperfect sense of justice or right and wrong.  God is not a man like us with imperfect understanding in His own creation as we are as we demand mercy to salvation be not just proclaimed to all but also promised based on our will or efforts.  That is the vain expectation of those claiming all can be saved instead of just the ones who are called, chosen, and redeemed (Romans 8:29-30) as predestined according to His plan and not our demand.  The reason we are given is that this is how He demonstrates His power and authority over all creation as He endures the evil of the unchosen to show the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy whom He has already chosen and set aside for this purpose from both Israel and all other nations but not everyone unless given ears to hear and eyes to see by the regeneration of a new birth as new creatures (Galatians 2:20) to demonstrate His will and work and not ours of a broken will.  He has called and chosen we who are in Christ to be His people as beloved children of God!  Israel was a chosen nation as the channel of redemption to bring salvation to all prepared since before the world was even made (Romans 9:23, Ephesians 1:4-6, 11-12).  In the end, we attain the righteousness of God as a sheer gift and not our desire or efforts to earn or ask for it.  This is God-given faith (Ephesians 2:8-10) of salvation that the following of the rules of law can never achieve.  Israel attempted that with all their might and came up short (Romans 3:23) of obtaining salvation from God’s just wrath on sin because they tried in their own effort of will instead of grace through repentance and faith when illuminated with regeneration by God in their understanding because they were His already as chosen and predetermined to be.  There are designed vessels of destruction and of mercy and we only know which is which when we are called out of darkness into His marvelous light of grace according to plan.  Those who are not His good vessels will rail against these truths, while those who are the recipients of grace bow in awe and wonder how they could be chosen while so sinful.  This humility is the beginning of wisdom as Proverbs 15:33 reminds us.