There is only one conclusion - faith; John 15:16.

Title: There is only one conclusion - faith; John 15:16.

 

ROM 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"

 

These are the two anticipated questions of the desperate unbeliever and not a legitimate questions.

 

ROM 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to [or contradicts] God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

 

God has molded your circumstances but He is not responsible for the state of your soul. Man is a free agent and has self-determination. The answer to this rhetorical question is an obvious no, I cannot contradict God, nor can I challenge Him on the state of my circumstances.

 

ROM 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right [authority] over the clay, to make from the same lump [all of us are born in sin, in spiritual death] one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?

 

ROM 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

 

The first answer in verses 20 and 21 emphasized free will and the Sovereignty of God whose satisfied justice allows Him to bless or judge and discipline.

 

Verse 22 is the second answer, going back to Pharaoh and God’s use of negative volition.

 

ROM 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

 

Pharaoh’s negative volition becomes an illustration of Israel’s negative volition all throughout her history.

 

This is brilliantly written because it forces the reader to think. It forces him to reason out the conclusion to the conditional clause. Paul states the protasis but does not give the apotosis. We have to reason out the apotosis ourselves. It forces you to think instead of just reading.

 

 “Moreover if God willing to demonstrate His indignation and reveal His omnipotence…” - if the creature has a free will, doesn’t God also? And doesn’t He have the right to use it?

 

The cornered unbeliever falsely concludes that he can use his free will any way he wants but that God is limited in His own free will. I can do anything that I want, but God cannot exercise full expression of choice. And while it is true that there are some things that God cannot do, restricted as He is by His +J and +R, it is not true that God isn’t free to be creative with the circumstances of life once His +J has been satisfied.

 

This is why we say, “Don’t put God in a box.” It is true that God will not violate free will, but it is also true that God can be extremely creative with the circumstances of a person’s life when all the free will decisions are known to Him.

 

 “endured with much patience” = the 10 plagues. God could have killed Pharaoh and had the Jews march right out and over his body, but He chose to endure.

 

 “vessels of wrath [destruction] equipped for destruction” - a person’s own decision to reject Christ as Savior equips him for judgment.

 

These souls are equipped without perfect righteousness, which God offered freely, and so He must judge them.

 

The destruction referred to is the destruction at the last judgment, the Great White Throne Judgment.

 

The protasis continues…

 

ROM 9:23 And He did so in order that He might make known [evangelization of the world] the riches of His glory [doctrine in the soul, which is true wealth] upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory [in contrast to the previous verse - “for destruction”],

 

Mercy is grace in action. It is the cross through which blessing can come to the mature believer to the imputed righteousness earned by Christ at the cross.

 

[slide: Grace pipeline]

 

Imputed divine righteousness is the axis upon which the wheel of the plan of God rotates.

 

ROM 9:24 even us, whom He also called [elected], not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

 

The protasis of vs. 22-24 demands only one apotosis [that the reader has to conclude for himself] = only personal faith in Christ can guarantee a vessel of mercy and only faith in doctrine can make an honorable soul.

 

In verses 25-29 Paul documents the OT instruction on what would be considered a vessel of mercy.

 

ROM 9:25 As He says also in Hosea [2:23],

"I will call those who were not My people [Gentiles], 'My people,'

And her who was not beloved, 'beloved.'"

 

This completely debunks any importance of racial heritage, which is stated by Hosea over 700 year’s earlier.

 

As Isaiah warned the northern kingdom, Ezekiel and Jeremiah warned the southern kingdom before they were destroyed, so Paul is warning Israel before her destruction in 70 A.D.

 

Now a quote from Hosea 1:10 …

ROM 9:26 "And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ' you are not My people,'

There they shall be called sons of the living God."

 

This refers to the remnant of Jews that will be saved despite the destruction of the nation. Further, this refers to the fulfillment of the covenants at the Second Coming of Christ for all Jewish believers.

 

HOS 1:2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord."

 

HOS 1:3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

 

HOS 1:4 And the Lord said to him, "Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

 

HOS 1:5 "And it will come about on that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."

 

HOS 1:6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.

 

HOS 1:7 "But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen."

 

HOS 1:8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.

 

HOS 1:9 And the Lord said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God."

 

HOS 1:10 Yet the number of the sons of Israel

Will be like the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered;

And it will come about that, in the place

Where it is said to them [ROM 9:26],

"You are not My people,"

It will be said to them,

"You are the sons of the living God."

 

HOS 1:11 And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together,

And they will appoint for themselves one leader,

And they will go up from the land,

For great will be the day of Jezreel.

 

HOS 2:1 Say to your brothers, "Ammi," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah."

 

Hosea was ordered to marry a harlot and had three children. God gave them names:

1. Jezreel = God will scatter

2. Lo-ruhamah = not loved or not pitied

3. Lo-ammi = not My people

 

His wife represented Israel’s worship of other gods. The children represent the impending judgment on Israel. However, God commanded that their names be changes.

 

In Hosea 1:11 and 2:1 God changes the names.

 

In order to depict God’s restoration of true, believing Israel in the Millennium, God renamed the children.

1. Jezreel = God will sow [agricultural word depending on context]

2. Ruhamah = loved

3. Ammi = My people

 

There has been and always will be a remnant of believing Jews in every generation, all of which will be gathered, some in resurrection, at the Second Advent.