1. Paul anticipates from these two debater’s questions the blasphemous attitude of the racial Jew. Their attitude: If God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart how can God blame Pharaoh or condemn Pharaoh for what Pharaoh had done and how can he condemn us if He were to harden our hearts?

 

2. All of this ignores the fact of Pharaoh’s free will. Pharaoh had the right of self-determination and was a free agent responsible for his own decisions.

 

3. God merely used Pharaoh’s negative volition to evangelize Egypt and the entire world. The more Pharaoh said ‘no’ the more the people of his empire said ‘yes’. God used the ‘no’ of Pharaoh to evangelize the world for God uses the wrath of man to praise Him.

 

4. God used Pharaoh’s negative volition to reveal Himself to positive volition throughout the empire, throughout the world. Though God used Pharaoh’s negative volition to reveal Himself to the world, He did not cause Pharaoh to cease to be a free agent.

 

5. The rhetorical question is a debater’s technique to emphasize the blasphemy of the Jew who relies on his own ability from natural birth, and his physical relationship to Abraham, rather than the grace blessings of spiritual birth and his eternal relationship to God.

 

6. The thing that made Abraham, Isaac and Jacob great was the grace of God, not the racial or physical perpetuation of the seed.

 

7. The integrity of God is not subject to contradiction or impudence. God is totally, eternally, and infinitely fair. It is impossible for God to be unfair or arbitrary, or even inconsistent with His own character.

 

8. Therefore, in perfect righteousness the justice of God provided man with a free will, so that man is a free agent in determining his own destiny. And he must take the responsibility for his own decisions. That is the basic norm for establishing maturity. Therefore, man cannot blame the mistakes and errors of his own decisions on perfect and incorruptible God.

 

9. If God chooses and reject, pardons and punishes whom He pleases, He does so on the basis of His perfect integrity which includes His righteousness and His justice. Arbitrary and prejudiced mankind assumes that God is prejudiced and arbitrary. But mankind cannot superimpose his own weaknesses and unfairnesses on God.

 

10. Man’s objection to the inequalities of time as well as eternity is really an objection to the possession of freedom and the right of self-determination which produces these inequalities.

 

11. Furthermore, when man objects to the printout of election, predestination and foreknowledge, he fails to realize that his own volition determines his exclusion from election, foreknowledge and predestination.

 

12. Negative volition seeks to circumvent the condemnation from the integrity of God by blaming the omniscience of God for entering only facts into the computer of divine decrees in eternity past.

 

13. Man’s irresponsibility and depravity is never more dramatically portrayed than when he seeks to blame God for his own thoughts, his own decisions, and his own actions.

 

14. God is not obligated to save the unbeliever. God is not obligated to bless the reversionistic believer, that is a matter of momentum under the plan of grace.

 

15. God is not obligated to impute blessing to the reversionistic believer in time, nor to impute rewards to him at the judgement seat of Christ.

 

16. However, God’s obligation is to Himself. God’s obligation is to His policy namely grace. God does not make an exception for the nicest person who ever lived, the sweetest personality, the nauseating sincere person, the kindest, etc.

 

17. God’s attitude toward Christ, the living Word, and after salvation, attitude toward Bible doctrine, the written Word, is the issue.

 

18.  God must be consistent with Himself. Therefore, He must punish the unbeliever and save the believer. He must bless the mature believer and discipline the reversionistic believer. Everyone has a fair shake from God.