The hardness of Pharaoh’s heart:

 

1. Until the 6th plague, the Bible is consistent in saying Pharaoh hardened his own heart. In other words, as a free agent he utilized his own sovereign volition as the ruler of the Egyptian Empire to say ‘no’. He hardened his own heart through negative volition, negative self-determination.

 

2. No one up to this time in history had ever been able to say ‘no’ as many times as Pharaoh would from this time on (plagues 6-10). At this point God hardened Pharaoh’s heart which means He gave him the opportunity to carry his negative volition to the maximum.

 

3. We understand now that we are discussing a part of the soul, invisible yet real, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart or right lobe. This man had developed a maximum amount of scar tissue in the soul. He had been exposed to the truth, he had rejected it time and time again.

 

4. The hardening of Pharaoh’s right lobe in B.C. 1441 became the means of evangelising the world.

 

5. This is illustrated by the fact that 45 years later, Rahab the prostitute was saved through the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart as per Joshua 2:10, 11.

 

6. The justice of God gave Pharaoh numerous opportunities to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah Elohim. He rejected them all.

 

7. Pharaoh saw many demonstrations of divine power, designed to evangelise him personally, but he refused them all.

 

8. When our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, Pharaoh’s sins were imputed to Christ and judged, along with everyone else’s.

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9. Furthermore, God was not willing that Pharaoh should perish as per 2 Peter 3:9.

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10. Pharaoh had many opportunities for positive volition, as per Exodus 7:22; 8:15, 32; 9:34, 35. In other words, the free will of Pharaoh was negative. Each ‘No’ added scar tissue to his soul.

 

11. After five plagues, Pharaoh Amenhotep II had so much scar tissue that he no longer could say ‘yes’ to the gospel. His faith had been completely damaged by this scar tissue.

 

12. Therefore, beginning in Exodus 9:12 of the 6th plague, we have it for the first time, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

 

13. To keep Pharaoh alive to say ‘no’ especially through plagues 6-10, God impressed upon the entire world the greatness of His power both to condemn Pharaoh and to deliver His own people.

 

14. Therefore, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart or the extension of his negative volition was the mean of evangelizing the world of that day.

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A few historical points:

 

1. Like Ishmael and Esau, Pharaoh Amenhotep II was an unbeliever who had the opportunity to be saved many times, but rejected Christ as frequently as he rejected God’s demand to release Israel.

 

2. The integrity of God was not arbitrary in blessing Moses and cursing Pharaoh. The integrity of God gave Pharaoh extra time but Pharaoh used the extra time to reject God’s plan.

 

3. Blessing was imputed to Moses at maturity adjustment to the integrity of God through maximum doctrine resident in the soul, but Pharaoh was an unbeliever who used his great power and lack of integrity to perpetuate tyranny and slavery to the Jews.

 

4. The plan of God is never hindered by negative volition. In this historical case, God used the wrath of Pharaoh to praise Him.

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5. Pharaoh’s negative volition and his deceptive hypocrisy did not frustrate the plan or the purposes of God.

 

6. Pharaoh’s resistance only fulfilled the plan of God by leading to world-wide evangelism.

 

7. We must remember that Amenhotep II was a great man from the standpoint of power and authority, an absolute monarch at the peak of his career.

 

8. However, God’s power [omnipotence] is infinitely greater than the power of any tyrant or dictator, infinitely more powerful than the concentrated evil of any of our modern powers.

 

9. There is no evil that Satan can inspire, no power, no authority, no tyranny that man can devise, which can compete with the power of God. 1 John 4:4, “You and only you [believers living the spiritual life] are from God, dear children, and you have overcome them [false teachers and others living in the cosmic system] because greater is He who is in you [indwelling of God the Son] than he [Satan] who is in the world [the inventor of the cosmic system].”

 

The demonstration of divine power:

 

1. The demonstration of divine power became the means of releasing the Jews from slavery. This was the birth of the first priest/client nation in history. The evangelization of Egypt was another result, plus the evangelization of the entire world.

 

2. Any Jew, any Egyptian, Ethiopian or Canaanite who wanted salvation had a clear picture of the source of salvation from the manifest power revealed by means of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. If God had not permitted him to live, he could not have said ‘no’ in those final five confrontations.

 

3. It was not until the 6th plague, however, that we read the phrase “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” The mechanics, again, of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was the removal of all restraints on his negative volition plus keeping him alive.

 

4. Pharaoh’s free will moved him, without any restraint from God, on a collision course with historical disaster.

 

5. Just as God turned the heathen over to their vile lusts, affections, and reprobate minds as per Romans 1:24-28, so God turned Pharaoh over to his negative volition, his arrogance, his jealousy, his pettiness. And this was the means of evangelizing that generation of history around 1441-1440 B.C. and the following generation as well as illustrated by Rahab the Prostitute.

 

6. The impact of all of this is obvious. Paul is comparing the Jews of his day, the contemporary Jews, with Pharaoh. This was the greatest possible insult one could give to the Jews.

 

7. As Pharaoh hardened his heart through maximum negative volition at the time of the Exodus, so the legalistic Jews of Paul’s day had hardened their hearts through maximum negative volition toward the gospel and doctrine.

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The application to contemporary history

 

1. To be compared to Pharaoh Amenhotep II was as insulting to the Jews as their negative volition was insulting to God (an anthropopathism).

 

2. The Jews of Paul’s day had violated their magnificent spiritual heritage namely the unique origin of the race of the Jews through positive volition toward Christ, and doctrine resident in the soul on the part of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had not alerted the Jews to their failure, a failure stated in verse 6, “All Israel is not really Israel.”

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3. The unique origin of the nation with the contrast between the positive volition of Moses and the negative volition of Pharaoh, plus the fact that Israel was the first client nation to God in history, should have alerted the Jews in Paul’s time to the importance of positive volition toward Christ namely believing in Him for salvation.

 

4. The hereditary people of God had become heretical, heretical in the pattern of Ishmael, Esau and Pharaoh, three Gentiles they detested.

 

5. Note that the function of God does not rob man of his free will; he is still a creature of self-determination.

 

6. God used the free will of Pharaoh to advance His own plan and to liberate His people from slavery.

 

7. Man is not robbed of his self-determination by the omnipotence of God but actually provided with greater historical opportunity to express non-meritorious freewill to enter the plan of God.

 

God’s plan goes on with or without you:

 

1. Pharaoh in his opposition to God becomes a monument to the power of God.

 

2. The more he resisted God by saying ‘no’ from his free will, the greater became the manifestation of divine power.

 

3. In the garden, God permitted the freewill function of the fall of Adam since that was a requirement of the Angelic Appeal Trial which fall led to the redemptive solution. So, also in the time of Moses, God permitted the freewill of Pharaoh to operate to the maximum in a negative way so that the people of Egypt and the entire world in that generation and the following generation as well might have the opportunity to receive Christ as savior.

 

4. God permits the worst so that the best can come from it. This means that the plan of God continues whether it is a negative period of history or a positive period of history.

 

5. The highest expression of man’s freedom is the utilization of the grace of God to completely triumph over evil.

 

6. While sin, human good and evil are permitted, they are constantly being overruled by the sovereign omnipotence and divine integrity of God.  Therefore, Jesus Christ controls both history and the devil’s world. This is the overruling will of God.

 

Romans 9:18

 

Consequently, therefore, He shows mercy to whom He desires [those who are executing His plan], in fact, whom He desires He hardens [permits them to live longer than they should like the pharaoh of the Exodus].

 

ἄρα οὖν ὃν θέλει ἐλεεῖ, ὃν δὲ θέλει σκληρύνει.

 

A few points for clarification:

 

1. In this statement God is not arbitrary. He functions in compatibility of his perfect integrity plus His perfect plan of grace.

 

2. Man, however, continues to be a free agent in history, responsible for his own decisions, his thoughts, his actions, and his motives.

 

3. God in grace has found a way to take the non-meritorious modus operandi of man and relate it to the function of His grace.

 

4. God desires to show mercy to those believers who appropriate grace-blessing through non-meritorious perception and the accumulation of doctrine in the soul. In other words, the believer who persists on a daily basis of learning and applying the Word, will eventually end up as a mature believer. Once the believer has attained that particular stage, God is free to start pouring Escrow Blessings even in historical disaster.

 

5. The sovereignty of God made a decision to afford maximum opportunity for Pharaoh to experience His omnipotence in action. However, this did not benefit the pharaoh since scar tissue of the soul always means increase, or expansion of human arrogance.

 

6. God had the eternal and infinite power to perform those miracles which only intensified and increased the stubbornness of Pharaoh.

 

7. Pharaoh’s negative volition combined with his scar tissue persisted in his refusal to free Israel so that greater and greater manifestations of the omnipotence of God occurred, and the greater the function of omnipotence, the greater the evangelism in the land of Egypt and in the world.

 

Romans 9:19

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[Beginning of debater's technique in anticipating the opposition] Therefore, you [the unbelieving Jew] will say to me, "Why does He [God] still find fault [answered in verses 20, 21]?  For who has resisted His will [answered in verses 22, 23]?

 

Ἐρεῖς µοι οὖν, Τί [οὖν] ἔτι µέµφεται; τῷ γὰρ βουλήµατι αὐτοῦ τίς ἀνθέστηκεν;

 

Paul understands that the unbelieving Jews are now antagonistic toward what he stated in verse 18. So, he decided to employ a debater’s technique. Part of debaters’ technique is to anticipate reaction to a point during a debate and therefore in anticipation to ask a question before the opposition does so, and then answer the question within the framework of the context and using one’s own logical reasoning demonstrate the fallacy of even thinking such a thing. This is exactly what Paul does.

 

No one can resist God’s will, but that is not the point. The point is as follows: in eternity past God decreed that man’s volition will co-exist with His sovereignty in order that the ‘Angelic Appeal Trial’ will be resolved on the basis of man’s free will. So, God only finds fault with mankind who resists His gracious plan and policy.

 

Romans 9:20

 

On the contrary, O mankind, you, who are you who answers back to the God?  That which is molded [mankind via his volition] will not say to the molder [God], "Why have you made me this way?"

 

ὦ ἄνθρωπε, µενοῦνγε σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ ἀνταποκρινόµενος τῷ θεῷ; µὴ ἐρεῖ τὸ πλάσµα τῷ πλάσαντι, Τί µε ἐποίησας οὕτως;

 

Mankind cannot blame God for his own bad decisions. God desires for all mankind to be great and live happy and fulfilling lives. The problem does not lie with God, but with mankind. Man become sinful and evil due to his many bad decisions. It is mankind who chooses to reject God’s gracious plan and in so doing turns-out the way he is.

 

When a person rejects authority, he becomes arrogant. Unbelievers are not taking responsibility for their decisions when they remark “How can a loving God cast me into the Lake of Fire?” They are not taking responsibility for their decisions. Believers also become arrogant when they reject the teaching of God’s Word and consequently the spiritual life. Believers are known to have said, “Why did God let this happen to me? These believers also are not taking responsibility for their decisions.

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A few points for clarification:  

 

1. It is obvious that this debater’s question anticipates objection to the doctrine of divine integrity, the doctrine of divine decree, as well as other doctrines.

 

2. The objection (Why does He still find fault?) is obviously irrelevant because it is blasphemous. It blasphemously assumes that God does not know what He is doing and that, furthermore, God is unfair in what He is doing.

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3. Paul anticipates the antagonism of the racial Jew against the true spiritual heritage of Israel.

 

4. The racial Jew emphasizes physical birth and natural descent from Abraham while the spiritual Jew emphasizes the new birth and spiritual descent from Abraham.

 

5. This becomes, then, a conflict between the natural and the spiritual seed of Abraham.

 

6. Furthermore, it proves the principle that irrelevance becomes irreverence by blasphemously maligning the character of God.

 

7. Scar tissue of the soul always finds fault with God and becomes critical of divine policy.

 

8. In fact, scar tissue of the soul or hardness of the heart moves and enters where angels fear to tread.

 

9. The self-righteousness and legalism of the Jews resulted in distortion of doctrine. This is tantamount to denial of the spiritual heritage of Israel.

 

10. This first debaters’ question anticipates a distortion of doctrine, distortion on the part of Jewish unbelievers who follow the same pattern as Pharaoh Amenhotep II. They see the power and glory of God and yet reject the same.

 

11. It is inevitable that the perfect character of God will find fault with imperfect and sinful mankind.

 

“Why does he still find fault?”

 

1. God never tampers with man’s free will and neither does man tamper with God’s judgements. Just as the free will of man is free to reject Christ so God is free to judge those who reject Christ.

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2. In fact, the omniscience of God acknowledged the free will of man regarding his motivation, thoughts, decisions and actions. On that information, God decreed.

 

3. The integrity of God can never be compromised by finding fault or judging or condemning or disciplining or punishing any portion or any individual in the human race. The reality of judgement always elicits the reaction of “unfair” “How can God be fair and do this to me?” This comes from mankind who possesses neither the facts nor the doctrine to be critical.

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The blasphemy of the unbelieving racial Jew:

 

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.

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“Why have you made me this way?”

 

1. No one can say to God, “why have you made me this way” since mankind has his own free will. Man is a free agent, he has self-determination.

 

2. Mankind under the influence of Satanic thinking is always trying to conform God to his human thinking rather than accepting God in terms of divine revelation.

 

3. In this context, Paul has related the doctrine of God’s perfect integrity with the reality of man’s arrogance.  Paul directed these remarks to the condemned Jew who has rejected Christ as savior who has refused the Shekinah glory and is now grasping at straws in an attempt to justify his error.

 

4. To blaspheme and malign the perfect wisdom and integrity of God is the irrational act of a desperate person. Irrational because of after having made hundreds of free will decisions, culminating in judgement, God is blamed and maligned. Thus, the Jewish unbeliever shifts the responsibility from themselves to the sovereignty of God.

 

The principle behind all of this:

 

1. The omniscience of God anticipated from eternity past that only the overruling omnipotence of God would deliver the Jews from their slavery.

The Jews had been selected by God to form the first client/priest nation in history and only divine power would pry them loose from Egypt. So, God used his power but in a way that allowed Pharaoh to remain as a free agent.

 

2. The omniscience and omnipotence of God combined to overrule the pharaoh’s tyrannical arrogance. Had the matter been left to the sovereign will of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, the Jews would still be slaves in the Egyptian empire, but in grace the sovereign will of God vetoed the power of Pharaoh by freeing the Jews from slavery. What is the point? No one can stop the plan of God from marching forward.

 

3. The greater the opposition from pharaoh, the greater was the manifest power from God without in any way tampering with Pharaoh’s free will. This was a perfect demonstration of the coexistence of divine sovereignty with the free will of man namely the confrontation between God and Pharaoh.

 

4. Throughout human history this coexistence is necessary to resolve the angelic conflict. God used the maximum positive volition of Moses in one way and the maximum negative volition of Pharaoh in another way, but the free will of both men accomplished the will of God. This is a reminder that Jesus Christ controls history and that God uses the wrath of man to praise Him as per Psalm 76:10.

 

5. No matter which way it goes in history, history is always and inevitably going to glorify God. No evil or catastrophe in history ever slows the momentum of the divine plan.

 

Romans 9:21

 

Or does not the potter [God] possess authority over the clay [mankind], from the same lump [of clay] to make, on the one hand, a vessel for the purpose of honor [for those who use their free will to execute God’s plan], and, on the other hand, another for the purpose of dishonor [for those who use their free will to reject God’s plan]?  Of course, He does!

 

ἢ οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν ὁ κεραµεὺς τοῦ πηλοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ φυράµατος ποιῆσαι ὃ µὲν εἰς τιµὴν σκεῦος, ὃ δὲ εἰς ἀτιµίαν;

 

Related passages of Scripture:

 

Isaiah 29:16, “You turn things around [the conspirator]! Shall the potter be considered as an equal with the clay, that what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me.”; or what is formed say to Him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

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Isaiah 45:8-10 states the case, “Cause to shower down, O heavens from above, and let the skies [with very thin clouds] rain down righteousness. [they were having a drought because there were few unbelievers believing in Christ and only a few believers advancing spiritually; thus, a shortage of imputed and experiential righteousness] let the earth open, and let salvation sprout forth. [imputed righteousness causes salvation to sprout] and righteousness [the experiential righteousness of the believer], let them sprout together; I, Jehovah, have created it [salvation and the spiritual life]. (9) Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker! [There it is, impudence toward God, blasphemy, contradiction, and arguing with God. It is inevitable that when the arrogance becomes too great, there is no respect for authority.] A pot among the pots of earthenware. [The person who quarrels with God, the person who contradicts God, is a pot among the pots.] Will the clay say to the potter, what are you making? Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands? [Impudence to the maximum.] (10) Woe to him who says to his father, what are you begetting? Or to his mother, to what are you giving birth? [This is ludicrous, but it is far more ludicrous to contradict God.].”

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Jeremiah 18:6, “O house of Israel, cannot I deal with you as the potter does with the clay? communicated Jehovah. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” [Jesus Christ controls history and He was warning them.] 

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Some points for clarification: 

            

1. When God created man, He placed in his soul volition and self-determination, in order to resolve the angelic conflict.

 

2. Furthermore, God provided everything necessary for man’s free will to be positive toward Him, both at God-consciousness and gospel hearing. There never was a person in the human race who did not have that opportunity. When these provisions and opportunities from God are rejected, scar tissue is formed step by step as a person rejects truth.

 

3. For example, pharaoh did not instantly develop scar tissue of the soul. His hardness of heart originated from a long series of freewill decisions, all negative, including his decision at God-consciousness, gospel hearing, and at the time when Moses demanded the release of the Jews from slavery.

 

4. God does not sovereignly desire to make anyone into a vessel of dishonor. However, the sovereignty of God will not violate man’s free will; man through his own bad decisions becomes a vessel of dishonor. By the same measure, a person who seeks truth and so makes many good decisions, this person God as the potter is able to form into a vessel of honor.

 

5. So, at God consciousness, if the unbeliever desires to know God, God will bring the gospel information to him that he might believe in Christ. Then, after salvation, God will provide the spiritual nourishment for that believer to become a vessel of honor.

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Regarding the racial Jew:

 

1. There is no way for the physical seed of Abraham to be a vessel of honor without faith in Christ. To be a vessel of honor, he must from his own free will believe in Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

2. Therefore, in this context a vessel of honor is the Jew who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, while the vessel of dishonor is the Jew who has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and has done so from his own free will.

 

3. The lump, again, is the free will of mankind to believe in Christ or to reject Christ. Man is free to go either way.

 

4. Therefore, the honor is possessing the righteousness of God and eternal life, while dishonor is possessing or depending on one’s own self-righteousness and ignoring eternal life.

 

5. God is free to bless the vessel of honor possessing God’s righteousness, and likewise He is free to judge the vessel of dishonor possessing human self-righteousness.

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The Lump of Clay has free will:

 

1. This verse by analogy answers the question of the previous verse, “Why have you made me like this?”

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2. The answer is found in that, the lump of clay is human volition – free will, self-determination. All people are created with free will.

 

3. Man is a free agent to function under his own self-determination for better or for worse.

 

4. This is a part of the angelic conflict, why man was created. God permits mankind to use free will to determine the issue of whether he is going to be a vessel of honor or dishonor, whether he will be a witness for the Lord as the prosecuting attorney or a witness for Satan.

 

5. One person is a vessel of honor because of what God provides for him at salvation and thereafter. Another person becomes a vessel of dishonor by rejecting God’s authority and plan.

 

6. Honor or dishonor, then, is not a behavioural pattern, not a system of morals, not a system of self-improvement; it is an attitude, first toward Christ the living Word and then toward Bible doctrine, the written Word.

 

7. The believer is a vessel of honor because of what God does for him while the unbeliever is a vessel of dishonor because of what he is doing for himself. The unbeliever superimposes his volition over the sovereignty of God; he substitutes his own self-righteousness for divine righteousness.

 

8. God is just, therefore, in molding the believer into a vessel of honor and the unbeliever into a vessel of dishonor.

 

The omniscience of God:

 

1. The omniscience of God knew in eternity past who would say no and who would say yes to the gospel, who would be positive toward doctrine and who would be negative.

 

2. Therefore, when this information was fed into the computer of divine decree it fell into many categories for the printout.

 

3. For the one who believes in Jesus Christ the printout includes, foreknowledge, election, and predestination.

 

4. For the unbeliever the printout includes condemnation and judgement.

 

5. The emphasis on the lump of clay is always, inevitably, free will, volition, self-determination. So that the vessel of dishonor is actually moulded by his own volition.

 

6. The vessel of honor namely the believer is designed by grace to fulfill the royal family honor code, to advance to maturity, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

 

7. The vessel of dishonor namely the unbeliever makes negative decisions at God-consciousness and at gospel hearing. This means the substitution of self-righteousness for divine righteousness and the substitution of eternal condemnation for eternal life.

 

Romans 9:22

 

Moreover, if [introducing a First Class-Conditional Sentence] the God, willing to show his wrath [on Jewish unbelievers during the time of Israel, during the 1st Advent and during the Church Age] and to make known his power [by punishing those individuals who reject truth], endured with great patience vessels of wrath [Jewish unbelievers] having prepared themselves [by self-determination] for destruction [the last judgment],

 

εἰ δὲ θέλων ὁ θεὸς ἐνδείξασθαι τὴν ὀργὴν καὶ γνωρίσαι τὸ δυνατὸν αὐτοῦ ἤνεγκεν ἐν πολλῇ µακροθυµίᾳ σκεύη ὀργῆς κατηρτισµένα εἰς ἀπώλειαν,       

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A few points for clarification:

 

1. Verse 22 has the protasis of a First Class-Conditional Sentence, but no apodosis, no concluding clause.  Paul’s explanation in the protasis is so well stated that the apodosis (the concluding clause) is unnecessary and never stated which is called aposiopesis (as in “his behavior was – but I blush to mention that”), the leaving of a thought incomplete usually by a sudden breaking off. 

 

2. In effect, verses 22-24 also form an anacoluthon, a syntactically inconsistency or incoherence within a sentence especially a shift in an unfinished sentence from one syntactical construction to another (as in “You really ought – well do it, your way.”). Vessels of honor and dishonor are fashioned in every generation, and this is the point we will learn.

 

3. Paul is concerned for contemporary Israel that they would reject Christ as savior and be no better off than the Gentiles like Ishmael, Esau, and Pharaoh. The Jews who reject Christ as savior are no better than an anacoluthon; they are off from the main track of life, they are off the main thrust of God’s plan, they have lost out completely.

 

4. A Jewish vessel of dishonor is the unbeliever who has rejected Christ. Therefore, he is a demonstration of divine wrath and a revelation of divine power whom God has endured with much patience and appointed for destruction.

 

5. Therefore, the conclusion of the anacoluthon: God’s purpose is that He might reveal the riches of His glory which He works on the vessels of mercy (those who execute His plan) which He prepared beforehand for His glory, and to which He has called us not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.

 

6. The sentence in verses 22-24 have the protasis but no apodosis, and in verse 25 we go to a comparative analogy.

 

7. We just have to conclude, then, that verses 22-24 is a digressive type of debater’s technique. This paragraph, then, is an aposiopesis, a form of ellipsis in which the protasis is given without the apodosis but the protasis is definitely understood, and the one who is listening says, I agree. That, in effect, becomes the apodosis. If the unbelieving Jews had agreed with the protasis of the above verse, they would have immediately believed in Christ as their savior, but most didn’t.

 

8. Paul was horrified when he realized that the majority of his countrymen have and would reject the salvation-plan of God and so overwhelmed with tender love for his fellow Jews that he was not able to complete the first class-conditional sentence, he was not able to supply the apodosis. He became speechless regarding this very thought. A demonstration of his tremendous compassion and emotion- so choked-up that he had to stop! 

 

Man’s free will is free to succeed or free to fail:

 

1. Man’s free will or self-determination will lead to eternal blessing or eternal judgement.

 

2. When man expresses positive volition through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ his non-meritorious expression of free will equips him as a vessel of mercy. He is prepared for the glory of God.

 

3. However, when man expresses negative volition, as did Pharaoh Amenhotep II, his free will prepares him for destruction, and the destruction in this verse is the great white throne judgement.

 

4. Either man will adjust to the integrity of God by believing in Jesus Christ or he will fail to adjust to the integrity of God and reject Christ. The integrity of God will always adjust to either situation.

 

Becoming a vessel of mercy:

 

1. When mankind chooses the work of Christ on the cross, he becomes a vessel of mercy. From then on, depending on his attitude toward doctrine, mercy intensifies and increases until a person can have the greatest possible happiness in this life.

 

2. When mankind from his own free will chooses his own works and his own self-righteousness, he has become a vessel of wrath equipped and prepared for the last judgement.

 

3. Therefore, only man’s rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ can bring about his destruction in the Lake of Fire. God in His patience is long-suffering and forbearing, permits the unbeliever to live, always to demonstrate His power, always to give another chance.

 

4. God’s power was demonstrated in the plagues so that many in Egypt and throughout the world were evangelized through the negative volition of Pharaoh, a vessel of wrath.

 

Romans 9:23

 

And he did so [from the protasis of a First Class-Conditional Sentence] in order that He might make known the riches of His glory [to believers who would go all the way to spiritual maturity and to pass Evidence Testing] on vessels of mercy [believers] which He previously prepared for the purpose of his glory [God is glorified by the spiritual believer who advances to spiritual maturity and takes and passes Evidence Testing.],

 

καὶ ἵνα γνωρίσῃ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ σκεύη ἐλέους, ἃ προητοίµασεν εἰς δόξαν,

 

Rather than supplying an apodosis for the protasis supplied in verse 22, Paul substitutes a purpose clause in verses 23 and 24. Paul’s aposiopesis then in effect means that the issue in life is volition, not environment, not heritage. His aposiopesis also demonstrates his excessive compassion for contemporary Israel for rather than becoming the spiritual seed of Abraham, they are becoming vessels of dishonor and vessels of wrath.

 

Billions of years ago God the Father prepared a portfolio that we might have a life of definition and purpose. Only vessels of mercy or believers qualified have the potential for glory, bringing glory to the members of the Godhead by reaching spiritual maturity and completing Evidence Testing (As a great believer like Abraham or Job, God uses your spiritual life as evidence against Satan and his fallen angels in the Angelic Appeal Trial.)

 

A few more points for clarification:

 

1.  While God has provided many wonderful things for the believer as a vessel of mercy, the unbeliever or vessel of wrath has created his own miserable destiny.

 

2. This protasis of verse 22 without an apodosis emphasizes that being the physical seed of Abraham merely qualifies the Jew for being a vessel of wrath.

 

3. On the other hand, the Jew who believes in Christ becomes a vessel of mercy, previously prepared for glory.

 

4. The contrast between destruction and glory summarizes again the burden which Paul has for the Jew. Instead of depending on Christ for salvation, his contemporary Jewish friends were dependent upon keeping the Law for their eternal relationship with God.

 

5. Therefore, the Jew without Christ becomes a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction by his own negative volition.

 

6. In eternity past, God prepared the riches of glory (divine blessing) for those believers like Abraham, Moses, and Paul.

 

7. There is no divine blessing, only cursing, for the Jew who rejects Christ as savior, for he, like the Gentile Pharaoh, is a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction.

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8. God originated the Jewish race for His glory, but racial Jews had missed the divine purpose through the rejection of the Shekinah glory.

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Romans 9:24

 

Even us [believers in the Church Age], whom He has elected, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles.

 

οὓς καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ἡµᾶς οὐ µόνον ἐξ Ἰουδαίων ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ἐθνῶν;

 

Under the printout of Election, the sovereignty of God in eternity past elected each Church Age believer that is we were placed into his plan that we might serve him.  In a simplistic way, one might make an analogy to our electing into office a president for a term of four years to serve us. As God elected those who would believe in Christ in the Church Age as royal priests so we as Americans elect a person as President of the United States.  God provided logistical support for us as royal priests, so we provide logistical support for our presidents. 

 

Now that we have been elected, we must fulfill this election by carrying out our destiny for we have been predestined in Christ, our privilege and our motivation to pursue our destiny via the execution of the spiritual life. Having executed the spiritual life, we will receive our Escrow Blessings.    

 

Election, along with foreknowledge, predestination, justification and glorification, are all printouts from God’s computer.  As it were, the omniscience of God in eternity past made a folder for each person who would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in time. Within that folder, he put the following files: foreknowledge, election, predestination, justification, and glorification. 

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Ephesians 1:3-4:  Worthy of praise and glorification, the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who [the Father] has blessed [escrow blessings] us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (4) just as He [the Father] has elected us for Himself in Him [Jesus Christ] before the creation of the world, that we may be set apart [experiential sanctification] and blameless [ultimate sanctification] in the presence of Him [Father].

 

Romans 9:25

 

As he has also communicated in Hosea [2:23], "I will call those who are not My people [the Gentiles] My people [Gentiles who believe in Christ], and her who has not been loved [Jewish peoples under punishment from the 5th Cycle of Discipline as during the Times of the Gentiles] and her having been loved” [Jews in every generation who have executed God’s plan].

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ὡς καὶ ἐν τῷ Ὡσηὲ λέγει, Καλέσω τὸν οὐ λαόν µου λαόν µου καὶ τὴν οὐκ ἠγαπηµένην ἠγαπηµένην·

 

In verses 25-29, we have a chiasmus. Paul does not quote Scripture as it is found in the Old Testament but takes phrases out of the Old Testament Canon to arrange them in quotations as what is classified as Rhetorical Order rather than the way in which they are found in Scripture.  

 

This chiasmus is used to emphasize three doctrines namely the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, the importance of the dispensation of the hypostatic union which separates forever the dispensation of Israel from the dispensation of the Church, and the understanding that gentiles are included in the plan of God which was true in the Old Testament and is true in the Church Age. This also anticipates Romans 11:25-27 in which Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20-21 to indicate the divine purpose of God in the Age of Israel namely that the Jews were to reach the gentiles with the gospel through missionary activity. Thus, the grace policy of God extends to the Gentiles, but never excludes the Jews.

 

Romans 9:26

 

And it shall be in the place [Hosea 1:10] where it was said to them, "You are not My people [a reference to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C.; by application, the Southern Kingdom in 586 B.C and Judea in 70 A.D.], there [introduces a quotation] they shall be called the sons of the living God [a reference to true Israel in the past as well as Jewish believers in the Tribulation who will form the cadre for the last Jewish Client Nation].

 

καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῷ τόπῳ οὗ ἐρρέθη αὐτοῖς, Οὐ λαός µου ὑµεῖς, ἐκεῖ κληθήσονται υἱοὶ θεοῦ ζῶντος.

 

Though the Jewish people as a whole were very negative toward truth in the pre-canon period of the Church Age, they had enough great believers to provide the evangelism and the Biblical teaching that the gentiles of the Roman Empire desired, these gentiles of many peoples and races. Thus, from the last Client Nation of Judea a transition to the 1st Gentile Client Nation occurred.

 

Jewish Client Nations to the first Gentile Client Nation: From 1441 B.C to 70 A. D., five Jewish Client Nations existed namely the theocracy of Israel, the United Kingdom, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and then after the restoration to the land, the Judean Kingdom. The 1st Gentile Client Nation, SPQR lasted from 70 A.D. to 476 A.D. 

 

Romans 9:27

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In fact, Isaiah [10:22] communicated forcibly concerning Israel [a reference to the Northern Kingdom], though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant [of a few great Jewish believers] shall be delivered." [a remnant of Jews is always delivered even in the Tribulation, the greatest period of anti-Semitism]

 

Ἠσαΐας δὲ κράζει ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, Ἐὰν ᾖ ὁ ἀριθµὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ὡς ἡ ἄµµος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ ὑπόλειµµα σωθήσεται·

 

The greatest discrimination has always been against the Jew. Even though the Jew is persecuted and he is the most persecuted race in all of history, the Lord will always preserve a remnant. Racial discrimination always centers on the Jew. The greatest attack against the Jew will occur during the Great Tribulation, the last half of the Tribulation as per Revelation 12.

 

Romans 9:28

 

For the Lord will execute His word on the earth [at the 2nd Advent], completing what He also decreed. [The unconditional covenants will go into operation and Israel will be restored as a client nation] [ a quote from Isaiah 10:23]

 

λόγον γὰρ συντελῶν καὶ συντέµνων ποιήσει κύριος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

 

Anti-Semitism in history: To the extent that a person, a group or nation is anti-Semitic, to that extent that person, group or nation is evil. The evil of Adolph Hitler and the 3rd Reich, the evil of Torquemada and the Inquisition, the evil of the Romanoff and their Pogroms, and the evil of those in the United States who would seek to destroy the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Though these occurrences mentioned were and are great evils, the greatest anti-Semitism will occur in the Great Tribulation.

 

Unreasonable people are arrogant people, and arrogant people will find any reason to discriminate to make them feel superior. These people will discriminate against the Jew first, and then against other races as well. However, discrimination against pigmentation of the skin starts with the Jew. For example, Hitler not only killed 5 to 6 million Jews, but also around 2 to 3 million Gypsies and others as well. The aristocracy of Poland were laughing when Hitler took over the western part of Poland. Many of these aristocrats were happy to see their competitors removed. Furthermore, many owed the Jews a lot of money. However, they stopped laughing when Hitler ordered all Polish aristocrats, teachers, and lawyers to be rounded up and executed. When people discriminate in one direction, they also will discriminate in other directions!

 

Romans 9:29

 

And so just as Isaiah had prophesied, "Except the Lord of the armies [the Lord] had left us a seed [ a remnant of the spiritual seed of Abraham in every generation], we [the Jews] would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like unto Gomorrah [two branches of the Canaanites which were all destroyed].” [Isaiah 1:9]

 

καὶ καθὼς προείρηκεν Ἠσαΐας, Εἰ µὴ κύριος Σαβαὼθ ἐγκατέλιπεν ἡµῖν σπέρµα, ὡς Σόδοµα ἂν ἐγενήθηµεν καὶ ὡς Γόµορρα ἂν ὡµοιώθηµεν.

 

1. Just as a pivot (a group) of mature believers delivers a client nation to God from the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline [annihilation], so a regenerate remnant of Jews, the spiritual seed of Abraham, perpetuates the Jewish race in every generation during the times of the Gentiles. This is a monument to the faithfulness of God.

 

2. Between the 5th cycle of discipline in AD 70 and the second advent of Christ which includes the Church Age and the Tribulation, there will always be Jews in every generation, and there never will be a time when Satan will be able to remove all Jews from the earth.

 

3. The racial Jew will never become extinct like the Canaanites of Sodom and Gomorrah. In every generation, there will be the spiritual seed of Abraham.

 

4. Consequently, when Christ returns to the earth at the Second Advent there will be a remnant of regenerate Jews to deliver, to regather, and to restore to the client nation status quo.

 

Romans 9:30

 

Therefore, to what conclusion are we forced?  That the gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness [self-righteousness] have attained divine imputed righteousness, that is the righteousness from the source of faith [faith alone in Christ alone].

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Τί οὖν ἐροῦµεν; ὅτι ἔθνη τὰ µὴ διώκοντα δικαιοσύνην κατέλαβεν δικαιοσύνην, δικαιοσύνην δὲ τὴν ἐκ πίστεως·

 

The Jewish people have a tendency toward self-righteousness:

 

Deuteronomy 9:4-6, “When the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. Rather, the Lord is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness. (5) It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess the land, but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (6) Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

 

Self-righteousness verses divine imputed righteousness:

 

1. Self-righteousness in any form is unacceptable to God whether it is directed toward salvation or the spiritual life.

 

2. Arrogance is the motivation for self-righteousness; negative volition is the momentum for self-righteousness; disorientation to reality is the result of self-righteousness.

 

3. God cannot bless self-righteousness any more than God can provide salvation for the self-righteous person.

                                                                                       

4. The Jewish unbeliever striving for salvation through keeping the Law is simply another case of trying to reinvent the wheel. The wheel of God’s plan has existed in eternity past. It is sustained in human history by the integrity of God. That means that the integrity of God and the uniqueness of God the Son in hypostatic union form the axle.

 

5. The wheel of God’s plan rotates on the axle of divine righteousness which is imputed through faith in Jesus Christ. The superficial and legalistic Jew invents his own axle of self-righteousness and tries to make the wheel of the divine plan rotate on his own arrogance rather than rotate on the integrity of God.

 

6. No one can reinvent the wheel; no one can substitute the axle of self-righteousness for the axle of divine righteousness. The Gentiles who were saved in the Old Testament did not seek salvation through the invention of their own righteousness; they did not try to reinvent the wheel by pursuing after and striving for self-righteousness.

 

Romans 9:31

 

But Israel, who pursued the Law by means self-righteousness, has not accomplished the purpose of the Law [which was to show one that he was a sinner and needed the savior Jesus Christ].

 

Ἰσραὴλ δὲ διώκων νόµον δικαιοσύνης εἰς νόµον οὐκ ἔφθασεν.

 

The Purpose of the Law:

 

1. The purpose of the Mosaic Law was to explain salvation through ritual, to explain faith in Christ as per Codex 2.

 

2. The purpose of the Law was to explain how freedom was to function in a client nation to God as per Codex 1 and Codex 3.

 

3. The purpose of the Law was to demonstrate the fallacy of self-righteousness for salvation and the fallacy of self-righteousness for receiving blessing from God.

 

4. The purpose of the Law was completely nullified by any system of self-righteousness or works righteousness in keeping the law.       

 

Romans 9:32

 

Why? Because they did not pursue it [salvation] by means of faith, but as by means of works.  They have stumbled over the rock [Christ] of stumbling [they rejected Jesus Christ as Savior].

 

διὰ τί; ὅτι οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως ἀλλí ὡς ἐξ ἔργων· προσέκοψαν τῷ λίθῳ τοῦ προσκόµµατος,

 

Romans 9:33

 

Just as it stands written [quotes from Isaiah 28:16], Behold I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, even a rock which arouses opposition, nevertheless he who believes on Him will not be disappointed [he will not be at the last judgment].

 

καθὼς γέγραπται, Ἰδοὺ τίθηµι ἐν Σιὼν λίθον προσκόµµατος καὶ πέτραν σκανδάλου, καὶ ὁ πιστεύων ἐπí αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται.