Lesson 123
Romans Chapter Nine
The Faithfulness of God to
We
closed last week asking the question:
How does Pharaoh's
function as ruler glorify and honor God?
Ex.
9:16 "But indeed for this cause
I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you my power, and in order to
proclaim My name through all the earth."
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So then ara oun
says you can't separate it from
the historical context;
-
In
Asks
a question to highlight a problem.
Why does God still find fault?
How can God still
hold man accountable, if everything depends on His choice, His selection? How can God find or assign blame to man?
Who has stood against
God with permanent abiding results?
Or who has been
successful in standing against Him? Against His purposes?
What's the answer to that??
Every one who stands
against God and His purposes will loose at some point, its
inevitable; none of us are a match for God!
9:20a "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back
to God?"
- Who are you, to
question God? To question what He is doing?
Who are you to
question the rightness of what God does?
Who are you to
question the fairness of God?
Romans 9:20-24 An observation
Romans
9 has been unnecessarily
obscured by those who want to read into it a system of theology. [eisegesis not
exegesis]
Calvinists ignore
the fact that the issues Paul is dealing with and the message of God through Jeremiah
both relate to the nation
We should all desire
to be Biblicists, having our understanding and conclusions, our BD based on
good sound exegesis of Scripture.
9:20-21 The
clay and the right of the potter!
The clay and the purpose
of the potter!
What
is the characteristic of God that dominates the context?
What about the
potter? When he sits down to the wheel,
takes that lump of clay the potter also has an objective and purpose.
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God in making the choice of Abe, then Ishmael, then Jacob, to establish a people, the nation of
The Pharaoh in his
resistance to God, his repeated rebellion in response to the plagues/miracles,
he through his choices gave God a lump of clay that God could then use to make
something out of to glorify Himself! Did! [Ex. 14:4]
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With vs:20 Paul
shows the absurdity of the created thing or [creature for that matter] to argue
with, to talk back to the potter, the creator.
Isa
29:16; 45:9; Jer 18:1-12;
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Charles Hodge: In the sovereignty here asserted, it is God as moral governor,
and not as creator, who is in view.
What does he mean
by moral governor = that is one who has the right and authority to declare what
is right and wrong; what are the standards for judgment as we saw back in ch 1:19-3:9.
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Paul makes it clear here that not only the potter has the right to make out of
the clay whatever type of vessel he purposes but so does God.
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Point is, God like the potter, has absolute right, authority over His creation.
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William Kelly writing in 1873; he makes a very astute observation at this point
which is very pertinent today re: rights:
How seldom those
who talk of rights seem to think that God has any? They are absorbed in themselves, in man: God
is in none of their thoughts.
Yet surely if any
rights are to be respected, His ought to be the foremost, whose sovereign will
gave us being [our existence] and all things.
If we count
ourselves entitled to do what we will with our own, what can we say of Him to
whom belong ourselves and all that we have?
Think about it!
There are no true rights if God, the creator has none! True rights do not derive from man, they
come from God.
9:22-24
Paul applies the metaphor/illustration of the potter/clay to the Sovereign purpose of God for different
people.
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In vs:22 & 23 we have 2 alternatives stated as
conditional clauses;
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The contrast then in these 2 verses is between the great patience of God in
dealing with vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and the vessels of mercy
that He prepared beforehand for glory.
- 9:22 God's great patience with vessels of
wrath;
What if God,
although willing to demonstrate [put on display] His wrath and to make known
his power [dunatoj
inherent power; OmPo], endured with much patience,
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endured ferw bring,
bear, carry; in a context dealing with pressure and burdensome circumstances as
here it has the meaning of to bear patiently, to endure or to put up with;
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with much patience; makroqumia indicates patience when dealing with people; in
relationships; upomonh patient endurance in dealing with circumstances
faced.
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Why the great patience on God's part here??
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Who is God demonstrating such great patience to??
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If anyone dies without Christ and therefore goes to an eternity of separation
from God in LOF, Whose
fault is it?
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How can I say from this context that the individual is responsible for his/her
being a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction?
God is not the
subject here as some attempt to make Him!
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Word for prepared is key; katarti,zw perf. ptc.
to fully equip/prepare; the idea is to make one completely outfitted
for an activity, here its destruction or
ruin [apwleia]
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Caution: No where does it say that God
is the cause of the vessel of wrath ending in destruction, eternal judgment.