Romans 9:14-24 “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 honour and another for dishonour? (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?”
A lot of Christians struggle with the biblical truth of predestination, for their understanding of the concept of predestination is that because God decides how an individual’s life turns out, that He creates robots. If we read the above quoted passage of scripture in isolation then it certainly seems as if God’s will prevails and man has no choice in the matter. This passage of scripture however must be read in conjunction with the others we have already looked at. When we read it in this light then we see that God hardens those whom He knows will not glorify Him as God. Pharaoh fell into this category and so God predestined his life accordingly. This passage of scripture reveals one of the methods that God uses to predestine the lives of men, for it tells us that it is God who hardens men’s hearts. In the same manner that God hardens the hearts of some, He also softens the hearts of others. But in all of it, God gives man his free choice. If you read the account of Moses and Pharaoh, you will see that time and again God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to repent, but nevertheless of his own free will Pharaoh refused to do so. Pharaoh is but one example of the lives of the wicked which God has predestined, for the scripture tells us that He has made all for Himself, even the wicked for the day of doom (Proverbs 16:4). In the same manner that God hardens the heart of the wicked, God shows mercy to those whom He knows will glorify Him as God. In other words, based on His foreknowledge of each one of His creations God predestines the lives of each one. But it goes even further than that. For not only does God know which of His creations will choose His perfect will, and which will not. But of those who choose His perfect will, He also knows which will serve Him wholeheartedly, and which will not. On the negative side, of those who choose to reject His perfect will, He also knows which will choose to become completely wicked. And so based on God’s foreknowledge of each one of us He then predestines the lives of His creations accordingly.
Michael E.B. Maher
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