Romans 9-11 is not about the saved and the unsaved, but about the Jews and the Gentiles. to this end, Romans 9-11 is not about individual election for salvation, but about corporate election for service. in this post, i will focus on Romans 9:14-21.
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
- Romans 9:14-21 (NIV)
a calvinist reading of Romans 9:14-21 would hold that some persons are chosen to glorify God by receiving His mercy whereas others are chosen to glorify Him by receiving His wrath. however, Romans 9:14-21 is really about how corporate election for service does not secure individual election for salvation.
When Paul asserts God's freedom to have mercy on whomever he wishes, Paul is not forging a doctrine of unconditional individual election but establishing God's freedom to pour out his mercy beyond the boundaries of Jewish ethnic identity. To those Jews who cherished a narrower version of God's mercy, Paul repeated God's word to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." There is a wideness in God's mercy!
- Walls and Dongell, Why I Am Not A Calvinist
in Romans 9:16, paul tells Jews who put their confidence in the flesh that 'it does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy'. in effect, paul is saying that salvation does not depend on works of the Old Covenant (keeping the law), but on works of the New Covenant (faith in Christ alone). this is consistent with the book of Romans as a whole.
"A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God." - Romans 2:28-39 (NIV)
in Romans 9:18, paul tells Jews - who think that God can only have mercy on Jews but not Gentiles, and that God can only harden Gentiles but not Jews - that 'God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden'.
just because Jews were corporately elected for service under the Old Covenant does not mean that they had to be individually elected for salvation under the New Covenant. at the same time, just because Gentiles were not corporately elected for service under the Old Covenant does not mean that they could not be individually elected for salvation under the New Covenant.
God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy (ie. both Jews and Gentiles who believe), and he hardens whom he wants to harden (ie. both Jews and Gentiles who do not believe).
"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." - Romans 5:19 (NIV)
"For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." - Romans 11:32 (NIV)
surely God has unlocked the prison of sin for all men!
at the potter's house
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
- Jeremiah 18:1-10 (NIV)
in Romans 9:19-21, paul reminds objectors that no one resists God's will. at this point, it is important to note that there is one will in two senses. just because no one resists God's decretive will does not mean that no one resists God's preceptive will.
paul is not saying that some persons are chosen to glorify God by receiving His mercy whereas others are chosen to glorify Him by receiving His wrath, and that we should just accept it. paul is saying that when the clay refuses to be moulded for noble purposes, it cannot later object that the potter does not want to use it for noble purposes.
likewise, when we resist God's preceptive (not decretive) will, we cannot later object that God does not want to use us according to His preceptive (not decretive) will.
a workman approved by God
"In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." - 2 Timothy 2:20-21 (NIV)
at the end of the day, the potter does 'have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use' (Romans 9:21, NIV). nonetheless, this is on the condition that 'a man cleanses himself from the latter' through faith in Christ alone.
and faith is indeed a work (of the New Covenant), just not a work (of the Old Covenant).
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