GOD’S ETERNAL DECREES

ROMANS 9:16–21

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?”

(Romans 9:19).

In our earlier lessons from Romans 9 we saw that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, not by forcing him to sin against his will, but by withdrawing the restraints of common grace. God simply let Pharaoh do what he always wanted to do, which was to harden his heart (Romans 9:17–18). Paul now raises an objection, one that is very important for us to consider.

Much confusion surrounds the doctrine of predestination because of the way we think about humanity. When we consider the mass of mankind, we think of it in a state of original righteousness and innocence. We imagine God considering this innocent race of people and saying, “I’m going to take this group over here and make sure that they are saved and go to be with Me in heaven, and I’m going to take this other group and make sure they continue in sin, and eventually I’m going to send them to hell.” In other words, we think of God contemplating an innocent human race.

The Proper Biblical Perspective

This is not what the Bible and historic Augustinian Christianity teaches. Rather, God makes His decree in light of the Fall. When God made His decree of election, He was contemplating a willfully disobedient, corrupt mass of humanity. It was as if God said, “Out of this mass of sinful and doomed humanity, I’m going to extend My grace to some and withhold it from others. I will give mercy to some, and to the others I will give justice.”

Why does God blame us? Why does He find fault? Because there is fault in us. Who can resist His will? Well, ultimately no one can, but that is not the point here. Could Judas have resisted God’s will? In one sense, yes, he could have if he had wanted to. But that’s the whole point: Judas did not want to do good. Judas did what Judas wanted to do.

CORAM DEO

Paul warns us that we cannot expect to understand this mystery from God’s point of view. Romans 9:20 simply says, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” We can get some insight into the matter, as we have seen, but ultimately predestination is God’s business, not ours. When you pray today, confess to God that He and He alone is God, and ask Him to help you leave His concerns in His hands.

For further study: Isaiah 64:1–9; Jeremiah 18:1–10

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