2 Chronicles 15:9-16:14; Romans 9:11-24; Psalms 20:1-6; Proverbs 9:13-18
NT: “What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden… And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory — on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:14-18, 22-24 CSB)
In chapter 9 of Romans, Paul began dealing with the issue of Israel’s rejection of Christ and the gentiles’ acceptance of Christ – and whether that was right or fair. After all, wasn’t Israel God’s chosen people? Had God set that election aside to now build His church with another people? God’s election of Israel was not based on anything that Israel had done. It was not because Israel was more righteous than the other nations of the world. Israel had not earned their elected status. In fact, in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God over the years, God maintained their elected status. Israel’s elected status was based on God’s sovereignty and nothing else. Sovereignty has to do with having supreme power and complete autonomy. God as Creator and Sustainer of all has supreme power and complete autonomy. He in His perfect righteousness and wisdom is free to show mercy to whom He desires and is free to have compassion on whom He desires, for no other reason than He desires to do so.
Another factor at play, along with God’s sovereignty, is human responsibility. God is sovereign, but He also gave humanity a free will. God can show mercy to whomever He desires, but man can choose to reject His mercy. Paul used the lives of Moses and Pharaoh as examples of both God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Moses and Pharaoh were both sinners… both were murderers. Neither was deserving of God’s mercy. God revealed Himself to Moses and Pharaoh. Moses responded to God with fear, humility and obedience. Pharaoh responded to God with pride, arrogance and hard-heartedness. As a result, Moses was shown mercy and Pharaoh was strengthened in his hard-hearted rejection. Pharaoh could have responded in humility, and he would have been known as one of History’s greatest emancipators – but instead, he hardened his heart and God used him as an example of God’s great power. Either way, God’s purposes would be fulfilled and His name glorified.
Men and women often have their own ideas of what is fair and just, and that idea of fairness and justice is based on their limited understanding and their own unrighteous state. Yet they arrogantly believe themselves to be more fair, more just, more righteous than God and get angry with God when He doesn’t meet their standards. God is incapable of being unjust or unrighteous, and in His sovereignty, many times He endures peoples’ unrighteous and arrogant behavior in order that His glory would be more fully known and His mercy more fully displayed to those He has called and chosen. Instead of judging God’s fairness, we should be judging our response to His revelation of mercy and glory. Are we responding in humility and faith, or are we hardening our hearts in rejection?
Jamie Hicks 
Jamie,
Please explain how God can be sovereign over His own created creatures (your definition of Gods sovereignty- “Sovereignty has to do with having supreme power and complete autonomy”) if man has a “free will” to reject Him.
Either God molds the vessels (honorable and dishonorable) or the vessels mold themselves. If there is such a thing as human “free will” as you state, it seems to me that either God is in control 💯 of the time or the creature is in control at some point. You can’t have it your cake and eat it to.
Isaiah 10 and Romans 9 both explain that God rules over His creatures and controls them (not like robots but by shaping their “desires” and “emotions” etc etc hence “causing them to do as He pleases).
The objector in Romans 9 rejects Gods sovereign unconditional election unto salvation prior to the person being born, prior to Jacob doing any kind of righteous act or Esau doing any kind of sinful act.
So what of this human “free-will” you so strongly speak of? When this free will is in action how can God be in complete power?
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Paul, Thanks for your comments and your question. I’m curious as to why you believe that sovereignty and free will cannot co-exist. As Creator and Sustainer of all creation, I do believe that God has supreme power – that no one nor no thing has greater power than He. Autonomy is freedom from external control. No one or no thing governs God. He governs Himself. God has supreme power and could control everything, but in His autonomy, He has chosen to give mankind free will. I don’t see any conflicts between God’s sovereignty and mankind’s free will. If there are, help me to see what I am missing.
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I agree, God is totally in control and He is making unconditionally vessels fitted out for destruction in order to show the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory.
God cannot make a creature with free Will or freedom from His Will-and still be God. He is making vessels. They don’t make themselves. The objector in Romans 9 understood this completely when he said “ Who can resist His Will ? And “Why did you make me like this?”
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There is a huge problem with your understanding of Gods sovereignty Jamie. Nowhere does the Scriptures teach that man controls his own destiny. However to the contrary, God has said that He is the sovereign ruler over all creatures and that He is the one in total control of their decisions (Proverbs 21:1) Let us look at an example out of Isaiah 10 in hopes that this will help pinpoint what your misunderstanding of who the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is.
“Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Now please notice that Assyria doesn’t know that God is controlling them and sending them as His rod of anger. To the contrary this kingdom believes in “free will” autonomy just as you do. But what is Gods answer to their thoughts of free will autonomy? God says, these people don’t intend to be My rod of anger and it does not even enter into their hearts to think so. The arrogant king who believes in free will puffs himself up and says we’ve cut down greater kingdoms whose idols and carved images were greater than Jerusalem and Samaria.
But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”
God now says, when I’m finished utilizing Assyria as the rod of my anger against Jerusalem He is going to punish the speech of the arrogant heart of this king. Why is God going to punish him, after all God is the one sending this army as the rod of his anger? Those who believe in free will autonomy will say, “God is being unjust because He is controlling Assyria to do this” and those who believe in free will will also say, “why does God still find fault with this king, for who can resist God’s will?” (Romans 9). Here we find the objector to Gods sovereign control over His own created creatures. The God haters always raise their objection at this point because the sovereign will of man must be the deciding factor to all decisions. Those who believe and defend free will at all cost lose all sense of direction at this point- for they allow their creator to control the elements but exalt man over their false god when it comes to all man made choices especially choices unto salvation. For he says, God is unjust to love Jacob and hate Esau prior to them being born – before they did anything good or bad. Why does God still find fault with Esau if God made him to be a rejected eternally lost non elect reprobate when he hadn’t done anything bad? The objector also says, “why does God still find fault with pharaoh since He made him this way?” And what is the true God of the Bible say to this objector- well let’s find out.
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he (the king of Assyria) says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”
Please notice that the king of Assyria boasts with his arrogance that “he has done this” and “he has done that” because he’s soooooooo strong and sooooooo wise.
And what is Gods answer to this free will boasting and to those who believe and defend the arrogance of free will?
God says:
Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!”
Isaiah 10:5-15 ESV
“But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—”
Romans 9:20-23 ESV
God is saying in a rhetorical way, the axe (the creature) cannot boast over him (God) who wields it! The saw (the creature) cannot magnify itself against him (God) who wields it! A rod (the creature) cannot wield him (God) who lifts it! And a staff (creature) cannot lift him (God) who is not wood!
Furthermore God is saying that “man cannot answer back to God” for “God is the Potter and man is the clay being molded into whatever vessel God so desires”
Your god must be a weak god for he cannot even mold his own created creatures. I use a small “g” because you do not believe in the true almighty God of the Bible who controls the hearts of his created creatures. Your god cannot even unconditionally sovereignly elect a single soul unto salvation. You believe that mans free will decision is the deciding factor between salvation and damnation. In fact, I will prove to you that you believe that the will of man is so sovereign that God cannot violate or control mans will. You actually believe in the sovereign will of man because the created creature exalts himself above his creator by this free will autonomy. You can’t have your cake and eat it too! Someone must be in control of the decision making and since you exalt man above your god you have believed the lie of Satan that “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5 ESV You have believed the lie of Satan that you will be like God with free will autonomy knowing good and evil.
Repent of believing a false gospel and another Jesus! And believe in the true God preached by the prophets and the apostles.
Paul
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I will agree that there are undoubtedly things about God’s sovereignty that I do not understand – but I do my best through diligent study of the scriptures, listening to teaching by men and women far more learned than me, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I commend you on your zeal for God. I can tell by your passionate response that you have a desire to see God receive the glory that is due His name. Based on your response, it seems like there may be some misunderstanding over what I mean by “free will.” I’ll chalk that up to the limited nature of my posts and my lack of writing prowess. I will attempt to clarify what I mean by free will, but I’m sure that even in my attempt to clarify, I will probably fall short. If you still disagree with me and find me in error, we’ll have to leave it at that.
When I say that God created mankind with free will, I do not mean absolute free will, where mankind has the ability to free himself from God’s sovereignty or escape from God’s judgement. Within the confines of God’s laws that govern and sustain all of creation, and God’s overriding sovereignty, mankind has the ability to submit to God’s Lordship or resist God’s Lordship, to walk according to God’s ways or walk contrary to God’s ways, and (as Moses stated in Deuteronomy 30:19-20) to choose between life and death, blessing or a curse.
In all of humanity’s good and bad choices, God is still sovereign and God’s purposes will ultimately be fulfilled. As the scriptures that you referenced point out, it is futile and foolish to resist and reject God, but people do it anyway… all the time. Yet God is able, in the midst of a world that by-and-large resists Him, to orchestrate events and steer peoples hearts to accomplish His plans. In the end, all will be held accountable for the choices they made and everyone (whether they rejected God’s Lordship or not) will bow down and declare Jesus Christ as Lord. From what I can see in the scriptures, saying that mankind has the freedom to choose or reject God does not minimize His sovereignty – it actually magnifies it.
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Jamie, you do not understand what Gods sovereignty means at all. For you continue to bow the knee to the sovereign will of man by your statement when you say,
“Within the confines of God’s laws that govern and sustain all of creation, and God’s overriding sovereignty, mankind has the ability to submit to God’s Lordship or resist God’s Lordship, to walk according to God’s ways or walk contrary to God’s ways, and (as Moses stated in Deuteronomy 30:19-20) to choose between life and death, blessing or a curse.“ Please do yourself a favor and stop listening to false teachers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, I hope you will allow me to explain this to you later (Matthew 7).
We both agree that unregenerate man shakes his fist at God all day long for the Scriptures say that all have sinned, no one seeks after God, none is good no not one….. (Romans 3).
However, you believe contrary to Scripture when you interpret Deut 30 through the lens of “free will.” God in no way was saying that man had the freedom to choose Him apart from God decreeing them to do so. I will get to that in a second.
But first let me point out that the Scriptures teach that “man cannot submit to Gods law for he does not have the ability to do so because the natural man does not have the Holy Spirit.” All unregenerate people are in the flesh 💯 percent of the time and they are hostile to the true God of the Bible. This is not to say that there are not many people who are religious, what this means is that unregenerate whether atheist or religious do not seek after the true sovereign God who works all things after the counsel of His own will. I will soon prove to you that you too being a very religious man are hostile to the true sovereign God of the Bible. Your are the very rejector that the apostle Paul points out in Romans 9.
Now to exegesis Deuteronomy 30:19-20. Those standing before Moses who were unregenerate walking in the flesh could only reject God and choose death. You assume that the unregenerate had some sort of free will ability to choose God and life. Deuteronomy does not explain to us why some chose life and the others chose death. In order to understand why the creature chooses life or death we must turn to passages of full mention such as Isaiah 10, John 6, Romans 3, 8, and 9. Let me prove to you why the regenerate chose life and the unregenerate chose death.
Those who chose life that day did so because of Gods unconditional sovereign election. God chose them in eternity past before they did anything good or bad. A great example of this is found in Romans 9 when Paul explains that God regenerated according to His will not mans will, He saves His elect according to His mercy not mans will.
“This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.””
Romans 9:8-11, 13 ESV
Notice that Paul says that God elects Jacob before he did anything good “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue…..not because of [human] works (“So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” Romans 9:16 ESV) but because of Him (God) who calls “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” Romans 9:15 ESV. God chose in eternity past , in His most wonderful counsel to mercy and love Jacob. God sovereignly and unconditionally chose to mercy and compassion Jacob, better known as regeneration.
So those who chose God and life that day were sovereignly and unconditionally chosen by God to do so- In order that God’s purpose of election might continue not because of human (free) will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
“Do not grumble among yourselves (Jamie). No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:43-44 ESV. The Father effectually drew those who chose life that day because they were regenerated- given the Holy Spirit and had already been given a new heart, the circumcised heart of flesh so that God would cause them to walk in His statutes and obey His rules (see Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Now the unregenerate like Esau set their minds on the things of the flesh and are hostile toward God as it says
“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7-8 ESV
Esau does not have this imaginary free will and ability to choose God and life as you so exhaustively make mention of. And why will Esau always choose death and why will he always reject the sovereign God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? The answer is so plain to see- “BECAUSE GOD HATES ESAU” and has made him this way to be a vessel of dishonorable use (Romans 9:13,21).
At this point you who believe in “free will” and autonomy will say, “there is unjustice on Gods part!” because if man does not have free will then he cannot be held accountable for his actions. “You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” Romans 9:19 ESV.
Jamie- I have now proven to you that you are the objector the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans 9. You cannot accept and worship the sovereign God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You have been worshipping another Jesus and you hav believed another gospel- one that exalts man above the true and almighty God. You have believed in a false god for you have believed the lies of men who preach lies who are false teachers. Please see Matthew 7:15-20 as I would love to elaborate on this subject in my next comment.
And what is God’s answer to you the objector of His unconditional sovereign election? Who are you Jamie, to answer back to God!
“But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—”
Romans 9:20-23 ESV
I will say this in ending: anyone who believes that salvation depends or is conditioned on human will or exertion and not on God alone by His sovereign unconditional mercy, is lost.
Repent of believing another Jesus and repent of believing a false gospel and repent of believing in a false god. Believe the true Gospel and the true Jesus!
Paul
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Could Pharaoh have changed his heart from being hardened?
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