Romans 9:14 - Meaning and Application

The apostle has already explained the true meaning of the promise. Now he goes on to defend and prove God’s complete right to deal with people as he chooses, especially as it affects their eternal state. Here we must think of God not mainly as a ruler handing out rewards and punishments by his revealed law and covenant, but as the Owner and Giver who bestows grace and favor according to his secret, eternal will and plan. This includes both visible membership in the church, which he gives to some people and not to others, and saving grace, which he gives to some and not to others.

Paul is answering two objections. The first is this: Is there injustice with God? If God chooses some and passes over others in this way, could that mean he is unfair? Paul is shocked by the thought. “God forbid,” he says. We should never think such a thing. The Judge of all the earth will do what is right (Genesis 18:25; Romans 3:5-6).

Paul denies the charge and then proves his denial. In the case of those to whom God shows mercy, he quotes Scripture to show God’s freedom in giving his favor: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (Exodus 33:19). God’s reasons for mercy come from within himself. Since all people are alike sunk in sin and misery, equally guilty and under God’s anger, God sovereignly chooses some from this fallen race to become vessels of grace and glory. He gives his gifts to whom he wills, without first explaining his reasons. By his own good pleasure, he chooses some to be monuments of mercy and grace, including preventing grace, that is, grace that comes before and awakens us, and effectual grace, that is, grace that truly saves, while he passes over others.

The wording is very strong because it is repeated: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” It shows that God’s will is completely free and absolute. He does what he pleases, and no one can demand an account from him. Just as the words “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14) show God’s absolute independence in his being, so these words show his absolute right and authority in his will. To defend God’s righteousness in showing mercy to whom he chooses, Paul appeals to what God himself has said. God is a fit judge even in his own case. Whatever God does, or plans to do, is proven right by his own word.

The result is clear. When God begins to show mercy, he finishes what he starts. So his mercy lasts forever, because its reason is found in himself, not in us. For that reason, his gifts and calling are without repentance, that is, he does not change his mind about them. Paul then draws this conclusion: it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs. Any good that comes from God to man cannot be credited to man’s strongest desire or hardest effort, but only to God’s free grace and mercy. In Jacob’s case, the blessing did not come because Rebecca wanted it badly, or because Jacob ran fast to get it. God’s mercy made the difference.

This same rule applies to the case Paul is discussing. The reason the undeserving Gentiles, that is, the non-Jewish nations, are called and brought into the church while most Jews are left to perish in unbelief is not that the Gentiles deserved it more or were better prepared for it. It is because God’s free grace made the difference. The Gentiles did not will it or run for it, for they were sitting in darkness (Matthew 4:16). People in darkness do not know what they are to want, and those sitting still are not running toward anything. Yet God met them with these priceless blessings of goodness. This is how God’s grace works for all who receive it, for he is found by those who did not seek him (Isaiah 65:1). In this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, God acts as a benefactor whose grace belongs to him alone. Therefore, our eye must not be resentful because his is kind. All the grace we or others receive must bring glory to him: “Not to us” (Psalm 115:1).

The second objection concerns those who perish. God’s sovereignty is shown in the ruin of sinners, and Paul uses Pharaoh as an example, quoting Exodus 9:16. Notice what God did with Pharaoh. He raised him up, brought him into the world, made him powerful and famous, and gave him a kingdom. He set him up like a signpost for judgment, a public example of his plagues, and he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, just as he had said he would (Exodus 4:21). That is, God withdrew softening grace, left Pharaoh to himself, let Satan work on him, and placed hardening events before him. Or, when Scripture says God raised him up, it may mean that God gave Pharaoh repeated pauses from judgment, delaying the plagues and giving him time to repent. In the Hebrew, the phrase means, “I have made you stand,” or kept you alive in the land of the living.

God also raises up sinners for himself in outward prosperity and in external privileges, which are mercies even when they are not saving mercies. He did this with Pharaoh in order to show his power in him. By all this, God served the honor of his name and displayed his power by breaking the pride and arrogance of a great tyrant who defied heaven itself and trampled on what was just and holy. If Pharaoh had not been so high, bold, and stubborn, God’s power would not have been shown so clearly in his downfall. But bringing down such a proud ruler did declare God glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders (Exodus 15:11). “This is Pharaoh, and all his army.”

Paul’s conclusion for both cases is this: God has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. The different ways God deals with people, and thus makes some differ from others, must be traced back to his absolute sovereignty. He owes nothing to anyone. His grace is his own, and he may give it or withhold it as he pleases. None of us have deserved it. In fact, we have all many times forfeited it. So in the work of salvation, everything is wonderfully ordered: those who are saved must thank God alone, and those who perish must blame themselves alone (Hosea 13:9).

We are bound, as God has bound us, to do everything we can for the salvation of all we deal with. But God is bound no further than he has chosen to bind himself by his own covenant and promise, which is his revealed will. That promise is that he will receive and not turn away those who come to Christ. Still, the drawing of souls so that they come is a special, undeserved favor given to whom he wills.

Did he show mercy to the Gentiles? It was because he willed to show them mercy. Were the Jews hardened? It was because it pleased him to withhold softening grace and to give them over to the unbelief they had chosen. “Even so, Father, for it seemed good in your sight.” This is well explained in (Luke 10:21), and like this passage, it shows God’s sovereign will in giving or withholding both the means of grace and the saving blessing that comes through them.

Another objection may be raised: Why does he still blame people? For who has resisted his will? (Romans 9:19). If the apostle were arguing only for God’s sovereignty in setting the terms of acceptance and salvation, this objection would have no force. God would be right to blame people if they refused the terms of such a great salvation, because the terms could not be hard. But the objection has some force against the teaching that God gives special, effective grace to some and withholds it from others.

If God gives effective grace to some and denies it to others, why does he blame those to whom he denies it? If he has rejected the Jews and hidden from their eyes the things that belong to their peace, why blame them for their blindness? If it is his pleasure to set them aside as not his people and as not receiving mercy, then their setting themselves against him would not be resistance to his will. The apostle answers this objection fully.

First, he rebukes the objector: “No, but, O man” (Romans 9:20). This is not a question fit for a creature to raise against his Creator, or for man to raise against God. The truth found in Jesus humbles man as nothing, less than nothing, and lifts God up as sovereign Lord over all. Notice how sharply he speaks of man when he dares to argue with God his Maker. Who are you, weak, foolish, and short-sighted, to judge God’s counsels? Can you measure such a deep matter or trace the path of God through the sea and his way through the great waters? It is not for us to answer back to God. We should submit to him, lie low under his hand, and not charge him with foolishness. God is our Master, and we are his servants, so servants should not answer back (Titus 2:9).

Second, he explains everything by God’s sovereign right. We are the thing formed, and he is the former, the one who shapes us. It is not for us to challenge his wisdom in shaping and ordering us into this form or that. The rough, unformed mass of clay has no right to demand one shape or another. It is shaped by the will of the one who forms it. God’s rule over us is well pictured by the potter’s power over the clay, and this is like (Jeremiah 18:6), where God claims his rule over the Jewish nation as he prepared to show his justice in their destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.

He first gives the comparison in (Romans 9:21). The potter, from the same lump, may make one vessel for honorable use and another for common use. He acts freely, just as he could have chosen not to make any vessel at all, or could have left the clay where it was dug out. Then comes the application in (Romans 9:22-24). God forms two kinds of vessels out of the great mass of fallen humanity.

First are vessels of wrath, that is, people filled with wrath, as a wine vessel is filled with wine. They are full of the Lord’s fury (Isaiah 51:20). In them, God is willing to show his wrath, meaning his punishing justice and his hatred of sin. This must be shown before all the world, so that it is plain God hates sin. He also makes his power known, a power of strength and active force, the power that carries out the destruction of those who perish. Their eternal punishment will strongly display God’s power, for he will act directly in it. His wrath will press on guilty consciences, and his arm will be stretched out to destroy their well-being, while still preserving their existence in a terrible way. To this end, God endured them with much patience. He let them go on until they filled up the measure of their sin and grew ripe for ruin. In that way, they became fit for destruction through their own sin and hardening. A soul’s ruling corruption and wickedness prepare it for hell. It becomes like dry, flammable material ready for the fire. When Christ said to the Jews, “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers,” so that all righteous blood might come upon them (Matthew 23:32, 35), he was, as it were, enduring them with much patience, letting their stubborn sin prepare them for destruction.

Second are vessels of mercy, that is, people filled with mercy. The happiness given to the saved remnant is not the fruit of their merit, but of God’s mercy. All the joy and glory of heaven rise from that mercy that lasts forever. Vessels of honor must forever confess that they are vessels of mercy.

Notice, first, what God designs in them, to make known the riches of his glory, meaning the riches of his goodness. God’s goodness is his greatest glory, especially when he gives it freely and with full sovereignty. Moses said, “Show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18). God answered, “I will make all my goodness pass before you” (Exodus 33:19), and he would give it freely: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” God shows this glory, this goodness, in preserving and supplying all creatures. The earth is full of his goodness, and the year is crowned with it. But when he wants to show the riches of his goodness, its unsearchable riches, he does it in the salvation of the saints, who will be eternal monuments of divine grace.

Second, what he does for them, he does by first preparing them for glory. Sanctification is the preparation of the soul for glory, making it fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light. This is God’s work. We can ruin ourselves quickly enough, but we cannot save ourselves.

Sinners prepare themselves for hell, but God prepares his saints for heaven. And everyone whom God plans for heaven, he also fits for it now. He works in them to bring about that very result (2 Corinthians 5:5).

If you want to know who these vessels of mercy are, they are the people whom he has called (Romans 9:24). Those whom he foreknew and chose beforehand, he also called with an effective call. And these are not Jews only, but Gentiles too. The barrier between them has been torn down, so the world is now open to all. God’s favor is no longer set apart for the Jews, as if they stood a step closer to his acceptance than everyone else.

Now Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level. The main question is no longer whether someone is descended from Abraham. What matters is whether a person is called according to God’s purpose.