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19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
“God doesn’t owe us a single thing. We are all deserving of hell. We don’t have any reason to complain to God if He threw the lot of us there. In our fallen state though we know God, we deliberately do not honor Him as God. (Romans 1) Just because God decides to make Himself known to some only makes Him merciful to some (justice to others) because we all deserve hell.
Romans 9:14-16 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
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19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
That is what Romans 9 is all about. If we understood the holiness of our wonderful God and our wretched sinfulness, we would be like the tax collector pleading with God to be merciful to us as sinners. Instead, God gives us His Son and we killed Him. And then we say it’s not fair for God to thrown some in Hell?”___HarleyD
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HarleyD,
* Magnificent post.
* I am with you 100% in the spirit of what you wrote.
* God’s Grace and Mercy is wonderful.
* We all deserve God’s Justice.
* Instead of Justice, I beg God for His Mercy and His Grace.
* We have Mercy and Grace in the Lord Jesus.
JAG
The word "if" is used, signifying a choice that had to be made. God knowing the hearts of all men beforehand, knew Pharaoh's heart, and He knew forcing Pharaoh to make a decision would harden Pharaoh's heart. Thus it was God's command to let the people go, that hardened Pharaoh's heart. In each case where Pharaoh was given two alternatives, there was no judgement until after Pharaoh made a choice.
The foreknowledge of God is not to be mistaken for no choice. Even though God knows beforehand what the choice will be; else, why would He say, "Choose ye this day whom you will serve. God brings judgement after actions; indeed, why should he wait, or why offer choices at all if no decisions are to be made by those given a choice of two different fates?
Allow me to clarify one other thing, after which, I will pose a couple questions. I do agree with you on some points. multiple scriptures state:
There is no good thing in us.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
We do not choose God, he chooses us.
It is His Spirit that works in us to will, not our own will.
So then, we cannot come to God except the Spirit draw us and and work in us — for it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
That leaves the question:
Can we choose the Devil?
And if we do so, is that our will?