Romans 9.18-God Has Mercy On Whomever He Desires And Hardens Whomever He Desires
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 24, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:18-God Has Mercy On Whomever He Desires And Hardens Whomever He Desires
Lesson # 311
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
This evening we will note Romans 9:18 and in this passage Paul teaches that God extends grace to whomever He desires and He hardens whomever He desires.
Let’s read Romans 9:1-18 and then concentrate on verse 18 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:1-18, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: ‘THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.’ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: ‘AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.’ And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.’ Just as it is written, ‘JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.’ 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. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
Let’s now concentrate on verse 18.
Romans 9:18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
“So then” is composed of the “inferential” particle ara (a&ra) (ar-ah), “so” and the “emphatic” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), “then.”
The particle ara is inferential suggesting that the statement to follow is a conclusion or inference from Paul’s teaching in Romans 9:15-17 and the conjunction oun is emphatic meaning that it is “emphasizing” the inference to follow.
“He has mercy on” is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb eleeo (e)leevw) (el-eh-eh-o), which means, “to be gracious to” those sinners who exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
This grace is in the form of the forgiveness of sins and being entered into an eternal relationship and fellowship with God.
“On whom” is the relative pronoun hos (o^$) (hos), which does not have an antecedent and refers to those sinners who appropriate the grace of God for themselves by exercising faith alone in Christ alone.
That this word refers to those who appropriate the grace of God through faith alone in Christ alone and not the entire human race is indicated in that Paul is illustrating his premise in Romans 9:6 that not all “racial” or “ethnic” Israel is considered by God to be “spiritual” Israel who are the “spiritual descendants of Abraham” and the “children of the promise.”
Romans 9:18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
“He desires” is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb thelo (qevlw) (thel-o), which means “to choose” since it refers to the exercise of God’s sovereign will in extending grace to those who accept by faith His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“And” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s statement in the first part of the verse.
Paul doesn’t employ the conjunction alla since he does not want to convey a “strong” contrast.
Rather, he uses de because he wants to convey a contrast but not a strong one since he wants to emphasize that God’s righteousness and sovereignty are expressed towards sinners in either of one of two ways.
“He hardens” is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb skleruno (sklhruvnw) (sklay-roo-no), which is used in respect to God and refers to His action in rendering the sinner insensitive to His word for rejecting His word and that if not reversed results in eternal condemnation.
The greatest example in Scripture of this hardening is that of Pharaoh of Egypt who refused to obey the command of the Lord through Moses and Aaron to release the nation of Israel from her bondage in Egypt.
The Scriptures teach that God hardened Pharaoh (Exodus 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:8).
There were prophecies that God would do this to Pharaoh (Exodus 4:21; 7:3).
However, the Scriptures also teach that Pharaoh would harden himself (Exodus 7:13, 14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34, 35).
In many of these passages the passive form of the verb in the phrase “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” in these passages express Pharaoh’s response to what God has done through the ten plagues.
God’s hardening of Pharaoh is the result of Pharaoh first hardening himself in the sense of rejecting over and again God’s command to release the nation of Israel from her bondage to him in Egypt.
God permitted Pharaoh to exercise his volition repeatedly to reject His command to release the nation of Israel from her bondage in Egypt.
God’s hardening was His response to Pharaoh’s hardening or in other words, it was in response to Pharaoh’s repeatedly rejecting His command to release the nation of Israel from her bondage in Egypt.
Thus, God’s hardening is a manifestation of His wrath, i.e. righteous indignation towards sin and is an expression of His holiness.
God used Pharaoh’s evil actions and negative volition to glorify Himself in the sense that through Pharaoh’s disobedience to His commands, God manifested His omnipotence in delivering Israel from her bondage to Pharaoh’s Egypt.
Repeated sinning as in Pharaoh’s case hardens the conscience so that it becomes “seared” like scar tissue (1 Timothy 4:2).
To continually reject God’s truth as Pharaoh did causes the conscience to become progressively calloused, hardened and less sensitive to sin, as if covered with layers of unspiritual scar tissue.
In Romans 9:18, Paul uses this example of God hardening Pharaoh because in context in Romans 9-11 he is speaking of the nation of Israel’s rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah in his day and is defending God’s righteousness in rejecting the nation for rejecting Jesus Christ.
In Paul’s day God had hardened unregenerate Israel for her rejection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, as their Messiah just as He hardened Pharaoh’s heart for Pharaoh rejecting His revelation of Himself and command to release the nation of Israel.
Romans 9:18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
“On whom” is the accusative masculine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (o^$) (hos), which does not have an antecedent and refers to those sinners whom God hardens as a result of rejecting His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior.
That this word refers to those whom God rejects as a result of rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior is indicated in that Paul is illustrating his premise in Romans 9:6 that not all “racial” or “ethnic” Israel is considered by God to be “spiritual” Israel who are the “spiritual descendants of Abraham” and the “children of the promise.”
“He desires” is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb thelo (qevlw) (thel-o), which means “to choose” since it refers to the exercise of God’s sovereign will in hardening those who first harden themselves and reject Jesus Christ as their Savior.
In Romans 9:18, Paul summarizes his teaching in Romans 9:14-17 by teaching that God extends grace to whomever He chooses to extend mercy to and He hardens whomever He chooses to harden.
Those whom He extends grace to are those sinners who appropriate His grace by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and those whom He hardens are those sinners who fail to appropriate His grace by rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior.
Thus, God is never unrighteousness in His dealings with sinners as Paul argues in Romans 9:14 and if so then He was certainly not unrighteousness when rejecting the nation of Israel for rejecting His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
Neither is He unrighteous or unjust in exercising His wrath towards unregenerate Israel, nor is He unrighteous or unjust for exercising grace in the form of the forgiveness of sins towards those who Jews who accept His Son as Savior.