Romans 9.19-How Can God Find Fault With Sinners Since No One Can Resist His Will
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 25, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:19-How Can God Find Fault With Sinners Since No One Can Resist His Will?
Lesson # 312
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
This evening we will begin a study of the fourth paragraph contained in Romans chapter nine by noting Romans 9:19 and in this passage Paul poses two rhetorical questions that are in response to his teaching in Romans 9:14-18.
In this passage he asks why does God still find fault with those who reject Him since who can ever resist His sovereign will.
Let’s read Romans 9:1-18 and then concentrate on verse 19 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:1-24, “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. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ 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? 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? 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? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”
Let’s concentrate now on verse 19.
Romans 9:19, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’”
Paul is saying in this rhetorical question that in light of the fact that God extends mercy to those whom He chooses to extend grace to and hardens those whom He chooses to harden, how can God possibly find fault with anyone for what he does when no one can resist His will?
First of all, in the first eight chapters of Romans, Paul makes clear that those whom God extends mercy to are those sinners who appropriate His grace by exercising faith in Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior and those who are hardened are those who reject Jesus as Savior.
In the first eight chapters, Paul makes clear that all of sinful humanity, whether Jew or Gentile are accountable for their actions and specifically for rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.
Here in Romans chapter nine however, he does not find it necessary to go back over this and considers this to be already implied but rather, here in chapter nine, he is now looking at things from God’s perspective in relation to His dealings with Israel.
Paul’s emphasis in chapter nine is to vindicate God’s righteousness in rejecting the nation of Israel for their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and to demonstrate that this is according to God’s sovereign will and figured into His decree.
Romans 9:19, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’”
In Romans 9:19, the noun boulema (boulhvma) (boo-lay-mah), “will” refers to the “divine decree,” which is God’s eternal and immutable will, regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.
In eternity past, God had figured into His plan every negative and positive decision towards His sovereign will exercised by every human being who have lived, are living and will live in the future, so as to fulfill His sovereign will and thus to bring glory to Himself.
God rendered certain to take place all every decision, both negative and positive that human beings would make during the course of their lifetimes and thus figured them into His plan.
God’s decree rendered all things as certain to occur and He decided that they would exist and so therefore, God rendered certain to occur all the various decisions that human beings would make during the course of their lifetime and God decided that these things would exist.
The divine decree took place in eternity past before anything was ever created and is God’s eternal and immutable will.
Therefore, it was a part of God’s plan from eternity past that some human beings would accept by faith Jesus Christ as their Savior and some who would reject Him as well.
The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works and so it was a part of God’s chosen and adopted plan that some would trust in Christ as Savior and some would not.
Those who did not, God is said to harden them and those who do accept Christ are those who appropriate His grace.
The decree of God is His eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatever comes to pass.
Therefore, it was part of God’s eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will for His own glory that it would take place that some people would trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and some would not.
The decree of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will (His sovereignty) and mentality (His omniscience) by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification.
Therefore, the fact some would accept Jesus Christ as Savior and some would not was the result of God’s sovereign will and omniscience by which this acceptance and rejection of Christ was brought into being and was controlled and made subject to God’s pleasure and glorified Him.
The “decree of God” is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, courses, conditions, successions, and relations and determining their certain futurition (i.e., that they will certainly take place).
When I say “comprehending” I mean that the omniscience of God is the source of the divine decrees by “determining” I mean that the sovereignty of God chose before anything existed which things would actually become historical events.
Therefore, the omniscience of God comprehended at once in eternity past that some people would reject Jesus Christ as Savior and some would not.
God also comprehended at once in eternity past the course that these events would take and their conditions and relations and determined that these events would take place.
Therefore, those who would trust in Christ as Savior and those who would not was sovereignly determined by God to take place and was known by God in eternity past before anything was created.
The will of God in common usage refers to what God desires of an individual or group in a particular situation.
In relation to the divine decree the will of God refers to the decision God made in eternity past, from His attribute of sovereignty, which established that certain things would actually come into being while other things would not.
The will of God is His sovereign choice as to what will take place in time.
God from His sovereignty decided in eternity past that each and every decision to either accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior would take place.
He also decided that this acceptance and rejection of Christ would take place in the exact time that they did.
God in eternity past decreed that angels and human beings would have volition and would be allowed to make decisions contrary to His sovereign will and without compromising His justice.
In giving angels and men volition, God decreed that their decisions, whatever they might be, would certainly take place-even those that are contrary to His desires.
Therefore, God decreed that some human beings would trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and some would not and that this would all take place in time and even those negative decisions, which were contrary to His desires.
His desire is that all men receive eternal salvation.
Being omniscient, God had the good sense to know ahead of time what men and angels would decide, and He not only decreed that those decisions would exist but He also decreed the exact manner, consistent with His integrity, in which He would handle their decisions.
Since God is omniscient He knew ahead of time the decisions that each and every member of the human race would make during the course of their lifetime and decreed that they would exist and He also decreed the exact manner in which He would handle their decisions.
Those who reject Christ, He hardens and those who accept Christ, He extends grace in the form of forgiveness of sins and eternal relationship and fellowship with Him.
Therefore, each and every positive and negative that a person would make during the course of their lifetime was a part of God’s sovereign will that is based upon His omniscient knowledge of all the facts concerning what will take place in the future.
The Lord knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible and thus has all knowledge of every event in human and angelic history.
Therefore, the Lord looked down the corridors of time and decreed to take place each and every positive and negative decision that a person would make during the course of his lifetime including those decisions to either accept or reject Christ as Savior.
Romans 9:19, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’”
No one can resist the sovereign will of God since in His omniscience He has figured into His plan in eternity past every decision that members of the human race will make during the course of their lifetimes, even those decisions to accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
Therefore, no one can resist the sovereign will of God since in relation to the divine decree God decided in eternity past, from His attribute of sovereignty that each and every decision to either accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior would take place.
No one can resist the sovereign will of God since each and every positive and negative that a person would make during the course of their lifetime was a part of God’s sovereign will that is based upon His omniscient knowledge of all the facts concerning what will take place in the future.
No one can resist the sovereign will of God since the Lord from His omniscience looked down the corridors of time and decreed to take place each and every positive and negative decision that a person would make during the course of his lifetime including those decisions to either accept or reject Christ as Savior.