Romans 9: Does God Harden People into Reprobation?

Romans 9: Does God Harden People into Reprobation?

Contra Total Depravity, part 5

Romans 9-11 is often a go-to passage for Calvinists to defend their doctrine of election and Total Depravity. Romans 9:18 says, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Romans 11:7-8 says, “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.’” In 9:19 it says, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” John MacArthur replies to this saying, “The objection is: How can God blame anyone for sin and unbelief when He has sovereignly determined that person’s destiny?” Therefore, for the Calvinist, the reason some people are not saved and left in unbelief is because God has preemptively chosen not to save them or extend His grace upon them to illumine their understanding or nature so that they might believe. Instead, He has specifically chosen those people from their very birth to be vessels of wrath to display the glory of His wrath upon them. But is this what Paul is saying in Romans?

What is this hardening about? Does God harden and blind people from birth so that they are incapable of seeing the truth so as to believe? I do not believe so because within the context, they were hardened for what reason? They were not chosen by God and they were rejected for what reason? For their unbelief. Romans 11:20 says, “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.” So then, it was for their unbelief that they were rejected, not because God did not preemptively choose them before the foundation of the world to be saved.

But how is this faith attained? Does God predetermine to give it to some and to withhold it from others? How can that be when Paul says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved’”? (Ro 10:12-13). Salvation is dependent upon whoever calls upon the name of the Lord. So how do we reconcile this when Paul says, “So then it does not depend on the man who will or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy”? (9:16). Who is the man who wills? It is people like the Jews who pursue God but do not obtain salvation because they pursued God in their self-righteousness, seeking to be justified through the law (9:30-33). God has rejected that as a means unto salvation. And then the man that runs is the Gentile and the Greek. It is the person who does not know God, who was not seeking God, was living in all their sin, and running in the opposite direction of God. Yet if they were to believe the good news that was preached to them and call upon the name of the Lord, they would be saved. So then, the man who wills is the Jew and the man who runs is the Gentile. But God’s election of grace has been arranged in such a way that all can only obtain this righteousness by grace through faith. That is God’s elected means to show mercy. It is those who have chosen to reject this means of salvation that God has rejected. But they are not rejected because of God rejecting them first. They are rejected because of their refusal to enter in through faith because of either being like the Jew, seeking to establish a righteousness of their own, or being like a Gentile, suppressing the truth about God in their own unrighteousness (1:18). This is why Paul can confidently say, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him” (10:12). This is why it does not depend upon the man who wills. It is not enough to want the promises of salvation like the Jews because if that person does not enter through faith, then they will not enter at all. And it does not depend upon the man who runs. God does not show favoritism to that group either to save them. It is not on the basis of their running that they are saved nor on the basis of their irreligiosity or uncircumcision that they are either saved or rejected. But rather, they must enter by the same door of faith as anyone else. God has chosen faith to be the means unto salvation and so salvation depends upon this means of mercy which is by faith. Salvation and true righteousness are dependent upon God’s mercy, not upon human effort or lack of effort. Both the self-righteous and the sinner can come to God but they can only come through faith because that is the only means to receive God’s grace.

What is the whole situation in Romans 9 by which Paul perceives some may argue against him saying that there is injustice with God? What is this misperceived injustice? It is the very fact that the promises of the covenant were given to Israel and they were God’s representatives to bring salvation throughout the earth. The promises were given to the descendants of Abraham but Paul is now saying that it is not the physical descendants who inherit the promise but spiritual descendants, those who receive the promises by faith. Some might think this to be unfair for God to do, to reject His chosen people, and now offer the promises to a people who do not know God and who are not physically descended from Abraham. But Paul is saying here that if God wants to show mercy to all, He can show mercy to all. It is His prerogative to do that. He can show His mercy upon whomever He desires. In a similar way to how God elected that through Isaac the promises would come, so also God has elected that the promises would be inherited through faith.

But what about the hardening? Who does God harden? Those who reject His salvation which comes through faith. This would be the Gentiles in Romans 1 but more specifically in Romans 9-11, it is the Israelites being hardened (9:18; 11:7, 25). Paul first presents this idea by giving the example of Pharoah as someone whom God hardened. But if we look at Exodus 8, we see that before God hardened Pharoah’s heart, Pharoah hardened his own heart multiple times (Ex 8:15, 32). Then after this it says that the Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart (Ex 9:12; 10:20; 14:4). This is called Judicial Hardening. The evil decisions were already made at this point by Pharoah hardening his own heart and so God does not change the will of Pharoah to choose the evil that he wants but when God hardens a person’s heart, He has at this point made a judgement against them and withdrawn Himself from them so that they continue to operate by their evil desires. This action of God ensures that His future plans will come to fulfillment. In the case of Pharoah, God desired to demonstrate His power in such a way that the rest of the earth would hear about it and might reject their other gods to accept the One true God. Therefore, the end purpose to which God hardened Pharoah’s heart was to bring truth and salvation to the world.

In this situation here in Romans, many of the Jews had already hardened their own hearts by rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. Because of their continuance in unbelief and self-righteousness, God used them to fulfill His sovereign purposes to crucify Jesus on the cross so that salvation could come to the ends of the earth. God was using an already hardened people to bring about His purpose yet He also was active in their hardening as well through Jesus speaking to them in parables so that they would not understand. At least, for that short period of time, it was necessary that they not accept Jesus as their Messiah. Otherwise, Jesus would not have been crucified to bring salvation to the world. But once Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, God’s active hardening was no longer needed, and so whoever would come to Him could receive salvation. But nonetheless, even after this, the Jews were still hardened in their unbelief by hardening themselves.

It is from this backdrop of Judicial Hardening that some people might interject saying that it is unjust for God to do something like that, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” (9:19). Paul answers this by saying that God has a right over the pottery to do as He pleases since He is the one who molded them. But this analogy with the potter and the clay is not something new from Paul. It was something previously spoken of in the book of Jeremiah and Isaiah.

In Jeremiah 18, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and tells him to go to the potter’s house and observe. So Jeremiah goes and sees the potter making something on the potter’s wheel. It was a clay vessel but it became spoiled in the hand of the potter, and so the potter refashioned the vessel into something that it could be used for. God attributes this clay vessel in the potter’s hand as Israel in His own hands. Israel had become corrupt and because of this, the clay had become spoiled. God did not create them spoiled but they became so by their wickedness. God said that if people turn from their evil, then God would relent concerning the calamity that He would bring upon them. But if they would not repent, then God would fashion them to be vessels of wrath for destruction. So then, their destiny was not set beforehand by God at their creation but they formed their own destiny based upon their evil actions. God had intended to make them into something good but they did not submit to God, and the clay became corrupted in the potter’s hand. As a result, God could no longer fashion them into what He originally intended but would have to fashion them some other way. They would have been vessels for honorable use but because of their sin, God made them into vessels for dishonorable use—He made them into crude pots.

If we take this background information and apply it into Romans 9, we will see that it does not countervail human free-will. God is simply using people according to the choices they have already made and according to the condition of their already hardened hearts. The free-will aspect here is also supported by the fact that God is said to endure with much patience. But how can one endure something that they have deterministically caused? If they deterministically caused it, then they would merely be enduring against their own result in which they had caused. In doing so, they are effectively enduring against their own will and against their own self. But that seems like a ridiculous conclusion to make. Therefore, the reason God endures with much patience is because humanity resists Him and they do not become what God intends that they should be. For this reason, they have made themselves into vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Because they would not repent, God changed His intention for them so that now they are headed towards destruction.

So here is the situation: The Israelites were used by God and hardened in their unbelief to crucify Jesus. Since God is the potter and this clay had become corrupt, God used the clay how He saw fit in this way. However, their continued disobedience is all on them since God constantly remains abounding in riches to forgive all who call upon Him (10:12). But all the covenant blessings and promises have come to the Gentiles to make the Jews jealous so that they might repent and turn to God (10:19; 11:11). But what is even the point or effectual influence of jealousy for if people were previously determined by God to believe or determined by God not to believe? At this point, moving Israel to jealousy is a redundant matter.

Though God had rejected Israel because of their unbelief, they would be accepted by God if they did not continue in unbelief (9:32; 11:23). God’s effort in moving them to jealousy is for the purpose of showing mercy to all, to as many as will come to Him (11:32). Therefore, His ultimate desire is for them not to be vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But if that is the only purpose they can fulfill, then that shall be the purpose that they fulfill. But even with that purpose, good comes out of it to the whole world. Because of Israel’s rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah, the riches of God’s glory were made known to the whole world so that His mercy would abound to many more (9:22-23).

This is far from the cry and accusation of God being unjust, unloving, or unmerciful. God’s actions are the exact opposite of that accusation. Nor has God’s love and grace departed from Israel as Paul says, “from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:28-29). And “if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (11:15). God has certainly not forgotten about them and nor are any of them doomed from the womb. People are hardened because of their sin and unbelief. They are not hardened from birth. Anyone has the opportunity to come to God if they do not remain in unbelief.

But if Israel is “beloved,” then why does Paul say of God in Romans 9:13 “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” comparing Esau to Israel? Is that a contradiction? No. God still loves Israel. The “hate” is not about how He personally dislikes them. It’s about His choice to choose one people group to bring about the promises and the truth of Yahweh to the world and not choosing the other. Here, it was a choice to use a nation for service, not about a choice to condemn an entire people group or specific individuals to hell. What Paul is saying here is that now God has chosen the Gentiles as His representative people to bring the truth of God throughout the world instead of Israel, and this is by God’s gracious choice since all those who believed also received the promises of God by faith. God could use and save the Gentiles if He wants to since He is the potter and the promises and mercy God has granted is not about ethnicity as God is not one to show partiality. The Gentiles do not deserve God’s mercy in the same way that the Israelites never deserved God’s mercy. That is why it is called mercy. God does not owe special privileges to any particular group.

What Paul really has in mind in this chapter is not about individualistic election to salvation but corporate election to service and to the availability of attaining the righteousness of God through faith. God also used Israel for a time to bring about His plan of salvation through their hardness of hearts and God was completely just in doing so because He did not countervail the will of mankind but rather, repurposed their evil to bring about good at the proper time.

So what is God’s hardening? It is letting people have their own way just like He allowed Pharoah to have his own way and how He allows the Gentiles who suppress the truth in their own unrighteousness to have their own way. God gives them over to their sin and unbelief. He does not intervene because of their stubbornness of heart. But as I previously mentioned in Romans 1, people did not start out from birth with hardened hearts or reprobate minds but it was a progression that developed in them through sin and unbelief. This is when the clay becomes corrupted and God refashions it to bring about His good purposes in the end. This refashioning is not about God deciding their eternal destiny to be hell. Rather, it is God letting them have their way so that their hearts become solidified in their evil for at least a time so that God can make His name known far and wide across the earth like He did with Pharoah in humiliating every other false god and like He did with the crucifixion of Jesus to bring salvation to the world.

Overall, Romans 9 is not about God restricting His grace and mercy to people. If you are reading it that way, you are reading it wrong. Instead, it is about God making good out of evil and showing His abundant grace and mercy to many more. This is what the Israelite was theoretically arguing against because of his snobbery. But God is like, no, I can do that if I want to and you can’t stop me. I can have mercy on whomever I want to have mercy on and regardless if you are a descendant from Abraham, I can choose to harden you because of your sin and unbelief if I want to harden you in that. And I am just in doing so if you remain in unbelief, for it is only the remnant that will be saved who pursue the righteousness that is in accordance with faith (9:27, 30-32). The righteousness of God was always based on faith. Romans 11:1-8 illustrates this point that all of Israel had apostatized but it was only the remnant that was saved, “seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” This remanent was chosen by God in His grace on the basis of their faith in Him as they did not bow their knee to Baal. But the rest of Israel who worshipped Baal were hardened in their unbelief by their own actions. Therefore, God chose to accept all those who came to Him through faith and reject all those who did not come to Him through faith.