Romans 9 and Paul’s story: a review of Jonathan Williams’ book responding to Calvinism, Romans 9 and the story Paul was telling. You can find the author’s website HERE. See also Rev Reads’ YouTube review.
Writers have spilt much ink on Romans 9 over the years. For example, Norman Geisler’s Chosen But Free was published in June 1999. Then James White responded with The Potter’s Freedom in June 2000 with a review in 2009. In 1993, John Piper wrote The Justification of God: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1-23.
Calvinists (Piper, White, Sproul etc) find hard determinism and unconditional election taught in Romans 9. Are they right? Did Paul teach that God can hate and harden individuals even before they’re born? Did God unconditionally elect some people to salvation and some to damnation in eternity past?
Consider Piper’s assertion in The Justification of God (cited by Jonathan Williams on page 167 of his book),
If God’s command to Pharaoh [to let the people go] can be thwarted by God’s own decree to harden Pharaoh’s heart, then in the same way God’s command to men to repent and the time he gives them to obey (Rom 2:4) can also be thwarted…by God’s decree to harden whom he wills and thus show his wrath on the day of judgment.
John Piper and other Calvinists often focus on God seeking glory by expressing His wrath. Is that what Romans 9 is about?
Passages of contention
As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Rom 9:13-16
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault: for who can resist his will?” Rom 9:17-19
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, Rom 9:20-22
A faithful God
But was Paul really concerned with soteriology, or was he addressing fellow Jews about covenantal promises made to Israel that had seemingly failed? Williams addresses these questions by meticulously going through the verses (and Jewish language) in context to what motivated Paul’s response to his questioners and objectors.
I particularly appreciated the discourse he brought out between God and Moses in Exodus at the beginning of the book as it shone a light on what Paul was emphasizing in Rom 8 through to 11. Paul hammers home that God’s Word has not failed.
According to Williams, the chapters depict a God who is patient and faithful to His covenant, not a God who predetermined a number of people to wrath in order to bring glory to Himself. How we understand and interpret Romans 9 changes the way we see God.
Did God really pre-determine to damn people for His glory?
Jonathan Williams makes a detailed and compelling case against that; and I think he’s correct. Christians ought to read this book.
Maranatha!
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