Vessels of Destruction
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In his famous book, The Bondage of the Will, Luther makes this comment, "'Mere human reason can never comprehend how God is good and merciful, and therefore you make to yourself a God of your own fancy, who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, and pities everybody.'" That's an interesting statement that Luther makes there. The God that we want to believe in is a God who not only is sometimes merciful, but who is always merciful and who never condemns anybody and never hardens anybody.
You and I are made in the image of God, but it does seem that due to our fallenness, sinful man seeks to create a God in his own image, a God of our own fancy, to quote Martin Luther. You're listening to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind as we conclude a week-long study of some of the hard sayings of the Bible. Our task is not to create an idol, a version of God that we like or prefer, but instead to submit to what the one true God has revealed about Himself in Scripture. And that's one reason why we must be very careful when we come to hard sayings in the pages of Scripture, handling and interpreting them with care. Throughout his ministry, R.C. Sproul didn't shy away from these hard sayings.
And in fact, he recorded four teaching series covering the hard sayings of the prophets, of Jesus, of the apostles, and the Bible. Well, today is the last day to request access to these four series when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. And when you do, we'll send you Dr. Sproul's companion hardcover book outlining and explaining these hard sayings. Don't forget that this offer also ends at midnight. The final hard saying that we'll consider this week is from the Apostle Paul. And R.C. Sproul says it's perhaps one of the most difficult texts in the Bible to interpret. Here's Dr. Sproul in Romans chapter 9.
We come to the conclusion now of our brief series on the hard sayings of the Bible, and I think what I've done here is saved the worst till last. That is, the passage that I want to look at today I think is one of the most difficult texts in all of Scripture to deal with, if not the most difficult, and it's found in Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 9. We remember that in chapter 9, Paul deals with the election of Jacob and the passing over of Esau. And in verse 14 of this chapter, he raises this question, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy on. and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you. and that My name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens." Now we've already examined the problem of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in an earlier message, but I've read this portion of the text as background for the very difficult part that follows. In verse 19, Paul says, anticipating objections to the doctrine of election, "'You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?' But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called?" Not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, I will call them My people who were not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved, and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. Now, what is so problematic about this text
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