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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
The tension between the sovereignty of God and the choice of humans overlaps in confusing ways. Is God in charge of everyting while humans have no choice? Or do humans control the pace of history with the decisions that we make daily?
One theologian suggests that God determines the future but allows for those under His rule (including humans) to navigate the path through their choices. Furthermore, this theologian suggests that God knows the future, but it does not mean that just because God knows what will result from choices made that it will necessarily happen. For example: if people hear God’s voice and turn, then they avoid destruction. Hence, God knows the outcome of not turning (and some do not turn), but He did not intend for them to be destroyed… He intended for them to turn to Him.
Yes… it gets quite confusing and deep very quickly (there so much more to this conversation than the paragraph above). Nonetheless, let’s move forward.
Paul attempts to bring clarity in Romans 9 to the questions of the Jewish-Christian church in Rome who wondered why some Jews rejected Christ.* Paul’s explanations at first glance give us cause to believe that God leaves no room for free will. Paul offers (and rightly) that God is the Potter and we are the clay.* It is under His rights as the Potter to do with the clay whatever He chooses: give mercy or harden hearts.* At first glance, and without of the context of the rest of Scripture, it would seem that we should take a fatalistic posture that gives up on the choice of our will.
Paul would disagree. While God is sovereign, and while we see God move in the lives of people, selecting some for specific purposes to move forward His will, and while we see God select peoples and communities to have as His own, and while He selects those who believe in Christ as those to enter relationship with Him, God also desires that something changes in the process of time: our heart.*
In 1 Timothy 1:13, Paul reflects on the great patience that God showed him while he persecuted the Church of God.* In 1 Timothy 1:16, Paul refers to himself as the chief of sinners to whom God showed great mercy and patience as an example for others so that they might believe.* These texts as well as 2 Peter 3:9 lead us to believe that God extends patience to those yet-to-believe in order to bring them to repentance as He desires that none perish.*
Furthermore, Paul goes on in the later part of Romans 9 and into Romans 10 discussing the choices that those Jews who did not believe made.* This implies that their will had a part to play.
What is the point here?
The point is this: God knows what direction your life is going, and He has a plan for it. This plan includes a mercy-filled amount of patience to wait for you to believe in His Son as Lord and Savior. The choice is waiting for you and for I. Even if you don’t feel chosen today, if you feel like an unwanted, misunderstood outcast, God chooses you. He’s waiting.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to say “yes” to His invitation to relationship with Him through Jesus. Perhaps today God wants you to receive His love and acceptance. Maybe today God wants you to engage your will to act on the things that He has destined you for.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans (D. A. Carson, Ed.; p. 341, 374–394). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.