Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 4 Study # 4
March 25, 2018
Humble, Texas
(038)
1769 Translation:
22 [
What] if God, willing to shew [
his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, [
that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [
are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut [
it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
1901 ASV Translation:
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
24 [
even] us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
25 As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people; And her beloved, that was not beloved.
26 And it shall be, [
that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.
27 And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:
28 for the Lord will execute [
his] word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.
29 And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
- I. God ... Endured With Much Longsuffering.
- A. The "desire" has hardened into "intention".
- 1. The first part of this "desire" is to unveil His wrath and it will be fulfilled.
- 2. The second part of this "desire" is to make His power known and it also will be fulfilled.
- B. What is "required" for the first part of this desire to be fulfilled?
- 1. There must be "vessels of wrath".
- a. Without such vessels, there can be no fulfillment of the desire to bring "His wrath" into the realm of possible creature-understanding (this is the heart of the meaning of "to unveil"). This "possibility" is directly linked to all of the processes involved in "learning" and is "impossible" without some frame of reference. Creatures, by definition, are incapable of anything wherein "infinity" is a requirement so that omniscience is completely out of the realm of possibility for them. Thus, for "wrath" to come to light, "vessels of wrath" are inescapably necessary.
- 1) This matter of the creation of "persons" is where the problem of sin's origins sits. If "persons" are genuinely "persons", they possess the ability to make decisions and take actions in a cause/effect universe. Thus, the possiblity of making bad decisions and doing evil immediately exists upon the creation of "persons".
- 2) The origins of sin are indicated by Scripture to be within the angelic creation, but it is not explained except as a matter of sin suddenly existing within the heart of the most highly exalted of those creatures (Ezekiel 28:15). It is declared in that place, however, that the magnitude of exaltation exceeded the level of wisdom possessed so that the privileges "filled the midst of thee with violence". Then, through temptation, man's heart was corrupted and sin took dominion over humanity.
- 3) The only aspect of man's sin that indicates God's actions is actually a lack of action: He did not interfere during the process of temptation. In fallen men's eyes, this is blameworthy, but the Scriptures do not agree. It is not those who refrain from interference that are held guilty, but those who actually do the sinning.
- b. At issue: did God "create" the inevitability of "sinners"?
- 1) The text says that "vessels of wrath" came into being.
- 2) The text says these "vessels" had been "brought to such a condition". The word used is a word that can describe "mending broken nets", "mending broken people", "mending deficient faith", "framing the worlds" (i.e., creating them as they are), etc. The text does not reveal "how" this was accomplished. However, the issue of "hardening" was directly addressed in 9:18 and, thus, puts at least part of the process directly under the deliberate activity of God.
- 3) But the text also says that God "endured" the presence of such "vessels" as a matter requiring "longsuffering". This has to mean that their presence was a "strain" upon God's values and truth.
- 4) The text then defines "wrath" as "destruction" as the "vessels of wrath" had been "framed" "unto destruction".
- 5) So, what did God actually "do" to "frame vessels unto destruction"? Did He actively create "sinners", or did He passively tolerate that development as a kind of inevitable development from His decision to "create" persons?
- a) All of Scripture directly declares the necessity of "creature-faith-in-the-Creator" both as specific statement as well as simple logic. Nothing "finite" can escape the reality of "faith in the infinite" even among those who consider themselves "wise" enough to escape the necessity of "faith". These are simply fools with an out-sized view of themselves.
- b) None of the Scriptures teach that "creature-faith-in-the-Creator" is to be "qualified" by the "creature's" view of the "morality" of the Creator. "Creatures", by definition, have an inescapable, and inherent, responsibility to serve the interests of their "Creator" without question or hesitation. It is only in a "sinful" mentality that there is encouragement for the "creature" to assign to him/her self the "freedom" to exalt him/her self above the "infinite". Besides being irrational (the "finite" ascends above the throne of the "Infinite" in order to sit in judgment upon Him??), it is wholly evil to the very core (what is "evil" except for the grossly immoral and incapable to exalt "self" morality and wisdom above the demonstrably moral and capable??). That said, it is yet a fact of biblical revelation that even if the "Infinite" violates every perception of the "morality" of the "finite", that "finite" has not escaped the inescapable, and inherent, responsibility to serve the interests of their "Creator" without question or hesitation.
- c) So that God's "intention" to "harden" is, without qualification, a fact in which all creatures are to unquestioningly, and unhesitatingly, "revel" as a reality of both "faith" and "love". This means that there does not "need" to be any description of the details of methodology for man's understanding. But, at the same time, if God is willing to reveal some of those details (the Infinite can never reveal "all" to those whose brains and out-sized self perception are "finite"), it is to the great "Life" advantage of men for them to consider them as encouragements to their faith in their Creator and their love for Him.
- d) Thus, the Scriptures are to be searched in order to discover whatever of the facts have been revealed by God. And, lo and behold, one of those facts is that God is both active and passive in the issue of the creation of sinners. He actively created persons of thought, values, beliefs, choices, and actions with the uncompelled potential for "Sin" (two thirds of the angels resisted that potential, thus "uncompelled"), and He passively tolerated the transition from potential to actual in those who moved to exalt their "finitude" above His "infinity". The Scriptures do not say that God engineered this "move to self-exaltation"; in fact, they, in this context, declare that God had to restrain Himself to "much longsuffering" to keep from immediately destroying each creature who determined to "sin". In His infinite wisdom, He saw a beneficial use for such "sinners". He would use them as "vessels of wrath" to bring understanding of His wrath to those who would greatly profit from that understanding.
- 2. There must be a legitimate perception of divine "longsuffering".
- a. "Longsuffering", by definition, is putting up with something significantly distasteful. The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains defines this concept as "a state of ... calm in the face of provocation ... ".
- b. For God to be "longsuffering", therefore, has to mean that His values were opposed to that which He is "tolerating" for a season.
- c. That God allows certain realities that are a "stink in His nostrils" means something, but it cannot mean that He takes any pleasure in those "stinking realities". Thus, "allows" is a proper term, and its logical implication is that He did not "determine" it. There is a significant distinction between "allowing" (which means someone else "determined") and "determining" (which means God compelled the reality). The Scriptures actually teach that God's creation of the human race was at least in part God's response to the angelic rebellion and His intention to validate the decision of those who refused to take part. It is His vindication of the righteous by turning the wicked into His "servants of vindication" even though their very presence was a "stink" that required real and significant longsuffering.