When Calvinists say "But Romans 9!"

 

Warning: You must understand Romans correctly, or else you are a prime target for being lured into Calvinism!

 

Calvinists believe Romans 9 teaches that God predestines the destinies of individual people, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, and that we can't do anything to change the destiny we were assigned.  

After all, it has the word "hardens" in it, so it has to mean "predestination," right?  

But when you understand what Romans 9 is really about, you see how wrong they are, how much sense Romans 9 actually makes, and how God's love and justice remains intact instead of being destroyed like it is by Calvinism's incorrect theology.

Simply put: Romans 9 is about Israel as a nation, about God punishing them for rejecting Jesus and the gospel (handing them over to their own hard-heartedness) and about Him giving the gospel to the Gentiles instead because they were willing to receive it.  

Matt. 21:43 echoes this when Jesus tells the Jewish chief priests and elders "Therefore [because you rejected Me], I say unto you: 'The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.'"

But then the Jews cried "not fair!" because they didn't think Jews should be punished or set aside... or that God should favor the Gentiles by giving them the grace, special role, salvation, etc. that was meant for the Jews.  They thought the Jews were the special ones, and so they - not the Gentiles - should get God's special favor and blessings just because they were Jews.  

"So then how could God punish us but bless the Gentiles?"  

This is the Jews' question, their attitude.  

And Romans 9 is God's response to them.  

Paul is telling the Jews that God can give His favor and the gospel to whomever He wants to (even Gentiles), to whomever is willing to receive it (and the Gentiles were), and that He can take it away from anyone (even Jews) if they resist/reject it.  

But the Jews were confused and unhappy with this, as if God owed them His favor just because they were Jews and as if He had no right to include foreigners - those dirty Gentiles! - in His blessings and plans.

Imagine that a stranger walked into your house and your parents decide that since you reject their rules but the stranger honors them, they will adopt that stranger into the family and treat him as a real son, giving him the blessings that come with being a true child (blessings that were previously yours).  And when you find yourself set aside while this stranger is blessed, you cry "Not fair!  He's just a strange foreigner, but I'm your biological child!"  As if your parents owed you the blessings and had no right to bless strangers. 

It's kinda like that.

Romans 9 is not at all about God pre-picking which individual people go to heaven and which go to hell.

Here are a few brief, overly simplified notes to show you what I mean:

Verse 4: Paul is reminding them that the Jews were the ones who first received the glory, covenants, law, promises, etc.  God favored and blessed them above all, at first.  But then they rejected the gospel and killed Jesus, and so God turned His attention to the Gentiles.  

     [But there's still hope and a plan for the Jews.  Romans 11:11-12: "... Did [the Jews] stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?  No at all!  Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.  But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!"  The Jews will ultimately be blessed in spite of their sin and God's change of plans.  

     Because of their rejection of Jesus, God turned His attention to the Gentiles and gave them the gospel and the job of spreading the gospel during the Church-age (a job that God originally gave to the Jews, until they rejected it).  Acts 13:46: "Then Paul and Barnabas answered [the Jews] boldly: 'We had to speak the word of God to you first.  Since you rejected it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.'"  

     But after the rapture of the Church, God will again turn His attention back to the Jews and fulfill His plans for them, ultimately ending in their salvation.  Romans 11:25-26: "... Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved..."

     The relationship - spiritually, concerning the gospel - between Israel and the Gentiles is symbiotic, mutually beneficial, resulting in salvation for both: Romans 11:30-32: "Just as you [Gentiles] who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience [the Jews rejection of Jesus which resulted in God extending the gospel to the Gentiles], so they too have now become disobedient [by rejecting Jesus, God's way to salvation] in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.  For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." 

     The Jews rejection of Jesus resulted in the gospel and salvation being given to the Gentiles... and in turn, the gospel shared by the Gentiles will eventually result in the salvation of the Jews.

     Romans 9-11 is about how God deals with two people groups, the Jews and the Gentiles, how He chose to use them in His salvation plans.  But if you think those chapters are about how God deals with and saves (or doesn't save) individual people, you're getting it all wrong and will end up a Calvinist, allowing your misunderstanding of those chapters to taint the rest of Scripture.]    

Verses 6-8: Paul says that this doesn't mean though that God's plan for the Jews failed.  It's just that God adjusted His plan and His definition of "Israel" to include the Gentiles now, adopting them into Israel if they believe in Jesus, extending Israel's blessings to them.  

Paul is saying that, yes, Israel still has a special role/blessings, but it's not necessarily about being a natural-born Israelite anymore (as the Jews thought) but about being a spiritually-adopted Israelite (something they couldn't grasp and didn't think was fair).  

"If some of the branches have been broken off [unbelieving Jews], and you [Gentiles], though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches..."  (Romans 11:17) 

"remember that at that time you [Gentiles] were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross..." (Ephesians 2:12-16) 

Verses 11-13 (about Jacob I loved, Esau I hated): This has nothing to do with predestining people to heaven or hell, but it's about God deciding to bless the bloodline of the younger son over the older son by having the Savior come through Jacob's bloodline, not Esau's.  God gets to decide which bloodline to bless and use as a blessing, and which to not.

Verses 14-18: Paul is anticipating that the people will consider God unfair or improper or maybe even unrighteous for choosing to do things with and through unexpected, "unworthy" people.  And so Paul is emphasizing God's right to decide things like whom to use for whichever of His purposes He wants to (once again, it's not about individual salvation or heaven or hell).  

And Paul should know!  Because even though he was a persecutor of Christians before he was converted, rounding up Christians to send to their deaths, God chose to use him as a major player in spreading the gospel and writing much of the New Testament.  Did Paul earn or deserve this?  No!  Was he an unexpected choice?  Yes!  But that's the man God wanted for the job.  God didn't force him to be a believer, but once he became a believer, God gave him a massive, glorious job.  And God had every right - and had His reasons - to choose him over anyone else.  

Likewise, God can choose to use a godless Pharaoh to display His glory, and He can choose to have the Savior come through Jacob's bloodline instead of Esau's.  

And no one has any basis for saying He's unjust or wrong in these decisions.  God is not required to do things the way we think He should, according to our expectations and rules and traditions.  He can shock us and defy our expectations and break our "rules" by using a godless man like Pharaoh to bring glory to Himself and to further His plans... and by elevating the younger son over the older son... and by shifting His favor to the Gentiles who wanted the gospel while punishing the Jews who didn't want it.  

Contrary to their expectations, God doesn't owe the Jews His favor and blessings just because they were natural-born Jews or because they think they "earned" the right.

This has nothing to do with being saved or not saved but with what roles God puts people in or what He wants to accomplish through them.  And that's a big difference!  

[Note: According to the concordance, "hardens" - as in "he hardens whom he wants to harden" - is a retributive hardening, punishment for first hardening our own hearts against Him in spite of His patient, longsuffering with us.  It's about first making our own decision to have a hard heart against God... and then about God solidifying our decision as just punishment because we resisted all His attempts to correct us.  "Hardens" is not about God deciding who believes and who doesn't.  It's about God giving people who reject Him what they want - life without Him - permanently.]

In verses 19-21, God is essentially answering the Jews cry of "But that's not fair!  How could God choose to pass over, to punish, natural-born Jews and to favor Gentiles instead?  How could He give them the promises and blessings that belonged to us?"  

Paul is saying that God can use people the way He wants to for His plans, that if the Gentiles were willing to receive the gospel and obey Him but the Jews weren't, then God can shift the blessings and promises to the Gentiles and adopt them into His family, giving them the special role that was supposed to be for the Jews (to spread the gospel).  God has the right to give some people noble jobs and to give others common jobs.  And we have no right to say that He's wrong in His decision about this.

And don't forget there are at least two other places in the Bible that talk about the potter and the clay, and vessels for noble or ignoble use.  Let's see what we learn from them:

Jeremiah 18: God shows Jeremiah a potter who was shaping a pot, but the clay was marred and so he shaped it into a different pot which would better fit the clay he had to work with.  Likewise, God says that He can plan something for people, but then He can change His plans for people based on what they do or don't do.  This is contrary to Calvinism which teaches that God preplans everything to happen the way it does and that He makes His decisions not based on our decisions or on anything we do or don't do.

2 Timothy 2:20-21: Like Romans 9:21, this also talks about some vessels in a house being for noble purposes and some being for ignoble purposes (this is not about salvation but about God using people for different purposes/jobs, based on what kind of people they are).  This passage also contradicts Calvinism in that it says that "If a man cleanses himself from [being ignoble], he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy..."  This shows that the decision to be how we are - to be fit for noble or ignoble purposes - lies with us, not with God.  We choose how we will be and how we will respond to God's calls/laws, and then He will use us accordingly.  He does not make us be one way or other, but we choose which way to be and then He finds a way to use us in His plans.  And so if we want to be sinful, rebellious people, He lets us be that way and finds a way to work it into His plans.  But if we want to be fit for "noble purposes," we must make decisions to live in such a way that God will use us for noble purposes.   

Verse 22-23: It's important to note that "prepared for destruction" is not about God predestining who goes to hell.  In the original language, the word is "fitted" not prepared... and according to the concordance, it has to do with a person's destiny being tied to their character, that we fit ourselves for destruction by how we chose to live and be.

Basically, this section is saying that God deals patiently with those who willingly choose to resist/reject Him because He can use them to carry out His plans to bless others.  

God did not pre-choose which individual people get salvation, but He did pre-decide that all who believe in Him (any anyone can) would get His mercy and would reach glory in the end.

Verse 30-33: Paul is saying that the Gentiles pursued righteousness by faith in Jesus, like God told them to... and so they got righteousness.  But the Jews rejected Jesus and chose instead to continue pursuing righteousness through keeping the law... and so they didn't get righteousness because they refused to do it the way God told them to.  

When Jesus fulfilled the law, He did away with the requirements of the law, and so now salvation is found not in the law but in Him, through faith in Him.  

And so if anyone (even a Jew) continues to insist that salvation is by works (such as by good behavior and keeping laws) then they will miss out on salvation.  

But if anyone (even a Gentile) accepts Jesus in faith, they'll get salvation.

This is what Romans 9 is about!  Read it carefully, and you'll see.  

[Update, January 2024: I added the following section, taken from my post "When Calvinists say 'But predestination!' (shorter, basic version)".] 

Tony Evans' commentary says this about Romans 9:10-13: "God's election is not for personal, eternal salvation, but for blessing, service, and usefulness.  Abraham was called not so that God would save him, but because God would use him to bless all the families of the earth (see Gen. 12:3).  That line of blessing skipped over Isaac's older son Esau, even though he had not been born yet, passing to the younger, Jacob.  Why?  Not because they had 'done anything good or bad, but that God's purpose according to election might stand' (9:11).  By withholding the blessing from Esau, God effectively 'hated Esau' (9:13) - not out of preference or from an emotional motivation, but in order to display his sovereignty in going against the cultural norms so that 'the older [would] serve the younger' (9:12).  Paul clearly states that this election was about service, not eternal salvation.  Jacob - not Esau - was chosen to be the Messiah's ancestor even though both were Abraham's descendants.... The concepts of love and hate refer to God's decision to bestow inheritance, blessings, and kingdom responsibility on Jacob's descendants rather than Esau's... God has the sovereign right to choose whom he will use to accomplish his kingdom purposes."

Romans 9 - election, Jacob and Esau - is not about personal salvation or damnation at all.  It's about God's right to use different people for different purposes to further His kingdom plans, depending on how they live their lives, just like we saw above with the Potter and the vessels.  

And, of course, God had to pick one brother over the other - either Jacob or Esau - to be the bloodline for the Messiah because...

Jesus couldn't come from both brothers.  That's physically impossible.  God had to pick one.  And so He chose to bless the younger brother with this role instead of the older brother - to show that He can do things His way, that He doesn't have to follow the cultural norms or do things according to our expectations.

And God can choose one brother over the other to be Jesus's bloodline and still be a holy, just, righteous, fair, trustworthy God.  But He cannot predestine people to hell but command them to believe and then cause them to reject Him and then punish them for rejecting Him... and yet still be a holy, just, righteous, fair, trustworthy God.

Dr. Evans goes on in the Romans 9:14-16 section to say: "Choosing Jacob over Esau raises the question of God's fairness: 'Is there injustice with God?'  Paul shouts back, once again, 'Absolutely not!' (9:14).  God has the sovereign right to 'show mercy to whom [he] will' (9:15).  This mercy is given for the purpose of receiving blessing to accomplish and advance his kingdom program, not for individual salvation.  He can accomplish his purposes with our assistance, or over our resistance."

Paul is saying there's nothing unjust about God deciding how to use us in His plans.  

But this is far different from Calvinists who think this verse is about how it's not unjust for Calvi-god to predestine people to hell, to punish them for being the unbelievers he predestined them to be.

But once again, this is not about personal salvation or damnation at all.  It's about God's right to use different people for different purposes to further His kingdom plans.

But if you let Calvinists convince you that Romans 9 is about God predestining individual people for salvation and hardening individual people for hell - if you let them plant into your mind their definitions of hardens, mercy, prepared for destruction, chose, Jacob vs. Esau, sovereignty, etc., and let them intimidate you with repeated beatings of "Who are you, O man...?" - then you will become a Calvinist.

Calvinists get Romans 9 very wrong, and it totally destroys the gospel, God's Word, God's character, Jesus's sacrifice, and people's faith.