Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Romans 9:17–18
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 he declared in all the earth” (Rom. 9:17).
In the verses we are examining today, Paul again shifts his focus from election to the opposite side of the coin, reprobation. He demonstrated in verses 15–16 that God is not unjust in saving only some people whom He elects because none deserve His mercy. Now he shows that God possesses the sovereign right to pass by or otherwise judge those who rebel against His righteous rule.
Once again Paul quotes from the Old Testament book of Exodus, but he introduces this quote in a curious way: “The Scripture says to the Pharaoh. . . ” Actually, the words that follow were spoken to Pharaoh by God through Moses. Paul’s unique word usage seems to flow from his strong association of the Old Testament Scriptures with the very words of God. In the statement Paul quotes (Ex. 9:16), God was informing Pharaoh of what He was about to do with him leading up to the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. God intended to display His power in His defeat of Egypt, thereby causing His reputation to spread throughout the ancient world. In fact, God said He had brought Pharaoh to power for just this reason. Furthermore, as Romans 9:18 tells us, God is said in the early chapters of Exodus to “harden” Pharaoh’s heart so that he stubbornly refused to heed the command of God to free the Israelites, thereby permitting God to display His power more and more. Most scholars believe that God’s “hardening” of Pharaoh was a temporal judgment by which God removed all restraints and allowed him to give full vent to his sinful impulses. Hardening, therefore, is the equivalent of “giving over” (Rom. 1:24, 28). Such is a harsher treatment than merely withholding saving mercy. But it represents no unrighteousness on God’s part, for the hardening that results flows out of the sinner’s own wickedness. This is why the early chapters of Exodus alternately attribute Pharaoh’s hardening to God (Ex. 4:21; 7:3; 9:12) and to Pharaoh himself (Ex. 8:15, 32; 9:34). The sovereign God is perfectly just if He shows mercy or brings judgment in this life—or anything in between.
This verse hints at one of the reasons behind God’s election and reprobation. Simply put, God does it to show forth His perfections, whether it be His mercy, His justice, or some other attribute. Paul will have more to say on this subject later in Romans 9.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Most unbelievers are enjoying the common grace of God—life and its blessings. But such grace is not eternal; it will not last past death, and God may cut it off before that if He chooses to judge. God calls us to warn unbelievers that unless they turn from their sin, judgment will overtake them sooner or later. Who do you need to warn?
For Further Study
- Job 25:3
- Matthew 5:45
- Hebrews 9:27
- 2 Peter 3:10