Because there is a God, that means He has a plan. Because God is all-powerful, His plan cannot fail. But the relationship between the all-powerful God and human choice is complex, and it's easy to tilt the balance too far one direction or another. Tilt too far toward human choice, and you end up making God a genie in a bottle. But tilt it too far toward God's control, and you make God the ultimate cause of evil.
Readers sometimes think that the apostle Paul preached God predestinating evil, in the book of Romans chapter 9, but this is a misinterpretation. In chapter 9, Paul was speaking to imagined opponents.
Paul says God is free to give gifts of compassion and mercy to whomever He likes, on whatever conditions He chooses. God chose Isaac over Ishmael, and chose Jacob over Esau, illustrating that being a descendant of Abraham didn't automatically get you a blessing. This was not unfair on God's part. God doesn't hinge His mercy on human virtue (whether the virtue is mental or physical). God is love, and His mercy springs out of His own innate generosity.
On the other hand, God also punishes sin. God punished Pharaoh for his sins, by hardening his heart so that he would wreck Egypt and send a large part of his army to their deaths. Pharaoh's insane stubbornness led to the unnecessary destruction of Egypt. Paul was implying that God would do this to the Jews as well, if they persisted in their rejection of Jesus Christ.
By bringing up Pharaoh and the hardening of his heart, was Paul saying that God willed certain people to be wicked? If true, that would render God unqualified to judge anyone's sins. Paul's opponents thought he was using what we might call a "Calvinistic" line of thought. Paul rebukes this idea, and says their question was motivated by argumentative insolence.
Paul refers them back to Jeremiah 18. In that chapter, God said that He would "mold" people's futures based on their repentance. If a nation, Gentile or Jew, repented of its sins, God would change His judgment plans, and bless them instead. But, if a nation persisted in sin, God would revoke His planned blessings, and punish instead (18:8-10). Making these changes is easy for God -- as easy as squashing down a mass of wet clay.
Jeremiah 18 is the key to understanding what Paul was saying in Romans 9. The potter doesn't make the clay wicked or righteous. The potter's power over the clay illustrates that God can change a future, and He'll do it conditional on repentance. So, Jeremiah 18 teaches the opposite of the idea thrown at Paul by his critics.
Along that same line, Paul doesn't say that God makes someone a "vessel of wrath". Sin brings down God's wrath. To teach that God makes someone a vessel of wrath would be blasphemous, because that would mean God made the person sin!
No, in the logic of the sentence the vessels are already wrath-deserving. God doesn't mold vessels to sin. He molds the future of sinful vessels. What God molded was the wicked vessels' future punishment. In that same sense, the vessels of mercy already are vessels of mercy. God has molded their future, so they will receive glory.
God has never caused anyone to be evil, or do evil. He allows evil, and exploits sinful people to His own ends. God used Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas -- vessels of wrath -- to sinfully crucify the Savior, which then brought saving mercy to the world. God has a predestined plan in which people sin, but God never causes anyone to sin.
Readers sometimes think that the apostle Paul preached God predestinating evil, in the book of Romans chapter 9, but this is a misinterpretation. In chapter 9, Paul was speaking to imagined opponents.
Paul says God is free to give gifts of compassion and mercy to whomever He likes, on whatever conditions He chooses. God chose Isaac over Ishmael, and chose Jacob over Esau, illustrating that being a descendant of Abraham didn't automatically get you a blessing. This was not unfair on God's part. God doesn't hinge His mercy on human virtue (whether the virtue is mental or physical). God is love, and His mercy springs out of His own innate generosity.
On the other hand, God also punishes sin. God punished Pharaoh for his sins, by hardening his heart so that he would wreck Egypt and send a large part of his army to their deaths. Pharaoh's insane stubbornness led to the unnecessary destruction of Egypt. Paul was implying that God would do this to the Jews as well, if they persisted in their rejection of Jesus Christ.
By bringing up Pharaoh and the hardening of his heart, was Paul saying that God willed certain people to be wicked? If true, that would render God unqualified to judge anyone's sins. Paul's opponents thought he was using what we might call a "Calvinistic" line of thought. Paul rebukes this idea, and says their question was motivated by argumentative insolence.
Paul refers them back to Jeremiah 18. In that chapter, God said that He would "mold" people's futures based on their repentance. If a nation, Gentile or Jew, repented of its sins, God would change His judgment plans, and bless them instead. But, if a nation persisted in sin, God would revoke His planned blessings, and punish instead (18:8-10). Making these changes is easy for God -- as easy as squashing down a mass of wet clay.
Jeremiah 18 is the key to understanding what Paul was saying in Romans 9. The potter doesn't make the clay wicked or righteous. The potter's power over the clay illustrates that God can change a future, and He'll do it conditional on repentance. So, Jeremiah 18 teaches the opposite of the idea thrown at Paul by his critics.
Along that same line, Paul doesn't say that God makes someone a "vessel of wrath". Sin brings down God's wrath. To teach that God makes someone a vessel of wrath would be blasphemous, because that would mean God made the person sin!
No, in the logic of the sentence the vessels are already wrath-deserving. God doesn't mold vessels to sin. He molds the future of sinful vessels. What God molded was the wicked vessels' future punishment. In that same sense, the vessels of mercy already are vessels of mercy. God has molded their future, so they will receive glory.
God has never caused anyone to be evil, or do evil. He allows evil, and exploits sinful people to His own ends. God used Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas -- vessels of wrath -- to sinfully crucify the Savior, which then brought saving mercy to the world. God has a predestined plan in which people sin, but God never causes anyone to sin.
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