https://youtu.be/Eucej7hEsGQ
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we started Rom 9:16; that is comprised of 2 negative answers and one positive answer regarding how mankind receives God's blessing.
When we stopped last time we had noted that in the Greek the verse started with two words that would literally be translated "then then"
That construction calls for a double conclusion because we have two inferential particles combined to introduce what might be called a double conclusion. We will translate it as "So then" as does the NASB.
Next comes the first negative "ou" (not) because our first conclusion is going to be a negative. So the first three words are "ara, oun ou" (so then not) This construction demands the use of the present active indicative from the verb "eimi" (is or it is) to be inserted because it forms an ellipsis so in the English we have "So then it is not."
The next word is the present active participle of the verb "thelo" (wills) with the definite article "ho" (the).
The definite article is a singular ablative of source that is used as a personal pronoun so it is translated "from him." When the definite article is used as a personal pronoun as it is here it emphasizes God as the source of the blessing in a negative way.
Then we have a pictorial present tense that illustrates to the minds eye a series of events that are in the process of occurring These events are the many desires that mankind has for receiving God's blessings.
The active voice describes the believer, and in some cases unbelievers who producing the action of the verb, but in this case it is a specific reference to the unbeliever Esau.
Esau is described as missing out on God's blessing even though he wanted them. He missed God's blessing because he refused to accept Jesus Christ as savior, therefore he could not receive the imputation of God's judicial righteousness that is the predicate for God's blessing.
He had to be made judicially righteous by God and to do that he had to follow the pattern of his grandfather, Abraham - Genesis 15:6. In Heb 12:16,17; there is a description of Esau that helps us to understand Romans 9:16.
Esau refused to believe in Jesus Christ but he would cry, wine and complain about it and expect God to feel sorry for him and give him God's blessing anyway. This is typical of many people who want everyone to feel sorry for them because they think they have experienced some disadvantage.
They feel sorry for themselves and to the extent that you feel sorry for yourself you are already a weak person. God is not manipulated by the crybaby routine that is a system of demanding sympathy from others from self-pity.
This is what Esau did Heb 12:16; "we know that afterward, when he kept desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he did not find opportunity for change of mind, though he sought the same (blessing) with tears."
He tried to cry his way into blessing. Rom 9:16; "So that it is not from him who desires."
People sincerely desire to glorify God, they sincerely desire to do the right thing, they sincerely desire to help God, and there is no way that sincerity is ever going to be a virtue and that the desire to glorify God without complying with God's Word of Truth is ever going actually become the reality of glorifying God.
We see here that there is a huge difference between desire and reality. Desire is like arrogance, it takes you farther and farther away from reality.
Only grace will do it, but grace calls for continuous positive volition toward God and Hid Word. The function of human volition in desire is not the source of blessing from God. You can wish for blessing, desire blessing, beg for blessing, and be sincere about wanting blessing but that takes you farther and farther away from blessing than you were when you started.
The source of all blessing from God is God's attribute of justice, and in this case God's justice only functions through the imputation of God's judicial righteousness. Blessing only comes from God on the basis of the judicial imputation that is based in grace and doctrine.
Moses did not see God's glory empirically like he wanted to; he desired to see God's glory face to face but he didn't see it that way. He only saw God's back as he was hiding under a rock as God passed by.
Because his capacity through the doctrine resident in his soul was compatible with the function of God's grace he saw what every mature believer is able to perceive from God's Word. He saw God's glory not face to face but through his perception of God's Word of Truth.
God's justice is the source of blessing. The two adjustments to God's justice that are necessary for blessing are salvation adjustment and maturity adjustment and Esau had neither.
Esau worked hard, he was sincere, he cried, wept, and moaned, He did everything but believe in Jesus Christ. Desire resident in the soul is no substitute for doctrine resident in the soul.
Sincere desire only complicates the desire. God has a plan, He has revealed His plan, and His plan must be followed. God's plant is simple because it is a grace policy that is based on faith so desire without doctrine in the soul is worthless.
Rom 9:16; "and not of him that runs" a negative conjunction "oude" (and not or but not)" Then we have the present active participle from the verb "trecho" (to run or running) with the definite article "ho" (the). Working hard to get blessing from God is what "running" means here.
Again the definite article that forms a singular ablative source that is used as a personal pronoun to emphasize a second negative source of blessing from God. Desire represents thought running represents hard work with the body.
Neither the thought of the soul nor the activity of the body will cause God to bless anyone; "and not from him who runs." The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the actions and productions from the body that involve working hard doing good things in an attempt to acquire blessing from God.
The active voice: while either the believer or unbeliever can work hard to try to get blessing from God in this case it is Esau as an unbeliever. The active voice also means that many believers, by application are also trying to work for blessing from God after salvation.
"So then it is not from him who desires (blessing), and not for him who runs (after blessing)." That is the negative side that is brought into focus because of Esau.
Next is the adversative conjunction "alla" (but) that sets up the alternative. This sets up a contrast is between many false sources of trying to acquire blessing from God and the one and only true source of actually acquiring blessing from God.
Then we have the ablative absolute of source. Paul is trying to make a point. He is concerned for his people because he knows that some of them are going to the lake of fire because they are unbelievers as well as some who are believers who are failing to comply with God's grace policy by not using God's GASP system for the spiritual life after salvation.
Next we have the ablative of source from "Theos" (God), that is the subject that is always in the nominative. And when you have a participle in the ablative form you have an ablative absolute. So this is not only set aside from the rest of the sentence but it is emphasized; "but from God."
The present active participle is in the ablative case of the verb "eleao" (to show or demonstrate mercy).
This is telling us that the only way to see God's glory is maximum doctrine resident in the soul that becomes the target for God's imputation of blessing to God's own righteousness from the believer's function under GASP at spiritual maturity and thereafter.
You not only see God's glory but you also experience everything that accompanies God's glory.
"But from the God who has mercy" the definite article makes it monadic so it sets up an ablative singular that is used as a relative pronoun whose antecedent is "Theos" (God). The perfective present tense describes a continuation of existing results.
It refers to a fact that has come to be a reality in the past that is emphasized as continuing as a present reality. The active voice: God's justice produces the action of the verb at two points: salvation adjustment to God's justice, resulting in the imputation of judicial righteousness and eternal life; and maturity adjustment to God's justice resulting in the imputation of super grace blessings from God to the spiritually mature believer.
God is telling us that He has a plan for when He imputes human soul life to us at the moment we were born; that is the first imputation. Then comes the imputation of Adam's original sin that was the second imputation that is the basis for the potential.
The potential is salvation because in God's Grace policy condemnation must precede salvation. Condemnation comes from the imputation of Adam's sin so the potential for salvation is immediately set up.
The potential shows that God has mercy because the potential is the provision of doctrine, the gospel, that establishes the initial hope that is absolute confidence that when you believe in Jesus Christ you have eternal life.
God' demonstrates His mercy to us when He saves us when we adjust to His justice by believing n the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has provided a potential that goes along with the hopeless situation of having human life that is imputed with Adam's original sin. The simultaneous imputations place man into a totally hopeless situation at biological birth. But the potential from the second imputation plus the doctrine of the gospel plus the hope of eternal life, is God's mercy.
Neither human desire nor human works can extract blessing from God. There is nothing man can do, think, work for, or devise to bring blessing from God since in eternity past God has already devised His grace system.
God's blessing is an imputation from God's justice to capacity righteousness from metabolized doctrine at the point of spiritual maturity and thereafter because God can only provide blessing where there is capacity for blessing.
God's imputed blessing is designed to glorify God as the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The tactical victory compliments the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:16; "So then it is not from who desires (blessing), and not from him who runs (after blessing), but from the God who has mercy."
Rom 9:17; Starts with the explanatory use of the postpositive conjunctive particle "gar" (for) with the nominative singular from the noun "graphe"(writing) referring to Old Testament scripture.
With it is the generic use of the definite article "ho" (the) making it monadic so it describes the scriptures as uniquely being God's sacred Word of Truth plus the present active indicative of "lego" (to say, to speak, to communicate).
The present tense is a historical present that is used to describe a past event as though it was a present occurrence. The active voice: the Old Testament canon, specifically Exod 9:16; produces the action of the verb.
The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that this is the part of the canon of scripture that Exodus is, and that this is a part of the story of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart that actually begins in Exodus 9:12.
The singular indirect object from the definite article "ho" (the) plus the noun "Pharao" (Pharaoh) follows. In the Hebrew "Pharaoh" has the suffix "h" but there is no "h" for a suffix in the Greek. Pharaoh is the official title for the kings of Egypt. This begins Paul's quotation from the Hebrew of Exod 9:16;