https://youtu.be/xJtJrn9xIN4
In our verse by verse study of Romans we are in Rom 9:17; where we have noted that just as God turns the heathen over to their own vile lust patterns, affections, and depraved thinking as described in Romans 1:24-28; God turned Pharaoh over to his negative volition, his arrogance, his jealousy, his pettiness. And this was the means of evangelizing that generation of history around 1441BC.
We noted that in Romans 9 Paul is comparing the Jews of his day with the Pharaoh of Egypt and to them that was the greatest of insults.
As Pharaoh hardened his heart through maximum negative volition at the time of the Exodus, likewise the legalistic Jews of Paul's day had hardened their hearts through maximum negative volition toward God's grace policy that is revealed in God's Word of Truth.
The comparison of the Jews to the Pharaoh of Egypt was as insulting to the Jews as their negative volition was insulting to God. The unbelieving Jews of Paul's day had rejected their true eternal spiritual heritage and exchanged it for a temporal genetic biological heritage.
Christians in the Western World are doing this same thing in a different way but with the same results by forgetting the true source of their prosperity.
The unique origin of Jewish race through positive volition toward Jesus Christ, and doctrine resident in the soul on the part of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had not alerted the Jews to their failure; a failure stated in the promise of Rom 9:6; - "They are not all Israel who are from Israel."
The unique origin of Israel as a nation comes from the contrast between the positive volition of Moses and the negative volition of Pharaoh, plus the fact that Israel was the first client nation to God in history should have alerted the Jews in Paul's time to the importance of positive volition toward Jesus Christ expressed by believing in Him for salvation.
The hereditary people of God had become heretical in the pattern of Ishmael, Esau and Pharaoh, three gentiles that they detested.
God does not rob man of his free will so he is a creature of self-determination but God does use the unrestrained negative free will of Pharaoh to advance His own plan to evangelize the world and to free His people from slavery.
Man is not robbed of his self-determination by God's sovereignty he is actually provided with a greater historical opportunity to express non-meritorious positive free volition to enter God's plan of grace by faith alone.
In this chapter and the next Paul makes a grace appeal to the Jews of his day. God the Holy Spirit, then, uses Paul's appeal to relate visible historical disaster to a to their rejection of Jesus Christ who is the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jehovah Elohim, and the Shekinah glory.
Rom 9:17; In the last phrase we have the conjunction "kai" (and) with the repetition of "hopos" (so that) plus a verb in the subjunctive mood to indicate the continuation of the purpose clause "and in order that" or "and so that."
The subject in this final clause is the nominative singular of the noun "onoma" (name, reputation, fame, or person) with the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun "ego" (of me or my).
Then we have the aorist passive subjunctive of "diagnele" (proclaim or broadcast everywhere, far and wide) the final purpose clause is "in order that my name might be proclaimed everywhere far and wide."
The constantive aorist tense views the action of the verb in its entirety. This is describing the evangelism of the entire world. The passive voice: the person of Jesus Christ receives the action of being proclaimed everywhere.
The subjunctive mood creates a purpose clause so we see that God's purpose of worldwide evangelism will result from the hardness of Pharaoh's heart and use of his great human power and authority to try to resist God's plan.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:17; ""For the scripture says to Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16), I have caused you to continue in history in order that I might demonstrate my power by means of you, and in order that my name might be proclaimed throughout the entire earth (everywhere)."
In this verse we see Pharaoh and his opposition to God actually becomes a monument to God's power. The more he resisted God by saying no from his free will the greater the plagues the more God's power was displayed.
A similar principle is the fact is that God permitted Adam's negative free will to cause the condemnation of the entire human race so that God could demonstrate his grace by redeeming the entire human race through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
God permitted Adam's sin in order that He might present Jesus Christ and His work on the cross in receiving the imputation and judgment for all personal sins to mankind as the redeemer of the world.
We see in this passage that God permitted Pharaoh's negative free will to operate to the maximum so that the people of Egypt and the entire world in that generation would have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as savior.
God permits the worst to happen so that under His grace policy the best can come from it.
That shows us that God's plan continues whether historical trends are negative or positive in fact we see here that sometimes more is accomplished in negative periods than in positive periods. This is the principle of Gen 50:20;
The fact that God's decree results in election, foreknowledge and predestination of the believer in Jesus Christ reveals the glory of eternal salvation to the person, the plan, and to the grace of God.
This principle of doctrine does not detract from the fact that mankind is a free agent who is responsible for his own free thoughts, decisions and actions.
The highest freedom of man is the utilization of God's grace to completely triumph over and destroy evil. God does not foreordain sin, human good and evil but it was known by God's omniscience in eternity past so God uses it.
Remember that the word "predestination" refers to a printout of God's decree so it only applies to believers in Jesus Christ.
While sin, human good and evil are permitted they are constantly being overruled by God's sovereign omnipotence and integrity. Therefore, Jesus Christ controls both history and the devil's world through His overruling will.
Only believers in Jesus Christ are adopted at salvation as the adult sons and heirs of God. Gal 3:25;
There are several categories of this adoption depending on the dispensation that a person lives live in.
The adoption of the Gentile family of God comprised of all believers in the dispensation of the Gentiles from Adam to Abraham,
The adoption of the Jews or Israel comprised of all Jewish believers in the dispensation of Israel -from Abraham to Christ and the Tribulation,
The adoption of God's royal family comprised of all believers of the Church Age Pentecost AD 30 to the Exit Resurrection,
The adoption of the Millennial population comprised of all believers during the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ from His 2nd advent to the Gog revolution.
Each one of these categories demands spiritual adoption and that was Paul's great concern for his people. The Jews do not inherit from God through natural birth even though they are the legitimate biological descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
They possess the biological genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but they are not adopted spiritually by of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob until they personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:3; John 3:5-6;
Rom 9:18; begins Paul's theological conclusion. The verse begins with the combination of two inferential particles, the first of which is "ara" (so), and the second is "oun"(then). These two particles create a very strong conclusion that is based on all that we have seen about the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. It is translated "so then" or " then therefore."
Reversing the order in the Greek next is the present active indicative of the verb "eleeo"(have mercy). It is in the perfective present tense that refers to a fact that has come to be in the past and is now emphasized as a present reality so it describes the continuation of existing results.
With it is the accusative singular direct object from the relative pronoun "hos" (on whom) the phrase is translated "so then he shows mercy on whom." Then we have the present active indicative of the verb "thelo" (to will or to desire, to want, or to intend).
This is in the static present tense that describes doctrine that is taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: God produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of an absolute dogmatic statement of doctrine that can be immediately applied.
We see from this that God is not arbitrary. He functions in complete accord with his perfect integrity and His grace policy. Mankind, however, continues to be a free agent in history and is responsible for his own free and independent thoughts, motives decisions and actions.
God in grace has found a way to take the non-meritorious positive volition of man that God's omniscience knew in eternity before time and relate that positive volition to the function of God's grace.
God desires to compound grace upon grace by showing mercy to those who appropriate greater grace blessing through non-meritorious perception and accumulation of doctrine in the soul. In other words, every printout of God's Word of Truth that you know and understand becomes an advantage.
That advantage is established on the basis of the fact that you have previously learned that God's Word was the most important thing in life, and so you persisted in learning it on a daily basis.
This eventually creates capacity for maturity adjustment to God's justice. Once you have attained spiritual maturity from doctrinal capacity God is free to start pouring direct blessings to you and to prepare you for the historical disaster that occurs in every generation.
There is grace blessing directly from God's justice to those who are qualified under God's grace policy.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were qualified under grace and the printout is election, justification, foreordination, and adoption. That is how God shows mercy on whom He will.
In other words, He knew everything about them in eternity past and knowing all of this He is has mercy on whom he wills. Their faith in Jesus Christ and/or regeneration was fed into the decree in eternity past by the omniscience of God, resulting in foreordination.
Foreordination is really synonymous with the decree itself as it is being programmed in eternity past. The actual printout occurs in time as it is lived out by the believer as election, justification, and adoption.
The racial Jew has a great spiritual heritage but that great heritage has no meaning unless he receives God's judicial righteousness and is adopted as an heir of God as an adult son through faith in Jesus Christ, the God of Israel the Shekinah glory.
To be a biological son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is nothing until a Jew becomes a spiritual Son of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:26; Israel has an eternal future but the individual biological Jew must be adopted spiritually as an adult son by faith in Christ Jesus to participate in that eternal future.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed in Jehovah Elohim, and therefore God wills to have mercy on them. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob advanced to spiritual maturity, therefore God desired to show them mercy by the imputation of greater grace blessing from God's justice.
Next is the conjunctive particle "de" (and). Sometimes it is translated as "now" or "and," and sometimes it is adversative so it is translated "but." But occasionally this conjunctive particle is intensive as it is here so it can be translated, then, or "in fact."
It is followed by the accusative singular from the relative pronoun "hos"(on whom," and the present active indicative from "thelo"(he wishes or desires) in the static present tense is that refers to a doctrine that is taken for granted as a fact.
That is, the omniscience of God feeding the reality of history into God's decree that results in a printout of condemnation and wrath from negative volition.
The active voice: the integrity of God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrinal reality.
We see from this that God uses man's uncoereced free will as the predicate for the information in the decree that prints out His will or purpose.
God knew in eternity before He created time everything that every person was going to do. He knew all about Pharaoh and the scar tissue that would be developed from his negative free will.
Remember that initially Pharaoh is described as hardening his own heart; Exod 7:13,22; 8:15,32; 9:34,35. He had maximum scar tissue in his soul by the time the sixth plague was over.
At that time God would normally have removed him from physical life under the sin unto death because he was so insane that he was dangerous to the survival everyone who was involved with him but God did not remove him.
So in plagues 7,8,9,10 we read that God hardened his heart by letting him continue to live to use his free will to keep on saying no to God.