https://youtu.be/J13tH4Pu4wA
In our study of Romans we are in Rom 9:19; where Paul is asking his opposition questions about God's integrity and the interaction between mankind's free will and God's sovereignty.
We noted that in eternity past God's omniscience anticipated that only the overruling omnipotence of God would deliver the Jews from their slavery. The Jews had been selected by God to form the first client or priest nation in history and only God's power would pry them loose.
But even God's power must not be coercive, and therefore God's power had to be used in such a way that Pharaoh was always a free agent in saying no. God's omniscience plus God's omnipotence combined to overrule the tyrannical arrogance, the great power and abuse of Pharaoh's authority.
Had the matter been left to the sovereign will of Pharaoh the Jews would still be slaves in Egypt. But in grace God's sovereign will vetoed the power of Pharaoh by freeing the Jews from slavery.
It was accomplished through the negative volition of Pharaoh. (Whether you say yes or no to God you are not going to stop God's plan. 2Cor 13:8;
In other words, God's purpose or intention was accomplished without destroying or rescinding Pharaoh's free will. The momentum of the plan of God continues without regard to the success or failure of human beings or the negative or positive volition of human beings.
Pharaoh did not lose his free will or sovereign self-determination but did use it against God's will. By hardening Pharaoh's heart God merely kept Pharaoh alive and that gave him more opportunity to express his free will and his opposition to God to the maximum.
The greater his opposition the greater God's power that was manifested and used to overcome the opposition without tampering with Pharaoh's free will in any way.
The confrontation between God and Pharaoh with Moses being God's representative is a perfect demonstration of the coexistence of God's sovereignty and the free will of man. This coexistence is necessary throughout human history as testimony in the conflict between God and the fallen angels.
God did not tamper with Pharaoh's free will but He did use Pharaoh's free negative volition and opposition as it contrasted with Moses' positive volition to execute His perfect plan in human history.
As Pharaoh's free will expression of his negative volition gathered momentum God used the momentum from that opposition to accomplish His purposes and His intentions.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:19; "Therefore you will say to me, Why does he still find fault? For who resists his purpose?"
We see in this passage that God's omniscience and the divine decree was applied to the twins, Esau and Jacob, before either of them had made any decisions from the self-determination of their free in human history.
God's omniscience and the divine decree also deals with Moses and Pharaoh with the imputation of human life to them at birth in human history.
Moses and Pharaoh as free agents had each established their own patterns of life in their relationship to God. Moses' pattern was established by his believing in Egypt after the pattern of Abraham, by his leaving Egypt, and by spending 40 years in the desert in Midian where he grew up spiritually.
On the other hand, the pattern of the Pharaoh of the Exodus was developed in Egypt where he had the same opportunities for salvation as Moses, but he rejected them and built up scar tissue of the soul so that by the time of the confrontation with God through Moses he already had maximum scar tissue in his soul from maximum arrogance that resulted in his irrationality that resulted in the maximum distortion of his power from his pettiness and implacability.
Moses demonstrated maximum positive volition while Pharaoh demonstrated maximum negative volition. God used the maximum positive volition of Moses in one way and the maximum negative volition of Pharaoh in another way, but the free will of both men was involved with accomplishing God's objectives.
This is a reminder that Jesus Christ controls history. This is also a reminder that the justice of God can bless or curse, depending on positive volition at salvation through faith in Christ, and after salvation positive or negative volition toward God's Word of Truth.
This is also a reminder that God uses the wrath of man to praise Him - Psalm 76:10; and that you can do nothing against the truth but only for the truth 2Cor 13:8;
No matter which way history goes history is always inevitably going to glorify God. No disaster in history ever slows the momentum of God's plan. Human failure does not hinder or frustrate God's plan.
Human failure and opposition to God does not abrogate the faithfulness of God, nor does it hinder the advance of God's plan. Human failure and opposition to God's plan does not abrogate or destroy free will and self-determination in the human race. Mankind continues to function as a free agent under the principle of self-determination in all situations good or bad.
The two debater's questions combine to form two answers that are directed toward Paul's opposition. The first answer is found in verses. 20-21, the second in verses 22-23.
Inevitably the key to all the answers is found in God's perfect essence and integrity. If you understand God's attributes you have the key for the answer for everything in life.
Every attribute of God is perfect, incorruptible, not subject to sin, human good or evil, is not contaminated by arrogance or jealousy or pettiness and is not subject to human power and human authority. God's integrity is perfect so He never makes bad or unfair decisions in His dealings with mankind.
God's perfect righteousness is always the key to understanding God's perfect justice. God's righteousness is maintained at all times and nothing can compromise God's integrity.
God's perfect judicial righteousness is imputed to humans at salvation through faith in Christ, and that imputation, even though it resides in each one of us who still have sin natures in a biological body is incorruptible.
The possession of God's judicial righteousness makes it possible for God to deal in grace with believers and eventually to bless believers on the basis of their capacity of His Word. God's justice can impute blessing without compromising God's essence where God's judicial righteousness is imputed.
The only way for the believer to miss blessing is to try to reinvent the wheel by using self-righteousness and legalism.
The wheel is God's plan of grace that operates on the perfect axle of God's righteousness imputed and when the believer attempts to use his own self-righteousness as the axle he reinvents the wheel by substituting his own legalistic plan for God's grace plan that results in failing to exploit the imputation of God's judicial righteousness.
The first half of the book of Romans tells us how God's judicial righteousness is imputed. The last half of the book of Romans tells us how to exploit the imputation of God's judicial righteousness.
The parenthesis or the transition becomes the motivation and, the encouragement, from understanding, getting back to reality by facing the facts of God's Word of Truth. 2Cor 13:8; John 17:17-21;
Rom 9:20,21contain Paul's first response to the questions he posed in verse 19. Rom 9:20: starts out with a word that is the combination of a series of three particles run together "men-ou-nge" (on the contrary).
This word is used to emphasize the right idea rather than the wrong idea in an answer to questions. This was a debater's statement that Paul used and when he used it he meant, "You think what I have just said is wrong; but its what your thinking that is actually wrong."
Following it we have an interjection and when an interjection follows a triple compound Pauline conjunction we know that we are in for something. It is an interjection with a circumflex accent. Normally we would simply transliterate it by the English "O" that, of course, is inadequate.
This interjection in the Koine is used before a vocative following a Semitic usage but this is not Koine Greek. So we have Paul taking an Attic Greek word and coining new words, and then adding an interjectory vocative before a vocative.
In addition the interjection is never used when addressing someone who is perfect, or who thinks he is perfect, or who is right. It is an interjection that is only used to address people who are wrong. In the English language we have nothing comparable so we simply say "wrong" or "not" or make a buzzing sound.
Next is an interrogative "tis" (who) with the present active indicative of "eimi" (are). What he means by this is "You are wrong stupid. Who are you?"
The static present tense represents a fact, that some people are stupid and when people are stupid someone must have the courage to straighten them out and in this case that person is Paul.
The active voice: people produce the action of the verb of functioning as a stupid irrational, imbecilic people. The indicative mood is the interrogative indicative that is implied as being something that has been asked about.
With this is the predicate nominative from the personal pronoun "su" (you) that is in the proleptic position so it means "You" or "Hey you" The personal pronoun in the proleptic position is similar to a vocative.
So we have "who are you who answers back to the God?" Paul is bringing out the fact that people are stupid when they become impudent to the God.
This is the present middle participle from the compound "antapokrinomai" (to answer back against, to contradict, and sometimes it means to make an unjustifiable accusation against someone because you are impudent). At a minimum it means "who answers back" or "who contradicts."
The descriptive present tense describes what is going on at the time when Paul is writing this. Arrogant people do not know what they are so they do not know what God is, they do not know who and what they are so they contradict God.
They contradict and they are impudent so they are blasphemous. The indirect middle emphasizes the agent who is producing the action of the verb who in this case is the unbelieving Jew who is both arrogant and legalistic.
He overestimates himself while at the same time underestimating God because anyone who underestimates God always overestimates himself.
This is a circumstantial participle plus the dative singular indirect object from "Theos" (God) with the definite article is used in the generic sense to describe God's uniqueness by making it monadic. So the phrase is "he contradicts, he answers back, and he is impudent to the eternal God."
"You on the contrary O man, who are you who answers back to (contradicts) the God." The creature has no more right to challenge God as the creator than a pot has to challenge the potter who makes it. This concept is stated in Isa 45:8-12;
Isa 45:8; "Cause to trickle down, you heavens above, and let the blue skies rain down righteousness" (they were having a drought, and in this drought there was a shortage of righteousness) (God's imputed judicial righteousness); "let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit" God's judicial righteousness imputed causes salvation to bear fruit, "and righteousness, to sprout together; I, Jehovah, have created it."
Isa 45:9: "Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker!" There it is, impudence toward God - blasphemy, contradiction, arguing against God. It is inevitable that there is no respect for authority when there is arrogance.
"A pot among the pots of earthenware." The person who quarrels with God, the person who contradicts God, is a pot among the pots. "Will the clay say to the potter, What are you making? Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands?" Impudence to the maximum.
Isa 45:10; "Woe to him who says to his father, What are you begetting? Or to his mother, To what are you giving birth?" This is ludicrous, but it is far more ludicrous to contradict God.
Isa 45:11; "This says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: Ask me about things to come that my sons, or the work of my hands, be committed to me."
Isa 45:12; - "It is I who made the earth (I know what I am doing), and I created man upon it" -- When He created man He created man with a free will - "I stretched out the heavens with my hands (God created the entire universe], and I gave orders to all of the stars."
Jer 18:6; O house of Israel, cannot I deal with you as the potter does with the clay? communicated Jehovah. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."
Jesus Christ who controls history was warning them. When God created man He placed in his soul free volition, free will, and self-determination, in order to resolve the angelic conflict. Along with that man has to be aware of his own existence and the meaning of his existence in relation to life in general, so he has self-consciousness.
The mentality of the soul is contained in the two frontal lobes. In the Greek Bible the left lobe is called the nous that is a processing area for information. The right lobe that is called the heart is the place where permanent knowledge resides. It is where any and all wisdom a person has if they have any resides.
There is also a frame of reference, memory center, vocabulary and categorical storage, along with norms and standards that instruct the conscience, and a launching pad for application.
There is also emotion that the Bible sometimes called "reins" or "kidneys" that is a responder to what a person has in his right lobe. The volition that is the basis for self-determination has positive and negative poles.
The real you that is your soul and what you think. You have privacy because every attribute of the soul, while real, is also invisible. Therefore you have perfect privacy to think what you want to think, to decide what you want to decide, and in the normal soul through self-consciousness to relate this to your life and to your emotions.