https://youtu.be/v_L1clJSUng
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are in Rom 9:20; at the first phrase "On the contrary who are you, stupid who contradicts God?" So we have gone back to take a look at where Isaiah describes the pot questioning the potter.
The creature has no more right to challenge the eternal 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 that is blasphemy, contradiction, arguing against God. It is inevitable that when there is arrogance there is no respect for legitimate authority.
"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?" This describes maximum impudence.
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 insane, but contradicting God is far more insane and people in our country do it all of the time when they contradict God's Word of Truth. John 1:1-3;
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? declares the Lord God. 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 free volition and self-determination in his soul 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 his life so he has self-consciousness.
The mentality of the soul is contained in the two frontal lobes in the brain. In the Greek Bible the left lobe is called the nous that is the center for processing information. The right lobe that is called the heart is where permanent knowledge resides. It is where any and all wisdom that a person may have resides. Psa 111:10;
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 the right lobe of their soul. The volition that is the basis for self-determination has positive and negative poles.
The real you is what you think that is based on the information that is in your soul You have privacy because every attribute of the soul is invisible to other people. 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 you can relate it to your life and to your emotions.
In his grace God created everything and provided everything necessary for man's free will to be positive toward God, both at God-consciousness and gospel hearing.
That means that every person has equal opportunity to be positive or negative. There never was a person in the human race that did not have that equal opportunity.
Pharaoh did not instantly develop scar tissue of the soul. Scar tissue is the product of persistent negative volition so it is the opposite of the advance to spiritual maturity that is the product of persistent positive volition.
Scar tissue in the soul develops over a period of time so Pharaoh's hardness of heart was created by long series of negative free will choices including God-consciousness, gospel hearing, and the challenge of Moses to release the Jews from slavery in Egypt.
God could have instantly destroyed Pharaoh and his army and released the Jews from Egypt instantly.
But there were other things to consider. There were others who needed to come out of Egypt with the Jews as believers, and therefore a series of disciplinary miracles were deployed to demonstrate that scar tissue of the soul is consistent and never changes. But evil negative volition can also be used by God to reveal himself to the entire Egyptian empire and the entire world.
Pharaoh always hardened himself with a fortification of negative volition as soon as he recovered from the disciplinary miracles. He would give in when the plague was administered and then, when the pressure was off, he would return to saying no.
Therefore God hardened his heart in the true sense of supplying more miracles in the administration of discipline so that Pharaoh could say no more than anyone in history. God kept him alive so that he could say no.
Each no intensified the administration of disciplinary miracles or plagues resulting in greater manifestation of God's power. Each plague was greater than the previous one resulting in greater manifestation of God's power and greater evangelism in Egypt and throughout the known world.
While Pharaoh was saying no from the scar tissue of his soul many Egyptians, Ethiopians and Jews who were under his authority of Pharaoh were saying yes to the gospel. But at the same time Pharaoh's hardness of heart produced arrogance, and arrogance produced impudence, and impudence rejected God's authority.
When a person becomes so arrogant from scar tissue of the soul that he is divorced from reality, inevitably being divorced from reality means rejection of legitimate authority. Rejection of legitimate authority is the first indication of national degeneration from fragmentation.
If God chooses to harden Pharaoh's heart He has a just and righteous reason compatible with His own perfect integrity to do it. He has perfect integrity and therefore from His perfect integrity He is fair; He is just; so He always gives everyone a fair shake.
Consequently, no one has a right to make unjust accusations against God but if they do their Impudence may cause God to respond as He did in the Pharaoh's case. Pharaoh used his own negative volition to build scar tissue of the soul that the Lord God responding by using it to demonstrate His power and to evangelize the world.
Pharaoh's free will expressed negative volition on six occasions prior to the statement that "God hardened his heart." Pharaoh had individual freedom from his own self-determination. He was not only a free agent but as a king he was a sovereign free agent, therefore he had virtually unlimited self-determination.
Paul finds himself facing similar opposition from the Jews in his own generation and we see this same thing in the world today. In effect, Paul is comparing the Jews of his generation to the evil Gentile ruler of the Egyptian empire in the 18th dynasty.
The physical or racial seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob erroneously assumed that spiritual heritage was on the basis of physical birth. Their error was in not understanding that spiritual birth was the predicate for spiritual heritage.
Therefore it is the spiritual seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that is comprised of those who believe in Christ, who are the recipients of the unconditional promises and the covenants of God to Israel.
To enjoy the spiritual heritage of Israel requires the imputation of God's judicial righteousness and eternal life. Only those Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, will have the promised heritage of Israel.
Only the arrogance of the unregenerate Jews would answer back and contradict God's perfect plan so Paul directly challenges the legalistic Jewish unbelievers, the Judaisers who were only Abraham's genetic physical descendants and not his spiritual descendants on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.
Rom 9:20; "The thing will not say to the molder." In the Greek Paul's quotation starts with the negative adverb "mh" (not), used in a question that expects a negative answer. The other Greek negative for not is "ou" or "ouk" that denies a fact.
The negative adverb "mh" (not) denies the idea behind the fact. Next we have "eipo" that is the future active indicative of "lego" (will say) plus the negative "mh" (not). "Lego" (say) is used to describe conversation, shouting, screaming, giving orders, communicating or talking.
We will translated it, "shall not say." It is in the deliberative future tense where there a question of uncertainty is expressed about a future event. The active voice: the creature generally produces the action of the verb but not always.
The interrogative indicative takes the viewpoint of reality that is implied as a fact enquired about. The negative "mh" (not) indicates that the question is rhetorical; it is a facet of the debater's technique that Paul is using in this passage.
The subject is the nominative singular from the noun "plasma" (molded). It refers to what is being created, formed or molded. Plasma is commonly used to describe the product of an artisan, like the potter making a pot or a vessel so we translate this, "Can what is molded say."
Then we have the aorist active participle from "plasso" (molder), that is the ascriptive use of the participle that describes a noun as belonging to a general category, such as potters or painters. The definite article 'ho" (its) in the dative singular is an indirect object that is used as a possessive pronoun so we translate it "to its molder."
"Why did you make me like this?" This phrase begins with the nominative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun "tis" (why)." This is an interrogative of impudence. The aorist active indicative of "poieo (make) means to make, to create and sometimes to manufacture.
The constantive aorist tense describes the completed action of the verb. The active voice describes the subject as producing the action of the verb and by analogy refers to the arrogant and unbelieving Jewish people of Paul's day as producing the action of the verb by questioning God's integrity.
Again the indicative mood is interrogative because it assumes that there is an actual fact that can be used in answer to the question. The accusative singular direct object is "ego" (me).
The adverb "houtos" (like this) refers to something that occurred in the past. We see here the principle that arrogance plus impudence results in blasphemy.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:20; "On the contrary, O mankind, you, who are you who answers back to the God? Can what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?"
This rhetorical question is a debater's technique that is to emphasize the blasphemy of the Jews who rely on their own ability from natural birth, and their genealogical relationship to Abraham, rather than God's grace blessing of spiritual birth that resulted in Abraham having an eternal relationship to God on the basis of faith. Gen 15:6;
It was God's grace that made Abraham, Isaac and Jacob great not their physical biological genetic heritage.
God's integrity is not subject to contradiction or impudence because God is totally, eternally, and infinitely fair. It is impossible for God to be unfair or arbitrary, or even inconsistent with His own perfect character.
Therefore in perfect righteousness God's justice provided man with a free will, so that man is a free agent in determining his own destiny. And he must take the responsibility for his own decisions. That is the basic standard for establishing maturity.
Therefore man cannot blame the mistakes and errors of his own decisions on perfect and incorruptible God.
When God chooses to reject, pardon, or punish whom He pleases, He does so on the basis of His perfect integrity that is based on His righteousness and His justice or holiness.
Arrogant arbitrary prejudiced mankind assumes that God is the same and projects his own prejudice on God but mankind cannot superimpose his own weakness and unfairness on God.
Man's objection to the inequalities of time as well as eternity is really an objection to the possession of his own freedom and the right of self-determination that produces these inequalities.
Furthermore, man objects to the printout of election, foreordination and foreknowledge. He fails to realize that his own free volition determines his own exclusion from election, foreknowledge and predestination.
Negative volition seeks to circumvent the condemnation from God's justice by blaming God's omniscience for entering only the facts into His decree in eternity past.
Man's irresponsibility and depravity is never more dramatically portrayed than when he seeks to blame God for his own thoughts, decisions and actions.
God is not obligated to save the unbeliever and is not obligated to bless the reversionistic believer, that is a matter of momentum from grace under God's grace policy.
God is not obligated to impute blessing to the reversionistic believer in time, nor to impute rewards to him at the judgment seat of Christ.
However, God is obligation to Himself. God's obligation is to His grace policy. God does not make exceptions for nice people or people sweet personalities or those who are sincere or kind.
The issue is God's attitude toward Jesus Christ, the living Word, and after salvation, His attitude toward Bible, the written Word that is Jesus thinking that comprises Bible doctrine.
An attitude that comes from man's volition rather than God's sovereign desire is to blame God.
God must be consistent with Himself so He must punish the unbeliever and save the believer. He must bless the mature believer and discipline the reversionistic believer because God is always fair to everyone.