https://youtu.be/ukWR_oEEjuo
In our study of Romans last time we completed our Expanded Translation of Rom 9:21; "Or does not the potter possess authority over the clay, from the same mixture to make on the one hand a vessel for the purpose of honor, and on the other hand another for the purpose of dishonor?"
This verse reveals that the lump of clay is where human volition and human self-determination are stored. The lump of clay describes the biological body that contains the self-awareness and self-determination of soul life.
So what Paul is describing with his vessel analogy is God's justice that imputes eternal life and God's judicial righteousness to souls that have positive volition to God's Word of Truth in the intact lump of clay and at the same time imputes condemnation, punishment, and wrath to souls with negative volition to God's Word of truth in shattered lumps of clay..
The issue is what and how do souls think and the most important issue is the true identity of Jesus Christ. Matt 22:42; John 6:42-44; John 3:16; Acts 16:31;
The descendants of Abraham, Isaac And Jacob can only become true Jews by believing in Jesus Christ. So all Israel is not really Israel.
There is no way for the physical descendants of Abraham to be vessels of honor on their own. To be a vessel of honor he must from his own free will believe in Jesus Christ who is the Shekinah glory, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Therefore in this context a vessel of honor is the Jew who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, while the vessel of dishonor is the Jew who has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's justice has to condemn the one who has rejected Jesus Christ. The issue is not what we do; the issue is who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us on the cross. Therefore believing in the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the issue.
Being an honorable or dishonorable lump refers to the free will choice of mankind to believe in Jesus Christ or to reject Jesus Christ. Mankind is free to choose either way.
The vessel of dishonor, then, is the unbeliever; the vessel of honor is the believer in Jesus Christ who possesses the imputation of God's judicial righteousness and eternal life that is the predicate for honor.
Honor results from possessing eternal life and God's imputed judicial righteousness and depending on God's judicial righteousness, while dishonor results from possessing spiritual death and depending on one's own self righteousness.
God is free to bless vessel of honor because they have God's perfect judicial righteousness, and likewise God is free to judge and condemn vessels of dishonor because they only have imperfect human self-righteousness.
This verse answers the question posed in the previous verse, "Why have you made me like this?" The answer is found in the concept that the lump of clay is human volition that is free will and self-determination. All people are created with free will so each one makes himself by what he believes is true.
Man is a free agent. He can function under his own self-determination for better or for worse. This is a part of the angelic conflict and it is the reason why man was created. God permits mankind to use his own free will to determine whether he is going to be a vessel of honor or dishonor.
In this context from the same function of human volition a vessel of honor and a vessel of dishonor is established. One person is a vessel of honor because of what God does for him at salvation and thereafter.
Another person is the vessel of dishonor because God's justice must condemn him. For the unbeliever this means rejection of Jesus Christ as savior.
After salvation for the believer it also means rejection of God's Word of Truth that leads to reversionism.
That means that honor or dishonor is not a behavior pattern. It is not complying with some system of morality. It is not a system of self-improvement. It is an attitude, first toward the person of Jesus Christ the living Word and then toward the thinking of Jesus Christ that is the Bible doctrine contained in God's written Word of Truth.
The believer is a vessel of honor because of what God does for him while the unbeliever is a vessel of dishonor because of what he is doing for himself. The unbeliever superimposes his volition over God's sovereignty by substituting his own self-righteousness for God's righteousness.
God is therefore just and righteous in molding the believer into a vessel of honor and the unbeliever into a vessel of dishonor. A believer's failure in sinfulness, human good, and evil, does not detract from what God has done for him.
God's omniscience knew in eternity past who would accept and who would reject the gospel, who would be positive toward God's Word of Truth and who would be negative. When this information was fed into God's decree it was broken down into many different categories for the printout.
For the one who believes in Jesus Christ the printout includes election, foreknowledge, predestination or foreordination. For the unbeliever the printout includes condemnation, judgment, and wrath.
The issue for the lump of clay is always self-determination from volitional free will so that the vessels of dishonor are actually molded by their own free negative volition.
The vessels of honor are the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ because of their positive volition. The honor comes from the fact that God gives the believer 40 things at salvation, including God's judicial righteousness and eternal life.
With God's judicial righteousness and eternal life there is a potential for blessing in time and eternity from positive volition to God's Word of Truth after salvation.
The vessel of honor is designed by God's grace the fulfill God's the royal family honor code, to advance to spiritual maturity, and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.
The vessel of dishonor is the unbeliever who makes negative decisions. He is negative at God consciousness or negative at gospel hearing. This means that he substitutes his own self-righteousness for God's judicial righteousness and with the result that he substitutes eternal condemnation for eternal life with God because he chooses his own righteousness and spiritual death. 1John 5:12;
Therefore there is no conflict between the function of God's sovereignty and the function of mankind's free volition. For human volition determines the destiny of the lump of clay. Human volition in mankind is the factor in resolving the angelic conflict. Conflict between God and man only exists is when people reject God's authority.
Rom 9:22; contains another answer to the question related to the relationship between mankind's free will and God's sovereignty.
Verses 22 and 23 contain a theological profile of the Pharaoh of Egypt during the Exodus generation and the reason why God hardened Pharaoh's heart in the face of overwhelming evidence.
The first answer in (verses 20 and 21 emphasizes the coexistence of free will and divine sovereignty in history the second answer emphasizes negative volition expressed to the maximum as Pharaoh did in his confrontation with Moses.
This also becomes an illustration of Jewish negative volition throughout the entire history of Israel.
God's grace always gives every opportunity for repentance or a change of mind. Negative volition has the opportunity to become positive volition because Jesus Christ is presented in His saving work.
After one believes in Jesus Christ there is the opportunity to learn additional doctrinal truth, and wherever there is the demand Gods always supplies. The trends of human history are established by free positive and negative volition and God always provides time for repentance.
So to understand verses 22 and 23 we have to keep in mind that Pharaoh is being described as a vessel of dishonor. Pharaoh a vessel of dishonor is compared to Moses a vessel of honor who as a believer in Jesus Christ advances to spiritual maturity.
This paragraph, that includes verses 22-24,is so brilliant and dramatic that Paul's explanation in the protasis is so obvious that it does not require an apodosis.
Only a genius can give you a protasis in a way that you can actually fill in the apodosis for yourself. Paul is going to give us this beautiful protasis and then shuts up. This means the verse is so completely and thoroughly understood by his audience that he doesn't need to complete the logical statement.
We will see that vessels of honor and dishonor are fashioned in every generation.
The obvious conclusion is that God's purpose is so that He might reveal the riches of His glory that He works on the vessels of mercy that He prepared before hand for His glory, and to which He has called us not only from among the Jews but also from the Gentiles.
Paul does not want the history of his contemporaries to follow the pattern of Ishmael, Esau and Pharaoh. He wants the Jews to fulfill their heritage.
The sentence starts out with a protasis in the first class condition, if and it is true but in verse 25 we go on from the protasis directly into a comparative analogy so there is no apodosis.
The words are arranged in an unusual manner but they are arranged in order to make a point in the concept of debater's technique so verses 22-24 are a digression type of debater's technique.
The paragraph forms an ellipsis where the protasis is given without the apodosis but the protasis is definitely understood, and the one who is listening says, I agree. That, in effect, becomes the unstated apodosis.
Rom 9:22; In the Greek it does not start with "what" at the beginning of the sentence. It begins with the conditional particle "ei" (if) with the indicative mood verb introduces the protasis of a first class condition that is a supposition from the viewpoint of reality.
Next in the sentence is the postpositive conjunctive particle "de" (but) that is used as a transitional particle but it is translated before the word "if" as "but if."
Then comes the present active participle "thelo" (want or will) by bringing in this verb at this time we are agreeing with Paul that the subject has a right to use His volition.
The subject is "Theos" (God) in the nominative case with the definite article" ho" to making it monadic so it uniquely refers to God the Father as "the God" who has been referenced in the passage several times before.
Paul is using sarcasm by implying that "Are you telling me you are free to do what you want to do from your own volition and God doesn't have the right to use His free volition?"
The verb "thelo" (want or will) is in the historical present tense that describes a past event with the clarity of a present occurrence. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb.
Next what God is willing or wanting to do is expressed with the aorist middle infinitive of "endeiknumi" (to demonstrate). The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results.
God demonstrated His power through the plagues in Egypt and the result was great evangelism in Egypt and throughout the known world.
The middle voice is an indirect middle that emphasizes God as the agent who produces the action. It differs from the active voice in that with the middle voice there is a very close relationship between subject and verb.
With this we have the direct object of the verb, the accusative singular from "orge"(anger or wrath).
This is an anthropopathism so it is simply a way to express in human frame of reference the action of God's justice. The anthropopathism is used to describe God's perfect righteousness and justice's response to evil.
God's righteousness rejects evil so God's justice condemns evil. The anthropopathism represents judgment from God's justice. We also have the accusative singular of the definite article that used as a personal pronoun, so we translate it "His wrath" that describes God's judgment.
A connective use of the conjunction "kai," (and) plus the aorist active infinitive of the verb "gnorizo" (to make known, to reveal, or to declare). This is a culminative aorist tense that views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The active voice explains that God produces the action of the verb.
Then we have an accusative singular direct object from "dynatos" (power). So we have "and to make his power known." So our translation so far is "But the God wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to reveal his power."