In our study of Romans we are in Rom 9:22; at the word "skeuos" (vessels) that describes the containers that were used to store things in the ancient world. The noun here is without a definite article so the absence of the definite article makes it anarthrous so it describes the high value and therefore the high price that God paid for the entire human race that is comprised of Adam and all of his natural descendants.
God paid the greatest price, the death of his uniquely born Son Jesus Christ, (John 3:16;) for the entire human race. This is followed by the descriptive genitive singular from the noun "orge) (wrath) that we understand is an anthropopathism that is used to describe God's judgment and condemnation of evil in terms of human language of accommodation.
This judgment and condemnation is described in John 3:18. It is the vessel of wrath that from his own free will makes a decision to reject Jesus Christ so he sets himself up for destruction by his own free will that becomes a reality in the printout of God's decree from eternity past.
In Eternity past God knew about every person who would reject Jesus Christ as savior and as a result become a vessel of wrath. "Wrath" and "destruction" describes the printout of God's decree from the situation of the unbeliever.
God does not prepare the vessel of wrath but the vessel of wrath prepares himself through his own negative free will choices. He is a free agent, he has the opportunity to say yes or no, but in self-determination he rejects Jesus Christ as savior.
Rom 9:22; Next is the verb katartizo" (prepared), that is a perfect passive participle. This is very significant in because in the perfect tense it describes man's free will as having the potential to be the predicate for eternal blessing or eternal condemnation.
Every person's own self-determined free will is the reason for their blessing or cursing from God. The Greek word '"katartiao" is used at least four ways in the scriptures. It is used in a mechanical sense in Greek tragedy for tuning up the machine that lowered the deities onto the stage in 1Cor 1:10; where in the NASB it is translated "complete."
It also was a military term for completely equipping an army, as in 2Cor 13:11; or a naval term for supplying a fleet going into action, as in 1Thes 3:10; where it is also translated "complete" in the NASB.
It was used as a fishing term for mending broken nets in 1Pet 5:10; where it is translated "perfect" and it was used in Gal 6:1; where it translated "restore."
The word emphasizes the fact there that mankind's free volition determines the kind of vessel that a person will become. The lump of clay in verse 21 is neutral. God does not cause the vessel to be a vessel of wrath; the negative free will volition of the soul of the unbeliever prepares the vessel as a vessel of wrath.
Their rejection of salvation is the rejection of God's love and grace. To reject God's Word of Truth is also the rejection of God's love and grace. Here it is in the perfect tense so we will translate it, "having been prepared" or "having been equipped."
The perfect tense describes the completed action of the verb. That in this case is negative volition at God-consciousness and negative volition at gospel hearing that is the predicate for the situation.
The status quo is an unbeliever; the perfect tense emphasizes the results of the action of the verb that explains that from one's own free will a person has rejected Jesus Christ and therefore remains and unbeliever in the status of condemnation from God.
The passive voice, the unbeliever becomes the vessel that is judged by God's justice because of his own negative volition. He also prepares himself for his own self-destruction from his very own free negative volition. God has nothing to do with it.
The unbeliever's very own free will decisions are is what prepares or equips him for destruction. The participle describes the reality. With this is a prepositional phrase "eis" (into) "apoleia" (destruction) " (into destruction) that God throws them into the lake of fire.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:22; "But, if as is the case, God willing to demonstrate his indignation, and to reveal his omnipotence, has endured with great patience vessels of wrath (unbelievers) have been equipped into destruction (the lake of fire)."
We see here that man's free will or self-determination can be used as preparation for eternal blessing or eternal condemnation. Free will and self-determination are the thoughts that result in decisions and actions. What a person thinks results in decisions and actions that prepares them for eternal blessing or eternal judgment from God.
When man expresses positive volition by believing the doctrine regarding the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ God equips him as a vessel of mercy by the imputation of God's judicial righteousness. God prepares him for God's glory through his own non-meritorious free positive volition.
However, when man expresses negative volition, as did the Pharaoh of Egypt his free will prepares him for destruction, and the destruction described in this verse is to being into the lake of fire.
Man will adjust to God's justice by believing in Jesus Christ or he will fail to adjust to God's justice by rejecting Jesus Christ. God's justice will always adjust to the situation.
The principle also works the opposite way. When a person rejects Jesus Christ as his personal savior then there is maladjustment to God's justice that is followed by God's justice providing what is necessary and compatible with His situation. That means discipline from God in time followed by eternal judgment from God in the lake of fire.
When mankind from his own free will chooses the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for salvation he becomes a vessel of mercy. God has mercy on his soul and immediately imputes to the believer the 40 assets that are required for an eternal relationship with God.
From then on, depending on his attitude toward God's Word of Truth, mercy intensifies and increases until a person can have the greatest possible happiness during his life in a sin infused biological body of death in the devil's world.
The issue is always absolute truth. God is absolute truth, Jesus is absolute truth and God's Word is absolute truth. Absolute truth is all that really matters.
When mankind from his own free will chooses his own truth and his own self-righteousness from his own works he becomes a vessel of wrath equipped and prepared for God's last judgment.
That means that it is only man's rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ that results in his destruction in the lake of fire. God in His patience is longsuffering and His forbearance permits the unbeliever to continue to live, so God can demonstrate His power to him so he has another chance to change his mind.
God's power was demonstrated in the plagues so that many in Egypt and throughout the world were evangelized through the negative volition of Pharaoh who became the vessel of wrath by his own negative free volition.
God by his mercy keeps unbelievers alive in spite of themselves and uses them to fulfill His plan in spite of their opposition to believers in Jesus Christ who are God's vessels of mercy. God provides believers, His vessels of mercy the grace that they need to deal with the adversity. 2Cor 12:9;
We see from this that God's plan does not depend on mankind; Ishmael, Esau and Pharaoh were all vessels of wrath. God endured them with great patience so that each one saw God's power and His dynamics by His advancing of His plan through, over and around them but they still said no.
In other words, the principle is that nothing can stop the advance of God's plan. The unbelievers who are vessels of wrath have been prepared for their own destruction through their own free negative volition, first at God-consciousness and from there it branches out in many ways starting with gospel hearing, and in the case Pharaoh his confrontation with the Truth of God's Word of Truth from Moses.
Therefore it is the function of his own free will that equips or prepares a vessel of wrath for the last judgment. Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction by means of his own free consistent persistent negative volition. Even though he had repeated demonstrations of God's power that completely overwhelmed him but he still said no.
Rom 9:23; is the continuation of the protasis of the first class condition. The protasis will go for three verses but there is no apodosis. This verse begins with the connective use of the conjunction "kai" (and).
It is followed by "hina" (in order that) that is the purpose clause "in order that." With the aorist active subjunctive of the verb "gnorizo" (to know or to understand).
It refers to the perception and inculcation of truth. It is one of the stronger Greek words for learning something so that you have words in your soul. And the words are combined with other words to explain concepts and principles.
The doctrinal thoughts that you have in your soul are the greatest riches in the world. Doctrinal Truth is your greatest value. So we have "And in order that He might make known, inculcated, or revealed."
The verb is in the culminative aorist tense that views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The result of understanding the purpose of God gives these people another chance to get with God's program by believing the truth regarding he Lord Jesus Christ.
God's purpose is to make His purpose known. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive that implies a future reference and it is used here to express that category of a purpose clause that is described in the Greek as a final clause.
A pure final clause expresses a distinct purpose conceived as the objective of the action of the verb or the action described in the principle verb. The object of the verb is the accusative singular of "plutos" (wealth or riches) with article "ho" (the) making it monadic so it describes a specific category of wealth or riches.
In context it refers to true wealth. The most important thing in life is doctrinal truth resident in the soul's frame of reference. Next is the possessive genitive singular from "doca" (glory) referring to God's attributes or the riches that belong to Him, plus the possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun "autos (His) referring to God.
Most of the time "Autos" is not used as an intensive pronoun. It is usually used as the third person singular personal pronoun but in this case we translate it as, "the riches of His glory." This describes the results of possessing God's Word of Truth that is most important thing in life because you become rich when you have it.
The absolute truth of God's Word resident in your soul is what makes you rich. By possessing doctrinal truth in the soul and possessing God's perfect judicial righteousness that is the predicate for God's direct blessing, God makes you rich.
The "riches of his glory" describes the imputation of God's blessing to the mature believer. God's judicial righteousness is imputed to all believers at salvation but that is only the potential for wealth. Until there is capacity in the believer's soul from the PMA of doctrinal truth it will remain just a potential.
Imputed judicial righteous with the filling of God the Holy Spirit is potential spiritual power. God's Word of Truth resident in the believer's soul transforms that potential spiritual power into kinetic spiritual power.
Next is the preposition "epi" (on or upon) plus the accusative from "skeuos" (vessels. Then we have the descriptive genitive from "eleos" (mercy) mercy is grace in action.
God's justice imputes blessing to God's judicial righteousness that is grace in action, and "mercy" here actually refers to the imputation of God's blessing to the mature believer. The anarthrous construction with no definite article indicates the high quality of the vessel so this refers to the mature believer who has capacity.
And the accusative neuter plural from the relative pronoun "hos" (which) with the aorist active indicative from the compound verb proetoimazo" ([pro = before; etoimazo = prepare so it means pre-prepare or prepared beforehand or to prepare ahead of time).
This explains that God knew in eternity past every decision every believer would ever make and He entered those decisions into the divine decree and then He also entered logistical support for those decisions into the decree. The constantive aorist tense gathers up into one entirety the action of the verb.
Here is the momentary action of God's omniscience feeding facts about the believer into God's decree resulting in the printout. The active voice describes God's decree as producing the action of the verb in eternity past when God provided for every need the believer would have.
The indicative mood is declarative regarding the action of the verb from the viewpoint of absolute reality. With this is a prepositional phrase, "eis" (for) "doca" (glory). This prepositional phrase stands out in vivid contrast to the prepositional phrase "for destruction" for the unbeliever at the end of the previous verse. Now it is describing "for glory" for the believer in Jesus Christ.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:23; "And in order that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he previously prepared for glory."
Believers in Jesus Christ are the only vessels of mercy and only vessels of mercy are qualified have the potential for glory. The qualified believer is the one who takes in doctrine. The riches of glory include blessings in time to God's imputed judicial righteousness that is combined with capacity from doctrinal truth in the believer's soul.
Blessings in time are imputed to capacity from God's Word of Truth that the imputation of God's judicial righteousness at salvation has created a potential home or target for. The imputation of blessing in time establishes an a fortiori for eternal blessing that is imputed to the resurrection body at the believer's evaluation after the exit resurrection..