We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
How do you respond to Romans 9:18?
“[God] has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.”
This is one of the most frequently cited texts in support of Calvinism. If the text implied that whether or not people were believers was a result of whether God had mercy on them or hardened them, they would have a point. But if read in context, the passage rather suggests that God has mercy and hardens people in response to what they do.
Hence Paul summarizes his argument in chapter 9 by noting that Gentiles received the righteousness of God because they had faith while unbelieving Jews were hardened “[b]ecause they did not strive for [righteousness]…on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works” (30–32, emphasis added). “They were broken off because of their unbelief…” (11:20, emphasis added, cf. 10:3). This is why they as a nation have now been hardened (Rom. 11:7, 25) while the Gentiles who seek God by faith have been “grafted in” (11:23).
To Jews who assumed that their standing before God was based on their works and/or their nationality, this seems arbitrary (9:14, 19). But Paul insists that God has the right to have mercy on people simply because of their faith if he so chooses. “[H]e has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.”
For a more extensive discussion of Romans 9, see How do you respond to Romans 9?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Q&A, Responding to Calvinism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Responding to Objections
Verse: Romans 9
Related Reading
When Did Jesus Bind the Strongman?
Question: In Luke 11:21-22 Jesus said: “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.” My question is, when…
What are the main principles of the warfare worldview?
In my book God At War (IVP, 1997) I flesh out what I call the “warfare worldview” of the Bible. This is the view that the world is a battle ground between God and good angels, on the one hand, and Satan and fallen angels, on the other. In my book Satan and the Problem…
What is the significance of 2 Samuel 24:17–25?
“So the Lord answered [David’s] supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.” The passage suggests that the Lord intended the plague to judge Israel further but David’s supplication persuaded him to change his mind and relent from his punishment. If the future is to some degree open and God is genuinely…
How Does God Hear All Our Prayers?
Q: At any given moment there are millions of people praying to God. How is it possible for God to pay attention to my little, silent prayer amidst all the chatter? The reason you or I can only effectively listen to one person at a time is because we only have a limited amount of…
Answering an Objection to a Cross-Centered Approach to Scripture
Through Greg’s Facebook and Twitter, we’ve been getting some great feedback and questions regarding his cross-centered approach to Scripture. Several have voiced questions similar to the reader’s (below), so we thought it would be helpful to post Greg’s answer here on his blog.