A Thumbnail Theology – Peter Lundell, D.Miss
Whenever my Calvinist friends, or their writers, explain why their theology is right, at some point they’ll always go to Romans 9, which is kind of like Grand Central Station for Calvinism.
If this biblical affirmation was true, I wanted to know. So a long time ago I carefully read Romans 9. To my best ability, I recognized and set my presuppositions aside, and I read with a decided view that the passage would have nothing to do with anything other than what the words themselves actually said.
The whole book of Romans was written to the church in Rome that had started out with Jewish believers, who were subsequently expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius. After his death they were allowed to return, but in their absence the church had filled up with Gentiles. So they had a multicultural church that needed guidance. For example, the first five chapters address the whole church, with Jewish issues being central. Chapter 6 addresses Gentile issues, Chapter 7 addresses Jewish issues, and Chapter 8 embraces all who believe.
Chapter 9 addresses Israel’s past and how they were God’s chosen and privileged people. This is where the focus on individual election jumps in. Chapter 10 addresses Israel’s present (during Paul’s era) and how the nation has refused to believe the gospel. Chapter 11 addresses Israel’s future and how Israel will someday be saved and enjoy the New Covenant promises.
Now for a closer look at this theological football of Chapter 9.
Paul begins by telling how privileged Israel as a nation has been. His examples of Jacob being loved and Esau hated, of hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and of the potter choosing the purposes of the clay all express in different ways God’s favor on Israel. To read them as proof of determinist (or Calvinist) election by decree is to read into the text what one is wanting to see.
Paul indeed speaks of election as being “not by works buy by [God] who calls.” When he quotes Malachi 1:2–3, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” this clearly supports the validity election, and thus predestination, as an operating principle of God. But it says nothing of causation. Calvinists assume it must be that God elects us to salvation or damnation purely by his own will, that is, by decree. But in Romans 8:29 and 11:2 Paul clearly states that it is by God’s foreknowledge of who we are, or will be, that he bases election and predestination. 1 Peter 1:2 says the same thing.
Romans 9:14–24 constitutes the most foundational core for the Calvinist view of election. I invite you open your Bible in any version and read along with me.
One word stands out twice in the quote from Exodus. This same word appears three times in the next paragraph. We see it again two paragraphs later: mercy.
Calvinists read 9:14–24 to emphasize how God elects and predestines people to salvation (mercy) or damnation (wrath), and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It’s God’s sovereign choice. But their definition of sovereignty stands in contrast to all other universally used definitions—that God’s sovereignty means total control. All other definitions universally used define sovereignty as total authority. A thorough reading of Scripture in all its didactic and narrative passages cannot help but agree with the universal understanding of sovereignty as total authority, not control. God may control things to work a miracle, but his modus operandi is never to control people. Free will among humans under, and within the parameters of, the absolute authority of God is what we see from Genesis to Revelation. Election and predestination, based on foreknowledge, are God’s prerogative in operating above the freedom he has allowed humans. And humans will invariably face the consequences, reward or punishment, of their actions. He knows who we are and what we will do—and by that he elects and predestines.
Verses 16–18 exhibit Pharaoh, who had already hardened his own heart, and God, who made it harder, as in, “You want to be hard? Okay, I’ll make you even harder.” This aligns with Romans 1:24, 26, and 28, where in response to people’s embrace of sin, “God gave them over” to that sin. Yet throughout the Romans 9:16–18 paragraph, we see how everything depends not on human action but on God’s mercy—not election, not predestination, but mercy.
Verses 19–21 express how we—implicitly Israel and now all believers—are formed for different purposes, noble or common. It says nothing of unavoidable salvation or damnation.
Verses 22–24 express how some are prepared to be objects of wrath and others objects of mercy. That’s election and predestination right there. But it does not necessitate election by decree. It’s equally true of election and predestination by foreknowledge—actually more true because that’s what the Bible plainly says.
If that were the end of it, I might say that the determinists still have an arguable point. But that is not the end of it. Determinists typically overlook what follows.
From verse 25 Paul quotes the Old Testament prophets—not just once but four times, twice from Hosea then twice from Isaiah. Why are all those quotes there? My determinist friends don’t go past verse 24—as if the four supporting quotations are irrelevant. To the determinist position they are irrelevant. But in truth they emphasize what Romans 9 is really saying.
The first two quotations from Hosea depict how God considered the Israelite people “not my people,” but nevertheless called them “my people.” This is an act of mercy. Look back to the repetitive use of “mercy,” and you’ll see how these two quotes support the main theme of this whole section as being primarily about the mercy of God as it surges beyond initial judgment—first for Israel and now for all believers.
The second two quotations from Isaiah speak of salvation of the remnant and how Israel might have been left to become like Sodom and Gomorrah. These also are acts of God’s mercy on a people who were at first under judgment.
Paul goes on in the rest of the chapter and through 10 and 11 to further discuss Israel and a New Testament believer’s place in salvation and being grafted into the covenant relationship with God. In verses 11:29, 30, and 32, Paul concludes the whole long discussion with the three-time emphasis of the same key word: mercy. Israel is under judgment, but in the end God has mercy. And the same pattern is true for Christian believers.
To say that these chapters, especially 9, are all about a foundation for deterministic individual election is contrary to an unbiased and clear reading of Scripture that uses basic, reliable exegetical principles and recognizes context, key words, and theme without the burden of a presupposed imposition of what the text says.
Romans 9 recognizes election and predestination based on foreknowledge. But it’s most central point and emphasis is about mercy—mercy on Israel and to those who believe.
James 2:13 offers a closing refrain, “Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
