9:14-18 What exactly is the meaning of all that Paul says here?

Again, this does not mean as some in the church teach that salvation is prepared for those only on whom God is pleased to bestow His mercy, and that ruin and death await all whom He has not chosen.

(This is one of the central doctrines of Calvinism and is called "Unconditional Election".) Paul does not have the personal salvation of individuals at all in mind here. His consideration in Ch 9-11 is the question of Israel's relationship to God (CP 9:1-5; 10:1-3; 11:1-5).

While Paul affirms in Ch 9 that God as a sovereign creator is free to order all things as He pleases, he is not teaching, as we saw in our previous study on V10-13, that God is arbitrary or capricious in His dealings with men.

The cause of Israel being rejected by God was not due to the fact of God's sovereignty without respect to anything in men, but to Israel's unbelief and disobedience (CP Jn 1:11; 3:19; 5:39-40; Ac 13:44-46; 28:23-28; Ro 9:30-33; 10:17-21; 11:13-24; 2Cor 3:12-16).

In Ro 9:16 Paul is simply saying that salvation is not a matter of human desire or effort - working to be found worthy of it is futile. God justifies persons by grace through faith while they are still sinners (CP V16 with Ro 5:8-11).

If God were to be merciful only to those who earn these benefits no one would ever receive anything (CP Eph 2:8-9). The terminology of Ro 9:17-18 derives from the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in Exodus (CP V17-18 with Ex 4:21; 7:3, 13-14; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8).

We see in all these scriptures that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart is attributed to God. However, elsewhere in Exodus it is attributed to Pharaoh himself (CP Ex 7:22-23; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34-35; 13:15).

When God said He would harden Pharaoh's heart that does not mean that He caused Pharaoh's heart to harden, but rather, He permitted it. Many times in scripture God is said to do the things He permits to be done (CP Isa 6:9-10 with Mt 13:10-15; Mk 4:11-12; Lu 8:9-10; Jn 12:37-40; Rom 11:7-8).

These scriptures have all been used to teach that God made it impossible for the Jews to believe because He had already determined not to save them, but that is not correct. As we saw earlier, scriptures clearly teach that the Jews rejected the gospel of their own volition and it is for this reason alone that God rejected them. And the same thing applied to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh's stubborn resistance to God was the same as the Jews was to Jesus, yet a divine purpose was fulfilled in his life through God's sovereign power.

God used Pharaoh's hardness in order to demonstrate His power for all humanity to see, which is what Ro 9:17 teaches (CP V17). Through Pharaoh's hardness, God's power and name is proclaimed throughout the earth whenever the book of Exodus is read. God has to use severe measures to serve gracious ends in scripture (CP Ro 11:32; Ga 3:22).

This is the best example in the Bible: God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all (see also comments on Mt 11:28-30, 13:10-11, 20:16; Jn 3:15-16, 3:36, 6:37, 12:37-40, Ac 2:37-38, 13:48, 28:23-29, Ro 3:24-26(A), 8:28-30, 9:7, 9:10-13, 9:19-21, 10:14-17, 11:2, 11:4, Eph 1:3-6, 1:11-14, 2:8-10, 1Th 1:4; 2Ti 1:8-9; 1Pe 1:2, and author's studies Salvation -

A Free Will Choice or Predestinated?====, Chosen by God?==== and Israel in God's eternal Purpose in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 1), and The Doctrine of Grace in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2)).

"Romans"