And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot
from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of
Pharaoh. 9 It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt,
and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout
all the land of Egypt." 10 So they took soot from the kiln and
stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became
boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians
could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils
came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. 12 But the LORD
hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as
the LORD had spoken to Moses. 13 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise
up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say
to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people
go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my
plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so
that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15
For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your
people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the
earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my
power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You
are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them
go.

How shall we know God? How shall we know what God is like and
how we are to think about him? When I ask myself this question, one
response comes crashing into my mind with overwhelming certitude:
human opinion counts for nothing. What you
feel about the way God should be and what I feel about the way God
should be counts for nothing. If someone rises up and makes a
pronouncement about what they can believe and can’t believe
about God, that is as significant in determining what is true about
God as the creaking of a window in the wind. Human opinion counts
for nothing in defining God.

How than shall we know him? For it is very crucial that we know
him. If he is there, nothing in the universe matters more than he
does. If he is there, he is like the thunder clap and we are like
the scratch on a faint recording. If he is there, he is like the
sun shining in full strength and we are like dust-mote floating in
the morning beam of bedroom light. If he is there, he is absolute
and we are utterly dependent.

But now I am risking putting my opinions forward, which
don’t matter at all. How shall we know him? We will know him
by his own initiative to reveal himself. This he did most clearly
and powerfully in sending his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said,
"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Then he said
that he would send the Holy Spirit to guide his apostles into all
truth so that the truth of Christ and the Father would be preserved
and displayed in the inspired Word of Scripture (John 16:13). The
effect of this promise was that the apostles could say, "We impart
this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit"
(1 Corinthians 2:13).

Drawing Upon the Old Testament

But the apostles and their associates who preserved the truth of
Christ for us in their gospels and letters were led by the Spirit
in them to immerse themselves in the Old Testament as well as the
teachings of Jesus. "In many and various ways God spoke of old to
our fathers by the prophets" (Hebrews 1:1). As the Spirit led the
apostles into all truth, he did so by leading them to a true and
deep understanding of what God had done and said in the Old
Testament.

This is what we see all through the book of Romans, especially
in chapter 9 where we have been since November 3. In Romans 9:4-5
he deals with "the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises, the patriarch" – all of which he
sees in the Old Testament. In verses 6-12 he deals with Isaac and
Ishmael and Jacob and Esau from Genesis. In verse 13 he refers to
Malachi 1:2-3, "Jacob I loved and Esau I hated." In verse 15 he
quotes Exodus 33:19 ("I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I have compassion"), and builds his
argument for the justice of God on it. And then in verse 17 he
quotes Exodus 9:16 and concludes from it in verse 18, "So then he
has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he
wills."

So if we ask, How can we know God? God’s answer is: I
reveal myself to you mainly in my Son Jesus Christ, and through his
inspired apostles in the New Testament, who take us back to the
earlier revelation of God in history and show us that all of divine
revelation is of one piece. The God of the Exodus is the God of
Romans. The God who dealt with Pharaoh is the God who deals with
us.

So Paul roots his teaching about the sovereignty of God and the
freedom of God and unconditional election in the Old Testament at
every point in Romans 9. He is eager for us to see that New
Testament revelation of God is one with Old Testament revelation of
God.

The Quote of Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17

So here we are now in Exodus 9:16 which Paul quotes in Romans
9:17. It would be good to see that quotation in Romans and what
Paul infers from it. In Romans 9:17-18 Paul says, "For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have
raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name
might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ 18 So then he has
mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills."

What Paul is doing here in verse 18 is reaching back to verses
15-16 and summing up the freedom of God in mercy ("He has mercy on
whomever he wills"), and he is drawing out of the Exodus story
about Pharaoh the freedom of God in hardening ("He hardens whomever
he wills").

Verse 18 Teaches Unconditional Hardening

Before we go back there to see what Paul saw in Exodus
let’s make sure we see what Paul says here. What does he mean
in Romans 9:18 by the words, "He hardens who he wills"? There are
at least seven reasons for thinking he meant: God is free in
hardening whom he hardens and does not base his decision whom to
harden on anything a person does.

Before I show you the seven reasons let’s be sure you know
what I am saying, and what he is saying. When I say that he hardens
whom he wills, I mean he decides who will rebel in their hardness
of unbelief and therefore deservingly be condemned. The hardening
of God does not make fault impossible, it makes fault certain.

Now here is the mystery – which is why the opinions of man
don’t count for much – people who are hardened against
God are really guilty. They have real fault. They are really
blameworthy. They really deserve to be judged. And God decided who
would be in that condition. If you demand an explanation for HOW
this can be – that God decides who is hardened and yet they
have real guilt and real fault – there are pointers in the
Bible. But they will not satisfy the natural, fallen human
mind.

I do not offer that explanation now. I simply assert what I see
in the Word: God hardens whom he wills, and man is accountable.
God’s hardening does not take away guilt, it renders it
certain.

Seven Contextual Evidences for Unconditional Hardening

Now, what are the evidences in this text that the words "He
hardens whomever he wills," in Romans 9:18 means that God freely
and unconditionally decides who will be hard and who will not?

1.First, that’s what the words most
naturally mean. "He hardens whomever he wills," says that his will
and not our will is decisive in hardening. To be sure, our will
rebels and is hard against God. But the natural meaning of these
words is that God’s will is decisive beneath and behind our
willing without nullifying the importance of our will.

2.Second, the exact parallel with mercy shows
that the act of God in hardening is as unconditional as the act of
God in having mercy. Verse 18 says, "He has mercy on whomever he
wills, and he hardens whomever he wills." So if we believe that
God’s showing mercy is unconditional, the most natural way to
take the parallel is that the hardening is unconditional.

3.Third, this is in fact exactly what Paul
infers from God’s words in verse 15, "I will have mercy on
whom I have mercy." Paul draws out of this in verse 16, "So then it
depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."
If that is what "I have mercy on whom I have mercy" means, then it
is probably what "I harden whom I harden" means, namely, "It
depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who
hardens."

4.Fourth, the parallel with Jacob and Esau
shows that mercy and hardening are unconditional. Paul said in
verses 11 and 13, "Though they were not yet born and had done
nothing either good or bad . . . As it is written, ‘Jacob I
loved, but Esau I hated.’" In other words, the context
demands that Paul address not just the love and mercy part of
God’s
sovereignty but also the hate and hardening part of
God’s sovereignty. The parallel with Jacob and Esau in verse
13 shows that the hardening and the mercy are unconditional.

5.Fifth, the objection and Paul’s answer
to it in verse 19 show that Paul did not deal with God’s
sovereignty the way most people deal with it today. Paul raises the
objection: "You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find
fault? For who can resist his will?’" Now at this point most
people today say, God finds fault because his hardening is a
response to our prior self-hardening.

For example, one popular, and usually good commentary, says,

"Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who
had not first hardened himself." That Pharaoh hardened his heart
against God and refused to humble himself is made plain in the
story. So God’s hardening of him was a judicial act,
abandoning him to his own stubbornness. [note 1]

Let me say this calmly and firmly: That is exactly the opposite
of what Romans 9:18 teaches. And the fifth reason that I say so is
this: Paul could have so easily removed the objection of verse 19
that way, and he did not! The objector hears Paul say, "God hardens
whomever he wills," and he responds, "Why does he still find fault?
For who can resist his will?" How easily Paul could have answered
the objection with all the answers of modern man! And he
didn’t. Because they are the wrong answer. They turn his
teaching right on its head. He said, "But who are you, O man, to
answer back to God?" Indeed he said more – but in a direction
exactly the opposite of what people today (or then) expect.

6.Sixth, verse 21 shows that Paul sees mercy
and hardening as unconditional because he speaks of the objects of
mercy and hardening as coming from the same lump of clay: "Has the
potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump
(there’s the crucial phrase!) one vessel for honored use and
another for dishonorable use?" The stress is that it was not the
nature of the clay that determined what God would do with it. It
was the free and wise and sovereign will of the potter. He has
mercy on whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills – from
the same lump of clay.

7.Seventh, we read in Romans 11:7, "What then?
Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it,
but the rest were hardened." In other words the decisive issue in
who is hardened and who is not is election, not some prior willing
or running on our part, but God who elects. "The elect obtained it,
the rest were hardened" (11:7). "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated"
(9:13). "He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever
he wills" (9:18).

A Mystery

Now let me say again, after these seven reasons for believing in
God’s freedom in mercy and hardening, that I have not removed
a mystery, I have stated a mystery. God hardens unconditionally and
those who are hardened are truly guilty and truly at fault in their
hard and rebellious hearts. Their own consciences will justly
condemn them. If they perish, they will perish for real sin and
real guilt. How God freely hardens and yet preserves human
accountability we are not explicitly told.

It is the same mystery as how the first sin entered the
universe. How does a sinful disposition arise in a good heart? The
Bible does not tell us. To call the mystery "free will" –
ultimate human self-determination – is only to put another
name on it. Why would a perfectly good, ultimately self-determining
creature (if there were such being) ever do evil? Ultimate human
self-determination no more explains the mystery of the origin of
evil than unconditional election explains the guilt of the hardened
sinner. All it does is give the mystery a different name.

The real question is: Which is the more Biblical name of the
mystery, "Ultimate human self-determination," or "Unconditional
election"? Romans 9:18 is plain in its context to all who will see:
"God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he
wills." The mystery remains, but the revelation is clear.

Seeing What Paul Saw in the Old Testament

Now, where did Paul see this in the Old Testament? The answer in
Romans 9:17 is that he saw it in the story of the Exodus where God
hardens Pharaoh’s heart. He quotes Exodus 9:16. So
let’s go back there and see what Paul saw.

You recall what is happening. God has sent Moses and Aaron to
command Pharaoh to let his people go. Pharaoh refuses over and
over, and God multiplies his wonders in Egypt with more and more
miracles – ten plagues and then a great sea-splitting
deliverance – to show that he is God and Pharaoh is nothing
in his rebellion. Eighteen times Exodus refers to the hardening of
Pharaoh’s heart so that he does not let the people go.

Just before the verse that Paul quotes (Exodus 9:16) it says,
for example, in Exodus 9:12, "But the Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to
Moses." The key here is the phrase "as the Lord had spoken to
Moses." When had God said to Moses that Pharaoh would harden his
heart and not listen to them? Two times: one of them before Moses
had ever arrived in Egypt (the other in 7:3 before any mention is
made of Pharaoh’s self-hardening).

In Exodus 4:21 Moses is preparing to go to Egypt, "And the Lord
said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you do
before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But
I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people
go.’" The reason this is so important is that time after time
you hear people say that God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s
heart doesn’t start until the seventh plague and is the
result of his own self-hardening.

But that that is not true. God said to Moses before he ever
arrived in Egypt: This is what I am going to do. I am going to
harden Pharaoh’s heart. And this is what happens in the very
first meetings with Pharaoh, not just the later ones:

• Before the first plague. Exodus 7:13, "Still Pharaoh's heart
  was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had
  said."
• After the first plague. Exodus 7:22, "But the magicians of
  Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart
  remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had
  said."
• After the second plague. Exodus 8:15, "But when Pharaoh saw
  that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not
  listen to them, as the Lord had said."
• After the third plague. Exodus 8:19, "Then the magicians said
  to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God.’ But Pharaoh's
  heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord
  had said.

And in every case what the Lord had said was, "I will harden his
heart, so that he will not let the people go" (4:21; see 7:3). The
point is this: whether it says Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15) or
that his heart "was hardened" (8:19) in each case it is happening
"as the Lord had said," and what he had said was, "I will harden
Pharaoh’s heart." Which means that behind "self-hardening"
and behind the "being hardened" is the plan and purpose of God. It
is not described as a response to what Pharaoh does, but as a
sovereign rule over what Pharaoh does. Paul sees this and draws it
out and states it in Romans 9:18, "[God] has mercy on whomever he
wills, and he hardens whomever he wills."

Relating This to the Righteousness of God

Now how does this relate to God’s righteousness? Remember,
that is the issue in this part of Romans 9: "Is there then
unrighteousness on God’s part?" It relates very directly.
Recall the definition of God’s righteousness that we found
last week: God’s righteousness is his unwavering commitment
to uphold and display the greatness of his glory and the honor of
his name.

Now we see why Paul chose to quote Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17
rather than one of the verses that relate directly to hardening.
Instead he quotes a verse that shows the purpose why God exercised
his freedom in hardening as well as mercy: "For the Scripture says
to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that
I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed
in all the earth." [note 2]

He chose a verse that expressed the very purpose that relates
implicitly to the righteousness of God and the hope of the world:
namely, God’s commitment to uphold and display the honor of
his name – "that my name might be proclaimed in all the
earth." In other words, God’s freedom in mercy and hardening
is at the heart of God’s glory and God’s name. This is
what it means to be God – to be ultimately free and
unconstrained from powers outside himself. Treasuring and
displaying this glory and this name is right – it is the
meaning of "right." And it is God’s purpose for the whole
earth. He will reveal it to the whole earth.

Here is the sum of the matter, and may it cure us of much
trifling with God. He is just
in all his dealings. And the essence
of his justice is the regard he has to the infinite worth of his
own glory and his own name, that is, his own freedom and
sovereignty.

And let us remember the point from last week: The central act in
the universe where God displayed this righteousness and vindicated
the worth of his glory was in the sending of his Son to die so that
he might pass over sins and justify the ungodly. Let no sin and no
sense of unworthiness keep you from coming to him for
salvation.

In connection with John Piper's sermon on the hardening of
Pharoah's heart, he wrote the following hymn in order that we might
publicly proclaim the glory and freedom and justice of God in this
great mystery.

"Is There Injustice with Our
God?"

Notes

[1] John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 269. He is
quoting Leon Morris.

[2] See the other purpose statements about God’s action in
regard to Pharaoh and the Egyptians: Exodus 7:5, "The Egyptians
shall know that I am the Lord." Exodus 8:10 ". . . so that you may
know that there is no one like the Lord our God." Exodus 9:14 ". .
. so that you may know that there is none like me in all the
earth." Exodus 10:2, ". . . that you may tell in the hearing of
your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the
Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know
that I am the Lord." Exodus 14:4, "And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh
and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord"
(see 14:17-18). Exodus 14:31". . . so the people feared the Lord,
and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses." Exodus
15:15, "Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the
leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away."
Joshua 2:9, "[Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho] said to the men,
‘I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the
fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the
land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried
up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt"
(See Joshua 9:9).