Romans 9 is one of the most commonly used proof-texts to support the Calvinistic concept of unconditional election. This presentation briefly examines the arguments made from the text and answers them, vindicating the Bible concept of human free will.

1. Calvinism and Romans 9

2. Augustinianism finds a strong foundation in Romans 9. … Paul tells
us Jacob was chosen long before he did any good work (vv. 9–13).
Moreover, Jacob was chosen to make the Father’s electing purpose
stand, not because He knew Jacob would obey Him (v. 11). – R. C.
Sproul
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/god-and-unbelief/
There are two experiences in my life that make Romans 9 one of the
most important chapters in shaping the way I think about
everything … In the class on salvation we dealt head on with the
doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace. Romans
9 was the watershed text and the one that changed my life
forever. … “Romans 9 is like a tiger going about devouring free-willers
like me.” That was the end of my love affair with human autonomy and
the ultimate self-determination of my will. My worldview simply could
not stand against the scriptures, especially Romans 9. – John
Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/the-absolute-sovereignty-of-god-what-is-romans-nine-about

3.  Romans 9 may sound like Calvinism in context of
Calvinism…
 Yes, Romans 9 makes points about God’s sovereign rule
and choices.
 However, Romans 9 does not identify choices God
made, except at beginning and end of chapter – and
context of Old Testament references.
 Assumptions: Who was chosen? Why? For what?
 Approach: Limited time …
 Establish contextual “bookends” – bound meaning.
 Observe contextual inconsistencies with Calvinism.
 Definitions: Do not idly let Calvinists preload their
conclusions into their definitions of the words used here.

4. • Rom. 8:28-39: Power of God’s foreknowledge,
predestination, calling, justification, & preservation.
• What about the Jews? Did God’s promise fail?
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in
my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen
according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom
pertain the 1adoption, the 2glory, the 3covenants,
the 4giving of the law, the 5service of God, and the
6promises; 7of whom are the fathers and 8from
whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is
over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. (Rom. 9:1-5)

5. But it is not that the word of God has taken no
effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
nor are they all children because they are the seed
of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God; but the children of the
promise are counted as the seed. (Romans 9:6-8)
• God’s Word, promise, and election had not failed!
• Not all descendants of Israel were to be saved.
• Rm.9:1-8 unmixes national, spiritual, roles, salvation.
• Election based on God’s promise, not ancestry.
• Who decides the terms of the “promise”?

6. (for the children not yet being born, nor having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works
but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older
shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have
loved, but Esau I have hated.” (Romans 9:11-13)
 Can you answer the Calvinist’s use of these verses?
Paul selected Jacob and Esau to demonstrate that God
loved Jacob and therefore chose him unto salvation, while
God hated Esau and chose him unto condemnation. God
clearly chose and predestined their fates independent of
their works (“the children not yet being born, nor having
done any good or evil”); therefore, God's election is
unconditional, and our destiny is predetermined!

7. • Who has been the object of election in this context,
individuals or nations (Romans 9:1-5)?
• Who was subject of supporting OT proof-texts: “for
the children … it was said to her … as it is written”.
But the children [Jacob and Esau] struggled together
within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like
this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the
LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One
people shall be stronger than the other, And the
older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:22-23)
 In local and supporting context, God chose nations!

8. If individual dominion of Jacob over Esau, then why …?
• Esau threatened to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41).
• Jacob fled from Esau (Genesis 27:42-28:5).
• Jacob was terrified of Esau upon return (Gn. 32:3-22).
• Jacob sent all his possessions – including wives and
children – as gifts to Esau (Genesis 33:1-11).
• Jacob bowed 7 times before Esau (Genesis 33:3).
Prophecy failed, if it referred to the individuals,
because the younger lived primarily in service to the
older!
Calvinism inconsistent with Bible history.

9. “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘In what
way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s
brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved; But
Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and
his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.” Even
though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished,
But we will return and build the desolate places,”
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “They may build, but I
will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of
Wickedness, And the people against whom the LORD will
have indignation forever.” (Malachi 1:1-4)
• Both nations sinned and suffered national judgment.
• But, only Israel was spared a remnant – for a while.
• Again, election related to nations – not individuals!

10. • God’s election was of nations, not individuals.
• Preference was realized long after individuals died.
• Election was for role in God’s scheme of redemption,
not salvation (Romans 9:4-5).
• On the other hand, if Calvinist premise is accepted:
 All Edomites were condemned to hell!
 All Israelites were saved unconditionally!
 Matthew 26:21-24; Acts 1:25 – Judas?
 Matthew 23:13-26, 33 – Pharisees?
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the
condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33)
• Calvinist premise must be wrong!
• Point: Vindication of God’s word and promise!

11. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will
have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whomever I will have
compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor
of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
(Romans 9:14-16)
 Can you answer the Calvinist’s use of these verses?
Clearly, Paul stakes God’s right to show mercy and save
whomever He wants, and very clearly, salvation has
nothing to do with what we want (“not of him who
wills”) or what we do (“nor of him who runs”). Rather, it
is only God’s choice!

12. • Context: Paul anticipates accusation from
disgruntled Jew (“What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!”)
1. Remember, “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). None
have right to dictate terms of salvation.
2. Only God has right to choose terms of mercy. What
terms?

13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever
confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Happy is the man who is always reverent, But he who
hardens his heart will fall into calamity. (Proverbs
28:13)
Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous
man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And
He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He
will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
... be clothed with humility, for “God resists the
proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (I Peter 5:5)

14. • Context: Paul anticipates accusation from
disgruntled Jew (“What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!”)
1. Remember, “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). None
have right to dictate terms of salvation.
2. Only God has right to choose terms of mercy. What
terms?
3. “Not-But” indicates relative importance.

15. “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for
the food which endures to everlasting life, which the
Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has
set His seal on Him.” (John 6:27; see also, II The. 3:10)
Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me,
believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.” (John
12:44)
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who
runs, but of God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:14-
16)
 God's will is relatively supreme, cannot be thwarted
(Isa. 43:13). But, that does not imply exclusivity!
 Can He not choose to consider our will?

16. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very
purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My
power in you, and that My name may be declared in all
the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills,
and whom He wills He hardens. (Romans 9:17-18)
 Can you answer the Calvinist’s use of these verses?
Paul uses Pharaoh as an example of one whom God
hardened, just so God could demonstrate His power
and sovereignty by punishing him. In addition to the
Lord’s sovereignty, His predestination again is
manifested, because God raised up Pharaoh for this
purpose. It was God who chose, created,
manipulated, hardened, and destroyed.

17. • Context: Establishing just, fair, equitable principle
by which God uses a condemned, hardened Israel
(9:27-29; 11:22-32).
• Assumption: Topic is original hardening, not
judicial, punitive, or providential.
• Question: Did God first harden Pharaoh’s heart, or
did God further harden Pharaoh’s already
obstinate heart?

18. • Continued enslavement and harsh labor – Exo. 1:8-14.
• Continued execution of all male infants – Exo. 1:15-22.
• Ignored cries of the Israelites – Exodus 2:23-24.
• Beat leaders for failure to make quotas – Exo. 5:4-19.
• 5 Times, Pharaoh hardened his own heart:
Exodus 5:2; 8:15, 32; 9:34; and I Samuel 6:6.
• Already worthy of divine execution, but spared.
Why?
• 10 Times, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart:
Ex. 4:21-23; 7:1-6; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17
• How? When?
21

19.  God commanded and warned Pharaoh (Exo. 4:21-23; 5:1-2).
“‘Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go,
that they may serve Me, for at this time I will send all My
plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your
people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all
the earth. Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you
and your people with pestilence, then you would have been
cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have
raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My
name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself
against My people in that you will not let them go. ...” Then
the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven,
that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt …” … And Pharaoh
sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have
sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and
I are wicked. Entreat the LORD, that there may be no more
mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go,
and you shall stay no longer.” (Exodus 9:22-28)

20. So Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city,
I will spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will
cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know
that the earth is the LORD’s. But as for you and your
servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD
God.” … And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail,
and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and
he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the
heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the
children of Israel go, as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
(Exodus 9:29-35)
 Pharaoh stiffened under 1command, 2warning, and
3leniency!
 Like an animal, Pharaoh proved himself unteachable,
because he only submitted in duress (Ps. 32:9)

21. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness,
forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the
goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in
accordance with your hardness and your impenitent
heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”
... (Romans 2:4-6)
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance. (II Peter 3:9)
 The same chastening hardens one and softens another!

22. • Point: Vindication of God’s word and promise!
• God has the right to choose terms of mercy.
• God has the right to judicially and further harden
those already rebellious.
• God hardens the stubborn through the same
chastening He uses upon all: command, warning,
punishment, and mercy!
• Point: Vindication of God’s mercy and judgment.

23. Though it remains mysterious as to how God ordains all
things and yet is not responsible for evil, we must affirm both
truths. It does help us to see how God is just when His decree of
reprobation is passive, not active. It also strengthens our
assurance to know that God’s electing grace is so active and sure
that we will love Him forever.
Many misunderstand Reformed theology to say that God
forces some to go to hell against their will. Though God does
indeed pass over some people, He never acts apart from their
desires. In our natural state since the fall, all men truly desire
hell because they truly desire evil. – R. C. Sproul
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/vessels-destruction/

24. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find
fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O
man, who are you to reply against God? Will the
thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you
made me like this?” Does not the potter have power
over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel
for honor and another for dishonor? (Ro. 9:19-21)
 Can you answer the Calvinist’s use of these verses?
Often free-will advocates claim that Calvinism is not
fair. In these verses, Paul anticipates that charge and
condemns all who would question God. We have no
right to challenge God’s fairness. It is irrelevant if we
think God is fair! Who are we to question God?

25.  God – not Calvin – revealed that God does not charge
children with their fathers’ sin (Ezekiel 18:1-23)
 God – not Calvin – revealed that God has no pleasure in the
death of the wicked & pleads to repent (Ezekiel 18:23-32).
 God – not Calvin – revealed that God does not want any to
perish but is longsuffering unto repentance (II Pt.3:9).
 God – not Calvin – designed the cross to demonstrate His
righteousness, justice, and equity (Romans 3:25-26).
 If we cannot see God’s equity, maybe we need to remove
our blinders and question Calvin instead of God?
 Context: Cyrus’ role in releasing Jewish exiles (Isa. 45:1-9).
 Perseverance with wicked and their usage (Rom. 9:20-23).

26. ... So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the
wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his
hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as
seemed best to him. … Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O
house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares
the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my
hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or
kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that
nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not
inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I
announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will
reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. Now therefore say to
the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the
LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a
plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you,
and reform your ways and your actions.’” (Jeremiah 18:5-11)
 Pot was reshaped, because it refused its intended shape!

27. Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same
lump to make one vessel for honor and another for
dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and
to make His power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of
His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared
beforehand for glory, … (Romans 9:21-23)
 Can you answer the Calvinist’s use of these verses?
Does not Romans 9:21-23 flatly say that God created some
people for the sole purpose of destruction, while others
were created simply so He could demonstrate His mercy
and bring them to His glory?

28. What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make
His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that
He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels
of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, …
(Romans 9:21-23)
• Who “prepared vessels of wrath for destruction”? God!
• Why is God longsuffering with – ultimately – Himself?
• Did He fail to foresee or plan for these exasperating
souls?
• Or, is He delaying punishment of those who have
condemned themselves in abusing His granted
freedom?

29. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and
silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some
for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself
from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified
and useful for the Master, prepared for every good
work. (II Timothy 2:20-21)
• Same Greek root words as Romans 9:22-23.
• This verses focuses on the elect’s “preparation”.
• Romans 9:23 focuses on God’s advanced preparation…
What did God do in advance?

30. ... even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who
were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved. And it
shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not
My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” Isaiah
also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of
Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He
will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD
will make a short work upon the earth.” And as Isaiah said before:
“Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have
become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
(Romans 9:24-29)
 Israel enjoyed a grand part in God’s prepared scheme of
redemption.
 Ultimately, God invited both Jew and Gentile to salvation.
 Once rebellious, national Israel finished its role, God finished it!

31. What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not
pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing
the law of righteousness, has not attained to the
law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not
seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the
law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is
written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and
rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not
be put to shame.” (Romans 9:30-33)
• Jews chose salvation through themselves & their law!
• But, God chose salvation through faith! And, that’s
His right!

32. • Key: Examine OT quoted proof-texts in their context!
• 1-5: Rejection of physical, national Israel.
• 6-13: Vindication of God’s promise, word, and election.
 Election by promise, not ancestry.
 Examining roles of nations, not salvation of individuals.
• 14-23: Vindication of God’s justice.
 Right to determine basis of mercy.
 Right to use and harden those who hardened themselves.
• 24-29: Explanation of Jews’ continued existence.
• 30-33: Explanation of Jews’ failure and basis of mercy –
faith!
• 10:1-3: Ongoing concern for Israel’s national faithlessness.

33. • Don’t let Calvinists inject their definitions or assumptions
into the context without justification!
• Context of chapter and quotations shows election initially
refers to role of nations, not the salvation of individuals.
• God may judicially harden, but only after man rejects God’s
message, discipline, and mercy.
• God’s original plans (i.e., judgment) can be changed
based on a person or a nation’s choices (Jer. 18:5-11).
• One can “prepare himself” to be a “vessel of honor”, if he
“cleanses himself” (I Timothy 2:20-21).
• God can and has chosen terms of salvation – obedient faith,
not ancestry or self-justifying law-keeping (Proverbs 28:13;
Isaiah 55:7; I Peter 5:5; Matthew 7:21-23). We don’t get to
choose terms. We can only accept or reject.
• Will you submit to God’s terms or harden your heart?