Romans 9:14–18 Commentary – Mercy, Pharaoh, and God’s Hardening
Mercy, Pharaoh, and the Hardening of God
Key Passage: Romans 9:14–18
Romans VerseQuest Commentary Essay 61: Mercy, Pharaoh, and the Hardening of God Text: Romans 9:14–18
Introduction
Romans 9:14–18 says, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Paul has just dealt with Jacob and Esau, showing that God’s purpose according to election stood before their works and that the covenant line would run by God’s calling rather than human birth order, natural custom, or fleshly assumption. Now he anticipates the objection that always rises from the proud heart when God acts like God: “Is there unrighteousness with God?” The human mind, especially when trained by religious systems and philosophical pride, loves to put God on trial. It builds a little courtroom out of sawdust, climbs onto a matchbox bench, bangs a plastic gavel, and announces that the Judge of all the earth must answer man’s objections. Paul answers that blasphemous foolishness with two words: “God forbid.”
This passage must be handled carefully because it has been abused in two directions. On one side, shallow man-centered religion wants a God who is never free to show mercy except on man’s terms. It wants God reduced to a clerk at the counter, processing human claims and rubber-stamping whatever the flesh demands. On the other side, hard Calvinistic machinery wants to turn mercy and hardening into a fatalistic system where God authors sin, condemns innocent puppets, and then calls the arrangement glory. That is not Romans 9. Paul is not rescuing God from unrighteousness by making Him morally worse. He is showing that God is righteous, sovereign, merciful, and free, while man remains responsible, guilty, stubborn, and answerable. God is free to use both submission and rebellion to display His power, but He is not the author of sin and man is not an innocent puppet with strings tied to heaven.
The two Old Testament examples are Moses and Pharaoh. To Moses, God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” That statement comes in the context of Israel’s great sin with the golden calf, when the nation deserved judgment and Moses interceded. Mercy is not owed. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not a debt God pays to human willpower. Mercy is God’s free compassion toward the guilty. To Pharaoh, Scripture says God raised him up to show His power and declare His name throughout all the earth. Pharaoh was not a sweet little lamb forced into villainy by divine cruelty. He was a proud tyrant who enslaved Israel, murdered Hebrew children, defied the LORD, and repeatedly hardened his own heart. God used that rebellion, judged it, hardened Pharaoh judicially, and displayed His power through it. God can make a Moses useful by submission and a Pharaoh useful by resistance. The hammer and the anvil both serve the blacksmith, but only one gets beaten.
Chapter One: Is There Unrighteousness With God?
Paul begins, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” This question rises naturally after the discussion of Jacob and Esau. If God chose Jacob over Esau before either had done good or evil, if the elder was appointed to serve the younger, if God’s purpose according to election stands not of works but of Him that calleth, then the rebellious mind says, “That is unfair.” The flesh’s first instinct is not to bow before revelation, but to accuse the Revealer. Man loves sovereignty when he is the one exercising it. He hates it when God does. The sinner who demands the right to run his own life suddenly becomes a champion of justice when God runs His universe.
The question itself shows that Paul’s doctrine is strong enough to provoke objection. Paul is not teaching the thin soup of religious moralism. He is handling the authority of God in promise, mercy, calling, and historical purpose. When Bible doctrine is preached plainly, the flesh often responds by accusing God. It did the same in Eden. The serpent’s first move was to make God seem restrictive, suspicious, and unfair: “Yea, hath God said?” Then he accused God’s motive: “God doth know.” The old devil has not changed his hymnbook. Any doctrine that makes man small and God great will be met with the hiss, “Is God righteous?”
But the Bible never allows man’s wounded pride to become the standard of righteousness. “Is there unrighteousness with God?” is a question that answers itself when the God of the Bible is known. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment.” Abraham said in Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The answer is yes. Always. God cannot be unrighteous because righteousness is rooted in His own holy nature. Man does not define righteousness and then measure God against it. God is righteous, and man’s thoughts are measured against Him. The clay does not grade the Potter’s ethics with muddy fingers.
Chapter Two: God Forbid
Paul answers, “God forbid.” That is the strongest Pauline rejection of a false conclusion. He has used it before in Romans when dealing with human perversions of truth. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Is the law sin? God forbid. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Paul does not take three pages to flatter the objection before dismissing it. He shoots it at the door. Any interpretation of Romans 9 that makes God unrighteous is wrong before it begins. Any system that presents God as arbitrary, cruel, dishonest, or the author of sin has already failed Paul’s answer.
“God forbid” also protects us from the false humility of saying, “Well, I know this sounds unrighteous, but we just have to accept it.” No. Bible doctrine may humble man, offend pride, and exceed finite understanding, but it never makes God unrighteous. A mystery is not a moral contradiction. God may reveal things too high for our full comprehension, but He does not reveal Himself as wicked and then demand we call wickedness holy. If a man’s theology requires him to say God secretly causes sin and then punishes men for doing exactly what He irresistibly made them do, that man has not defended sovereignty. He has slandered the Sovereign.
Paul’s “God forbid” should govern everything that follows. Mercy must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Pharaoh’s hardening must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Election must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Sovereignty must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Human responsibility must not be erased. Divine holiness must not be stained. God can rule over sin without authoring sin. God can judge rebellion without forcing innocence into rebellion. God can use a wicked ruler without becoming wicked. The Lord can draw a straight line with a crooked stick without becoming crooked Himself.
Chapter Three: Mercy Belongs to God
Paul quotes the Lord’s words to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” This comes from Exodus 33:19, after Israel’s sin with the golden calf. That context is crucial. Israel had broken the law almost as soon as it was received. While Moses was in the mount, the people corrupted themselves, made a molten calf, sacrificed unto it, and said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” That was not a minor religious slip. That was idolatrous treason at the foot of Sinai. If God had wiped them out, no court in heaven would have found Him unjust.
Therefore when God speaks of mercy, He is not discussing a debt owed to the deserving. He is speaking of compassion shown to the guilty. Mercy, by definition, is not owed. If it were owed, it would not be mercy. Romans 4:4 says, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” Mercy is not debt. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not a legal payment demanded by human effort. Mercy is God sparing, pitying, helping, and blessing those who deserve judgment. The sinner who complains that God is not fair in showing mercy has forgotten that fairness without mercy would put him in hell before the complaint finished leaving his mouth.
God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” That means mercy is God’s prerogative. Man does not control it by heritage, effort, ritual, pressure, argument, or entitlement. Israel could not demand mercy because of the golden calf. Moses could intercede, and God could show mercy according to His will. That truth crushes pride but comforts the broken. If mercy depended on man’s worthiness, nobody would receive it. The only hope for guilty men is that God is free to show mercy. The proud hate that because they want mercy as a trophy. The guilty love it because they need mercy as rescue.
Chapter Four: Not of Him That Willeth, Nor of Him That Runneth
Paul concludes, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Human will and human running cannot command divine mercy. “Him that willeth” speaks of desire, intention, determination, and human resolve. “Him that runneth” speaks of effort, exertion, labor, and pursuit. Paul is not condemning godly desire or obedient service. He is denying that mercy originates in man’s will or is earned by man’s effort. Mercy starts with God. It is shown by God. It is governed by God. Human striving cannot put God in debt.
This statement cuts across both Jewish presumption and Gentile self-confidence. The Jew could not claim mercy by descent, circumcision, law, temple service, or national privilege. The Gentile cannot claim mercy by sincerity, morality, effort, religious experience, church membership, or good intentions. Salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” The will may choose many things, and the runner may sweat on many tracks, but mercy is not a medal awarded at the finish line of fleshly religion. God does not stand at the end of man’s race with salvation in a trophy case.
Yet this verse must not be twisted to deny faith, preaching, or responsibility. Paul is not saying men should not believe the gospel. Romans 10 will say, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” He is not saying preaching is pointless. Romans 10 will say, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” He is saying mercy is not caused by man’s willing or running as though man initiates, earns, or controls it. God shows mercy. The sinner receives mercy by faith, but faith does not make God a debtor. Faith is the empty hand receiving what mercy freely gives. The hand that receives bread does not brag that it baked the loaf.
Chapter Five: The Scripture Saith Unto Pharaoh
Paul then turns to Pharaoh: “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh.” Notice Paul says “the scripture saith,” though the words were spoken by God through Moses in Exodus. To Paul, Scripture speaks with divine authority. The written word is not a dead record of religious opinion. It is the voice of God preserved in words. If the Scripture says it, God says it. A Bible believer should learn from that. The issue of Pharaoh is not settled by philosophy, sentiment, or man’s courtroom objections. It is settled by what the Scripture saith.
The Scripture says unto Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up.” Pharaoh was not an innocent victim dragged unwillingly into a role of wickedness. He was a proud ruler over a brutal system that enslaved God’s people. Egypt had oppressed Israel with hard bondage. Pharaoh had commanded the destruction of Hebrew male children. When Moses came with the word of the LORD, Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” That is not the speech of a humble seeker trapped by a decree. That is the roar of a rebel sitting on a throne with blood on his hands.
God raised Pharaoh up in the sense that He brought him to that position, preserved him through the plagues, and placed him in history as the ruler through whom His power would be displayed. God could have removed Pharaoh instantly. One breath from heaven could have ended the matter before the first plague. But God endured Pharaoh’s rebellion long enough to display His power, judge Egypt’s gods, deliver Israel, and declare His name throughout all the earth. God did not need Pharaoh’s righteousness. He used Pharaoh’s rebellion. The rebel wanted to be a god on a throne; the LORD made him a sermon illustration with a crown.
Chapter Six: That I Might Shew My Power in Thee
The purpose is stated: “that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” God displayed His power in Egypt through judgments that struck the Nile, the land, the beasts, the crops, the sky, the firstborn, and finally the army in the Red Sea. The plagues were not random punishments. They were targeted demonstrations against Egypt, Pharaoh, and the false gods of that land. Exodus 12:12 says, “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” Pharaoh’s defiance became the dark backdrop against which God’s power shone like lightning.
God’s name was declared throughout all the earth. Years later, Rahab in Jericho said, “we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt.” The news traveled. The nations heard. God’s name was magnified. Pharaoh wanted his own name exalted, but his rebellion became the platform for the LORD’s fame. That is divine government. God can take the rage of a tyrant, the stubbornness of a rebel, and the pride of an empire, and make them serve the declaration of His own name. Psalm 76:10 says, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”
This does not make God the author of Pharaoh’s sin. It makes God ruler over Pharaoh’s sin. There is a world of difference. God did not need to inject wickedness into Pharaoh’s heart like poison into a vein. Pharaoh already had a wicked heart. God gave commands, sent warnings, displayed signs, and Pharaoh hardened himself. Then God judicially hardened him, confirming him in the path he had chosen and using that hardened rebellion to display divine power. God is so sovereign that even rebellion cannot escape usefulness. The rebel sins willingly, and God still makes the rebellion serve His glory. The sinner remains guilty. God remains righteous. That balance is too high for man’s little systems, but it is not too high for Scripture.
Chapter Seven: Mercy and Hardening
Paul concludes, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” The conclusion includes both mercy and hardening. God is free to show mercy. God is also free to harden. But hardening must be understood biblically. In Exodus, the hardening of Pharaoh is described in several ways. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The pattern shows human rebellion and divine judgment operating together. Pharaoh is not an innocent puppet. He is a proud rebel whom God judicially hardens and uses after repeated defiance.
Hardening is a dreadful judgment. It is not God taking a tender lover of truth and forcing him into unbelief against his desire for righteousness. It is God confirming a rebel in the hardness he loves. A man rejects light, despises warning, resists God’s word, exalts himself, and refuses to bow. Then God may harden him, not by creating evil in an innocent heart, but by giving him over, locking him into his chosen path, and using his rebellion for divine purposes. Romans 1 has already shown this principle: “God gave them up,” “God gave them up,” “God gave them over.” When men reject light, judgment may come in the form of being handed over to the darkness they prefer.
The final statement also reminds us that mercy is never to be treated lightly. If God shows mercy, worship Him. If God hardens, fear Him. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay. The difference is not in the sun but in the material exposed to it. God’s word came to Moses and Pharaoh. Moses bowed. Pharaoh defied. God used both. Moses became the servant through whom deliverance was announced. Pharaoh became the rebel through whom power was displayed. God is free to use the yielded vessel and the resistant vessel. The yielded vessel gets the joy of obedience. The resistant vessel gets the bruises of being an anvil under the hammer of God.
Conclusion
Romans 9:14–18 answers the accusation that God is unrighteous. Paul’s answer is immediate: “God forbid.” There is no unrighteousness with God. His mercy is righteous. His hardening is righteous. His calling is righteous. His judgments are righteous. Man may not understand every depth of God’s government, but he has no authority to accuse God of injustice. The Judge of all the earth does right. Any doctrine of sovereignty that makes God unrighteous is false, and any doctrine of man that makes God obligated to show mercy is equally false.
The passage teaches that mercy belongs to God. He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” Israel deserved judgment after the golden calf, yet God showed mercy according to His will. Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Human willpower and religious effort cannot command mercy. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not debt. Mercy is God’s free compassion toward the guilty. The sinner’s hope is not that he can make God owe him mercy, but that God delights to show mercy in righteousness through Jesus Christ.
Pharaoh shows the other side. God raised him up to display His power and declare His name throughout all the earth. Pharaoh was not an innocent puppet but a proud rebel. He hardened his heart, defied the LORD, oppressed Israel, and resisted the word of God. God judicially hardened him and used his rebellion as the stage for divine power. That is not God authoring sin. That is God ruling over sin. The Lord can use submission and rebellion, Moses and Pharaoh, the staff in the servant’s hand and the crown on the tyrant’s head. Mercy should make a man bow. Hardening should make him tremble. And Romans 9 should teach every reader to stop dragging God into man’s courtroom and start listening when the Scripture saith.
Romans 9:14–18 Commentary – Mercy, Pharaoh, and God’s Hardening
Mercy, Pharaoh, and the Hardening of God
Key Passage: Romans 9:14–18
Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 61: Mercy, Pharaoh, and the Hardening of God
Text: Romans 9:14–18
Introduction
Romans 9:14–18 says, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Paul has just dealt with Jacob and Esau, showing that God’s purpose according to election stood before their works and that the covenant line would run by God’s calling rather than human birth order, natural custom, or fleshly assumption. Now he anticipates the objection that always rises from the proud heart when God acts like God: “Is there unrighteousness with God?” The human mind, especially when trained by religious systems and philosophical pride, loves to put God on trial. It builds a little courtroom out of sawdust, climbs onto a matchbox bench, bangs a plastic gavel, and announces that the Judge of all the earth must answer man’s objections. Paul answers that blasphemous foolishness with two words: “God forbid.”
This passage must be handled carefully because it has been abused in two directions. On one side, shallow man-centered religion wants a God who is never free to show mercy except on man’s terms. It wants God reduced to a clerk at the counter, processing human claims and rubber-stamping whatever the flesh demands. On the other side, hard Calvinistic machinery wants to turn mercy and hardening into a fatalistic system where God authors sin, condemns innocent puppets, and then calls the arrangement glory. That is not Romans 9. Paul is not rescuing God from unrighteousness by making Him morally worse. He is showing that God is righteous, sovereign, merciful, and free, while man remains responsible, guilty, stubborn, and answerable. God is free to use both submission and rebellion to display His power, but He is not the author of sin and man is not an innocent puppet with strings tied to heaven.
The two Old Testament examples are Moses and Pharaoh. To Moses, God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” That statement comes in the context of Israel’s great sin with the golden calf, when the nation deserved judgment and Moses interceded. Mercy is not owed. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not a debt God pays to human willpower. Mercy is God’s free compassion toward the guilty. To Pharaoh, Scripture says God raised him up to show His power and declare His name throughout all the earth. Pharaoh was not a sweet little lamb forced into villainy by divine cruelty. He was a proud tyrant who enslaved Israel, murdered Hebrew children, defied the LORD, and repeatedly hardened his own heart. God used that rebellion, judged it, hardened Pharaoh judicially, and displayed His power through it. God can make a Moses useful by submission and a Pharaoh useful by resistance. The hammer and the anvil both serve the blacksmith, but only one gets beaten.
Chapter One: Is There Unrighteousness With God?
Paul begins, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” This question rises naturally after the discussion of Jacob and Esau. If God chose Jacob over Esau before either had done good or evil, if the elder was appointed to serve the younger, if God’s purpose according to election stands not of works but of Him that calleth, then the rebellious mind says, “That is unfair.” The flesh’s first instinct is not to bow before revelation, but to accuse the Revealer. Man loves sovereignty when he is the one exercising it. He hates it when God does. The sinner who demands the right to run his own life suddenly becomes a champion of justice when God runs His universe.
The question itself shows that Paul’s doctrine is strong enough to provoke objection. Paul is not teaching the thin soup of religious moralism. He is handling the authority of God in promise, mercy, calling, and historical purpose. When Bible doctrine is preached plainly, the flesh often responds by accusing God. It did the same in Eden. The serpent’s first move was to make God seem restrictive, suspicious, and unfair: “Yea, hath God said?” Then he accused God’s motive: “God doth know.” The old devil has not changed his hymnbook. Any doctrine that makes man small and God great will be met with the hiss, “Is God righteous?”
But the Bible never allows man’s wounded pride to become the standard of righteousness. “Is there unrighteousness with God?” is a question that answers itself when the God of the Bible is known. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment.” Abraham said in Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The answer is yes. Always. God cannot be unrighteous because righteousness is rooted in His own holy nature. Man does not define righteousness and then measure God against it. God is righteous, and man’s thoughts are measured against Him. The clay does not grade the Potter’s ethics with muddy fingers.
Chapter Two: God Forbid
Paul answers, “God forbid.” That is the strongest Pauline rejection of a false conclusion. He has used it before in Romans when dealing with human perversions of truth. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. Is the law sin? God forbid. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Paul does not take three pages to flatter the objection before dismissing it. He shoots it at the door. Any interpretation of Romans 9 that makes God unrighteous is wrong before it begins. Any system that presents God as arbitrary, cruel, dishonest, or the author of sin has already failed Paul’s answer.
“God forbid” also protects us from the false humility of saying, “Well, I know this sounds unrighteous, but we just have to accept it.” No. Bible doctrine may humble man, offend pride, and exceed finite understanding, but it never makes God unrighteous. A mystery is not a moral contradiction. God may reveal things too high for our full comprehension, but He does not reveal Himself as wicked and then demand we call wickedness holy. If a man’s theology requires him to say God secretly causes sin and then punishes men for doing exactly what He irresistibly made them do, that man has not defended sovereignty. He has slandered the Sovereign.
Paul’s “God forbid” should govern everything that follows. Mercy must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Pharaoh’s hardening must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Election must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Sovereignty must be understood in a way that preserves God’s righteousness. Human responsibility must not be erased. Divine holiness must not be stained. God can rule over sin without authoring sin. God can judge rebellion without forcing innocence into rebellion. God can use a wicked ruler without becoming wicked. The Lord can draw a straight line with a crooked stick without becoming crooked Himself.
Chapter Three: Mercy Belongs to God
Paul quotes the Lord’s words to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” This comes from Exodus 33:19, after Israel’s sin with the golden calf. That context is crucial. Israel had broken the law almost as soon as it was received. While Moses was in the mount, the people corrupted themselves, made a molten calf, sacrificed unto it, and said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” That was not a minor religious slip. That was idolatrous treason at the foot of Sinai. If God had wiped them out, no court in heaven would have found Him unjust.
Therefore when God speaks of mercy, He is not discussing a debt owed to the deserving. He is speaking of compassion shown to the guilty. Mercy, by definition, is not owed. If it were owed, it would not be mercy. Romans 4:4 says, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” Mercy is not debt. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not a legal payment demanded by human effort. Mercy is God sparing, pitying, helping, and blessing those who deserve judgment. The sinner who complains that God is not fair in showing mercy has forgotten that fairness without mercy would put him in hell before the complaint finished leaving his mouth.
God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” That means mercy is God’s prerogative. Man does not control it by heritage, effort, ritual, pressure, argument, or entitlement. Israel could not demand mercy because of the golden calf. Moses could intercede, and God could show mercy according to His will. That truth crushes pride but comforts the broken. If mercy depended on man’s worthiness, nobody would receive it. The only hope for guilty men is that God is free to show mercy. The proud hate that because they want mercy as a trophy. The guilty love it because they need mercy as rescue.
Chapter Four: Not of Him That Willeth, Nor of Him That Runneth
Paul concludes, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Human will and human running cannot command divine mercy. “Him that willeth” speaks of desire, intention, determination, and human resolve. “Him that runneth” speaks of effort, exertion, labor, and pursuit. Paul is not condemning godly desire or obedient service. He is denying that mercy originates in man’s will or is earned by man’s effort. Mercy starts with God. It is shown by God. It is governed by God. Human striving cannot put God in debt.
This statement cuts across both Jewish presumption and Gentile self-confidence. The Jew could not claim mercy by descent, circumcision, law, temple service, or national privilege. The Gentile cannot claim mercy by sincerity, morality, effort, religious experience, church membership, or good intentions. Salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” The will may choose many things, and the runner may sweat on many tracks, but mercy is not a medal awarded at the finish line of fleshly religion. God does not stand at the end of man’s race with salvation in a trophy case.
Yet this verse must not be twisted to deny faith, preaching, or responsibility. Paul is not saying men should not believe the gospel. Romans 10 will say, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” He is not saying preaching is pointless. Romans 10 will say, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” He is saying mercy is not caused by man’s willing or running as though man initiates, earns, or controls it. God shows mercy. The sinner receives mercy by faith, but faith does not make God a debtor. Faith is the empty hand receiving what mercy freely gives. The hand that receives bread does not brag that it baked the loaf.
Chapter Five: The Scripture Saith Unto Pharaoh
Paul then turns to Pharaoh: “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh.” Notice Paul says “the scripture saith,” though the words were spoken by God through Moses in Exodus. To Paul, Scripture speaks with divine authority. The written word is not a dead record of religious opinion. It is the voice of God preserved in words. If the Scripture says it, God says it. A Bible believer should learn from that. The issue of Pharaoh is not settled by philosophy, sentiment, or man’s courtroom objections. It is settled by what the Scripture saith.
The Scripture says unto Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up.” Pharaoh was not an innocent victim dragged unwillingly into a role of wickedness. He was a proud ruler over a brutal system that enslaved God’s people. Egypt had oppressed Israel with hard bondage. Pharaoh had commanded the destruction of Hebrew male children. When Moses came with the word of the LORD, Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” That is not the speech of a humble seeker trapped by a decree. That is the roar of a rebel sitting on a throne with blood on his hands.
God raised Pharaoh up in the sense that He brought him to that position, preserved him through the plagues, and placed him in history as the ruler through whom His power would be displayed. God could have removed Pharaoh instantly. One breath from heaven could have ended the matter before the first plague. But God endured Pharaoh’s rebellion long enough to display His power, judge Egypt’s gods, deliver Israel, and declare His name throughout all the earth. God did not need Pharaoh’s righteousness. He used Pharaoh’s rebellion. The rebel wanted to be a god on a throne; the LORD made him a sermon illustration with a crown.
Chapter Six: That I Might Shew My Power in Thee
The purpose is stated: “that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” God displayed His power in Egypt through judgments that struck the Nile, the land, the beasts, the crops, the sky, the firstborn, and finally the army in the Red Sea. The plagues were not random punishments. They were targeted demonstrations against Egypt, Pharaoh, and the false gods of that land. Exodus 12:12 says, “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” Pharaoh’s defiance became the dark backdrop against which God’s power shone like lightning.
God’s name was declared throughout all the earth. Years later, Rahab in Jericho said, “we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt.” The news traveled. The nations heard. God’s name was magnified. Pharaoh wanted his own name exalted, but his rebellion became the platform for the LORD’s fame. That is divine government. God can take the rage of a tyrant, the stubbornness of a rebel, and the pride of an empire, and make them serve the declaration of His own name. Psalm 76:10 says, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”
This does not make God the author of Pharaoh’s sin. It makes God ruler over Pharaoh’s sin. There is a world of difference. God did not need to inject wickedness into Pharaoh’s heart like poison into a vein. Pharaoh already had a wicked heart. God gave commands, sent warnings, displayed signs, and Pharaoh hardened himself. Then God judicially hardened him, confirming him in the path he had chosen and using that hardened rebellion to display divine power. God is so sovereign that even rebellion cannot escape usefulness. The rebel sins willingly, and God still makes the rebellion serve His glory. The sinner remains guilty. God remains righteous. That balance is too high for man’s little systems, but it is not too high for Scripture.
Chapter Seven: Mercy and Hardening
Paul concludes, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” The conclusion includes both mercy and hardening. God is free to show mercy. God is also free to harden. But hardening must be understood biblically. In Exodus, the hardening of Pharaoh is described in several ways. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart. The pattern shows human rebellion and divine judgment operating together. Pharaoh is not an innocent puppet. He is a proud rebel whom God judicially hardens and uses after repeated defiance.
Hardening is a dreadful judgment. It is not God taking a tender lover of truth and forcing him into unbelief against his desire for righteousness. It is God confirming a rebel in the hardness he loves. A man rejects light, despises warning, resists God’s word, exalts himself, and refuses to bow. Then God may harden him, not by creating evil in an innocent heart, but by giving him over, locking him into his chosen path, and using his rebellion for divine purposes. Romans 1 has already shown this principle: “God gave them up,” “God gave them up,” “God gave them over.” When men reject light, judgment may come in the form of being handed over to the darkness they prefer.
The final statement also reminds us that mercy is never to be treated lightly. If God shows mercy, worship Him. If God hardens, fear Him. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay. The difference is not in the sun but in the material exposed to it. God’s word came to Moses and Pharaoh. Moses bowed. Pharaoh defied. God used both. Moses became the servant through whom deliverance was announced. Pharaoh became the rebel through whom power was displayed. God is free to use the yielded vessel and the resistant vessel. The yielded vessel gets the joy of obedience. The resistant vessel gets the bruises of being an anvil under the hammer of God.
Conclusion
Romans 9:14–18 answers the accusation that God is unrighteous. Paul’s answer is immediate: “God forbid.” There is no unrighteousness with God. His mercy is righteous. His hardening is righteous. His calling is righteous. His judgments are righteous. Man may not understand every depth of God’s government, but he has no authority to accuse God of injustice. The Judge of all the earth does right. Any doctrine of sovereignty that makes God unrighteous is false, and any doctrine of man that makes God obligated to show mercy is equally false.
The passage teaches that mercy belongs to God. He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” Israel deserved judgment after the golden calf, yet God showed mercy according to His will. Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Human willpower and religious effort cannot command mercy. Mercy is not wages. Mercy is not debt. Mercy is God’s free compassion toward the guilty. The sinner’s hope is not that he can make God owe him mercy, but that God delights to show mercy in righteousness through Jesus Christ.
Pharaoh shows the other side. God raised him up to display His power and declare His name throughout all the earth. Pharaoh was not an innocent puppet but a proud rebel. He hardened his heart, defied the LORD, oppressed Israel, and resisted the word of God. God judicially hardened him and used his rebellion as the stage for divine power. That is not God authoring sin. That is God ruling over sin. The Lord can use submission and rebellion, Moses and Pharaoh, the staff in the servant’s hand and the crown on the tyrant’s head. Mercy should make a man bow. Hardening should make him tremble. And Romans 9 should teach every reader to stop dragging God into man’s courtroom and start listening when the Scripture saith.
Romans Verse-by-Verse Commentary
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Romans 1:1 Commentary – Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ
Romans 1:2-4 Commentary – The Gospel Promised Beforehand
Romans 1:5–7 Commentary – Grace, Apostleship, and Obedience to the Faith