Romans 9:21 - John Wesley's Notes

Romans 9:21

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For ^awho has resisted His will?”

20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? ^aWill the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

21 Does not the ^apotter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make ^bone vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering ^athe vessels of wrath ^bprepared for destruction,

23 and that He might make known ^athe riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had ^bprepared beforehand for glory,

24 even us whom He ^acalled, ^bnot of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25 As He says also in Hosea:
^a“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

26 “And^a 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.”

Commentaries:

John Wesley's Notes

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Romans 9:21

Hath not the potter power over the clay - And much more hath not God power over his creatures, to appoint one vessel, namely, the believer, to honour, and another, the unbeliever, to dishonour?

If we survey the right which God has over us, in a more general way, with regard to his intelligent creatures, God may be considered in two different views, as Creator, Proprietor, and Lord of all; or, as their moral Governor, and Judge.

God, as sovereign Lord and Proprietor of all, dispenses his gifts or favours to his creatures with perfect wisdom, but by no rules or methods of proceeding that we are acquainted with. The time when we shall exist, the country where we shall live, our parents, our constitution of body and turn of mind; these, and numberless other circumstances, are doubtless ordered with perfect wisdom, but by rules that lie quite out of our sight. But God's methods of dealing with us, as our Governor and Judge, are dearly revealed and perfectly known; namely, that he will finally reward every man according to his works: "He that believeth shalt be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned."

Therefore, though "He hath mercy on whom he willeth, and whom he willeth he hardeneth," that is, suffers to be hardened in consequence of their obstinate wickedness; yet his is not the will of an arbitrary, capricious, or tyrannical being. He wills nothing but what is infinitely wise and good; and therefore his will is a most proper rule of judgment. He will show mercy, as he hath assured us, to none but true believers, nor harden any but such as obstinately refuse his mercy. Jeremiah 18:6-7

<< Romans 9:20

Romans 9:22 >>

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