Romans 9:14-18, God's Sovereign Revelation (part 3)

The Explanation (v. 15–18)

God is most glorified in the freedom of unconditional election (v. 17–18)

God’s sovereignty in the acceptance/rejection of His revelation (v. 18)

Though we have shown that determining the extent of the hardening as temporal or eternal is not the main purpose of Paul in this passage it is still an important topic to address as a secondary point. We addressed before the parallel inference in verse 16 where Paul mentions the inability of “the one who runs” and how a full understanding of that phrase cannot be understood from this passage alone (see 1 Cor. 9:24; Philippians 2:16). Similarly, an understanding of “hardens” must be left to other scriptures for an accurate interpretation. In order to determine if Paul uses “hardens” (σκληρύνει) to mean a predestined damnation of certain people, the question we are really asking is twofold: does Paul understand the term to be a predetermining of God or a response of God, and secondly does Paul use the term in a temporal or eternal sense?

In it’s original context in Exodus, “harden” refers to “a condition of the heart which renders it insensible to promptings and inflexible of will and thus, in Pharaoh’s case, adamantly opposed to God’s demands” (Piper, 142).[1] Some will argue that in the Exodus context God only hardened Pharaoh as a result of his self hardening, citing the mix of passages that refer to both God hardening Pharaoh, such as in Exodus 9:12, and Pharaoh hardening himself, such as in Exodus 8:15 among others (Murray, 2:49). This would imply that the hardening of God is done merely in response to human stubbornness and cannot be interpreted as a predestined arrangement.

This line of reasoning has several faults. The first of which is that the initial reference to the hardening of Pharaoh in Exodus occurs in 4:21 in which God states “…I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” This passage would seem to indicate that God determined the hardening of Pharaoh for God’s redemptive purposes before Pharaoh was even confronted by Moses. The original intent of the author in Exodus was to demonstrate the purposes of God (Piper, 139–155). A second fault is that Paul himself confirms this interpretation by his modifying the quotation of Exodus 9:16 in verse 17 to specifically bring out the idea of God’s purposes (see previous postings). This emphasis on God’s sovereign and determined purposes rather than God’s response to the sins of humanity is in line with the context of Paul’s argument in this passage. Particularly with v. 13 in mind, God’s hatred of Esau was not a reaction to his behavior because that hatred came when “the twins were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad” (v. 11). So then, “hardens” seems to be used in the sense of an action God predetermines.

Now the question remains does Paul use “hardens” in a temporal or eternal sense? Again returning to the Exodus context, the narrative clearly is concerned with God guiding events in history, not to a particular individual’s eternal destiny. There is even a rabbinic tradition based on Exodus 9:15f and 15:11 that Pharaoh was saved from the sea and repented (Piper, 156). Though the end result of Pharaoh’s hardening is up for interpretation, the real question at hand is what is the intended use of “hardens” by Paul. This word for “hardens” (σκληρύνει) is used by Paul in only this instance, so in order to determine the intent with which it was used, we must examine Paul’s usage of analogous words.

A similar word etymologically is used in Romans 2:5 (σκληρότητά) and two synonyms are used in Romans 11:7 (πωρόω, see also 2 Corinthians 3:14) and 11:25 (πώρωσις, see also Ephesians 4:18). Within the context of Romans 9–11 the hardening of Israel is depicted as being partial and temporary as part of the greater plan of God in salvation history.[2] If we also consider the pairing of “hardens” with “mercy” (ἐλεέω), and examine Paul’s use of mercy, it also seems to indicate a usage focused on the temporal and physical world with only secondary or implied references to a person’s eternal salvation (similarly to the use of “hardening” in the case of Pharaoh in Exodus).[3]

Paul then uses “hardens” in 9:18 to refer to those ignorant of God yet used by Him to accomplish His salvific purposes for others, and who through this process will themselves be made aware of God’s mercy and have the opportunity to become unhardened should they make that choice.[4] Taking “hardens” in this sense is confirmed by 9:19ff in which Paul then combats the false conclusion drawn from his argumentation where the response is to attack God for His predetermined damnation. Paul again confirms the sovereignty of God and proceeds to further explain His purposes in salvation history.

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[1] σκληρύνει in the LXX corresponds to the three Hebrew words dbk ((weigh heavily) qzx (to grow strong) hv,q' (hard, difficult, heavy) in Exodus 4–14.

[2] Verse 11:7 needs to be read within the context of at least 11:5–12. Here what the majority of Israel, save for a remnant, was hardened against was the realization that salvation comes by grace and not works (11:6). After citing two Old Testament quotations to again show God’s sovereignty over this hardening (so that God cannot be said to be unrighteous) Paul goes on to speak of their return to inclusion (11:12), and of being grafted back in (11:23). In 11:25 the partial and temporary aspect of this hardening is explicitly stated, πώρωσις ἀπὸ μέρους τῷ Ἰσραὴλ γέγονεν ἄχρι οὗ…. The phrase ἀπὸ μέρους is adverbial modifying γέγονεν and ἄχρι οὗ is a temporal conjunction here meaning ‘until’ (Cranfield, 2:575).

[3] Mercy (ἐλεέω) is used by Paul twelve times, half of which (6) are within Romans 9–11 (again pointing to the emphasis on mercy rather than hardening). It always seems to be used to refer to gracious gifts of God given to His people in an earthly setting for the ultimate purposing of bringing others to a saving faith. This can be clearly seen in 1 Timothy 1:13–16 (ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο ἠλεήθην, ἵνα…ἐνδείξηται, ἵνα with subjunctive indicating purpose of Christ showing patience to receive others to eternal life) as well as in our current section in Romans 11:30–32 (…ἵνα τοὺς πάντας ἐλεήση, again ἵνα with subjunctive. This also argues against a universalism claim in that Christ isn’t necessarily going to show mercy to all men, but is capable of it). While mercy is only shown to those who receive eternal life, the eternal aspect is not the main emphasis of this word. I say this is much like Pharaoh in the Exodus account because there we have an example of one who if he remained in a state of hardening would receive eternal judgment, much like those who remain in mercy will one day receive eternal life. Except with mercy we know it is not a matter of remaining in it, but simply having it in the first place. Mercy and hardening may be two similar categories but this does not imply that their function is the same. Those who are hardened, ignorant of God, disobedient in unbelief, etc. (which is all humanity according to Paul earlier in Romans) are given the opportunity to receive God’s mercy. Once it has been received, they cannot return to being hardened in an eternal sense. This is the doctrine of eternal security.

[4] This is contra Piper who sees ‘hardens’ having explicit eternal consequences. He notes the connections between hardening and wrath in Romans 2:5, Ephesians 4:18 and 2 Corinthians 3:14 (156), but in each case ignores the possibility of mercy still being received by the hardened such as in Ephesians 2. He also sees Israel’s hardening in chapter 11 as unresponsiveness to the gospel which excludes them from salvation (157). Here again he ignores the emphasis on the grace of God and His ultimate plan of restoring Israel. Those who are hardened can still receive mercy. Piper also sees hardening as the counterpart of mercy which characteristically of Paul refers to eschatological salvation (159), yet we have discussed how this not necessarily the case. ‘Mercy’ and ‘saved’ are related but they are not synonyms. Two other points against Piper: 1) πωρόω is used in Mark 6:52 (though not from Paul, yet still NT authorship) to refer to the disciples. We cannot say the disciples were eternally hardened can we? 2) Another major point against Piper is a study of the word for “desire/will” (θέλω) as opposed to the word for “hardens” (σκληρύνω) which Piper focuses on. Particularly 1 Timothy 2:3–4, also from the hand of Paul, in which it is stated that God desires (θέλω) all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. How can it be that God desires all men to be saved, yet at the same time desires to predetermine an eternal hardening of some?