Who Are You to Answer God?

…knowledge, he, as God, again has pity on those he may choose, or rather on those to whom it is fitting that mercy be shown, for he said somewhere to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15), then how will the matter not be beyond all reproach?

The apostle, I think, clearly foresaw that some would perhaps suppose that it is by God’s nod that some are good and others disobedient.

So of necessity he himself puts forward the objection that springs from their ignorance, and says, “So then it depends not on the one who wills, nor on the one who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Romans 9:16).

For if Esau was hated even before he had done anything wicked, and Jacob was honoured even before he came into being, and if again God has mercy on whom he has mercy, is it not then right to conclude that the one who runs or wills, that is, the one eager to do something good, gains nothing, and that everything about us hangs on the nods of God?

Then he heaps on top of these the words that could fix that opinion still more firmly, and says, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you’” (Romans 9:17; Exodus 9:16).

To these he adds what is, as it were, the conclusion of the whole problem, and says, “So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills” (Romans 9:18).

“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?’” (Romans 9:19).

What, then, was his way of answering?

It is very obscure, and perhaps even seems to support the objections they raise; yet it is enough to assure us that nothing could come from God that lies outside what is fitting.

For he gives to each what befits him: he pities and has mercy on those for whom mercy is fitting, and he subjects the wicked to punishment.

Yet his wrath does not follow the offences at once and on their heels; rather, a long patience goes before it, so that some even suppose that God has stopped caring about those on earth.

So Paul brings out his reply and stands up to those who say such things, directing the force of his words at the persons who had been brought forward, I mean Esau and also Pharaoh.

He spoke, then, as though to each of those he had named: “But who indeed are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulded it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Romans 9:20).

For he shows, as from a plain example, that it is a very grave thing to find fault with God’s judgments.

For if anyone chooses to think as he ought, he will leave to God, who knows all things, the judging of each matter in whatever way God himself knows, and he will not doubt in the least that whatever God chooses to do is holy, as he shapes with full authority whatever concerns each one.

So he sharply blames those who bring a probing mind to bear at all on God’s decrees, as to whether they are right or not.

For they ought, he says, rather to imitate what is moulded by the potter’s hand, and to bear in silence what comes from God, for “what is moulded will not say to the one who moulded it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Romans 9:20).

But perhaps some say this in reply as well: “If…”