Articles

Romans Chapter 9

If God has chosen some to receive His grace to show forth His mercy, has He also chosen some from the world to receive His wrath so that His supreme power might be demonstrated by punishing them?

This is a topic many would want to avoid because it may stain God’s compassionate and righteous character. From the Old Testament in the bible, God raised up the Pharaoh of Egypt so that through him, God’s power could be made manifest and the name of the Lord might be proclaimed to the whole world. Time and again God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and caused him to stop the Israelites from leaving Egypt, so that His power might be made known through the many signs and wonders performed. Were it not for God who predestined the life of Pharaoh and allowed him to hold authority over the whole of Egypt, no matter how much Pharaoh could have hated God and how much he yearned to destroy the Children of God, he would be powerless to do so. Since all the sinful deeds done by Pharaoh were within God’s plan and arrangements, being just an insignificant human before God, how could he resist His will? Was it even possible to defy God and not do according to His plan? If all that Pharaoh had done were arranged by God, on what basis then could God judge Pharaoh and convict him of his sins?

This is an undeniable truth, God had indeed predestined the life of Pharaoh, enabling him to persecute the Jewish people, and in doing so, God’s power was made manifest through the many miracles performed. However, we are not discussing whether God did actually predestine the life of Pharaoh, but rather we want to understand what were the principles  God used to predestine Pharaoh’s life, and whether God dictated the decisions made by Pharaoh. If God’s predestination did include the controlling of Pharaoh’s mind that resulted in him being unable to make his own decision, God would have no grounds to judge Pharaoh. The reason is simple, for instance when someone is prosecuted in court; if he has been instigated by someone into committing the crime, he would be judged more leniently. If it goes to the extent of having his mind and action controlled by another person into committing the crime against his will, then the judge would definitely pronounce him not guilty and acquit him. Similarly, should the decision to prevent the Israelites from leaving be made not out of Pharaoh’s own will, but due to God’s manipulation behind the scene, then the sin is not committed by Pharaoh, nor should Pharaoh be held responsible for that sin. For we can imagine, on the Day of Judgement before the Great White Throne of God, Pharaoh would surely protest: “My heart had been hardened by God and it caused me to stop the Israelites from leaving, but in fact I had already intended for them to go free. Wasn’t it written clearly in the bible, admitted by God Himself, that He had hardened my heart? Since it wasn’t really me who did it, so why am I condemned for this sin?”

If God did truly manipulate Pharaoh’s decision, not only would God be unable to judge Pharaoh, He would even be implicated in Pharaoh’s sin. The writer once heard someone commented: “Since God is sovereign over all things and the one who decrees what is right and what is wrong, so what God has decided to be right will become right and what He has decided to be wrong will become wrong. Therefore, God needs not to be restrained by the Law given by Himself, only we human beings are required to abide by the Law. When Pharaoh stopped the Israelites from leaving, it was sin; but for God to harden the heart of Pharaoh, He had every right and all authority to do so. God is above the Law, He can do whatever He pleases and does not need to adhere to the Law.” This cannot be any further from the truth, the person who said this did not know God at all. God never has to “keep” the Law, for He Himself is the Law, the Law is God’s own divine attribute, the manifestation of His holiness and righteousness. God can never deny Himself to do something that is contrary to His own nature. It is not possible for God to strike Pharaoh with ten plagues for not allowing the Israelites to leave Egypt, but on the other hand He had actually manipulated Pharaoh’s decision and caused him to be unwilling to let the Israelites go.

This is the true manner in which God predestines those that He loathes: Even before the foundation of the world and the creation of man, according to God’s foreknowledge, He has foreknown who would reject Him. He knew that among them, there would be a group of unrepentant and rebellious people who would set themselves to be the enemies of God and His people. God predestined these people to a life of royal birth or through other means and arrangements, such that these people eventually rise up and wield the power and authority to persecute the Children of God. These people are of the Devil, the children of Satan, just like Pharaoh – they are practitioners of black magic (Ex 7:22). Just as the Holy Spirit empowers the saints with courage to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, similarly, the children of Satan are given power by the evil spirits, such that they have the audacity to stand up against the Almighty God of the universe (Ep 2:2). Pharaoh, being a follower of the Devil, naturally draws strength from him to oppose God’s people. When God said “And I will harden Pharaoh's heart,” it refers to His absolute sovereignty over all things; for even Satan’s actions are subjected to the approval of God before he could harden Pharaoh’s heart, which resulted in Pharaoh’s persecutions of the people of God unto the very end. [For more details, please read “Predestination and Free Will (4)”]

God raised up stiff-necked Pharaoh, so that great miracles could be performed; God chose covetous Judas as one of the twelve disciples, so that salvation plan could be accomplished for mankind through his betrayal of Jesus; God raised up the ruthless Chaldeans, calling them “My servant,” using them to chastise the nation of Israel (Jr 25:9); God raised up the chief priests and Jewish leaders during Jesus’ time, that through their rejection of the gospel, the salvation came to the gentiles (Ro 11:11). Be it a person, a tribe or a nation, no matter how evil or how much they hate God, they could never free themselves from the control of the almighty God. Even if they should go all out to oppose God and become His arch enemies, God’s plans and His work shall continue to prosper and not be upset or affected by their actions. Instead, their evil ploys would often be further used by God to accomplish His perfect will. For all creatures and creations from the highest heavens to the deepest oceans belong to Him; whether willing or unwilling, He remains sovereign in each and everyone’s life. He uncovers the heart and mind of every person and never an evil or rebellious thought goes unnoticed by Him, and He has known it even before the foundation of the world! God uses His foreknowledge concerning these evildoers to predestine their lives, making use of their evil deeds against His people to accomplish His eternal plans. For even the evil mastermind Satan himself, has his life already been predestined by God; a mere vessel used by God to reveal His boundless glory and to edify the saints, that through him the eternal kingdom shall be built and made complete. 

God’s predestination of the God-haters and persecutors of the saints, keeps us Christians who are under fiery trials from losing hope, knowing that the ones who cause our sufferings are fully within the control of God. If God did not permit them, they would be unable to lay even a finger on us. All these trials have been prearranged by God even before the foundation of the world, for the purpose of helping us in our spiritual growth. Having understood this, though we tread the valley of the shadow of death, our faith is uplifted to the mountaintop singing the everlasting victorious song!

Those evildoers who have “helped” to accomplish the eternal plans of God, would they be rewarded for their contributions and efforts? Absolutely not. The only thing waiting for them is what God has prepared for their final judgement – the lake of fire!

Throughout the history of mankind, there has been no lack of villains, malicious criminals and mass-murderers; some are lowly bandits and some are supreme dictators. Not even an ounce of mercy could be found in these people, they are evildoers that have no fear of God nor the impending judgement of hell. From among them, God has chosen some as His instruments, to employ their evil deeds to aid the spiritual growth of the believers. Although God makes use of their sinful acts to bring forth spiritual fruits in the believers, this has in no way changed the fact that they have committed those sins. The sins that they have committed not only remain with them, the nature and the severity of the sins have also not changed in the least degree. The positive outcomes of these sins came about solely due to God’s wisdom, the people who committed these sins have absolutely no part in it. When God uses something sinful to produce something good, He does not in any way change the sins committed to something good or praiseworthy, a sin is a sin, all these evildoers are still fully accountable for their evil deeds. Furthermore, having persecuted the Children of the almighty God, the due punishment meted out to them also would be the most severe. Therefore, we observe those nations that had been used by God to discipline the nation of Israel, were all in the end utterly destroyed (Jr 30:11).

We must know that this is not an issue of merely understanding the true doctrine of Predestination, but rather it concerns the holiness and righteousness of God – whether God is the one who makes these evildoers commit the sins or the sins are committed out of their own free will. Although it is a very thin line between these two views, the significance they represent are a world of difference. God’s employment of these evildoers to achieve His eternal plans can be truly crowned the pinnacle of His perfect and absolute wisdom. Among which the most amazing and exceptional of all is Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, where His death on the cross has accomplished the salvation plan for the whole mankind.