Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Romans 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 9:18 So then, He has mercy on whom He wills (chooses), and He hardens [the heart of] whom He wills. |
Subject: The question exists in Paul's Theology |
Bible Note: "God is clean and is not the source of evil or sin" Hi, nwells! Part 1 of 2 I totally agree with this part of your statement... and God did hardened the hearts of some in order to accomplish His Salvific Plan; yet, damnation was never part of God's Plan for any of those people... He closed their understanding so that He may have mercy on all: For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:32) It is great that we understand that at a time God controlled certain people/individuals in order to fulfill His Plan; yet we must also understand that part of that Plan is to free all from the powers of sin: 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18-20, 1 Peter 4:6) It is through God's Mercy that both peoples are made one, and it is through God's power that those once dead were preached to by Christ Jesus, in the Spirit, so that all may be afforded that same Grace: believing in Jesus Christ! (John 11:25-26; Luke 20:38; John 5:21, 25) "Can a fallen man (meaning a sinner, before regeneration) do anything to please God?" Paul tells us that the those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8)... so it goes without argument that those who are not in Jesus cannot please God! The same applies for those who claim to know/have Jesus yet still walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit! |