This chapter has proved to be the most difficult one to translate in the entire book because it deals with the theological concept of predestination, and the question of how much free will and control do we have over our destiny and how much is it under the sovereign control of God. Paul works this through heroically and clearly but we have to hear him out in his full argument before we start to draw our own conclusions as to what this grim doctrine might possibly mean. I found the clue was that the doctrine had to measure up and reflect the true character and nature of God – and I mean Father God, in his relationship to his Son and The Holy Spirit; all just and fair.

Paul starts the chapter off by sharing his passion in identifying with his countrymen of Israel. He is grieving for them because they have rejected the message of God to humanity through Jesus Christ and have stuck doggedly to their religion. Paul gives them due credit for being the ones chosen by God for a very significant purpose, to represent him in the earth to other nations as a people who were in a special relationship with the God of all the earth. They were given special promises and entrusted with a special form of religious worship that included Commandments of wisdom from God himself. They were the people that God had protected and on whose behalf he had demonstrated his great power over the elements in performing miracles and wonders for all to see.

However the reality is, as Paul states so firmly, that their purpose has now been fulfilled and is now redundant. That is, their purpose in God’s economy, in preparing the way for Jesus to come into the earth and to join humanity with divinity. That has now been achieved and they must now acknowledge that and get on board with what Jesus has now given to mankind as the way to become one with the God Family - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is in this context that Paul outlines the authentic predestination and free will doctrine – and it has nothing really to do with who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. In fact it is not a statement about eternal destiny as regards the afterlife – it is about how we respond to the distinct purpose for which we are called in our lifetime on this earth - and in Israel’s case, for their duration as a Nation in the fulfilling of the limited purpose for which they were called. You will see it unfold as you read the ‘Contemporary Aligned’ version. But the pivotal point is in verses 21 and 22 which speaks about the potter and the clay. In the words of the King James version Paul says that ‘the potter has power over the clay to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor… and what if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction’.

Well, the point about honor and dishonor really means ‘useful and worthwhile’ OR ‘useless and worthless’. This means HERE AND NOW PURPOSE – not eternal heaven or hell.

And ‘fitted for destruction’ simply means ‘ready for the scrapheap’. That is the case for any and every individual who is shown God’s purpose for them and who stubbornly refuses to accept that - and goes about to determine their own purpose in defiance of God. This is what Pharaoh did, and he gets a mention in the chapter. The ‘scrapheap’ is not hell, but simply where the leftovers or ‘seconds’ end up – not fulfilling their purpose. In Romans chapter 8 and in Ephesians chapter 1 the predestined purpose for Christians is clearly stated – first to be adopted into the God family (through Jesus), and secondly to display the family resemblance (conformed to the image of Christ). The process of the hardening of the heart, as is spoken of in the reference to Pharaoh, is at least a two step process, and involves the person first of all saying no to God deliberately, then being given more chances to reconsider until he has determined to resist God. God is then said to have ‘hardened his heart’.

Paul’s final summary of this account and his conclusion is that ‘they didn’t put faith and trust in God but preferred to work at being right in their own eyes through the merit of their own performance’.

ROMANS CHAPTER 9 - CONTEMPORARY ALIGNED VERSION (SPIRITCODE)

1 I say to you in all honesty, with Christ as my witness, and with The Holy Spirit as my witness also, through my conscience

2 that I am continually weighed down with heaviness and sorrow in my heart

3 For I could even wish that I myself were cut off from Christ if it would mean that my brothers, my Jewish kinsmen were not to be cut off from him.

4 They are Israelites, the people whom God took to himself as his children, and through whom he displayed himself to the world, and with whom he made solemn covenants, gave the Commandments, the privilege of serving him, and promises of things to come.

5 These are our patriarchs, and as far as flesh and blood is concerned, the ones through whom Christ came to the earth, who is above all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

6 It is not as though the word of God has lost any of its power or promise, because the ‘now’ Israel of God are not just all descendants of the man Israel.

7 Nor are they all the natural descendants of Abraham, because it was Isaac that was to be the promised seed.

8 So it’s not the natural seed that are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the true seed.

9 The word of promise from God was;

At this time I will act and Sarah shall have a son

10 And not only did this happen, but Rebecca also conceived through our father Isaac.

11 (and going back to when Rebecca’s children {twin boys} were still in the womb and had not yet done anything good or anything bad, but so that the purpose of God according to his sovereign plan would be seen to operate, and not by anything that we do to deserve it,)

12 It was said to her that the elder twin would serve the younger one.

13 It has been written ‘I will love Jacob and I will prefer him over Esau’.

14 What do we say to this? Is God unjust? No way!

15 For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I choose, and I will have compassion on whom I choose

16 So then it is not about how determined a person is, or how carefully they set their course, but it is about God who grants an undeserved place.

17 And the Scripture says about Pharaoh, ‘I have given you this exalted position for the purpose of showing my power in what I do with you, so that my name will be declared throughout all the earth.’

18 Therefore he will be easy on whoever he wants to. He will also strongly challenge whoever he wants to, and their hearts can become stubborn.

19 You might well say to me, ‘How can he then blame that person for even thinking of opposing him?’

20 No, the question is ‘Who are you to dispute things with God? Shall someone say to their creator, why have you made me like this?’

21 Doesn’t the potter have the privilege over the mass of clay to make one vessel of more use and distinction than another?’

22 What if God in wanting people to see the intensity of his feeling and the force of his power and already having given opportunity to those former vessels to respond to him, even though they are now only useful for scrap,

23 Also wants to show his extravagant goodness to all, with the new vessels of mercy through whom he had destined to display his greatness and goodness.

24 Meaning you and me – all of us, whom he has now invited, not just Jews only, but all mankind.

25 As he also said in Hosea ‘I will call them my people who were not my people, and I will call them my beloved which were not my beloved’.

26 And it is happening. In the same Scripture where he speaks of them as not his people, it will now be said of them that they are his offspring – the children of the living God.

27 Isaiah also cried out concerning Israel, saying, ‘though the number of them be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be preserved.’

28 because he will complete his plan concisely and justly, and the plan will be executed swiftly on earth.

29 And Isaiah has also prophesied, ‘If the Lord of the Sabbath had not left us a seed, we would have ended up with the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah.’

30 So what do we say about all this?

Does unbelieving mankind who has never  pursued living a life that is in alignment with the heart of God receive that life with God, simply by having faith in what God has done for them?

31 But Israel, who pursued living a life that was right by God’s standards by following the Law, did not obtain the life that is aligned with the heart of God through that law.

32 And why? Because they did not have faith and trust in God, but they tripped up by preferring to work at being right in their own eyes through their efforts to obey the Law.

33 As it is written ‘Behold I lay a Rock in Zion that will trip people up, but whoever trusts in that ‘Rock’ will never feel worthless or useless.’