A Study of the Book of Romans

Sermon #23 

“God Has The Right To Be God”

Romans 9:19-33 

       Again it is as if Paul for sees the questions or objections that may be raised by those who do not understand what God is doing. All down through the ages their have been and will continue to be those who would suggest that God is not being fair. Paul sets out his argument that because God is God, He has the right to do as he pleases. Paul points out God’s position – creator, God’s record - mercy and God’s requirement – faith.  

First, God’s Position - Creator – Who Are We To Argue With God?  (vv. 19-21)

“You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” (20) But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (21) Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”

I want you to listen to the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage of scripture in “The Message” because at least it makes a little bit more sense to me. He writes, “Who in the world do you think you are to second guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay does not talk back to the fingers molding it saying, “Why did you shape me like this? Isn’t it obvious a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding beautiful flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right?” In other words God has a right to do what He does. The reason we sometimes don’t understand what he is doing is because he is still in the process which leads to the second thing about his process. God can already see the finished product. We can’t but in the mind of the potter he already has a picture of what he wants that lump of clay to become. Isn’t it good to know in the mind and in the heart of God he already has a picture of what you and I are going to become in Christ.

The problem is right now we are still under construction. When you look up here at me, I want you to remember I’m not the finished product yet! I have a lot of flaws and imperfections. But the good news is God’s not through with me yet and he’s not through with you yet. We are still in process.  

Secondly, God’s Record – Mercy - God’s Wrath Is At Present Mixed with Mercy. (vv. 22-29)

“What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, (23) and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He  had prepared beforehand for glory, (24) even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (25) As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” (26) “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” (27) Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. (28) For He will finish the work and cut it short in right-eousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” (29) And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

       Romans 1:18 stated, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men, who suppress the truth.” God has done through the ages given some tremendous demonstrates of his wrath. Remember Noah and the Flood (Gen 6). We are told that when “every intent of the thoughts of His heart was only evil continually” (6:5) that God brought a great flood upon the earth. God’s wrath was mixed with his mercy in that Noah and his family were spared.

Paul uses the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorroh (Gen 19). There was so much evil and wickedness in those cities that God sent down fire from heaven and destroyed them. Yet God’s wrath was mixed with his mercy in that Lot and his family were spared. But it will not always be so, there is coming a time at the end of the age when God’s wrath will no longer be mixed by his mercy. In Revelation 6-18 we are given a picture of what God’s wrath looks like when it is no longer tempered by His mercy.   

Third, God’s Requirement – Faith - Don’t Stumble Over The Truth.  (vv. 30-33)

“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; (31) but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. (32) Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. (33) As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And  whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”   

Jesus Is Either The Cornerstone Or A Stumbling Stone.

       The Greek word for “stumbling stone” (v. 33) is scandalon from which we get the English word scandal. It may seem odd that this word is applied to Christ. In its verb form it means “to be offended.” To stumble on Christ then is “to be scandalized or offended by Him or His message.”

       Dr. James Montgomery Boice in his multi-volume commentary on Romans identifies “four great offenses of the gospel (1) the deity of  Christ; (2) the humanity of Christ; (3) that the gospel must be received by faith rather than by being earned by works; and (4) this salvation is according to God’s sovereign election and calling.” [James Montgomery Boice. Romans: God and History Vol. 3 ( Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993) p. 1145]    

       According to Scripture this stumbling stone was intended to be the cornerstone. In Psalm118:22 we read, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.”  There is a story behind this verse, though it not in the Bible. It is a two thousand-year-old tradition that has come down to us from the building of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. In 1 Kings 6:7 we read this about the actual construction of the temple: “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” “The stones, you see, were hewn to exact measurement in the quarry; and when they reached the building site, there was no sound of a hammer—they were just fitted into place.

       Well, the tradition is that at the beginning of the project a very large, fine-looking stone came up from the quarry, but the builders couldn’t fit it in any place; so they moved it to one side. Because it was in the way, eventually they just pushed it over the brow of the hill to make room for the other stones that they were receiving and forgot about it. Finally, when all the stones had been fitted into place, they sent down word to the quarry, “Send up the cornerstone.” The building was finished except for the cornerstone. Word came back, “We sent the cornerstone to you at the very beginning.” Then they remembered, “That’s the stone we pushed off the hill!” So with a great deal of effort, they had to haul that stone back to the top of the hill, and they found that it did fit right into place. If this tradition is accurate, it certainly explains the verses before us. [ J. Vernon McGee. “Thru The Bible Commentary.” (Electronic ed. -1997). (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1981) ]

 Thus “the stone that the builders had rejected [became] the capstone.” 

       In 1 Peter 2:4-8 the Apostle Peter commented on this when he said, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, (5) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(6) Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” (7) Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” (8) and “A stone of  stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.”

            The stone, which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. The stone is, of course, a picture of Jesus Christ.

If we understand what is being said by Paul in Romans 9:33 as referring to Christ and Peter agreement with that assessment in 1 Peter 2:4-8 it is hard to understand some people’s misinterpretation of Matthew 16:18. Some hold that in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus told Peter, “…you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” he was saying that Peter was to be the foundation on which he was to build his church. The Catholic church uses this verse to support their contention that Peter was the first Pope and the founder of the church. There is in fact in the original Greek, a pun in the use of word Peter. “The Greek word for Peter is petros, which means a piece of a rock and can mean something as small as a stone used in slingshot or pebble. But when Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church, the word he used was petra…which means ‘bed rock.’ It was if he was saying ‘You are a little pebble, petros, but I am going to build my church on myself, because I am the bedrock, petra. I am the only foundation on which anyone can securely build.” [Boice. p. 1147] 

Jesus is the cornerstone of faith, yet when He came into the world He was rejected by His own people —“He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). 

The Reasons Men Stumble Over Jesus.

       Not only then was He rejected by the Jews, but the world you and I live today is still rejecting Christ. Some people reject Christianity because they consider it a religion for the weak; they don’t think they need “religion.” Others reject Christianity because to them it seems foolish; it doesn’t conform to the wisdom of this world. The Apostle Paul speaking to the church at Corinth said (1 Cor. 1:22-25, 27-29), “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;(23) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, (24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men….. (27) But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;(28) and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, (29) that no flesh should glory in His presence.”