Romans 9: 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Are you saying that God does not have that right?
Romans 3: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God.
God's justice demands that all humans be condemned because from birth their motivation for living is love of self first. If He condemns everyone, He would be merciless. If he saves everyone, disobedience would run rampant. To show His justice and His mercy, He saves a few. He saves them by granting them repentance so that they recognize their sins and turn to Him for forgiveness. That is baptism in the Name of the Father. They then through preaching learn that their sins can be forgiven through belief in Jesus Christ's work on the cross. When they believe, they are baptized in the Name of the Son. Those chosen by the Father are baptized by the Son in the Name of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that provides entrance into the being indwelled by the Son and the Father who is in the Son. It is they who change the person's motivation for living from love of self first, to love of God first and all others as one loves himself. That is what Jesus preached when asked about the greatest commandment. That is how we get perfected and how we can recognize a true Christian (by the love they exude).
No, I say what Paul teaches, that God exercises that right by choosing whoever chooses to cooperate with His condition for forgiveness. Here is the context for Rom. 9:15 (the full study is posted in the thread about Resolving Problematic Interpretations):
29. In Romans 9:1-5 Paul notes how sad it is that those who are part of the human ancestry of Christ reject him as Messiah, but being a member of Abraham’s spiritual children is what is crucial (#17).
30. Romans 9:6-13 states that God had chosen which one of Rebecca’s sons (through whom Messiah’s lineage would be traced) before they were born (cf. Mal. 1:2-3). The word translated as “hate” (miseo) is the same as in Luke 14:26 with reference to family, so a better translation would be “preferred”: loving Jacob/hating Esau refers to God preferring that Jacob’s descendants serve as the heritage for Messiah rather than to individual salvation.
31. Romans 9:14-16 stresses that s/e depends on God’s mercy rather than being achieved by human effort (#12), although the preceding context has shown that (the non-meritorious condition of) faith is involved, which truth can be stated as “God initiates; sinners cooperate—or not”, because of MFW.
32. Romans 9:17 refers to pharaoh in Exodus 9:13-35 as an example of someone whom God allowed to oppose His will so that His power might be manifested by the plagues. The OT passage indicates that pharaoh was conscious of his sin but “He and his officials hardened their hearts” (v.34b).
33. Romans 9:18 says that God “hardens whom He wants to harden”, which raises the question asked in v.19, “Why does God blame sinners who cannot resist His will?” Paul’s response (Rom. 9:20-21) is that God has the might and thus the right to determine what is right. Then he speculates (“What if”) that God might have patiently endured evildoers (#20) as evidence of His glory toward recipients of His mercy (Rom. 9:22-23).
34. In Romans 9:24-33 and 10:1-4 Paul notes that God elected to choose Gentiles with saving faith instead of Israelites who sought salvation by works and stumbled over the Gospel of Christ, even though “everyone who believes” receives righteousness or s/e.
35. Romans 10:9 states God’s requirement for s/e as “confess Jesus as the resurrected Lord”, v.10 clarifies that the condition of faith (#31) precedes the work of confession, and vs.11-13 reiterate that all sinners who call on the name of the Lord will be s/e.
36. Romans 10:18 cites Psalm 19:4, which hints that God’s s/e has been possible for everyone in the world. This implication may also be seen in Gal. 3:8, Col. 1:23 and Tit. 2:11 as well as Rom. 1:20.
The concerns of those who accept TULIP—to affirm the sovereignty of God and the inability of souls to earn salvation—are valid, but the solutions are problematic, because they deny or ignore Scripture teaching the love of God for all sinners and the moral accountability of sinners for rejecting the love of God, thereby effectively perverting the Gospel (Gal. 5:6) and impugning God’s justness/righteousness (Psa. 33:5, Isa. 9:7).
The apparent reasons for these errors are threefold:
1. Ignorance of Scripture that contradicts their dogma, such as those teaching the possibility of apostasy,
2. Viewing faith as a meritorious work rather than as the non-meritorious condition of cooperating with God’s grace, and
3. Unconcern about portraying God as unjust by showing favoritism toward the elect. Once these errors are cured by including Scripture supporting MFW, doctrinal harmony is enhanced.
Hope this helps,
