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98. Furthermore, who would be so impiously foolish as
to say that God cannot turn the evil wills of men--as
he willeth, when he willeth, and where he willeth--toward
the good? But, when he acteth, he acteth through
mercy; when he doth not act, it is through justice.
For, "he hath mercy on whom he willeth; and whom he
willeth, he hardeneth."(205)
Now when the apostle said this, he was commending
grace, of which he had just spoken in connection with
the twin children in Rebecca's womb: "Before they had
yet been born, or had done anything good or bad, in
order that the electing purpose of God might
continue--not through works but through the divine
calling--it was said of them, 'The elder shall serve
the younger.' "(206) Accordingly, he refers to
another prophetic witness, where it is written,
"Jacob I loved, but Esau have I hated."(207) Then,
realizing how what he said could disturb those whose
understanding could not penetrate to this depth of
grace, he adds: "What therefore shall we say to this?
Is there unrighteousness in God? God forbid!"(208)
Yet it does seem unfair that, without any merit
derived from good works or bad, God should love the
one and hate the other. Now, if the apostle had
wished us to understand that there were future good
deeds of the one, and evil deeds of the other--which
God, of course, foreknew--he would never have said
"not of good works" but rather "of future works."
Thus he would have solved the difficulty; or, rather,
he would have left no difficulty to be solved. As it
is, however, when he went on to exclaim, "God
forbid!"--that is, "God forbid that there should be
unfairness in God"--he proceeds immediately to add
(to prove that no unfairness in God is involved
here), "For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will show pity to whom
I will show pity.'"(209) Now, who but a fool would
think God unfair either when he imposes penal
judgment on the deserving or when he shows mercy to
the undeserving? Finally, the apostle concludes and
says, "Therefore, it is not a question of him who
wills nor of him who runs but of God's showing
mercy."(210)
Thus, both the twins were "by nature children of
wrath,"(211) not because of any works of their own,
but because they were both bound in the fetters of
damnation originally forged by Adam. But He who said,
"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," loved
Jacob in unmerited mercy, yet hated Esau with merited
justice. Since this judgment [of wrath] was due them
both, the former learned from what happened to the
other that the fact that he had not, with equal
merit, incurred the same penalty gave him no ground
to boast of his own distinctive merits--but, instead,
that he should glory in the abundance of divine
grace, because "it is not a question of him who wills
nor of him who runs, but of God's showing
mercy."(212) And, indeed, the whole visage of
Scripture and, if I may speak so, the lineaments of
its countenance, are found to exhibit a mystery, most
profound and salutary, to admonish all who carefully
look thereupon "that he who glories, should glory in
the Lord."(213)
99. Now, after the apostle had commended God's mercy
in saying, "So then, there is no question of him who
wills nor of him who runs, but of God's showing
mercy," next in order he intends to speak also of his
judgment--for where his mercy is not shown, it is not
unfairness but justice. For with God there is no
injustice. Thus, he immediately added, "For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I
raised you up, that I may show through you my power,
and that my name may be proclaimed in all the
earth."(214) Then, having said this, he draws a
conclusion that looks both ways, that is, toward
mercy and toward judgment: "Therefore," he says, "he
hath mercy on whom he willeth, and whom he willeth he
hardeneth." He showeth mercy out of his great
goodness; he hardeneth out of no unfairness at all.
In this way, neither does he who is saved have a
basis for glorying in any merit of his own; nor does
the man who is damned have a basis for complaining of
anything except what he has fully merited. For grace
alone separates the redeemed from the lost, all
having been mingled together in the one mass of
perdition, arising from a common cause which leads
back to their common origin. But if any man hears
this in such a way as to say: "Why then does he find
fault? For who resists his will?"(215) --as if to
make it seem that man should not therefore be blamed
for being evil because God "hath mercy on whom he willeth and whom he willeth he hardeneth"--God forbid
that we should be ashamed to give the same reply as
we see the apostle giving: "O man, who are you to
reply to God? Does the molded object say to the
molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Or is not
the potter master of his clay, to make from the same
mass one vessel for honorable, another for ignoble,
use?"(216)
There are some stupid men who think that in this part
of the argument the apostle had no answer to give;
and, for lack of a reasonable rejoinder, simply
rebuked the audacity of his gainsayer. But what he
said--"O man, who are you?"--has actually great
weight and in an argument like this recalls man, in a
single word, to consider the limits of his capacity
and, at the same time, supplies an important
explanation. For if one does not understand these matters, who is
he to talk back to God? And if one does understand,
he finds no better ground even then for talking back.
For if he understands, he sees that the whole human
race was condemned in its apostate head by a divine
judgment so just that not even if a single member of
the race were ever saved from it, no one could rail
against God's justice. And he also sees that those
who are saved had to be saved on such terms that it
would show--by contrast with the greater number of
those not saved but simply abandoned to their wholly
just damnation--what the whole mass deserved and to
what end God's merited judgment would have brought
them, had not his undeserved mercy interposed. Thus
every mouth of those disposed to glory in their own
merits should be stopped, so that "he that glories
may glory in the Lord."(217) |