hedrick@topaz.UUCP (11/17/86)
I'm going to make yet another attempt to deal with Rom 9, where Paul talks about men as pots, and refers to God hardening their hearts. I'm basing my comments somewhat loosely on the discussions of this passage in commentaries by Karl Barth and C. K. Barrett. It is important to note the context of this passage and how it functions in the overall argument of the surrounding sections. Paul is dealing with the fact that the Jews rejected Jesus and Gentiles accepted him. Paul sees this as part of the divine plan, to dramatize the fact that we are all dependent upon God's grace. He is not dealing primarily with the issue of individual salvation. It may be the case that God could decide that certain people are to be damned, and that there would be nothing we could say about it. But that isn't what is being discussed here. Rather, he is dealing with the fact that (as he sees it) the Jews as a people are being temporarily rejected to allow for inclusion of the Gentiles. As we see over the course of the next few chapters, God allows the Jews to fall into rejection now, just as the Gentiles had rejected God in the past, to make it clear that it is his grace alone that brings salvation. He fully intends for the Jews to recover from this and accept Christ themselves. The objection he is dealing with in Chap 9 is not why certain individuals will end up in Hell, but the question of why his overall plan calls for the Jews to fall into a hardened position where they reject God. He says in effect that God's goal is not to put us in the best possible light, but rather to show as clearly as possible both the mercy that he intends for us and his condemnation of the attitude that refuses to rely on that mercy. For this reason, he has chosen to allow both Jews and Gentiles to demonstrate in their own turn, in different ways, the folly of trying to go it alone. However the fact that they are, as it were, object lessons to the world does not mean that in the long run the Jews are rejected. So we are not talking about final damnation here. Indeed Paul continues to hope that in the end the object lesson will be completed by having the Jews accept God's grace. The objection he anticipates in Chap 9 is not "How can you condemn all these people to Hell?", but "You can't treat me as a pawn this way. I'm a man, with rights of my own, not some sort of classroom demonstration." But the whole burden of Paul's message is that our right is with God, not ourselves, and if we object to being God's clay, we are adopting precisely the attitude that will make his grace impossible for us. I do not say that this interpretation solves all problems. Paul obviously believes that individuals are lost. In the end, we are going to have to deal with any theological problems raised by that. But I don't think the potter/clay analogy is intended to deal with the ultimate fate of individuals.