Romans 9:16,17 - It's all a matter of choice - God's choice!

9:16

“It does not therefore depend upon human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” Now we need to look at this in the whole context of Scripture and the the immediate context of Romans. Indeed in verse 32 of this chapter he says that Israel did not obtain righteousness because they did not pursue it by faith. Wrong thinking goes as follows. Everything is dependent upon what God decrees, therefore it doesn't matter what I do. Realising that “it doesn't matter what I do” cannot be right, for it goes against what the Bible says, and it goes against everyday life experience, we can then go even more wrong and decide that everything does not actually depend ultimately upon God’s decree. Open theism is the worst outcome of this sort of thinking.

What is Paul saying? First he is countering the whole Jewish way of thinking about salvation. They had forgotten that it is ultimately dependent upon God. God’s mercy is the source of salvation. If God had not decided to be merciful no one could be saved, and He can choose to have mercy on whoever He wants to. And this does not mean that it doesn't matter what we do. We may not be able to fully understand who these two facts can fit together, but facts they are, like it or not.

9:17

Paul then quotes from Exodus 9:16 with how God used Pharaoh. Now if we look at the whole story various verses talk about Pharaoh hardening his own heart (Ex 8:15) and his heart being hard or becoming hard (eg Ex 7:22). So any picture we might have of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart and his being a mere puppet in God’s hands is totally false and unbiblical. God’s decree and man’s responsibility work together. Exactly how is a mystery, but it is nevertheless the truth. If we want to understand life, and, more importantly, to live live properly we need to appreciate the absolute sovereignty of God. It is only when we do this that we become truly free. And we need to appreciate that the purpose is that God’s power might be displayed and His Name proclaimed. It is not so that man’s name and power might be displayed.