Again, we are examining the most difficult portion of the entire Bible. Not only because it deals with election, which troubles many, but even more because it deals with reprobation, the doctrine that God rejects or repudiates some persons to eternal condemnation in a way parallel but opposite to the way He ordains others to salvation. Reprobation is the teaching we come to specifically in Romans 9:13-18, which makes these verses an excessively difficult passage for many, if not most, people.

The doctrine is brought into our text by two Old Testament quotations; Malachi 1:2-3, and Exodus 9:16. Paul summarizes the teaching in these texts by concluding, “Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden” (v. 18). In the view of many people, the doctrine these verses express turns God into an indifferent deity who sits in heaven arbitrarily assigning human destinies, saying, as it were, “This one to heaven, and I don’t care. This one to hell, and I don’t care.”

This is a caricature, of course. But it is something we must deal with, since no one can seriously attempt to study or teach the Bible, as I am doing, without confronting it. More to the point, it is impossible to study election without also dealing with its negative counterpart. We can’t have the positive side of election which is predestination, without reprobation, which is the negative side. John Calvin recognized this, as have many others in the course of church history. He wrote, “Election [cannot] stand except as set over against reprobation.”* It is easy to distort this doctrine, of course, as the caricature shows. We must proceed slowly and humbly, recognizing our own limited understanding. Still we must try to see what the Bible does teach about reprobation, since the subject cannot be avoided.

The place to begin is with the fact of reprobation, is taught in the Bible, regardless of the questions we may have. In other words, we must follow the same procedure with reprobation as we followed in the last study with its positive counterpart, election. There are many texts that teach reprobation. Here are a few: Proverbs 16:4, John 12:39-40, John 13:18, John 17:12, 1 Peter 2:7-8, and Jude 4. There are many other texts along these lines, but the clearest are those in Romans 9, which we are studying, since they use the word “hate” of Esau and “harden” of Pharaoh. In fact, verses 1-29 are the most forceful statement of double predestination in the Bible.

There are two important distinctions between election and reprobation. The question we must ask is this: Does God determine the destinies of individuals in exactly the same way so that, without any consideration of what they do or might do, He assigns one to heaven and the other to hell? We know He does in the case of those who are being saved, because we have been told that election has no basis in any good seen or foreseen in those who are elected. In fact, we are told in Romans, for Paul’s point is that salvation is due entirely to God’s mercy and not to any good that could be imagined to reside in us. The question is whether this can be said of the reprobate, too, that God has consigned them to hell apart from anything they have done, apart from their deserving it.

Here, there is an important distinction to be made between election and reprobation, which has been the view of the majority of Reformed thinkers and is the teaching embodied in the great Reformed creeds like the Westminster Confession of Faith. The confession teaches that both election and reprobation flow from the eternal counsels or will of God, rather than the will of man and both are for the end of making the glory of God known. But there are two important points of difference.

First, the confession speaks of the reprobate being “passed by.” Some will argue that in its ultimate effect there is no difference between passing by and actively ordaining and individual to condemnation. But while that is true of the ultimate effect, there is nevertheless a major difference in the cause. The reason why some believe the gospel and are saved by it is that God intervenes in their lives to bring them to faith. He does it by the new birth or regeneration. But those who are lost are not made to disbelieve by God. They do that by themselves. To ordain their end, God needs only withhold the special grace of regeneration.

Second, the confession speaks of God ordaining the lost “to dishonor and wrath for their sin.” That is a very important observation, for it makes reprobation the exact opposite of an arbitrary action. The lost are not lost because God willy-nilly consigns them to it, but rather as a just judgment upon them for their sins. In these two respects election and reprobation are dissimilar.

Some at this point may be wondering, “If the doctrine of reprobation is as difficult as it seems to be, why we should speak about it at all?” The first answer to that is that the Bible itself does. It’s part of the revelation given to us. This is also the primary answer to a person who says, “I could never love a God like that.” Fair enough, we may say, but that is nevertheless the God with whom you have to deal. Nothing is to be gained by opposing reprobation. But this is not a very satisfying answer, and there are satisfying and meaningful things to say about reprobation. It’s a doctrine that, like all other parts of Scripture, has its “useful” aspects (2 Tim. 3:16).

(1) Reprobation assures us that God’s purpose has not failed. The first benefit of this doctrine is the very thing Paul is teaching in Romans 9, namely, that God’s Word has not failed (v. 6). “But am I one of the elect?” you ask. It is easy to know the answer to that question: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and begin to obey Him. Those who do are the elect. That is how we determine who those persons are. (2) Reprobation helps us deal with apostasy. We all know people who have seemed to believe at one time, but who have then fallen away. Does this mean that God has failed them? No. It means that if they continue in their unbelieving state, they are not among God’s elect people. Apostasy does not show that the plan of God has failed. Reprobation helps us understand it. (3) Reprobation keeps before us the important truth that salvation is entirely of grace and that no works of man contribute to it. If none were lost, we would assume that all are being saved because somehow God owes us salvation, that He must save us either because of who we are or because of who He is. This is not the situation. All are not saved. Therefore, the salvation of the elect is due to divine mercy only. We must never forget that. (4) Reprobation glorifies God. As soon as we begin to think that God owes us something or that God must do something, we limit Him and reduce His glory. Election and its twin, reprobation, glorify God, for they remind us that God is absolutely free and sovereign. We have no power over Him. On the contrary, “God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden” (v. 18). God does as He wants in His universe.

When we understand that we are in the hands of a just and holy God and that we are without any hope of salvation apart from His free and utterly sovereign intervention, we will call out for mercy, which is the only right response. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” says the Almighty. If we believe that, our cry will be the cry of the tax collector: “God have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:15). And who can fault that doctrine?

*John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), p. 947.

Romans 9:13-18 Reflection Questions:

Paul is making the case that all the physical descendants of Abraham never automatically shared equally in the calling of Abraham. From the beginning that promise was narrowed down to the line of just one of two of Abraham’s sons (Isaac). The promise further narrowed to just one of two sons of Isaac (Jacob). This narrowing process is nothing new. It’s the way God has always worked, Paul says. Indeed in light of the overall failure of Israel, God has seen fit to continue this process by having the ultimate fulfillment narrowed down to just one descendant of Abraham – Jesus, the Messiah – through whom God’s promise to bless all nations would be accomplished. How does this make Paul’s case that God hasn’t changed His mind (or broken His Word) about the Jews but that, from the beginning, He has treated them (and His promise to them) the same way as always?

In verses 14-18 Paul continues his review of the whole history of Israel. He began in verses 6-13 with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now he references Mosses’ encounter with Pharaoh some four hundred years later and Israel’s exodus from Egypt. The story in Exodus 33 is where God declares to Moses that He will proceed with His plan for the exodus even though the people have made the golden calf, amounting to a declaration of independence from the true God. This is the setting for verse 15 in particular. Why is this story in Exodus significant to Paul’s argument in chapter 9?

What is your feeling on reprobation?