Two sides of the coin
by Sir Anthony Buzzard
Romans 9:21 should never be taken to mean that God deliberately hardens people’s hearts and then punishes them for it! This would be to eliminate any concept of free will and choice. God commands us to “choose” and it would be deceptive if we are unable to choose. The hardening of the heart is a rejection of divine grace.
There are always two sides to a coin, when it comes to God’s dealings with us. God initiates the Gospel call and we must decide to respond. The Hebrew mind can work with a “two sides of one coin” principle. For example John 12:44: “He who believes in me does not believe in me…” Belief is ultimately in God but always through Jesus. So with free will: one side of the coin is that God draws us with the Gospel.
The other is that we must respond (Mt. 23:37). This passage in Romans provides no support for Calvin’s double predestination. Human beings are responsible for choosing to cooperate with God. “Work out your own salvation because God is at work in you” (Phil. 2:12-13). By isolating “one side of the coin” and ignoring the other, many readers fall into misunderstanding.
God “desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). Some, however, will be lost. God is at work, but we must work with Him and Jesus. By isolating one side of the coin and ignoring the other, it is possible to become blind to texts like Lk. 7:30: “The Pharisees resisted and frustrated God’s purposes for themselves” (cp. Mt. 23:37; Lk. 13:34).
In Acts 13:46, some were “making themselves unworthy of the life of the age to come.” It was their choice to refuse salvation and not God’s. Paul teaches that a person wanting to be a holy vessel for God must purify himself! (2 Tim. 2:21). Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex. 8:15, 32; 9:34), and God responded to His stubbornness. Responsibility is on a “sliding scale,” as Jesus told the Pharisees in John 15:22, 24.
