Pastor, I find it quite incredible that with the enormous Bible knowledge you possess you still have difficulty in distinguishing grace from justice.
Grace and justice are not opposites to be pitted against each other. Neither is one greater than the other. All of God's attributes work together. God does not contradict himself in his own nature, neither does he ever go against his own nature. or as some Calvinists do believe, is the author of sin.
Our Lord owes no man grace, including salvation.
No, he doesn't owe us anything. However he paid the debt for us all.
That whosoever believes in him might have eternal life.
He paid a debt, that we by believing in Him, might freely accept the gift he has provided--a gift provided for all--not for a select group. This is grace and love. Justice does not define the limits of the incomprehensible love of God.
--But Calvinism tries to do that. It is unbiblical for them to do so for God is greater than our thoughts, nevertheless the vanity of man knows no ends.
Our Lord owes all men justice, including eternal condemnation.
If God has paid the penalty of all the sin of all mankind (and he has).
If any man has accepted that gift freely, then out of the fairness and justice of God he does not "owe" him eternal damnation. The penalty for his sin has been paid. And said man has accepted the payment. Thus you are incorrect there.
The chosen Elect are the recipients of God’s grace.
The non-Elect are those our sovereign Lord has passed by, not willing to show them saving grace, mercy or compassion.
He is not unjust for doing so.
His all-wise holy will of good pleasure is the cause of election and preterition.
This skewed description of election contradicts your following statement that God is a God of love. You parrot the statements of Calvinism and yet without a Biblical understanding of what the Bible teaches about this subject.
First, God made man in his own image, and in doing so gave him a will to choose between good and evil. He created him greater than the animals. He is able to think, reason, choose freely. It is as if Calvin puts mankind back on the level of animals. No, inasmuch as man has an ability to think and reason, he can choose--choose between good and evil; God and Satan.
Within the sovereignty of God, God has given to man "free will."
Jesus said: "You have not chosen me but I have chosen you that you may go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16).
--When He called His disciples, he called those who he knew would accept him. It was always based on their free will, and never anything else but.
The rich young ruler refused.
The disciple that said: "First let me go and bury my father," made his choice.
--Jesus did not force him to be a disciple. He had to choose between family and Christ.
Salvation is always based on the free will of man as allowed within the confines of God's sovereignty.
Strictly speaking "election" per se, never refers to salvation or reprobation, but always refers to the blessings that believers have in Christ Jesus.
Thus Calvinists continue to be off the mark theologically on this subject.
Your theology says otherwise.
But not only does He love to save the Elect by grace, He loves to render justice upon the non-Elect for the sins they have willfully committed.
The reprobate will glorify His love of justice.
The doctrine of reprobation serves only to make Satan happy. It glorifies the devil and nothing else. It is not biblical and never has been. The word of course is not found in the Bible.
Those who trust Christ are saved.
Those who reject Christ are damned. Your theology makes God the author of evil. That is the logical consequence of reprobation.
These are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.
The Elect will glorify His love of mercy.
These are vessels of mercy prepared for glory.
Let's look at this passage that you are butchering.
Rom 9:19-24
(19) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
(20) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
(21) Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
(22) What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
(23) And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
(24) Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
--Paul is describing God as a Potter. He describes God's right to do with creation as he will.
However, the passage does not tell us specifically what his will is. There are numerous other passages that tell us that. There are other passages that tell us that the will of God is that all men come to repentance; that all men be saved, etc. That is what we know of God's will. It is not stated here.
There is nothing in this passage that states that God causes any person to do evil. God is not the author of evil as you portray.
--Hath not the potter power over the clay (a rhetorical question)
--What if God, willing to shew his wrath, (another rhetorical question)
--Note: It does not say that God is willing to show his wrath here.
The Lord need not harden the hearts of the reprobate, as He clearly hardened Pharaoh.
You are confused here also.
Before going to Romans 9, you must first look at Exodus 3 to understand the context.
Exo 3:19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.
--Pharaoh already had a "hardened heart" before Moses ever went to Egypt, or before the Lord ever hardened it any further than it already was.
--What was the purpose of the "hardening of Pharaoh's heart?
Did have anything to do with "reprobaton"? Anything at all?
Anything to do with salvation?
What does the Scripture say?
Exo 10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh:
for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants,
that I might shew these my signs before him:
Exo 10:2 And
that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them;
that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
--The purpose of the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh had nothing to do with salvation or reprobation. Those who claim it does do not know their Bibles. He hardened his heart to emphasize to His people that the Lord their God was indeed Jehovah. That was the reason. They were to remember that they were serving the true and living God and were always to keep these things in remembrance as a reminder of that.
This they do of their own perfectly ‘free’ sinful evil will which hates divine holiness, divine truth and divine righteousness.
We all are depraved, but not so totally depraved that we cannot choose God. Total Inability is a false doctrine. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."
The crucifixion of Christ proves mankind’s overt hatred of God, killing Him when given the chance.
It also proves the greatest act of God's love for mankind. I would hope some realization of that great truth would dawn on you this past week-end.
He died, was buried, and rose again, that whosoever believes on Him, might be saved. The "whosoever" is not to be redefined by Calvin. It means "whosoever."
Why do you incessantly kick against the goads of divine truth?
I know what the Bible teaches; do you?
Consider:
John 3:16 is no doubt the most popular verse in the Bible, memorized by children all around the world in hundreds of different languages, not just by hundreds, or thousands but by millions of children.
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
--Now, of all these countless millions of children, both now and down through the ages, having memorized this verse, how many do you think would understand "whosoever believes in him," to mean "the elect"?
And how many of those children would think that the world would mean "the elect"?
"God so loved the elect that he gave his Son (to the elect) that if the elect believe on him they should not perish...
--Do you really believe these millions of children think that the verse means what you teach it to mean? Or now that some of them have believed with their own free will, will they now be condemned to hell because they didn't follow in Calvin's footsteps? Instead they followed in Christ's instead, who said "Come unto me..."
