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I find some more helpful insights in researching the original words for these verses. They enforce what can be seen even in some of the English translations when viewed with correct paradigms.
Look at these words with the backdrop of a God who is intensely passionate in His love, almost impatient to be reunited with all of His children and yet restrains Himself to protect us from that very intensity because of the danger it poses for us until we are in harmony enough with Him to live in His fiery presence.
It starts out by saying that He is willing for His wrath to be demonstrated or revealed. In chapter 1 almost the very same thing has been talked about. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)
This wrath referred to must not be confused with human-type wrath that is mingled with evil feelings and desires to harm others. God's wrath when properly translated and understood is His intense passion. And while we generally only experience intense passion when we get hatefully angry or are full of lust, God's passion is perfectly pure and untainted with any evil whatsoever. But God's presence itself is a consuming fire and is very dangerous for anyone who is not in perfect synchronization with His heart of selfless love and service for others. It is not an arbitrary rule but is simply a description of reality.
Even in the laws of physics there are many examples of the need for harmony to avoid destruction. Certain sounds can destroy a crystal glass because the glass cannot be flexible enough to resonate in sympathy with the intensity of the note. This is just a tiny example of what is referred to in Romans 1 as a revelation of God's invisible attributes through what He has made.
But while it is true that God has been protecting us from Himself and His overwhelming intensity of passion, the text in Romans 9:22 quoted at the beginning reveals that God will not always protect us from that passion. Those who choose to suppress the truth about God literally prepare themselves for destruction by choosing to make themselves vessels of wrath by clinging to lies about God instead of embracing the truth He wants to reveal to their hearts. So this verse says that God is willing that the results of those choices bear out the natural consequences of the dissonance, pain and ultimate destruction that is inevitable.
But there is more. While people are choosing to suppress the truth about God and are making themselves vessels of wrath, even during that time God is still sustaining them and protecting them from the full effects of their wrong choices in hopes that they will yet turn to Him and accept His love and grace for them before it is forever too late, before their hearts are beyond repair. The word translated “endure” is usually translated elsewhere in the New Testament as when someone carries something or someone who cannot move on their own power. It is used to describe situations when people were carried to Jesus to be healed or when objects were carried around with someone.
What this tells me is that even while I am making sinful choices that increase my disabilities to live and move, God continues to carry me, sustain me and hold me up while offering me chance after chance to respond to His love and receive the truth about Him into my heart in hopes that I will turn to Him.
What I see this verse saying is that He endures – holds up, sustains – with much patience those who are preparing themselves, by their choices to suppress the truth about God, as vessels of wrath for destruction.
And why is He doing that? Think about it. The very next verse says that He does this so that the riches of His glory can be made known upon the vessels of mercy. But wait – who are these vessels of mercy? Are they people that God arbitrarily picked ahead of time to receive His favor while rejecting all the others? NO! They themselves are former “vessels of wrath” who have responded to God's invitation to return to Him and be healed by Him. They have seen His mercy and have acted on the revelation of the kindness of God by repenting and coming to Him for healing and grace. For we are all vessels of wrath at one time or another, totally unfit to survive in the presence of the Almighty. And until we embrace His mercy and allow His transforming power to ravish our hearts with His love and allow Him to make us fit to come closer to Him, we will all be in mortal danger from the passion of God.
It is now becoming more clear to me in this chapter who is choosing what. While God is not arbitrarily determining who will be safe and joyful in His presence and who will suffer torment and fear, He also is not going to forever hide behind the protective shield He has put around Himself to protect sinners from the lethal effects of His fiery passionate love and the truth about Himself. Love desires intimacy. But intimacy at that intensity can only be survived and enjoyed when everyone involved is in perfect synchronization and sympathy with the principles of reality that God has set up in the whole universe. It is each one of us that makes the determination by our choices whether we will remain vessels of wrath – dangerously out of sync with God's passion – or we will accept the gift of salvation through the gospel as revealed in Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer.
But the heart of God continues to burn with intense desire that every one of us become vessels of mercy by believing in His mercy, compassion and the truth about His character. For He wants nothing other than to lavish us with the riches of His glory.
Wow! I never thought I would find all of this when I first started reading this chapter. But then again, I knew that where I find the most troubling ideas on the surface in the Bible that there is usually some of the most exciting discoveries waiting beneath the surface for those who are willing to dig. I am in awe at all these revelations that He has shared with me in my pursuit of knowing Him better in this chapter. And I look forward to much more as I continue my way through the book of Romans.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and impressions with me, even if you don't agree or even if you have no idea who I am or you just happen to come across this web page at random. I enjoy connecting with others in my study of the Word and I pray that God will use my simple bits of sharing of what I am learning to enlighten others and motivate them to dig a little deeper themselves. Feel free to share with me on my journey.
