ACC ~ Romans 9 v22

DESIRING TO SHOW HIS WRATH. ORIGEN: I am astonished when I examine the Holy Spirit’s purpose in the Scriptures. For he says that the wrath of God, which is foreign to his nature, will be made known to men … but that his goodness and mercy, which are proper to his nature, will be concealed and hidden. … Why should God reveal his wrath to men and conceal his mercy? No doubt it is because God knows that the human race is weak and prone to fall through negligence, and that it is therefore better for them to be under the fear of wrath than to relax in the hope of God’s mercy and forgiveness. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

GOD ENDURED WITH MUCH PATIENCE. AMBROSIASTER: This means that unbelievers are made ready for punishment by the will and long-suffering of God, which is his patience. For although he has waited a long time for them, they have not repented. He has waited a long time so that they should be without excuse, for God knew all along that they would not believe. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

SELF-CHOSEN VESSELS OF WRATH. CHRYSOSTOM: Why are some people vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy? It is by their own free choice. God, being very good, shows the same kindness to both. For it was not only to those who were saved that God showed kindness but to Pharaoh also, as far as he deserved. For both Pharaoh and God’s people had the advantage of God’s patience. And if Pharaoh was not saved it was because of his own will, since God had done as much for him as he had done for those who were saved. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

AUGUSTINE: Paul has sufficiently demonstrated that the hardness of heart which came to Pharaoh came as the just deserts of his earlier unbelief. Yet God patiently endured his unbelief until the time came for him to mete out his punishment. God did this in order to correct those whom he had decided to set free from error and to lead them by calling them back to reverence and godliness, offering his aid to their prayers and sighings. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 63.

MADE FOR DESTRUCTION. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: God desires a response, because his patience and goodness makes those who have their own will live either as vessels of wrath or as vessels of mercy. Here the apostle deprives them of any reason to start sinning. Despite God’s patience they have not been converted to the right way. They are being prepared for destruction because it is always unjust to endure sinners and allow the evil things which they do to go unpunished. Therefore, just as punishment is being prepared for sinners, so eternal glory is being prepared for those who fear God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THEY PREPARED THEMSELVES FOR DESTRUCTION. PELAGIUS: God put up with Pharaoh for a long time while Pharaoh blasphemed and oppressed his people with hard labor and even had ordered that innocent little children be put to death. By filling up the quota of their sins, people like Pharaoh become vessels worthy of wrath, and by their own doing they prepare themselves for destruction. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

ALL ARE TESTED TO BE FINALLY SHOWN FOR WHAT THEY ARE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: What Paul is saying is this: God has made this present life one of struggles and not of reward, and he agrees that wicked men and good ones alike will be tested in both good and bad things in order to have an exact touchstone for the predestination of each person. In this way those who are good will follow the path of virtue and will cling to it through all the changes of life, neither boasting in the good times nor being unable to bear reverses. Wicked people, on the other hand, will in all circumstances be shown to be lovers of evil, ignorant of the reason for their good fortune when they enjoy it and exaggerating the wretchedness of their condition when they suffer grief. God gives each of these what they deserve in the next life. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WHETHER GOD LITERALLY HAS THE PASSION OF WRATH. OECUMENIUS: Of course God is not subject to the passion of wrath. It is when he does what we do when we are angry that he calls it “wrath,” so that we will understand what he means. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

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