The Verse Everyone Asks About

One Bible verse has surfaced more than any other in over a decade of listener questions: Romans 9:22. This verse, along with its surrounding context, confronts us with some of the most sobering and mysterious truths about God's sovereignty and justice. It prompts the age-old question: Is God fair?

Romans 9:22 reads, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” For many, especially those exploring the nature of salvation and divine election, this verse hits like a thunderclap. It challenges our assumptions about fairness, grace, and human destiny.

One listener named Leslie captured what hundreds have asked: “Does this mean that some people are created with no chance of ever being saved?”

To unpack this, we must hold two biblical truths in tension not contradiction.

Truth One: Sovereign Grace

From eternity past, God has chosen a people for Himself not based on anything they’ve done, but purely according to His mercy and purpose (Ephesians 1:4–5). Salvation is not a reward for effort; it’s a gift of sovereign grace. Romans 9 repeatedly emphasizes this: “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16).

This doctrine often labeled election means that those who are saved are not saved because they were better or smarter or more spiritual. They are saved because God, in His mercy, chose to show them grace, overcame their resistance, and brought them to repentance and faith.

Truth Two: Human Accountability

While God is absolutely sovereign, Scripture is equally clear that every person is morally accountable for their response to God. Paul says in Romans 1:20 that all people are “without excuse” because God’s power and divine nature are clearly seen through creation. Further, Romans 2:15 speaks of the law written on the hearts of all the conscience bearing witness to God’s standards.

People are not condemned for lacking opportunity, but for rejecting the light they do have. Those who are lost are not victims of divine injustice. They are rebels who suppressed truth, loved sin, and turned away from God's invitations whether through creation, conscience, or the gospel itself.

As Charles Spurgeon once put it, “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies... Let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” This passionate plea echoes a core truth everyone is invited to come to Christ.

Real Invitations to Real People

Romans 9 doesn’t cancel the universal call of the gospel. In fact, the same Paul who penned Romans 9:22 also wrote Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Jesus himself cried out in John 7:37, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” These are not empty gestures. They are real, sincere offers of salvation.

God does not harden hearts arbitrarily or apart from real resistance. The Pharaoh whose heart God hardened in Exodus also repeatedly hardened his own heart first (Exodus 8:15, 32). Divine hardening is never unjust; it’s a judgment on persistent unbelief.

A 2023 Lifeway Research survey found that while 66% of Americans believe everyone sins a little, most also believe humans are essentially good. This gap reveals how far we are from biblical truth. The Bible teaches that we are not naturally good we are naturally rebellious. We don’t start off innocent. We start off in Adam, under judgment (Romans 5:12).

No Innocent People in Hell

It’s crucial to say it plainly: there will be no innocent people in hell. Not one soul will stand before God and say, “I wanted You, but You wouldn’t let me.” All who perish will do so because they loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19). And all who are saved will say, “It was not I who found God, but God who found me.”

The sovereignty of God in salvation does not make Him a cold and distant ruler. It makes Him a compassionate King who saves the utterly undeserving. Romans 9:22–23 shows us not only God’s justice but also His mercy: “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”

Calvinism with Open Arms

While some have used doctrines of election as an excuse for inaction, Scripture never does. Paul, the great champion of election, was also the tireless apostle to the Gentiles. Far from stifling missions and evangelism, a belief in God’s sovereign grace fuels it. History confirms this: William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton all firm believers in sovereign grace spent their lives reaching the unreached.

True Calvinism doesn’t whisper, “God will save His elect, so I don’t have to go.” It shouts, “God will save His people, so I must go!” It’s precisely because salvation is God’s work that our work is not in vain.

A God Worth Trusting

Romans 9 isn't trying to satisfy our curiosity it's calling us to worship. When Paul finishes this profound chapter, he doesn’t end with an answer key but with awe “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).

At the heart of Romans 9:22 is not a cruel decree, but a God whose justice is real, whose mercy is glorious, and whose purposes are unstoppable. This God invites all to come, and this same God assures us that no one who comes will be cast out (John 6:37).

So, does Romans 9:22 mean some people had no chance to be saved? No. It means that those who are saved are trophies of mercy and those who are lost are judged not unfairly, but justly. The door is open. The invitation is real. Come to Christ.

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