Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 4 Study # 5
April 1, 2018
Humble, Texas
(040)
1769 Translation:
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?
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, [
that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [
are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut [
it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
1901 ASV Translation:
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
24 [
even] us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
25 As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people; And her beloved, that was not beloved.
26 And it shall be, [
that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.
27 And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:
28 for the Lord will execute [
his] word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.
29 And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
- I. The Plan to Make Known the Wealth of His Glory.
- A. This is the second half of the "What if God, willing to unveil His wrath and to make known His power...".
- 1. In the unveiling of His wrath, God both endured, with much longsuffering, vessels of wrath and progressively hardened them unto destruction as a "preparation".
- 2. Now, in the "making known", the object is "the wealth of His glory".
- B. This second half has to do with "making known" in a way distinct from the previous "unveiling".
- 1. The "showing" of the wrath (which I have called "the unveiling") is rooted in a verb that is pretty consistently used in the New Testament to refer to actions taken that argue backwards for the rationale for those actions. In other words, "the unveiling" is the taking of actions that have to be considered in terms of their roots in order to "see" the significance. A good example is Romans 2:15 where Paul argues that certain actions taken by men "show" the root reality of the law God has written upon the hearts of all men. If that "law" was not there, the actions would not exist either.
- 2. But the "making known" is rooted in a different verb that has the characteristic of being tied to specific verbal declarations. In other words, a thing is "made known" once it has been declared by words to hearers. A good example is our current text in its immediate context wherein Paul says "the wealth of His glory" has been "made known" and then quotes the words of the Old Testament wherein that wealth is contained in words.
- a. There is a good reason for this switch: the current realities do not "look" right. In respect to God's plan to allow creatures to "see" wrath, God's treatment of the wicked is clearly on display (Romans 1:18). However, the alternative is not true to "appearances". We cannot clearly "see" what Paul calls "the wealth of His glory" upon "vessels of mercy" for one simple reason: the treatment of the vessels of mercy in this current time is not "clearly" a demonstration of "mercy". The way God allowed Jesus to be treated by the wicked was not "merciful" to the eyes of those watching. The way God allowed the apostles to be treated by the wicked was also not decidedly "merciful" in the eyes of the beholders. The way God disciplines His own in this present world is not "seen" to be "joyous" (but, rather "grievous") so that what is "seen" is not obviously "merciful". In other words, the "appearances" are deceiving and not a good basis for determining God's "mercy" upon "vessels of mercy".
- b. The only way "the wealth of His glory" is "made known" is by apostolic/prophetic words. Without them we would not "know" how blessed we are as vessels of mercy.
- C. This "wealth of glory" is decidedly tied in our text to the revelation by words of the "power". God, Paul says, is "willing ... to make His power known ..." and then he says that God wished to "make known the wealth of His glory...".
- 1. This means that the "power" of God is most clearly revealed in words which address the massive difficulty of turning a fallen son of Adam into a "vessel of mercy".
- 2. The suggestion of the words is that it takes a far greater amount of "power" to prepare sinners for participation in the glory than it does to visit wrath upon the wicked. This is pretty much a contrast with the thinking of men who view the "power" of unleashed judgment (like opening the earth so that it might swallow up the wicked) to be far more "powerful" than developing a man's character to move him from being wicked to being godly.
- D. The actual characteristics of this "wealth of glory".
- 1. Romans 2:4 actually lists "goodness", "forbearance", and "longsuffering" as particular examples of this "wealth".
- 2. Romans 11:33 follows this up with the "wealth" of God's "wisdom" and "knowledge" as they lead into His "unsearchable judgments" and His "ways" which are "past finding out".
- 3. In between, Romans 11:12 speaks of the "fall" of the Israelites leading to the "riches of the world" and the "diminishing of them" leading to the "riches of the Gentiles".
- 4. Ephesians 1:7 speaks of the "forgiveness of sins" as being in accord with the "riches of His grace".
- 5. Ephesians 1:18 addresses "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints".
- 6. Ephesians 2:7 says that there will eventually be a demonstration of "the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us...".
- 7. Ephesians 3:8 is written to name "the unsearchable riches of Christ" as the content of the Gospel.
- 8. And Ephesians 3:16 opens the door to a significant level of "might" for the "strengthening" of the inner man "according to the riches of His glory".
- 9. Summary: the "wealth of His glory" is, in a few words, "the infinity of His attributes as they apply to God's good treatment of vessels of mercy". There is no "plumbing of the outer boundaries" of "infinity" so that there is no actual way to grasp the true extent of this wealth. However, the point of this verbal revelation of the wealth of His glory is decidedly focused upon those attributes of "Life" that would have never come into play if sin had not arisen among the created. Until the Gospel's revelation-in-words of the coming participation of forgiven sinners in the glory of God, there was a significant absence of understanding regarding God. There was, under Law, a strong emphasis upon the Justice of God that overwhelmed creation in terms of any real expectation of anything but Justice. The cosmic shift with the coming of John the forerunner upon "Grace" and all of its attendant benefits to those who had been absolutely stripped of any basis in merit by Justice was both necessary and welcome for the balance it brought to the creature's ability to grasp the "Holiness" of God.
- II. The Pursuit of the Plan.
- A. The "vessels of wrath" were labored over in terms of getting them ready for their experience of the "wrath". This is from the verb choice of Paul in describing how the days were filled with the fitting into place all of the details of their condemnation.
- B. But the "vessels of mercy" are "prepared in advance". Ephesians 2:10 goes so far as to say that the very deeds which these vessels shall do have already been determined.