Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 3

 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

 Romans 9:14-21

          Have you ever heard someone being accused of "having a God complex"? I googled the term and here's what a found;

  "A god complex is a pattern in which an individual believes they have great power, ability, infallibility, influence, and are superior to others."

    In Virginia Giuffre's memoir on Jeffrey Epstein's use of her as a sex slave, she recounts that Prince Andrew, who recently lost his duke status for this, treated his time with her like he deserved this because of his status. Doctor's, because they often hold people's very lives in the balances, are sometimes accused of this. This weekend's "No Kings" rally which had over 7 million attend, could have been appropriately renamed "No Gods" as he made mocking memes of dumping excrement on them from a fighter jet which he flew wearing a crown.

        While he abhor human beings considering themselves superior to other people in essence, does the world treat God with disdain as if He had a God complex? The answer is "yes", and Paul addresses it here in Romans 9. In its very definition, a God complex implies that God is superior to humans in His essence. He has great power, ability, infallibility, influence, and is superior to others. He is "other" than us and He can do as He pleases because He is God. Paul's analogy is, He is a potter and we are a lump of clay.

       From the very beginning, mankind blamed God for his sin and the consequences. Adam said, "The woman You gave me", to Gideon explaining to the angel why he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat and saying it was God's fault, to Cain blaming God for rejecting his sacrifice, to King Asa's anger against God's rebuke and refusing to seek His help for his disease of the feet from which he succumbed, the Bible is full of examples.

     Today, God is blamed for "making me a homosexual", to the cause of natural disasters, to putting certain regimes in power, to child abductions, genocides - you name it. He is even blamed for putting a tree in the garden knowing we would mess up. "It's all His fault", people say. There is a disdain for God and mankind blames their sinfulness on Him.

       God is a good God who has nothing but Love for mankind in His core. That's why He made us and put us in a perfect existence with a free will but all the negatives we see in the world come from our desire to be God. Yet our essence is wet mud, and He is the potter and we have forgotten that. Let's humbly submit to the One who holds our lives, eternity, the whole universe in His hands. Will He not do what is right?