Romans 9:19-21
One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 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?’” 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?
Amen General! Romans 9, with chapters 10 and 11 are most surely key to St. Paul’s great Doctrine of the Sovereign God! Here is the Judeo-Christian God that is simply but profoundly “Total Other”! “To the Jew first and also to the Greek, (Gentile).” (Rom. 1: 16) We Gentiles only come into the Covenant/covenant promises of Israel! (Rom. 15: 8-9, etc. / Eph. 2: 12)
“In chapters 9, 10 and 11, St. Paul teaches us about the eternal providence of God. It is the original source which determines who would believe and who wouldn’t, who can be set free from sin and who cannot. Such matters have been taken out of our hands and are put into God’s hands so that we might become virtuous. It is absolutely necessary that it be so, for we are so weak and unsure of ourselves that, if it depended on us, no human being would be saved. The devil would overpower all of us. But God is steadfast; his providence will not fail, and no one can prevent its realization. Therefore we have hope against sin.” (Dr. Martin Luther) Luther got it right as to individual salvation, for any Jew or Gentile, but he missed it, as to the great reality of National Israel! But the American Lutheran, G. N. H. Peters wrote one of the finest works on the subject of the great Premillennial truth: The Theocratic Kingdom. Indeed there is biblically, no replacement or so-called “supersessional” theology!
I really like Fr. Robert’s description of God as “Total Other”. This conforms exactly with the Hebrew concept of “Kadosh” — which is generally translated “Holy” in our English Bibles. To most Christian’s the word “Holy” denotes “perfection”, “righteousness”, “purity”, “virtuousness” and a host of other characteristics describing “behavior”. But “Kadosh” in Hebrew fundamentally means “separate” or “separated”. God is “Kadosh”, not because he is perfect, righteous, pure, and virtuous — although He certainly is all those things. Rather, The Holy One (HaKadosh) is “Kadosh” because He is totally separate from all His Creation. He is utterly unique and completely distinct from everything else that exists. He is so fundamentally “different” from His Creation that He is almost unable to describe Himself to us in terms which we humans can understand. That’s why, when Moses asked His Name, He said simply, “I am Who I am”. “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai Tzva’ot” [Holy, Holy Holy is the LORD of Armies. The whole Earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)]
Amen Jasper! Our God is “Totally Other”! We only know Him by His own revelation, but what a revelation is Christ-Messiah, the “Logos” (Word) and the “Rhema” (His utterance). Our Immutable God! John 8: 58 comes to mind with your Hebrew word studies! 🙂