much more does God. Moreover, the fact of
their being chosen is both a sign of the loving kindness of God and of their own
moral goodness. . . . God himself has made us holy, but we must continue to be
holy. A holy man is someone who partakes of the faith; a blameless man is
someone who leads a life without reproach. (John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians
1)
The man whom God rejects has no just case
against God, because God causes no man’s failure. Even though the Scriptures
speak of God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (verses 17-18; Ex 4.21; 7.3; 9.12),
this is a metaphor describing God’s providential use of Pharaoh’s heart.
Pharaoh himself is the only one responsible for his hard heart (Ex 7.14, 22;
8.5, 19, 32).
Pharaoh’s sin cannot be ascribed to God, as
though God had decreed that sin. God foreknew that sin and predestined
(determined ahead of time) how to employ that sin to bring about His own
deliverance of Israel form Egypt. There is no unrighteousness in God (verse
14). (Patrick Henry Reardon, Romans: An Orthodox Commentary [Yonkers,
N.Y.: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018], 120-21)
