(upbeat music) One of the most asked about themes in the inbox is God's hardening of the sinner's heart. It's an incredible theme throughout Romans and no chapter of scripture has inspired more APJ questions than Romans 9 has. We now have over 400 emails on this chapter alone, loads of questions, including this really good one from a listener named Nate.

Hello, Pastor John, I was recently reading Romans 1, verses 24 to 27, and Paul seems to be saying that God gave over these sinners to dishonorable passions as a consequence of their sin. But then when I got to Romans 9, verses 1 to 29, Paul seems to indicate that God himself hardens sinners in unbelief, God hardens whom he wills.

That's chapter 9, verse 18. So in the case of Romans 1, did God first harden these sinners before he gave them up to dishonorable passions? Which came first, did the sinners harden their own hearts or did God harden their hearts? In thinking back to the Old Testament, God first promised to harden Pharaoh's heart.

It's Exodus 4, 21 and 7, 3. And then Pharaoh hardened his own heart in Exodus 8, 15 and 32. Then God hardened his heart even more in Exodus 9, 12. Then Pharaoh hardened his own heart even more in Exodus 9, 34. Then God hardened his heart even more in Exodus 10, 1, 20 and 11, 10.

How does this dynamic work more generally in culture? Or is the giving over in Romans 1 and the hardening of Pharaoh's heart different categories altogether? Pastor John, how would you respond to Nate in putting Romans 1 and 9 together? - The first thing I want to say is that there is no hardness in the human heart against God, either from God's decree or from human depravity, which is so hard that God himself cannot overcome it and save the hardest sinner.

This is the very heart of the new covenant promise of Ezekiel 11, 19. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, Jeremiah 32, 17. Now I start here because I know that thousands of people listening have friends and family who have been resistant to the gospel for years and how easy it is to despair that they could ever be saved.

They're just too hard. So our hearts tempt us to believe. But what I want to stress here at the outset is that it is the very omnipotence, the very sovereignty and freedom of God who says, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will harden whom I harden." It's that very freedom and power, which is our only hope that the seeming impossibility of human hardness cannot stand before the mercy of the sovereign God.

That's where I want to start. Now, let's look at the specific question, namely, did God first harden the sinners in Romans 1, 24, 26, 28, before he gave them up to dishonorable passions? Let me quote one of those verses, verse 28. "Since they disapproved of having God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." So it's clear that there is a sinful, rebellious condition prior to God's giving them over to a debased mind.

In other words, his removing the restraints that he often puts on sinners and sinful cultures is not the ultimate origin of their rebellion. That removal is not the ultimate origin of their rebellion. That was there before he handed them over to their own rebellion by removing all restraints. So what was their condition before this handing over, or you could say this hardening?

What was their condition before that? Now, let's let Paul describe it in Ephesians 4, 17 and 18. It says this, "You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. In the futility of their minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart." So Paul traces the condition of Gentiles, that's virtually all of us, and he's gonna say in a minute that includes the Jewish people as well.

He traces our condition back through futile minds, through darkened understandings, through alienation from God, through ignorance, and finally, at the bottom, to hardness of heart. That's the root problem. And Paul makes plain that this hard spiritual deadness is universal for Jew and Gentile, not just Gentiles, because he says in Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, "You," namely you Gentiles, "were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we," and he's now including Jews, including himself, "we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath like the rest of mankind." Now, here's a great mystery.

We may not be able to fully explain it, but here it is in Scripture, namely, what humans are by nature fits us for God's just wrath. They were by nature, quote, "children of wrath like the rest of mankind." This is the condition of every human being. We are by nature sons of disobedience, verse two.

That is, by nature we disobey. It's our nature to disobey. By nature we rebel. By nature we are selfish and God-ignoring and God-belittling, and therefore, by nature we deserve God's wrath. Now, how did that come about, that all human beings are by nature justly subject to the wrath of God because of our proneness to disobey and rebel, sons of disobedience?

And Paul's answer in Romans 5 is that Adam's sin has infected his race. That is, the punishment that fell on Adam fell on all who are part of Adam as his descendants. Here's how Paul puts it in Romans 5:18. One trespass led to condemnation for all. By one man's disobedience, the many were appointed sinners.

So the answer to the question, did God first harden the sinners of Romans 1 before he gave them up to dishonorable passions? The answer is, in this sense, yes. God passed judgment on the whole human race in Adam. Our hardness is owing to God's judgment on the whole human race in our forefather Adam.

This hardness or deadness or futility, which we all have from Adam on, is basic. All other texts in the Bible about God's hardening, have this as their backdrop, which means that any given case of hardening may mean that God is giving someone up to the hardening that God decreed from the beginning.

And the reason I say from the beginning and decreed from the beginning is that Paul says in Romans 11, verse five, "At the present time, there is a remnant," namely of believing Jewish people, "There is a remnant according to the election of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, but the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened." So Paul traces the deliverance from hardness back to the election of grace, which happened before the foundation of the world. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1.4.

So from the beginning, that is the very beginning of God's eternal planning before creation, from the beginning, he chose to save his people through Christ from this condition of hardness, which means we should be very, very thankful that our eyes are open to the truth and beauty of Christ and that our heart of stone has been taken out because we did not bring this about ourselves.

This rescue from hardness was a sovereign work of God who chose us before the foundation of the world to be his soft, believing children. Now, with regard to the other question raised, namely, how does this work in culture? I mean, that's another world he opens up kind of at the end there.

He just throws that one in. Are you kidding me? You're gonna throw that question in here on top of this? How does this work in culture? So let me just close with one observation. In view of Romans 1, 24, 26, 28, it is naive to look at culture sinking deeper and deeper into sin, which I believe ours is, and to say only that this culture is ripening for judgment.

Well, that's true, but it conceals another more fundamental truth, namely, the sinking deeper and deeper into the bondage of sin itself is God's judgment. That's the point of Romans 1, 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

That suppression is the handing over of God, which is a manifestation of his judgment and his wrath. So the sinking of individuals and the sinking of cultures, even the disappearance of cultures into more and more blatant sin is always owing both, one, to our natural hardness of heart against God, and two, God's giving us over to that hardness.

There is one hope through the gospel, because God promises in the new covenant, which is a gospel promise in Ezekiel 11, 19, I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. That's our prayer. That's our cry for ourselves, our friends, our family, and whole cultures that God would take out the heart of stone.

- Yeah, such an important dynamic to understand in scripture and then to see applied in broader culture today. Thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in Spotify, or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel.

And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us like Nate did today, do that online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. On Monday, we hear from a listener to the podcast who recently sought after a prostitute and is now devastated at this decision. Even in seeking a prostitute, has he crossed a line for which he cannot return?

Pastor John will address that when we return on Monday next week. Thank you for listening. I'm Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)