“Afore Prepared Unto Glory.”
By R. F. Cottrell
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” Rom. ix, 21–24. The argument of the apostle in this text, is not that God created a certain portion of mankind for salvation, and another certain portion for damnation, and so fixed the case of each individual that their own agency could have no influence on their salvation or destruction; but his aim evidently is to show that God had foreseen and foretold by the prophets, whom he quotes in the connection, that not all the Jews, but only a remnant of them would believe, obey the gospel, and be saved, and that a portion of the Gentiles also would be prepared to receive the gospel and be saved. The potter can form different classes of vessels out of the same lump of clay. So God, by his word and providence, could, out of the Jewish lump, prepare a few to receive the gospel and be vessels of honor, while the residue of the same lump, whom he had “endured with much longsuffering” while carrying out the gracious plan of the gospel, would, by the same means, be fitted and ripened for destruction. So also with the Gentile lump. God had foreseen that, by a work of preparation preceding the introduction of the gospel, he could “take out of them a people for his name.” Now how were the elect, of both Jews and Gentiles, prepared beforehand to be saved by the gospel? In answer to this we say, The gospel proposes to save those that believe. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” There is no doubt that the Jews had the word of God in the prophecies and promises of Christ, which had they believed, they would have believed and received Christ and his gospel. But how could the Gentiles be prepared before to receive the gospel? By the same means that the Jews were, that is, by the same word of God published among them. In the providence of God the Holy Scriptures were translated into the Greek language a little less than 300 years before the Christian era, so that all those nations which understood this language could learn of the promised Messiah, and the believing among them could be looking for his advent, who was to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as “the glory of Israel.” And it is possible that they could appreciate somewhat the promises contained in those Scriptures to themselves, promises which the prejudices of the Jews did not permit them to see. “In this manner did God prepare the way for the gospel which was then approaching, and facilitate the union of so many nations, of different languages and manners, into one society, and the same worship and doctrines, by the instrumentality of the finest, most copious, and correct language that ever was spoken in the world, and which became common to all the countries that were conquered by Alexander.” Rollin. By such means there were among the Gentiles those, who, like Cornelius and his household, were devout, feared God, gave much alms, and prayed to God alway. Acts x. They were ready—“afore prepared”—to receive the gospel when God should send it to them. My object in taking up this Scripture is, not so much to answer to the doctrine of particular election and reprobation, which some infer from it, as to meet another argument founded upon the total ignorance of the Gentiles in relation to the Old Scriptures, at the time of the introduction of the gospel to the Gentiles. It is claimed that the Gentiles to whom the gospel first came, were entirely ignorant of what God had revealed in the Scriptures, and therefore the Sabbath commandment could not be binding upon the Gentiles, unless it were repeated in the writings of the apostles. As though there could be “devout men out of every nation under heaven” brought together at Jerusalem, as converts to the Jewish religion and yet those nations be utterly ignorant of the ten commandments, the fundamental principles of all true religion! Such an idea is absurd. “The Holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto salvation,” were known to Gentiles as well as Jews, and thus they were prepared to be saved “through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The vessels of mercy among the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, had been before prepared for the reception of the gospel and of the final glory. Those therefore, who, to evade a known law of God, would make the Gentiles of those times so extremely ignorant of revelation, only expose their own ignorance, or presume upon the ignorance of others.
R. F. COTTRELL.