Romans 9:22-24

“ Now if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And [if] that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, us, whom he also called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles ”...

Many commentators, Tholuck for example, find in the δέ, now, which they translate by but, the indication of a strong contrast, and think that Paul is setting over against God's abstract right, expounded in Romans 9:19-21, the real use which He has made of it in the history of the Jewish people: Thou, O man, art in any case incompetent to dispute God's right; but what, when I shall prove to thee that He has not used it rigorously, and that His conduct toward thee is still marked with the most wonderful long-suffering! But such a contrast would have demanded a stronger adversative particle (ἄλλα, but); and this notion of a purely abstract right is rather philosophical than religious. Is it not simpler to take Romans 9:19-21 as giving the figure, and Romans 9:22-24 the application? It is evident that the figure of vessels unto dishonor, Romans 9:21, finds its corresponding expression in vessels of wrath, Romans 9:22, as the figure of vessels unto honor, Romans 9:21, finds its corresponding term in vessels of mercy, Romans 9:23. It is equally obvious that to the liberty used by the potter over the lump of clay which is at his disposal, to make of it vessels of different destinations, Romans 9:21, there corresponds the power of God displayed either in the form of wrath or in that of grace in Romans 9:22-23. It is therefore the transition from the figure to the application which is indicated by the δέ, and the particle ought therefore to be translated by now. But in the form: Now if, there is at the same time contained a gradation. For Paul means thereby that God has not even dealt with Israel as the potter with his vessel. We seek the principal proposition on which depends the sentence: Now, if willing..., and we do not find it; but it is easy to understand it from what precedes: “Wilt thou still find fault, O Jew? wilt thou do what the vessel would not dare to do against the potter? Wilt thou still accuse God of being unjustly angry?” We shall see afterward the point in the following passage where this understood principal proposition finds its logical place.