Romans 2:3-11 Paul gives a contrast between those who chose not to seek the Lord and those who do choose to seek the Lord. Those who choose not to seek God could have but instead made a free will choice of their own thereby making themselves culpable for not seeking God. God has never put any onus upon Himself to cause (regenerate) men to seek Him therefore God has no culpability for those who refuse to see Him. Paul was directing his comments in
Romans 3:10-19 to the Jews, not everyone universally, to show the Jews they were sinners as the Gentiles and they could not attain justification/righteousness through the OT law of Moses. Though having that law was an advantage to the Jew, that OT law could not justify the Jew leaving them sinners as the Gentiles as Paul proves in verse 10-18. Paul then shows the Jew righteousness come by grace thru faith in Christ
Romans 3:21-24.
This says nothing about a mans ability to choose.
Israel was already gods covenanted people and hads free will restored. Teh unsaved man can do nothing to please god and choosing to obey God is something that pleases God. Romans 8 makes that clear.
Man cannot keep the law perfectly therefore unable to obtain righteousness through the law, but evidently Calvinism ASSUMES man is not able to seek, understand or have faith therefore unable to obtain righteousness thru faith. Because man cannot earn righteousness by keeping the law perfectly does not imply man is morally unable to seek God, unable to understand or unable to have faith. Again, because the Jew was unable to attain righteousness thru keeping the law does not imply in anyway that man is also unable to understand or seek God without God first having to act upon man.
It is not Calvin but the bible!
Romans 3:10-11
King James Version
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
This verse is not hard to understand!
So in
Romans 3 Paul is speaking of the
INABILITY OF THE LAW to justify the Jew and
not the inability of man in understanding or seeking God for there were those who sought God (noted above) those who understood (the lost in Acts 2 and 7
understood what was preached to them). Man is not born totally depraved unable to understand, seek or have faith then God
unjustly condemns man, holding man accountable for a depraved state man was passively born with.
And once again if one understands teh message, it is not because they have an innate ability in themselves, it is a gift from God>
1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Just because in your system of Justice you condemn God for doing what He chooses to do- does not make it so! God was under no obligation to offer a way of salvation for Adam and all of his descendants . Teh fact that He made a way for some is His choosing. But you remind me of the argument Paul wrote about:
Romans 9:13-26
King James Version
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.