Romans 9:22

Willing [θ ε λ ω ν]. Although willing, not because. Referring not to the determinate purpose of God, but to His spontaneous will growing out of His holy character. In the former sense, the meaning would be that God's long - suffering was designed to enhance the final penalty. The emphatic position of willing prepares the way for the contrast with long - suffering. Though this holy will would lead Him to show His wrath, yet He withheld His wrath and endured.

Vessels of wrath [σ κ ε υ η ο ρ γ η ς]. Not filled with wrath, nor prepared to serve for a manifestation of divine wrath; but appertaining to wrath. Such as by their own acts have fallen under His wrath. Compare Psalms 2:9. Fitted [κ α τ η ρ τ ι σ μ ε ν α]. Lit., adjusted. See on mending, Matthew 4:21; perfect, Matthew 21:16; Luke 6:40; 1 Peter 5:10. Not fitted by God for destruction, but in an adjectival sense, ready, ripe for destruction, the participle denoting a present state previously formed, but giving no hint of how it has been formed. An agency of some kind must be assumed. That the objects of final wrath had themselves a hand in the matter may be seen from 1 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. That the hand of God is also operative may be inferred from the whole drift of the chapter. "The apostle has probably chosen this form because the being ready certainly arises from a continual reciprocal action between human sin and the divine judgment of blindness and hardness. Every development of sin is a net - work of human offenses and divine judgments"