John Piper on Exodus 9:16: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Now we see why Paul chose to quote Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17 rather than one of the verses that relate directly to hardening. Instead he quotes a verse that shows the purpose why God exercised his freedom in hardening as well as mercy: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” [note 2]
He chose a verse that expressed the very purpose that relates implicitly to the righteousness of God and the hope of the world: namely, God’s commitment to uphold and display the honor of his name – “that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” In other words, God’s freedom in mercy and hardening is at the heart of God’s glory and God’s name. This is what it means to be God – to be ultimately free and unconstrained from powers outside himself. Treasuring and displaying this glory and this name is right – it is the meaning of “right.” And it is God’s purpose for the whole earth. He will reveal it to the whole earth.
Here is the sum of the matter, and may it cure us of much trifling with God. He is just in all his dealings. And the essence of his justice is the regard he has to the infinite worth of his own glory and his own name, that is, his own freedom and sovereignty.
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