Romans 9:15
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
This means that God’s mercy and compassion cannot be subject to any cause outside His free grace. Just as a jury may decide the right to life or death, so the judge of all the earth has a right to spare or condemn the guilty, as may seem best in His sight.
In Exodus 33:19, God had mercy on the Israelites by not destroying all of them for their idolatry while Moses was on the mount. The whole nation deserved to be destroyed, yet God only killed 3,000 people, not because they were more wicked or less godly, but simply because He chose to be merciful.
God never lacks in mercy, a continual attribute of His character – a truth that every saved sinner should never forget. Salvation is never initiated by mans choice or merited by mans effort. Salvation always begins in God’s sovereign, gracious, and eternal will. Those who receive God’s mercy receive it solely by His amazing grace.
Consequently, there is no more humbling doctrine in all of Scripture, than that of election and we as believers should not be afraid of it, but rejoice in it.
The Truth
“So then it is not of him who wills, nor him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” (Romans 9:16)
