God’s Mercy. Romans 9:14-18 V.14. God has the right to dispense mercy as He chooses on His own terms. What we think is right is not the basis for making choices because we have laws and yet choose to break them. We know what to do that is right and just and yet choose to do what is wrong and unfair. We know the standards of righteous justice but want those standards to be bent or broken to our advantage. When we don’t believe what God says, we are actually charging Him with deception and unfairness.
Who really are the ones to whom God extends His mercy? Only those who are sovereignly elected to bring the promised blessing of Christ to the world? Only those who are chosen to be God's earthly nation? We must keep in mind the God we know and worship is sovereign, not arbitrary. "In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." God’s basis of choosing who is saved, is based on His plan of salvation, not our faulty logic. Election refers to the way God determines who will be saved.
He chooses people to be saved who will accept the responsibility to accept His offer of free salvation. That means there is also the choice to reject what God offers. Each individual’s response to His offer determines whether they will be saved through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or whether they will be lost by allowing themselves to be blinded by the god of this world. God is sovereign but not partial. He wants all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel. We can trust Him to do what He says and to save all who believe in Him. His decisions and choices are always goof, even though we may not understand His reasons behind the choices.
John 3:16 is one of the clearest explanations of divine sovereignty explained when it comes to the salvation of souls. The Cause of salvation is God’s love. The Cost of salvation is the giving of His only begotten Son. The Condition of salvation is that anyone who believes in Him receives salvation from Him. The Consequences of salvation are that the ones who believe will not perish but have God’s gift of everlasting life. That is divine sovereignty at work in its full inclusiveness.
V.15. The question Paul sets forth in this part of the chapter is, “Is God’s sovereignty unfair?” That comes from the thought that some people have, who have a limited moral and spiritual understanding of God, because of the deceptiveness of our sinful nature. It is a charge without due consideration that God has the right to chooses some but not others. He is the Creator and therefore has the sovereign right to show mercy in the way He chooses to those who respond to His word by either believing He means what He says or rejecting it.
God is just and showed mercy to Israel and wrath to Pharaoh at the time of the exodus of Israel from bondage. Because of Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah, wrath is now on upon them and the blessings of the new covenant is on the Gentiles now in this day of grace. God is not respecter of persons. He showed mercy to Israel in the past and wrath on the Gentiles. He shows mercy to the Gentiles now and wrath toward Israel because they have failed to keep the terms of the covenant they made with God.
V.16. God must show mercy to us or else we would all be lost forever. Our good intentions or any efforts that we might choose to make as steps leading to make God willing to save us, does not in any way make God merciful to us. Mercy cannot be earned. God has already reached down to us by His grace to provide a means of acceptance with Him through Christ. It is of His mercy that we are not already consumed because of our sin against Him.
God justly dealt with Pharaoh who considered himself a god and the Egyptians who had a number of “gods” they worshipped. Even though the “gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood” had attracted Israelites, they finally cried to the God of heaven for mercy. Pharaoh’s response to God was to harden his heart because he was unrepentant. Then God hardened his heart resulting in the destruction of his army and putting on display for all the nations around that God was working in mercy and power on behalf of Israel.
V.17. The hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, of the nation of Israel and of people today begins with self-sufficiency, then self-made ideas and self-satisfaction. Disobedience is usually the first step leading to hardness. Then comes the desire for wealth and prosperity that we think we deserve. Some even claim this is evidence of God's blessing on them. Discontentment and a rebellious attitude that tries to blame God for things we perceive to be bad, soon follows. Any rebuke or correction that is deserved will be rejected. Those who heard that correction, refuse to listen or pay any attention to that which goes contrary to their own will. When that happens, people fail to respond to God's grace and offered mercy with no intention of obeying God, even though they heard His voice. This hardening, leaves one unwilling and unable to obey God.
God is not the one who makes people stubborn and willfully reject Him. And because God is the God of love, does not mean He is obligated to save everyone. He is sovereign it is true but He also gives people the right to reject His mercy and He gives people the right to obey or disobey His Gospel message. He has the sovereign right to do that.
V.18. God, being God, knows how people react to His mercy. He also knows how people will respond to His will and truth proclaimed in the Gospel. We who read these words of scripture can accept with a certain reverent attitude, the truth that God shows mercy to those who respond to His mercy. If that is rejected, that person will be hardened to divine entreaties that were once offered. These awesome words declare perhaps more clearly than others, the truth of the sovereignty of our God and the way He has displayed and extended His mercy toward us.