5. God Is Sovereign in the Exercise of His Grace and Mercy
A prominent and necessary characteristic of God's grace and mercy is that He is free and sovereign to choose those to whom He will be gracious and merciful. This truth is so vividly set forth in Exodus 33, where we find God condescending to speak to Moses "face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend" (verse 11), and Moses speaking also to God. What stands out in this unique conversation between God and man is Moses' request in verses 13-18, "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I might know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight . . ." and then Moses makes a specific request of the Lord in verse 18, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." When Moses stood in the presence of the sovereign God of the universe, the Maker and Ruler of Heaven and Earth, his all-consuming desire was to know the Lord, know His way, and see His glory. How did God respond to this request? The answer is found in verse 19,
"And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and WILL BE GRACIOUS to WHOM I WILL be gracious, and WILL SHOW MERCY ON WHOM I WILL show mercy."
From these words of Holy Scripture, it is clear that God would have Moses (and us) know that, as far as fallen man is concerned, GOD'S GLORY lies chiefly in His sovereign right and prerogative to be gracious and merciful to whomever He chooses. As we shall see, God has always operated on this basic principle of His sovereign exercise of His grace and mercy. He may choose to pass by some religious, self-righteous Pharisees ("Let them alone," see Matthew 15:12-14), but then choose to be merciful and gracious to adulteresses and harlots (John 4:5-42; John 8:3-11; Luke 7:36-50), and Corinthian fornicators, drunkards, thieves, and sexual perverts (I Corinthians 6:9-11). According to the Scriptures, God chose to be merciful and gracious to these wicked individuals in Corinth, pardoning their sins, and gloriously transforming them by His sanctifying grace—see I Corinthians 6:11, "that is what some of you were." He may choose to pass by the wise and prudent, the mighty and the noble, but then choose to reveal His truth and His wonderful grace to "babes", to rough fishermen or to despised tax-collectors, to the simple and unlearned, to the foolish and weak, and to the base and the despised of this world—even to a dying thief hanging upon a cross next to Him (Matthew 11:25-26, 16:13-17; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Luke 23:39-43). He may choose to destroy the murderer King Pharaoh (Exodus 14; Rom. 9:16-18), but then choose to unhorse, destrut, subdue, and show mercy to a murderer and persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-16).
If anyone should ask why God has not chosen or elected many from among the wise, the mighty, or the noble, but instead has chosen some of His people, His elect, from among the most unlikely—the foolish, the weak, the base and the despised, the answer is given in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, ". . . That no flesh should glory in His presence. . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." And Christ Himself settles the question beyond any doubt with these words from Matthew 11:25-26, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." It is all according to His good pleasure, with absolutely no reference to anything in man. If this seems unfair to you, my friend, remember that God is under no obligation to show mercy and grace to ANY of Adam's fallen race, and could justly have permitted ALL of us, who are all by nature His enemies, and hostile to Him, to perish forever under His holy wrath. According to this passage, Exodus 33:19, Jehovah-God reserves to Himself the sovereign prerogative and right to be merciful and gracious to those whom He will. And, as we shall see, God does indeed exercise this prerogative and right, and He is not unrighteous to do this, since all of us, all of fallen mankind, are worthy of eternal judgment.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, through the verbal inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, systematically develops this theme of the Sovereign Grace and Mercy of God in Romans chapters 9-11. In these three chapters, Paul deals with the perplexing question of why Jehovah-God has rejected His own covenant people, the nation of Israel (though some individual Jews were being saved), and instead, is now calling out a people from among the Gentiles to be His people, to make up His Church. There are two answers given: One answer is from man's point of view, or the human side; the other answer is from God's point of view, or the Divine side. From the human side, God has rejected national Israel because the majority of them, "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" (10:3-4). But from God's point of view, it was God's eternal purpose (His foreordained plan before the foundation of the world) to temporarily, at least, reject the Nation of Israel, and to show mercy to an elect people, individuals unconditionally chosen out from among both Jews and Gentiles (9:24; 11:1-12). The two main questions that must be answered are these: (1) WHY has God chosen this course of action, and (2) HOW is this consistent with His promises to Israel through Abraham? This brings us to the main point we seek to establish, which is so clearly taught in Romans 9:1-24.
In Romans 9:1-24, Paul gives this astonishing and shocking explanation: The ULTIMATE, UNDERLYING REASON for God's rejection of the greater part of Israel and the calling of the Gentiles to salvation is that God sovereignly exercises His right and prerogative to SHOW MERCY TO WHOM HE WILL, and to HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM HE WILL, and further, that this CHOICE, or ELECTION, of individuals to salvation, or to be the people of God, has its source entirely in the will of God, with absolutely no reference to the works, or the will, of any of Adam's fallen race, whether they be JEW or GENTILE. In other words, God's ELECTION is UNCONDITIONAL.
During the course of his explanation, or argument, Paul quotes the above passage, Exodus 33:19, from the Old Testament: "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" (Romans 9:15). Now, my friend, if you and I can get a clear understanding of Romans 9:1-24, and are willing to submit our hearts to God's Word (John 8:47), submitting reason to revelation, we will have a firm grasp of the principles upon which God operates in saving lost, guilty sinners from Adam's fallen race. A summary of the passage follows:
Paul prefaces his explanation by expressing his deep love for the Israelites, his own kinsmen after the flesh, and briefly reviews their glorious privileges of the past (verses 1-5). Then, in verse 6, he assures his readers that even though God has rejected the nation of Israel, God's Word, or promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-4), has not failed. He goes on to explain in verses 6-13 that God's promise to Abraham was never intended to include all of his natural descendants, but was made only to those from among his natural descendants whom He sovereignly chose, or elected, and he gives 2 illustrations of this: (1) Of Abraham's two sons, Isaac was chosen, while Ishmael was rejected; (2) Of Isaac's twin sons, Jacob was chosen, while Esau, who was the first-born, was rejected.
In the case of Jacob and Esau, the principle of UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION is clearly taught, because God's choice or election of Jacob was made before the twins were born, neither having done any good or evil—God's purpose in the election of Jacob and the rejection of Esau was not based upon the works or the so-called "free will" of either, but solely upon the exercise of HIS sovereign will, according to verse 11, "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION might stand, not of works, but of HIM THAT CALLETH." And just to make sure that no reader will misunderstand his meaning, the Apostle Paul quotes Malachi 1:2 in order to reinforce this principle of God's sovereign, unconditional election in verse 13, "As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
Some have attempted to soften the impact of the phrase, "but Esau I have hated," by saying that God is only using hyperbole here, explaining the word "hated" as meaning "held in relative disregard," or "loved less" in the sense used in Luke 14:26—and by explaining it this way, they imagine they are defending the character of God, whom they believe could never hate anyone. The truth is, there is a holy and righteous hatred in God, and this is expressed in many passages throughout the Word of God, such as Psalm 5:5, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity," and Psalms 7:11, "God is angry with the wicked every day." See also Psalm 139:21-22; Romans 2:8-9. And the context itself dictates that the word "hated" here should be understood in its ordinary sense. Throughout the entire passage, a contrast is being drawn between those whom God has chosen as distinguished from those He has not chosen -- those who are objects of God's mercy distinguished from those whom He hardens, those who are vessels of mercy distinguished from those who are vessels of wrath.
Paul knows that someone will indignantly rise up and accuse God of being unfair and unjust in this matter of UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION, therefore he anticipates an objection and states it in verse 14, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?" In verses 14-16, Paul answers this anticipated accusation against God's character in these words,
"Certainly not! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on WHOMEVER I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on WHOMEVER I will have compassion.' So then it is not of HIM THAT WILLETH, nor of HIM THAT RUNNETH, but OF GOD who shows mercy."
These verses clearly teach, if words have any meaning at all, that the ultimate, underlying choice as to which individuals shall be saved and shown mercy from among Adam's fallen race lies solely in the will of God, and has absolutely no basis whatsoever in the works or the exercise of the will of any person, or the "decision" made by any person.
We know from the Scriptures that all those whose natural enmity and aversion to the true God is overcome so that they are inclined to seek after God, and become willing to come to Christ in repentance and faith, do so only because they are being drawn by the Father, which is the result of having been chosen by the Father and given to the Son before the foundation of the world (John 6:37,44,65; 17:2; Ephesians 1:3-12; 2 Thess. 2:13-14).
To make doubly sure that his readers do not miss his point, Paul reinforces it again in verse 17 by using another illustration from the Old Testament—the case of Pharaoh, "For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, 'For thisvery purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." In the book of Exodus, the LORD is spoken of in 9 instances as hardening Pharaoh's heart, and in 3 instances Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart. From this we gather that God providentially raised Pharaoh up to the throne as king of Egypt (see Daniel 2:20-21, 4:17), and then "hardened" his heart by permitting his wicked nature to be manifested in his dealings with the Israelites; and then God revealed His sovereign majesty and power by subduing that opposition by miraculous intervention. For other examples of God's judicial hardening of the hearts of individuals, see Romans 1:26-32 and 2 Thess. 2:10-12. Paul's conclusion to his entire argument for God's sovereign right and prerogative in unconditionally choosing the objects of His mercy is found in verse 18, "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."
My friend, do you not see that the case of Pharaoh illustrates this great principle of God's sovereign right of unconditional election, His right to show mercy and grace to those whom He chooses, or elects, and His right to permit those whom He wills to continue on in their rebellious course, and perish in their sin? All God has to do to "harden" the heart of any of us is to just withdraw the restraining influence of His Spirit, letting us go on in our wickedness and rebellion, in which we naturally harden our own hearts against Him, the final end of which is everlasting destruction. God's grace and mercy is glorified in those He chooses to save by powerfully subduing their rebellion (Paul himself is a notable example of this, see Acts 9:1-16) and regenerating them, the evidence of which is a God-given repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood-shedding on Calvary's Cross. But God is not to be blamed, or charged with unrighteousness, if He permits others to continue doing what they themselves naturally want to do, which is to despise and reject Him. God not only permits the sin, but actually punishes sin in this life by giving sinners up to "uncleanness," "vile affections," and a "reprobate mind," according to Romans 1:21-32. Further, see 2 Thess. 2:10-12, where it is said of certain individuals who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, For this cause GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe a lie: that THEY ALL MIGHT BE DAMNED, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Please take note that it is said here that it is GOD (not Satan) who is the one who shall send these individuals STRONG DELUSION in order that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This is a clear, Biblical example of God Himself hardening the hearts of sinners as punishment for sin in this life.