Sovereign Mercy

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 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. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

— Romans 9:14–18

The issue of God’s sovereignty and what that means is certainly a debate for the ages. Some will even avoid the word altogether because of its links to certain theological systems that they want to avoid. Actually, I am understating that a little. It is a theological system that they detest.

As soon as we talk about God’s sovereignty, we hear “That sounds like Calvinism.”

Or, on the other side, the Calvinist would say to the non-Calvinist, “You have a problem with accepting that God is sovereign.”

But the problem is not God’s sovereignty. God is absolutely sovereign. God sovereignly created all things. He did not ask permission of anyone. The problem is with what we mean by sovereign.

Perhaps definitions like this below are part of the problem, particularly the last sentence:

“The sovereignty of God means that as ruler of the Universe, God is free and has the right to do whatever he wants. He is not bound or limited by the dictates of his created beings. Further, he is in complete control over everything that happens here on Earth. God’s will is the final cause of all things.¹“

That is from the top search result when one searches the phrase “sovereignty of God”, at least in the search engine that I used. I would suppose that other engines would not be much different.

That “religious” definition of God’s sovereignty has logical conclusions. At its ultimate conclusion, if God’s will is the final cause of all things, then God’s will is the final cause of sin. In a soteriological context, if God’s will is the final cause of all things, then if one is saved, then it is because God willed for that person to be saved. Conversely, by the same logic, if one is not saved, then it is because God willed for that person to not be saved².

That last sentence should have said, “Further, God as sovereign over the earth, is free and has the right to do whatever He wants in the earth. He is not bound by the will of men.”

That is the Apostle Paul’s point here in saying how God gives His mercy. It is not unrighteous for God to choose how and when to show mercy. God sovereignly chose Israel out of all the families of the earth to be His people on the earth. It was not because their worthiness commended them in some way to God. Now, if God chooses to deal with mankind in a different way, apart from His covenants of promise with Israel, He can sovereignly do that as well.

In this present evil world, God is not dealing with mankind according to covenants. Israel was His nation according to covenants, and by those covenants and according to the law, the nation as a nation is blinded because of unbelief. That unbelief has brought a blindness and a hardening to the nation “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).

God’s dealings with men in the current age is the dispensation of the grace of God. He is not dealing with any of us according to covenants, nor according to our righteousness. To deal with men according to those standards would only be in judgment and condemnation:

Romans 3:9 — “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin…”

Romans 3:19–20 — “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Thanksgiving and praise we owe to God, however, because He is not dealing with mankind according to covenants of promise, nor according to our righteousness. It is only by His mercy that anyone can be saved, and that is His sovereign mercy. He is free to show it because He is indeed sovereign.

Titus 3:3–7 — “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

We will see also as we continue in this three chapter section of Paul’s epistle to the Romans that there are still those of Israel who are saved. These are those properly called “the remnant” (Romans 11:5). They are the remnant according to the election of grace. God has sovereignly elected in His grace to save those of the nation of Israel in the exact same way that He is saving Gentiles. By His sovereign grace. The Israelite is invited to come to God in the same way as a Gentile and receive God’s gracious salvation. Only he must come to God just like a Gentile. Claiming heritage and national covenants will simply not do, for “He hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32).

When the apostle Peter spoke during the council of apostles and elders in Acts 15, he made a notable but often overlooked statement:

Acts 15:11 — “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

The “we” would be the Israelite people, and the “they” would be the Gentiles. It would have meant something much different to hear that the Gentiles would be saved just as the Israelites would, for according to the covenants of promise Israel would be a light to the world. A stranger and foreigner could come into the nation and accept Israel as his people and Israel’s God as his God. That is how a Moabitess like Ruth could be accepted in Israel, and counted among the people of God, even though there was a clear command to not allow a Moabite into the congregation of the LORD (Deuteronomy 23:3).

But today, a Moabite, if one could trace himself as such, would in no way be restricted, for none of us come to the Lord based on covenants or heritage, but by mercy. We do not come to the God of Israel³ as such, but unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not need to come based on national heritage, nor do we need to give up a national heritage⁴. We can come to God through Jesus Christ according to His mercy.

Are you, my dear reader, willing to lay yourself at the mercy of God to come to Him in the way that He has provided? He has not provided many ways for you to choose the one that works for you. God has provided one way for men to come to Him, and one must not wait for some drawing or special revelation to come to God in God’s way. The Lord Jesus Christ said in John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” The very next verse says that He said this signifying what death He should die. This tells us that the cross is the way that God will draw all men. That work is done. You are being drawn to the cross. The real issue is what are you going to do about it? Will you accept the mercy of God through the Lord Jesus Christ on your behalf, or will you continue to resist and fight against God on that broad road to destruction. It does not matter which lane you are in. Are you a wicked sinner, a morally upright sinner, or a religious sinner? Whichever it is, you are a sinner, and you need God’s Savior. Jesus Christ is God’s Savior and He died for you. Will you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead?

End Notes:

1. https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-gods-sovereignty-700697 ↩︎
2. If one is saved, it is because it was God’s will that all men would be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The question is not whether God is willing for men to be saved, it is whether men will continue to argue with God. As in the apostle Paul’s illustration with Pharoah, it is very foolish to argue with God. ↩︎
3. I understand fully that we come to the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Israel. We do not, however, come to Him in that way. We come to Him only through the cross and the blood that was shed by our Lord Jesus Christ for us. We come to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ↩︎
4. I have no doubt that in the not-too-distant future we will be cast out of any national heritage any of us may think we have. The nations are still raging and rebelling against God, and God is mercifully withholding His wrath on them. As Christians, our primary identity should be as Christians. Soon, it will be our only identity. It will do us well to accept that now. ↩︎