Not Justice But Mercy

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Opening Prayer

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions” (Psa. 51:1).

Read Romans 9:14-29

^[14] What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ^[15] For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ^[16] It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ^[17] For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ^[18] Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. ^[19] One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” ^[20] But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” ^[21] Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? ^[22] What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-prepared for destruction? ^[23] What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory- ^[24] even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ^[25] As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” ^[26] and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.'” ^[27] Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. ^[28] For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” ^[29] It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matt. 5:7).

Think Further

Surely this emphasis on God’s prior action only makes matters worse. How can he escape responsibility? In citing a key text from Exodus following Israel’s golden-calf rebellion (Exod. 33:19), Paul reminds his hearers that from the outset idolatrous Israel, like genocidal Pharaoh, had become a helpless pot in God’s judicial hands. They merited judgment, but God nevertheless showed them mercy. Similarly, in Israel’s hoped-for second exodus, God would again show mercy to his consistently idolatrous “not-my-people” (Hos. 1:10; 2:23). Although only a remnant, even its existence was a sign of God’s kindness (27-29). From their election to their continued existence and future hope the last thing Israel needed was justice. What God gave them was mercy.

Now, if Israel was defined from beginning to end by mercy, why could God not also mercifully embrace the equally “not-my-people” Gentiles (24)? In fact, that’s precisely what was happening through Paul’s “without distinction” gospel. To return, then, to “not all Israelites are Israel,” Israel is not that nation which boasts of past priority. It is instead those “not-my-people,” both Jew and Gentile, who in this day of God’s ultimate revelation of his glory have obtained his mercy. From this perspective, the issue is not God’s predestination from eternity of some to salvation and others to damnation. Paul’s concern is to show his hearers that Israel’s historical priority is not really the issue. Like the Gentiles, they had become a “not-my-people.” If justice was the issue, they had long forfeited their calling. For Paul, however, the point of God’s electing purpose was to reveal that, although just, he is above all a God of astonishing mercy. Such good news ought to characterize to its core the life of God’s people. Above all else, we ought to be known for our mercy.

Apply

Ask God to show you some specific and personal way in which you can bring his mercy into someone else’s life.

Closing prayer

Merciful Father, Your mercies are so easily lost from my view. Remind me afresh of Your mercies and grant me a merciful heart.

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