9:14,15
Paul has just made the point that God chose Jacob over Esau before they had done anything good or bad (9:11). This raises the question “is God unjust?” The answer, of course, is no. Paul explains this by quoting from God’s words to Moses in Ex 33:19: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion”. Now, at first glance this doesn’t seem to be much of an answer nor an explanation. But this response is symptomatic of our rebellion against God. First of all, if God was to treat us all “justly”, then every single one of us is destined for hell. All of us are guilty, so to demand “justice” is actually a very foolish thing to do! Then look at the words in Ex 33:19, mercy and compassion are the key words. If things are to be determined on our own merits we are done for. But things are determined by God’s mercy and compassion. Now someone then objects why does God not show mercy to all? No one has the right to demand mercy, to be declared innocent when we are clearly guilty.
9:16
“So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy”. Appreciating this is central to having a proper understanding. Human rebellion says it all depends upon us, that we can manage without God, including that we can prove our righteousness without God. This is manifestly untrue. Salvation depends upon God’s mercy. Not our will or efforts. This is fundamental to our whole understanding of life, it is also fundamental to a proper understanding of evangelism. So much evangelism is built on the premise that human will and effort is the key, when it is God’s mercy that is the key. Now none of this means that we do not work, a proper look at the whole of Scripture makes it very clear that this is not so. Nor does it mean that what we do with our lives does not matter, again a look at Scripture should quickly dispel any such notion. But it is essential that we have a proper understanding of how things work.
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