God, as the only God, who is sovereign above all, is utterly free to show mercy to whom He will - and He has chosen to be merciful to His people who have been elected, called, and reborn in the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Mercy of God made human. He himself was, and is, the mercy of God to us
In ( Exodus 34:6-7) God again highlights to Moses that He is gracious and merciful.
God is not unjust; by no means will He clear the guilty and simply ignore or sweep sin under the rug. Yet, as these verses show, the first and greatest truth for His people to know about Him is He is "a God merciful and gracious."
His grace and mercy shine as the apex of his glory. He is "slow to anger" - He is patient and yet, even in such justice, he is slow to anger. Wrath is his righteous response to evil, but it is not his heart.
Romans 9:22-24 gives us the deepest glimpse into God's heart, and what we find at bottom is mercy. This is perhaps as deep as the Bible goes in explaining to us why God governs his creation as he does. Paul puts it in the form of a question, not because he's unsure of the truth, but for rhetorical effect, because it is awesome and sobering to contemplate.
"22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"
God does, indeed, show his righteous wrath. He is holy. To not demonstrate wrath in a world of sin and rebellion against Him would be untrue to Himself and unloving to His people. God is able to do just as He promised concerning unregenerate humanity. Severity in God always serves his heart of mercy - "to make known the riches of his glory to his people, who are the vessels of his mercy."
Pt. 2
God, as the only God, who is sovereign above all, is utterly free to show mercy to whom He will - and He has chosen to be merciful to His people who have been elected, called, and reborn in the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Mercy of God made human. He himself was, and is, the mercy of God to us
In ( Exodus 34:6-7) God again highlights to Moses that He is gracious and merciful.
God is not unjust; by no means will He clear the guilty and simply ignore or sweep sin under the rug. Yet, as these verses show, the first and greatest truth for His people to know about Him is He is "a God merciful and gracious."
His grace and mercy shine as the apex of his glory. He is "slow to anger" - He is patient and yet, even in such justice, he is slow to anger. Wrath is his righteous response to evil, but it is not his heart.
Romans 9:22-24 gives us the deepest glimpse into God's heart, and what we find at bottom is mercy. This is perhaps as deep as the Bible goes in explaining to us why God governs his creation as he does. Paul puts it in the form of a question, not because he's unsure of the truth, but for rhetorical effect, because it is awesome and sobering to contemplate.
"22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"
God does, indeed, show his righteous wrath. He is holy. To not demonstrate wrath in a world of sin and rebellion against Him would be untrue to Himself and unloving to His people. God is able to do just as He promised concerning unregenerate humanity. Severity in God always serves his heart of mercy - "to make known the riches of his glory to his people, who are the vessels of his mercy."
See Pt. 3
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