My wife and I were discussing God's fairness in election. We agreed that he was sovereign and as the ultimate Sovereign, God chooses whom he will save, not based on any merit we may or may not have. This is to show that he alone makes these choices because he can. On the surface, it just seemed to smack of unfairness. Why are some chosen and others not! How can that be fair to us? How can he be loving and do such a thing?
Then, the Holy Spirit struck me with Romans 9:20—"But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Indeed! Who am I? Who are we? As it says in Isaiah 40:12,
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?"
Who indeed, but God. God is so big, there is none like him. All creation belongs to him. He made the world to glorify him. We are literally like dust to him. Who are we, that he should pay any attention to us? How can we, who are insignificant, face God and tell him what he can and cannot do? How dare we? We are the created being. He does what he wants with us.
Romans 9:21-23—"Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory..."
God is the potter. He works the clay. He takes a portion and makes a beautiful vase to hold flowers. With another portion of clay, he creates a container to hold rotting food scraps. Can either vessel complain? No! The potter owns the clay and he makes what he will with it.
God has chosen to make some as vessels to contain his mercy. These are the ones he will save. For them, they experience undeserved mercy. Nothing they did or said qualifies them to be saved. God decided to do it. God also chose to make vessels to hold his wrath. These will experience his righteous judgment. We must remember that all people have a sin nature and are rebels and enemies of God. We deserve nothing but his wrath and judgment. But in his great mercy, and to exercise his sovereignty, he chooses to extend his mercy to some.
We have no ground on which to stand to argue against the Sovereign of the universe. He does what is right and no one can stay his hand. We fall down on our face to worship him because he deserves to be worshiped. And we worship him all the more when his mercy extends to us. Our response to his mercy is to glorify him.
Indeed, who am I, mere man, to think I can call God anything but holy, righteous and sovereign over everything, visible and invisible. I deserve wrath for being a sinful creature. I am nothing to him and yet, he chooses to extend his mercy and take my sin on himself, to take on the full extent of his wrath on himself and die in my place so that I might not die. And then he puts in me his righteousness, thus enabling me to be his friend. That truly is love.
