October 18, 2023 | Be On Mission
Recipients of God's Mercy
Scripture: Romans 9(NIV)
1 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
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 human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For 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 is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one 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 special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although 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,
“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children 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.”
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:
“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
Devotional
Grace is receiving unmerited favor from God.
Mercy is not receiving deserved punishment from God.
Grace is a gift we don’t deserve. Paul uses that word ten times in Romans 4-6 to help the reader understand God’s goodness in showing favor to those who cannot earn it.
Mercy is forgiveness we shouldn’t receive. Paul used that word numerous times in Romans 9-11 to help the reader comprehend God’s goodness in withholding punishment to those who deserve it.
Here in chapter nine, Paul says that God offers His mercy at His own discretion. Has everyone sinned? Yes. Have they deeply offended God, who calls all to holiness? Of course. Can you climb your way out of it by human effort? Not a chance. Does everyone then deserve to stay stuck in the pit of their own digging? Yep. Call them objects of God’s wrath.
But in His great mercy, Jesus offers His hand to pull people out of the pit. Through faith, they receive the salvation provided only by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They deserve eternal punishment for their offenses to God. Instead they receive eternal forgiveness. Call them objects of God’s mercy.
In Romans 11:30, Paul wrote, “you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience.” Wait. What? They received mercy BECAUSE of disobedience? You got it. That’s why Jesus died on the cross. He became our sin. We became His righteousness. That’s mercy.
Take some time to acknowledge your sin before God. Admit that you deserve eternal separation from a holy God. Thank Jesus for living a perfect life and for becoming the perfect sacrifice for us. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you live in the shadow of God’s undeserved mercy in your life.
Poem
Really, Paul?
“For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh…” Romans 9:3
There’s a verse often missed in this great Romans tome
Expressing Paul’s love for the lost tribes in Rome
It’s as if he is bartering, engaged in tent trade
An exchange he is offering, as if God to persuade
“My life, my salvation, my place up in heaven
In exchange for adoption unto them now be given.”
Dear Paul, you do love them, the sheep of your flock
A prayer overwhelming, it leaves me in shock
To love, O, so deeply, to trade places with other
To give up your crown for the life of another
Yet, laying down life for a friend is love true
I see you’re imitating what Christ’s done for you
Lord, give me this love which extends to the lost
To give of my life without counting the cost
To lose life to gain life, to give to receive
This complete act of grace, in my heart now conceive
