Spurgeon: November PM
* 11/25/PM
"For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion."
--Romans 9:15
In these words the Lord in the plainest manner claims the
right to give or to withhold His mercy according to His own
sovereign will. As the prerogative of life and death is vested
in the monarch, so the Judge of all the earth has a right to
spare or condemn the guilty, as may seem best in His sight. Men
by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God; they deserve to
perish for their sins--and if they all do so, they have no
ground for complaint. If the Lord steps in to save any, He may
do so if the ends of justice are not thwarted; but if He judges
it best to leave the condemned to suffer the righteous sentence,
none may arraign Him at their bar. Foolish and impudent are all
those discourses about the rights of men to be all placed on the
same footing; ignorant, if not worse, are those contentions
against discriminating grace, which are but the rebellions of
proud human nature against the crown and sceptre of Jehovah.
When we are brought to see our own utter ruin and ill desert,
and the justice of the divine verdict against sin, we no longer
cavil at the truth that the Lord is not bound to save us; we do
not murmur if He chooses to save others, as though He were doing
us an injury, but feel that if He deigns to look upon us, it
will be His own free act of undeserved goodness, for which we
shall for ever bless His name.
How shall those who are the subjects of divine election
sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for
boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The
Lord's will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human
merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more
humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more
promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more
sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly
rejoice in it.