Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
Christians are named by the Apostle Paul as vessels of mercy to underscore their great privilege to reflect the glory of God. By our faith in God through Christ, we experienced God’s power to overcome sin to reflect the beauty of holiness in our lives. Indeed, it is a blessed life that God’s wants His people to cherish! Amen.
The power to create is the prerogative of God. He created the universe. In 6 literal days out of nothing, God completed His creation of the universe. In the first three days, God forms His creation, transforming it from a state “without form” (Gen. 1:2) to where it can support animal life on Earth. He created light and darkness, day and night (day 1), sea (waters below) and the sky (waters above – clouds) (day 2), land and vegetation (day 3). Then God created in the last three days sun, moon and stars (day 4), birds and sea creatures (day 5) and land animals and finally man (day 6)!
The Apostle Paul is seeking to quell the spirit of unrest, that discontented spirit to question the justice of God. Out of the imperfections of sin and unbelief came the fulfilling of God’s promises to bring forth the Saviour Jesus Christ from the loins of Israel. Although the Jews have largely rejected their Messiah, God’s promise of salvation through the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) is fulfilled in the fullness of time. God allows within the Jewish people those who would reject their Christ, perishing in sin and unbelief.
The man Pharaoh who resisted God’s command to release His people from slavery did so because God has willed it. It is God who sovereignly chooses Pharaoh to be His instrument of wrath against His people and also the recipient of His wrath. It is God who causes the heart of Pharaoh to be made stubborn that he might disobey His command to release His people. And yet we know that it was Pharaoh who freely chooses to harden his heart to resist the will of God. We marvel at the truth of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility at work simultaneously.
Apostle Paul cited Exodus 9:16, how Pharaoh was raised by God as Egypt’s supreme ruler to declare His glory during the time of Israel’s Exodus. Pharaoh was subdued by the Almighty power of God, demonstrating that the LORD (Jehovah); He is God, the Creator of all things. God shows all the earth that He is greater than great Pharaoh, the self-proclaimed representative of Ra, the sun god.
God is merciful. It is His character. He saves sinners. There is a way out from the condemnation of sin because God is merciful. He reached out to us through His Son. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul testifies in Romans 10:9-11 (KJV) 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
If God has not extended His mercy upon sinners like us, we would have perished in our sins. He extended His mercy to us by sending His Son to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Can God be charged being uncompassionate? Certainly not. But there are those in Israel who chose to spurn the grace of God through Christ by rejecting the gospel. Are they culpable? Yes, for rejecting God’s love.
Is God unrighteous to choose Jacob over Esau and Isaac over Ishmael? The Apostle Paul is teaching us that He is not unjust to choose one over the other. God knows the beginning and the end. God’s people are to rest on the mystery of God’s wisdom which we may never understand. But we know that He knows what He is doing. And we submit ourselves to His sovereign will for He is God and we are not. We are to exercise faith in His infinite wisdom and goodness.
We have here the fact of election: “He chose us.” Here we have its time: “Before the foundation of the world; its basis: “according to the good pleasure of His will”; and its vehicle: “in Christ”. Here also is its purpose: “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” And here is the proper response to it: “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” We may quibble all we want about why the Lord would operate in this way, but whether we like it or not, this is His way, as He made abundantly clear in His revelation to Rebekah.”
In Genesis 17:19 (KJV), God said to Abraham, 19 … Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” God will cause Sarah’s barren womb to be opened in her old age to bring forth this son of the covenant. Even the name of this child was given by God. This is the son Isaac through whom will fulfil God’s covenant with Abraham. At that time, Abraham had another son Ishmael who came from the womb of Sarah’s handmaid Hagar. Ishmael was not the son of promise. He came because Abraham and Sarah did not trust God and with impatience sought to “help God” fulfil His promise. God clarified with Abraham that Ishmael is not the son of promise that will bring forth the Messiah but Isaac.