In recent visits we’ve been studying in Romans 9 how some have tried to establish a relationship with God and tried to become righteous in ways that are unacceptable to God. Now let’s look at Paul’s description of how some come to believe and through believing enter into relationship with God and receive His righteousness. 

 

Romans 9:11-15 declares that it begins with God’s compassionate purpose. After quoting Malachi 1:2-3, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” Paul asks the question, “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” 

 

God’s purpose in election is to have mercy and compassion for the one He chooses. No one deserves His mercy and compassion. God has the right to condemn all of humankind, because all have sinned and come short of His glory. 

 

Look at verses 16-18. Salvation depends on God’s mercy and power. His objective is to have His name proclaimed in all the earth. “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy.”

 

If you have a problem with this because you think it’s unjust and you’re just a puppet in the hands of God, Paul argues, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use” (verse 21)? 

 

God has a right to do whatever He chooses. He is sovereign. He knows how to “make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory – even us, whom he called” (verses 22-24).