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| As God’s Mercy is Free, So His Judgments are Just, and Cannot Be Gainsaid.
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Chapter 99.—As
God’s Mercy is Free, So His Judgments are Just, and Cannot Be
Gainsaid.
Now after commending the mercy of
God, saying, “So it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,” that he might commend
His justice also (for the man who does not obtain mercy finds, not
iniquity, but justice, there being no iniquity with God), he
immediately adds: “For the scripture saith unto
Pharoah, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.”1286
And then he draws a conclusion
that applies to both, that is, both to His mercy and His justice:
“Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He
will He hardeneth.”1287
“He hath mercy” of His great
goodness, “He hardeneth” without any injustice; so that neither
can he that is pardoned glory in any merit of his own, nor he that
is condemned complain of anything but his own demerit. For it is
grace alone that separates the redeemed from the lost, all having
been involved in one common perdition through their common origin.
Now if any one, on hearing this, should say, “Why doth He yet
find fault? for who hath resisted His will?”1288
as if a man ought not to be blamed
for being bad, because God hath mercy on whom He will have mercy,
and whom He will He hardeneth, God forbid that we should be ashamed
to answer as we see the apostle answered: “Nay, but, O man, who
art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor, and another unto dishonor?”1289
Now some foolish people, think
that in this place the apostle had no answer to give; and for want
of a reason to render, rebuked the presumption of his interrogator.
But there is great weight in this saying: “Nay, but, O man, who
art thou?” and in such a matter as this it suggests to a man in a
single word the limits of his capacity, and at the same time does
in reality convey an important reason. For if a man does not
understand these matters, who is he that he should reply against
God? And if he does understand them, he finds no further room for
reply. For then he perceives that the whole human race was
condemned in its rebellious head by a divine judgment so just, that
if not a single member of the race had been redeemed, no one could
justly have questioned the justice of God; and that it was right
that those who are redeemed should be redeemed in such a way as to
show, by the greater number who are unredeemed and left in their
just condemnation, what the whole race deserved, and whither the
deserved judgment of God would lead even the redeemed, did not His
undeserved mercy interpose, so that every mouth might be stopped of
those who wish to glory in their own merits, and that he that
glorieth might glory in the Lord.1290
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