What does God owe you? Does He owe you mercy? This picture and statement say it all. God owes mercy to nobody! We may not like this truth, but our feelings don’t change this fact. How many of us (professing Christians included) believe God owes us something? If mercy is not getting what we do deserve, then perhaps one of our biggest problems is we are mistaken about what it is we deserve. We deserve death. We deserve eternal separation from God. That’s what our sin has earned us. We don’t deserve good things. Do you reward your kids for being bad? Then why do you expect a reward from God for your badness? Rather than shake our fists at God or express our ungratefulness, we should be running out of ways to say thank you to God for not giving us the wrath we deserve! We ALL deserve His wrath, so the fact He is even willing to show mercy on one soul speaks of His kindness. To God be the glory!
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means!
Rom 9:15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Rom 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Rom 9:18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
Rom 9:20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Rom 9:21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Rom 9:22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory
—Romans 9:14-23