God is Sovereign in the exercise of His mercy. Necessarily so, for mercy is directed by the will of Him that showeth mercy. Mercy is not a right to
which man is entitled. Mercy is that adorable attribute of God by which
He pities and relieves the wretched. But under the righteous government
of God no one is wretched who does not deserve to be so. The objects of mercy, then, are those who are miserable, and all misery is the result of sin, hence the miserable are deserving of punishment not mercy. To speak of deserving mercy is a contradiction of terms.
The Sovereign exercise of God's mercy -pity shown to the wretched- was
displayed when Jehovah became flesh and tabernacled among men. Take one
illustration. During one of the Feasts of the Jews, the Lord Jesus went
up to Jerusalem. He came to the Pool of Bethesda where lay "a great multitude of
impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the
water." Among this "great multitude" there was "a certain man which had
an infirmity thirty and eight years." What happened? "When Jesus saw him He, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt
thou be made whole? The impotent man answer Him, Sir, I have no man,
when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but when I am
coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and
took up his bed, and walked" (John 5:3-9). Why was this one man singled
out from all the others? We are not told that he cried "Lord, have mercy
on me." There is not a word in the narrative which intimates that this
man possessed any qualifications which entitled him to receive special
favor. Here then was a case of the Sovereign exercise of Divine mercy,
for it was just as easy for Christ to heal the whole of that "great
multitude" as this one "certain man." But He did not. He put forth His
power and relieved the wretchedness of this one particular sufferer, and
for some reason known only to Himself, He declined to do the same for
the others. Again, we say, what an illustration and exemplification of
Romans 9:15! - "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
- A. W. Pink (The Sovereignty of God, Chapter 3: The Sovereignty of God Defined)
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