Vessels of mercy

Romans 9:22-24 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. Today we learn why God didn’t pour out His wrath on sin when Adam and Eve first sinned. He could have, and we’re told by the Spirit through Paul that He was willing to do so, but God is love, and love had a plan from before the foundation of the earth. Before Adam and Eve sinned, before the heavens and the earth were formed, God had prepared some vessels from the lump of clay for honorable use. Paul stated plainly what that honorable use was. It was to make His glory known by displaying His mercy to those vessels who were prepared for wrath by the Fall. And who are those vessels of mercy? How does one know if he or she is a vessel of mercy? You are a vessel of mercy if God has called you out from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son as Paul wrote in Col. 1:13. You know you have been called out if you see the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life, leading you to put to death the deeds of the flesh and crying, “Abba, Father.” Everyone that He foreknew, predestined, called, and justified, as he wrote in 8:29-30, are also glorified. God purposed that His children, heirs of glory, would be populated by Jews as well as Gentiles—their inclusion being determined solely by the riches of His mercy, poured out upon them according to His will. All of this display of glory was prepared beforehand with a view to the last day when Jesus “comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thess. 1:10). If you are a vessel of mercy, then you have been called to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. God is love, and we know that because Jesus revealed His love. We who have been called are called by the deposit of the life of Jesus in our mortal bodies. Through His life, we love, and that’s how the world knows that we are His disciples and that He was sent into this world to be savior and Lord. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com