10-18-2016, 04:19 PM
(10-18-2016, 09:55 AM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: It's not about showing God. It's about proving to ourselves how much we actually want to know God and show whether we actually love him enough to go through the trials, suffering and confusion. To be clear, the bible is not hard to understand because God made it that way. The bible is hard to understand because of the differences in culture and literature and because of the fact that our "fallen nature" clouds our judgement as to what God "really" means.
That is not what that verse means. The verse is saying that God's decision to have mercy on us is not dependent on someone else. If we follow God's will, God will have mercy on us, but he does not have mercy on us because there's some magical spell that makes him have mercy on us or because there's some higher power that makes him do it. It is ultimately His decision and no one can make him have mercy on us.
To simply put it..... All this verse is saying is that God is omnipotent and no one can make him do anything and he doesn't have to consult any governmental power to "have mercy". His choice to have mercy or not is all his own. It doesn't mean God is whimsically picking who to have or not have mercy on.
Ah, but that is what that verse means. Even you wrote, "His choice to have mercy or not is all his own." Exactly. That's my point. You're still under the impression you can influence His mercy after you just admitted the choice is "all his own."
You're a sinner. We all are. We are all destined for hell without His mercy. He will have mercy on whom He wants. You are a sinner the same as a murderer. If God chooses to give the murderer mercy instead of you, that is His choice. Who are you to question His choice? Because God is God, if He were to show mercy to a murderer instead of a sinner like you; that's just, because God can't be unjust.
It's one of those inconvenient truths Christians don't like to admit because it is another major contradiction.
Read this . . . https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-59-god-unfair-romans-914-18
