If we turn to Exod. 32 we see what mercy is. Israel had made and danced before a calf, their substitute for the living God. But He says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Compare Rom. 9:15-1615For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. (Romans 9:15‑16) with Exod. 33:1919And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19).) I will! His sovereignty is absolute. Who can say unto Him, "What doest Thou?" They had ignored Him, the living God; they had degraded themselves in worshipping a calf made of the trinkets of the women. Would Israel so succeed in frustrating the grace of God's mercy? No. "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." No ground of action save His own mercy is one adequate for God to display Himself fully by, in dealing with men. "I will."
It is a great thing to recognize the individuality of God as One that acts, none being His counselor. Whom did He consult when He created heaven and earth? When He gave the promise, the woman's seed shall crush the head of Satan? Who was His counselor as to the rainbow? or to Israel coming out of Egypt? As to His Son coming into the world? as to His death? His resurrection, the Father's house, the new heavens and the new earth? But if He does as He likes, He has a character of His own that regulates His actions (Exod. 33:1919And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19)). The first half of the verse says He will make His glory to pass before Moses; the latter part, "and will be gracious," etc., tells of the flowing stream of mercy. But when He comes in chapter 34 to the revelation of His name—that display which is the true revelation of Him—mercy and graciousness are His traits, and characterize all that flows forth from Him. And is not mercy necessarily of God, and of God alone? Who but He could look on me and say, "Thou art the very opposite of Him that I like and delight in, and yet thou shalt have the same portion as He has?" 'Tweer confounding heaven and hell, 'tweer mixing night and morning, for any other than the exhaustless God of all resources to propose such a thing. But He knew His resources to be in the Son of His love, and that by His work He could be just while justifying the sinner. Yes; and more too, He could use the ruin and rebellion of the creature as the occasion in which to show forth the virtues and the glories of the Son of His love, and make Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Beloved, all this is plain; but oh, for the individual testing of ourselves, how far in our ruin, and amid ruin all around, we look straight up to God Himself in heaven, and own that all our springs are in His mercy by Christ Jesus. Such a course makes us draw near to Him, while it makes us abhor ourselves in dust before Him.