a simple question for calvinists

[DeaconDean]

Men are slaves of sin. This isn't their fault. They inherited it from Adam. Is it, then, Adam's fault, that the human race are slaves of sin? No, Adam did not create himself in such a way that sin would be passed on. God did that. So God bears at least a very large degree of responsibility for the sin that was inherited & the human history of sins & evil acts. That's not to say that God is at fault for doing so, since that would imply that He sinned, which He never does. God intends to use this for good.

I want to address only the highlighted section.

There is precedence in scripture of the "first Adam, and the second Adam".

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." -1 Cor. 15:45 (KJV)

In doing so, I must point out that Arthur W. Pink was 100% correct when he wrote:

"In any treatise that proposes to deal with the human will, its nature and functions, respect should be had to the will in three different men, namely, unfallen Adam, the sinner, and the Lord Jesus Christ. In unfallen Adam the will was free, free in both directions, free toward good and free toward evil. Adam was created in a state of innocency but not in a state of holiness, as is so often assumed and asserted. Adam's will was therefore in a condition of moral equipoise: that is to say, in Adam there was no constraining bias in him toward good or evil, and as such Adam differed radically from all his descendants, as well as from "the Man Christ Jesus." But with the sinner it is far otherwise. The sinner is born with a will that is not in a condition of moral equipoise, because in him there is a heart that is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," and this gives him a bias toward evil. So, too, with the Lord Jesus it was far otherwise: He also differed radically from unfallen Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ could not sin because He was the "Holy One of God." Before He was born into this world it was said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Speaking reverently then we say, that the will of the Son of Man was not in a condition of moral equipoise, that is, capable of turning toward either good or evil. The will of the Lord Jesus was biased toward that which is good because, side by side with His sinless, holy, perfect humanity, was His eternal Deity. Now in contradistinction from the will of the Lord Jesus which was biased toward good, and Adam's will which, before his fall, was in a condition of moral equipoise-capable of turning toward either good or evil"

Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, Chapter VII, God's Sovereignty and Human Will, Section II, The Bondage of the Human Will.

Source

Adam, as created, had the ability to be swayed towards evil, whereas Jesus, being God, knew what evil was and could not for it was completely incompatible with His diety.

To say that God bears at least part of the blame is to lay a charge against God. That is something I would never do.

God Bess

Till all are one.

 

[Rita G.]

Why do you ask?

because it says . .
7:31 says it never came into his heart.
19:5 says it never came into his mind.
32:35 says it never came into his mind.
. . at the end of the verses, which says what it says.

 

[ClementofA]

ClementofA said:
In the garden of Eden it was not God Who tempted Eve, but Satan. God was the one who allowed Satan to be there together with Eve. And it was God who allowed Satan to tempt Eve. So obviously God bears responsibility.

That is neither obvious nor true, Clement. It is, at best, nonsensical.

Did God know what our progenitors were going to do in the Garden? Of course.

If He stopped them from disobeying Him, and if He continued to do so throughout their lives, what would that mean concerning their free will?

Given that wrong "free will" choices could end in Love Omnipotent sending them to unending fiery torments, along with much of the human race that came out of them, God would be responsible for all that & for giving humans "free will" to begin with. Clearly the bottom line of such a monstrosity is the conclusion "God screwed up big time".

Calvinist Matt Slick says "All the cults and false religious systems teach the libertarian view of free will that salvation and spiritual understanding are completely within the grasp of sinners (in spite of their enslavement to and deadness in sin). For them, salvation would be totally up to the ability of the individual to make such a choice."

What is free will? | carm

"If they the response is that it is because of a person's free will, then we go back to the first problem of advocating self-contained, self-sufficient, and self caused free will that is independent of God - and this is idolatrous.

"...Therefore, Libertarian free will posits the unchristian position of a free-will that is autonomous from God and also leads to a denial of the legal, substitutionary work of God as taught in scripture."

"... To assert that man's free will is self-sustained, self-caused and autonomous is to assert that a created thing, free will, is independent of God and this is paganism."

The Error of Libertarian Free Will

 

[ICONO'CLAST]

There is so much in the Bible that flies in the face of Calvinism.
Too many verses like this:

Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 IF ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

...and this...
Hebrews 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
(confidence = faith. This verse tells us that we must hold the beginning of our confidence in Christ, stedfast to the end... otherwise, we will not be made partakers of Christ.)

One more?
Romans 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, IF thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
(This speaks of one who is already grafted in, not one who may potentially be grafted in!)

Your misunderstanding the doctrine does not make it wrong.

You need to learn the true positions held, before you try and oppose truth.

 

[5thKingdom]

There is so much in the Bible that flies in the face of Calvinism.
Too many verses like this:

Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 IF ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

...and this...
Hebrews 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
(confidence = faith. This verse tells us that we must hold the beginning of our confidence in Christ, stedfast to the end... otherwise, we will not be made partakers of Christ.)

One more?
Romans 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, IF thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
(This speaks of one who is already grafted in, not one who may potentially be grafted in!)

I really don't understand your point.
We know that salvation is eternal and cannot be lost.
We also know that one evidence of our election is our sanctification.
If we do NOT continue to the end it is evidence we were never really regenerated.
Where is the contradiction?


.

 

[5thKingdom]

Men are slaves of sin. This isn't their fault. They inherited it from Adam. Is it, then, Adam's fault, that the human race are slaves of sin? No, Adam did not create himself in such a way that sin would be passed on. God did that. So God bears at least a very large degree of responsibility for the sin that was inherited & the human history of sins & evil acts. That's not to say that God is at fault for doing so, since that would imply that He sinned, which He never does. God intends to use this for good.

I thought Romans 9 settled this matter.
Does the Potter have the right?

 

[ClementofA]

I thought Romans 9 settled this matter.
Does the Potter have the right?

Settled what matter? Where does it disprove anything i said?

Romans 9 is discussed here:

http://www.evangelicaluniversalist.com/media/predestination.pdf

 

[5thKingdom]

Settled what matter? Where does it disprove anything i said?

Romans 9 is discussed here:

http://www.evangelicaluniversalist.com/media/predestination.pdf

Why would you send a link to some OTHER man's collection of STRAWMAN arguments?
I am assuming that YOU did not write the STRAWMAN arguments in the link above.

Is it because you cannot make your own STRAWMAN arguments and you are to lazy
to cut-and-paste someone else's delusions?

What part of Romans 9 (or John 6) do you not believe...
Don't be shy... defend your faith like a real man.


.

 

[ClementofA]

Why would you send a link to some OTHER man's collection of STRAWMAN arguments?
I am assuming that YOU did not write the STRAWMAN arguments in the link above.

Is it because you cannot make your own STRAWMAN arguments and you are to lazy
to cut-and-paste someone else's delusions?

What part of Romans 9 (or John 6) do you not believe...
Don't be shy... defend your faith like a real man.


.

You are the one who made the vague claim that Romans 9 settled some (unexplained) matter.

I then asked you a couple questions about that which were not answered.

I also linked to comments re the Romans 9 you introduced.

That sums it up. End of story time. Sleep tight.

"For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (Romans 11:32)

Calvinism Critiqued by a Former Calvinist

 

[DeaconDean]

"For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (Romans 11:32)

Speaking on Ro,. 11:32, John Gill comments:

"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief
Both Jews and Gentiles, particularly God's elect among them: some think the metaphor is taken from the binding up of sheaves in bands; and that Jews and Gentiles are the sheaves, and unbelief the band, in which they are bound together; but the apostle is not speaking of their being together in unbelief, but as separate, first the Gentiles, and now the Jews: rather it seems to be taken from a prison, and Jews and Gentiles are represented as prisoners, and unbelief the prison, in which they are shut up by God: not that God is the author of unbelief, or of any other sin in men; he does not put it into them, or them into that, but finding them in unbelief, concludes them in it, or leaves them in such a state, and does not as yet however deliver out of it, or say to the prisoners, go forth: moreover, to be "concluded in unbelief", is the same as to be "concluded under sin", ( Galatians 3:22 ) ; that is, to be thoroughly convinced of it; and to be held and bound down by such a sense of it in the conscience, as to see no way to escape deserved punishment, or to obtain salvation, but by fleeing to the mercy of God in Christ:

that he might have mercy upon all:
not upon all the individuals of Jews and Gentiles; for all are not concluded in, or convinced of the sin of unbelief, but only such who are eventually believers, as appears from the parallel text, ( Galatians 3:22 ) ; and designs all God's elect among the Jews, called "their fulness", ( Romans 11:12 ) ; and all God's elect among the Gentiles, called "the fulness of the Gentiles", ( Romans 11:25 ) ; for whom he has mercy in store, and will bestow it on them; and in order to bring them to a sense of their need of it, and that he may the more illustriously display the riches of it, he leaves them for a while in a state of unbelief, and then by his Spirit thoroughly convinces them of it, and gives them faith to look to, and believe in, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life."

Source

Why does God have to show mercy to everyone, or even anybody?

That is defeated in:

"will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." -Ex. 33:19 (KJV)

You guys, hehe, thinking that God owes you something like mercy. That's funny.

There is one and only one reason why God shows mercy to us today.

Can you guess why that is?

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[5thKingdom]

"will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." -Ex. 33:19 (KJV)

Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15 For 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. Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee,
and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,
Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?


..

 

[DeaconDean]

Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15 For 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. Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee,
and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,
Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?


..

And?

Come on, your almost there.

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[DeaconDean]

The problem of Libertarian Free Will:

If man has a completely libertarian free will, I can see 16 problems automatically.

1. It is possible that every single person God created could have been lost and that the number of the elect be zero.
2. It is possible that every human being can live a perfectly sinless life.
   
   
3. It is possible that some people do not need forgiveness of sins, for each person is able to perfectly conform to God’s law.
   
   
4. It is possible that Christ’s death on the cross would not save anyone.
   
   
5. It is possible that God is eternally sorrowful over the lost and that they did not choose him.
   
   
6. God becomes temporal and changing, since he must wait on events in time to determine his knowledge. This makes God finite, since he cannot possess his entire being at once.
   
   
7. Prophecy of future free actions become conditional – but Christ’s death, which itself depends on the free actions of humans, then becomes conditional. Therefore it is possible that Christ not die. Yet Scripture says the lamb was slain “from the foundation of the world.”
   
   
8. God’s providence becomes conditional and how God wants to steer events in the world can be frustrated. God cannot guarantee that an event will occur that comes from a particular free willed action. But many events depend on particular free willed actions. Therefore God cannot guarantee that such events occur.
   
   
9. It is impossible for God to have foreknowledge of future free actions, since he must wait on the future to arrive in order to know what will occur.
   
   
10. It is impossible for God to have timeless knowledge of free actions and also use that knowledge to be provident, since if he is timeless he would become a single eternally passive receiver, and any reaction or response on his part to acts in time would destroy his timelessness and make him temporal himself.
    
    
11. God, since he cannot be timeless if he relates to libertarianly free people, becomes just one more changing and temporal being, which cannot explain its own existence. For a temporal being cannot itself produce time and space. Thus a temporal being cannot create ex nihilo and God could not have created the entire space-time manifold itself.
    
    
12. Do choices presuppose motives, or motives choices? If the former, then we do not choose our motives, and libertarian free will is false. If the later, then libertarian free will is irrational, for we would lack a ground for preferring one motive rather than another in the choosing of our motives.
    
    
13. How do we explain the universal testimony of human experience that all people do and will sin? If libertarian free will is true, this becomes an instance of the greatest case of bad luck in history (literally).
    
    
14. If God passively receives something (say knowledge, or a fulfilled desire) from a source outside himself, then he is essentially dependent on something outside himself for his existence. But God as first cause is outside the whole order of created things and does not require something else to exist the way he does. Thus God cannot depend on the creation. Rather the creation depends on him. But then God cannot receive being from libertarian free choices, and so they cannot exist.
    
    
15. If libertarian freedom is necessary for human goodness, then in order to have human goodness Christ as man could have sinned. But if it was possible for Christ to sin then it was possible for the second person of the Trinity to be in disunion with the first person. But this is impossible. Thus Christ as man could not have been libertarianly free.
16. God’s salvific will, even presupposing libertarian freedom, is still qualified or limited, insofar as God only desires to save those who do such and such (believe, trust in him, do good, et al.) Thus, God still only conditionally desires salvation even granting libertarian free will, otherwise he would unconditionally give eternal life and joy to even those who did not meet a particular criteria for salvation.

Source

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[5thKingdom]

And?

Come on, your almost there.

God Bless

Till all are one.

There is no "and"....
I was just providing some SCRIPTURES that supported what you said.
Romans 9:11-24 is one of the better passages in the Bible on the subject
you were discussing.

I was not criticizing anything you said.

.

 

[5thKingdom]

The problem of Libertarian Free Will:

If man has a completely libertarian free will, I can see 16 problems automatically.

1. It is possible that every single person God created could have been lost and that the number of the elect be zero.
2. It is possible that every human being can live a perfectly sinless life.
   
   
3. It is possible that some people do not need forgiveness of sins, for each person is able to perfectly conform to God’s law.
   
   
4. It is possible that Christ’s death on the cross would not save anyone.
   
   
5. It is possible that God is eternally sorrowful over the lost and that they did not choose him.
   
   
6. God becomes temporal and changing, since he must wait on events in time to determine his knowledge. This makes God finite, since he cannot possess his entire being at once.
   
   
7. Prophecy of future free actions become conditional – but Christ’s death, which itself depends on the free actions of humans, then becomes conditional. Therefore it is possible that Christ not die. Yet Scripture says the lamb was slain “from the foundation of the world.”
   
   
8. God’s providence becomes conditional and how God wants to steer events in the world can be frustrated. God cannot guarantee that an event will occur that comes from a particular free willed action. But many events depend on particular free willed actions. Therefore God cannot guarantee that such events occur.
   
   
9. It is impossible for God to have foreknowledge of future free actions, since he must wait on the future to arrive in order to know what will occur.
   
   
10. It is impossible for God to have timeless knowledge of free actions and also use that knowledge to be provident, since if he is timeless he would become a single eternally passive receiver, and any reaction or response on his part to acts in time would destroy his timelessness and make him temporal himself.
    
    
11. God, since he cannot be timeless if he relates to libertarianly free people, becomes just one more changing and temporal being, which cannot explain its own existence. For a temporal being cannot itself produce time and space. Thus a temporal being cannot create ex nihilo and God could not have created the entire space-time manifold itself.
    
    
12. Do choices presuppose motives, or motives choices? If the former, then we do not choose our motives, and libertarian free will is false. If the later, then libertarian free will is irrational, for we would lack a ground for preferring one motive rather than another in the choosing of our motives.
    
    
13. How do we explain the universal testimony of human experience that all people do and will sin? If libertarian free will is true, this becomes an instance of the greatest case of bad luck in history (literally).
    
    
14. If God passively receives something (say knowledge, or a fulfilled desire) from a source outside himself, then he is essentially dependent on something outside himself for his existence. But God as first cause is outside the whole order of created things and does not require something else to exist the way he does. Thus God cannot depend on the creation. Rather the creation depends on him. But then God cannot receive being from libertarian free choices, and so they cannot exist.
    
    
15. If libertarian freedom is necessary for human goodness, then in order to have human goodness Christ as man could have sinned. But if it was possible for Christ to sin then it was possible for the second person of the Trinity to be in disunion with the first person. But this is impossible. Thus Christ as man could not have been libertarianly free.
16. God’s salvific will, even presupposing libertarian freedom, is still qualified or limited, insofar as God only desires to save those who do such and such (believe, trust in him, do good, et al.) Thus, God still only conditionally desires salvation even granting libertarian free will, otherwise he would unconditionally give eternal life and joy to even those who did not meet a particular criteria for salvation.

Source

God Bless

Till all are one.

Does not Romans 3:10-12 establish there there are NONE (no not one) that will seek God
unless they are "drawn" to do so?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because there are other Scriptures that teach that NO MAN can come to Jesus unless
the Father first "draws" them.... and ALL MEN that the Father draws "shall come" to Jesus...
and He will lose NONE of His "sheep".

It seems to me that Romans 3:10 is the most succinct support for what you are teaching.


.

 

[DeaconDean]

There is no "and"....
I was just providing some SCRIPTURES that supported what you said.
Romans 9:11-24 is one of the better passages in the Bible on the subject
you were discussing.

I was not criticizing anything you said.

.

I know, I was hoping you'd go just a tad bit further.

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[DeaconDean]

Does not Romans 3:10-12 establish there there are NONE (no not one) that will seek God
unless they are "drawn" to do so?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because there are other Scriptures that teach that NO MAN can come to Jesus unless
the Father first "draws" them.... and ALL MEN that the Father draws "shall come" to Jesus...
and He will lose NONE of His "sheep".

It seems to me that Romans 3:10 is the most succinct support for what you are teaching.


.

I agree completely.

But there those who hold a view so opposite of that of Calvinism that man can come to God, man can resist God, man's "free will" can completely override God's will.

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[sdowney717]

I agree completely.

But there those who hold a view so opposite of that of Calvinism that man can come to God, man can resist God, man's "free will" can completely override God's will.

God Bless

Till all are one.

God's rich mercy towards us is due to His great love for us, and that is why we have obtained mercy from God and are therefore born of God.
God's mercy and love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
God chose to reveal His Son in us.

Ephesians 2
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

1 Peter 1:3
[ A Heavenly Inheritance ] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 2:10
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

2 Corinthians 1:22
who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in ourhearts as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 4:6
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God's command is eternal life to His people for whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

 

[DeaconDean]

God's rich mercy towards us is due to His great love for us, and that is why we have obtained mercy from God and are therefore born of God.
God's mercy and love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
God chose to reveal His Son in us.

Ephesians 2
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

1 Peter 1:3
[ A Heavenly Inheritance ] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 2:10
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

2 Corinthians 1:22
who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in ourhearts as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 4:6
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God's command is eternal life to His people for whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

God has "mercy" on us because of what His Son has done for us, and because He loves us.

God Bless

Till all are one.