Within the discussion on predestination and election naturally comes a discussion on God’s justice and mercy. It’s hard to go more than 5 minutes in any discussion on predestination before justice and mercy are mentioned. And for good reason. Central to a proper understanding of predestination is a proper understanding of God’s justice and mercy.

I want to take a minute and make sure we have a clear and proper understanding of how justice and mercy factor into any discussion on predestination and election.

The first thing we must agree on is that there is no injustice in God. At no time, ever, in human history has God ever been unjust. Nor will a time come when God is unjust. And no person has ever been the victim of God’s injustice. I think it’s easy for us all to agree on this point. (Rom. 9:14)

The next point we need to be clear on is whether God owes any person mercy. Does God owe any of us His mercy? Is God in some way obligated to give mercy?

Mercy is something granted at the discretion of the one granting mercy. In other words, we would be hard pressed to demand mercy, or claim that any person is required to grant mercy. From this understanding we can agree that God owes no person mercy. And the Bible makes clear that mercy is given at God’s discretion: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Rom. 9:15)

Now that we agree that there is no injustice in God, and God owes no one mercy, let’s answer two more questions to see how these relate to predestination and election.

Would God be just in condemning all mankind to hell? This should be an easy question to answer. If we understand our depth of sin and depravity, and we agree that our sin deserves hell, then we can easily conclude that God would indeed be just in condemning us all to hell. It would not be unjust on God’s part to assign all mankind to hell. If we are ever tempted to think that we (or someone else) is really a good person, and that God would be wrong to condemn that person to hell, we must be reminded of our sin, and the just penalty for our sin. The wages of sin, what we have earned by being enemies of God and rebelling against Him, is death. (Rom. 6:23) Clearly God would be just in condemning us all to hell.

Just to review: There is no injustice in God (God cannot be unjust); God owes no one mercy; God would be just in condemning all people to hell.

From here it’s a short step to understanding the Biblical doctrine of predestination and election.

Here’s an illustration to help paint the picture. Suppose you walk into a maximum security prison where every inmate in the prison has been rightly convicted of murder, and sentenced to die. You have the opportunity to interview each of the prisoner’s and each of them admits to their crime, confesses to the murder, and acknowledges their guilt. Drawing on your limited sense of right and wrong, you conclude that it is just for each prisoner to die as punishment for their crime of murder.

As you leave the prison the warden walks out with you and says the President has called to inform the prison that five inmates will be pardoned. The remaining 295 prisoner’s will be left to have their just penalty carried out.

The president had no obligation to exercise mercy and pardon any of the prisoner’s. Their crime is clear, their guilt is sure, and their punishment is just. But the president chose, of his own free will, to pardon a few prisoner’s. Now, let’s answer two crucial question to help us understand how this relates to predestination and election.

Is the President obligated to pardon all of the prisoner’s?
Is the President unjust for pardoning some and not all?

Clearly the president is not under any obligation to pardon any of the prisoners. They are guilty, acknowledge their crimes, and are rightly sentenced. For this reason the President has no obligation to pardon any of the prisoners. In the same way, God is under no obligation to have mercy on any human. God has no obligation to save a single sinner from their sin. If God chooses to save some, it is of His own free will, having nothing to do with human actions of any kind.

If the president is under no obligation to pardon any of the prisoners, he cannot be called unjust for pardoning some, but not all. Would you call the president unjust for pardoning some prisoner’s, but not all? Of course not. You recognize that the president has the free will, choice, and power to decide if he will pardon some, or none at all. In the same way, God has the free will, sovereignty, and choice to determine if He will save some sinners. If He chooses to save some, but not all, we cannot call Him unjust and we cannot claim it is unfair since we have already established that none of us deserves mercy and God is not obligated to show mercy.

Where people typically get hung up in this discussion is in the idea of what is fair. They reason that if God is willing to show some mercy, He should be willing to show all mercy. The idea that God would show mercy to some, but not all, offends our Western sense of fairness. But our sense of fairness is tainted by sin and cannot be trusted. We’ve already admitted that God is not under any obligation to show mercy. If this is true, then the fact that God does not, in fact, show every sinner mercy should be no surprise.

More surprising is the fact that God chooses to show any of us mercy. We all deserve God’s justice. We all deserve God’s wrath. That God would freely choose to show mercy to some is an act of His great grace. That God chooses not to save all sinners is an act of His sovereignty. He remains perfectly just.

Here’s the main points:
God is perfectly just at all times.
God owes no one mercy, but chooses to show mercy to some.
God chooses of His own free will to whom He will show mercy.
The fact that God shows mercy to any sinner is an act of His sovereign grace.
The fact that God chooses not to show mercy to every sinner is an act of His sovereign will.
God remains perfectly just.