Mercy and love contrasted!

The problem with election and predestination has rankled the saints for centuries now. The main contention, and understandably so, is whether God's love is partial to some or not. How could it be, that God who wants all to be saved, and who loves without partiality, elect some for salvation? We have tried to find many ways around it and talk about extreme Calvinism and moderate Calvinism and the like. We try to redefine foreknowledge to mean something else, but we conveniently forget that a word called predestination is connected to it. Does man take the initiative for his salvation or does God? It cannot be both. I strongly feel that many have not gone through the prophetic books to see how God decides to save a remnant in Israel even when they were hostile to God and showed no sign of thawing.
The answer I believe, has to be found outside of the love of God. We have to delve into another nature of God called mercy. The love of God is impartial but mercy by nature itself, is partial. The love of God is left untouched, even as He shows mercy to some. There are numerous verses that stress on this - Rom 9:15, 9:23, 11:30, 1Tim 1:13, Titus 3:5 etc. We do not and cannot cast a shadow on the love of God. It is all encompassing. and forever true. But because He is rich in mercy, many are appointed to eternal life. Romans 11:32 does not contradict what has been said. Mercy has to be exclusive by nature. In its context, Paul expounds that mercy was shown to the Gentiles because of Israel's disobedience. Finally Israel would be shown mercy too. But not for now. Mercy is not free flowing whereas love has to be.

No forced slaves in God's kingdom!

Another amazing aspect of God's nature with respect to His dealings with man is the fact that God can be grieved. The fact that the Holy Spirit is grieved when we behave wrongly, is very striking. It shows us that the Spirit of God must have been speaking to us and we continued to disobey or failed to see our obstinacy. A parent is not grieved when his child disobeys the first time. But persistent failures after constant reminders is the prime reason for grief. The parent must have punished enough and now he is grieving because the child has not changed his ways. The fact that God could also grieve like that, speaks volumes about God.
This also shows something surprising to some of us who have not understood grace in a greater manner. Grace does not mean that all of us will stand before Him unashamedly when He comes. Grace means that we have all been offered help. Grace does not mean that God will take over our lives without our cooperation. Of course He can, but He will not. No one is a forced slave in the kingdom of God. Grace means that God will continue to remind us and offer to help us. But there is always be a final day for all of us. We have to decide to become partakers of the grace of God. (Phi 1:7) There is a line which God will not cross. There are things that grace cannot do. Or else it not be grace. Yes we may finally scrape through. But not in a way that can glorify God. Our failures should not be used to enhance God's glory. That is a twisted way of witnessing to the grace of God.

Plenteous in Mercy!

The more we walk with God, the more we are amazed at His goodness in His dealings with man. One of the things that strike our attention is with regards to His way of disciplining the saints in the New Covenant. Most of the time, He shows abundant mercy and seems to overlook our mistakes and mishaps to an extent that we would never do in our relationships with others. The surprising thing is that even when He disciplines us, it can come at a later stage and not immediately. We see this many times in God's dealings with the people of Israel too. 
But what I find most surprising is that God does not continue his discipline until we are thoroughly repentant. He does not bear down on us all the way down till we admit and change our ways. Many a time, we realize only later on as to why we went through that phase in our life.  It almost seems like He regretted punishing us (or 'discipline' if you don't like the word 'punish') and does not even wait to see if we have learned our lesson or not. He withdraws His rod quickly, and draws us back with love and compassion. He is a God who is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy (KJV). What a great God we have!