Romans 9:10-12 Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad–in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls–she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’”

Isaac and his wife Rebekah had a set of twins, Esau and Jacob. Scientists often find studies of twins useful because they are so much the same. They are useful for Paul here because there is nothing to distinguish Esau and Jacob, humanly speaking. Obviously they have the same parents. They come from the same family. They are born the same day. Even if you look at the lives of Jacob and Esau, you would have to say that neither one comes across as a particularly good man.

Then Paul backs up to a time before they are born. In the womb, neither one had the opportunity to establish a pattern of behavior. There is no performance on which to judge them. You can’t say, “This one is clearly better, kinder, or more godly.” And yet, before they are born, God makes a distinction between them. “The older will serve the younger.” The younger one enjoys God’s special favor. The younger one will serve God’s special purpose. The younger one receives God’s promise and will be God’s child.

This is the way God’s election works, the way he chooses people for himself: “…not by works but by him who calls…” The difference doesn’t lie in the works, the behavior, the performance of one person over another. All human beings look alike to God on that score. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The distinction lies somewhere in God himself. He chooses and calls people just because he decides to do so. And at this point he doesn’t lay all his cards on the table. He doesn’t tip his hand and let us see the cards he is playing. “This is just my business, why I call the ones I do,” he is saying to us. “You have to trust me on this.” But it is not because he saw something different or better in us.

If you find this a little troubling, you are not alone. Even Paul felt the tension: “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Romans 9:14-15). It is a little hard to argue with the Almighty when he chooses to do something. He is the only being in the universe who is absolutely independent, and absolutely free to do as he chooses.

But Paul also wants us to know that it is not an issue of God being less than just. It is an issue of him being more than just. If God were merely just, then everyone would pay for their own sins and no one would get to be one of his children.

But God is more than just. He is also merciful. And his mercy makes all the difference. “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Romans 9:16). In his mercy, God promised to save people. In his mercy he sent his Son and died for the sins of the whole world. In his mercy he has given us his promises, and sends people to preach them to us. In his mercy his promises work the faith that makes us the children of God.

Thank God for the mercy he has shown to you and me!