In this message we shall cover five more symbols of the believers used in the New Testament: vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, branches of the cultivated olive tree, a spectacle, the offscouring of the world and the scum of all things, and the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The believers in Christ are vessels of mercy unto honor and glory. Romans 9:21 says, “Has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?” Verse 23 goes on to speak of God’s making known “the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” As vessels, we are not instruments or weapons-we are containers. According to Romans 9, we contain mercy, honor, and glory. This mercy, honor, and glory are actually the Triune God. In the initial stage of our experience the Triune God is our mercy, in the progressing stage He is our honor, and in the completing stage He is our glory. At present we are enjoying our God as mercy and somewhat as honor. When the Lord Jesus comes back, we shall be fully brought into honor and also into glory. Then we shall be filled with the Triune God not only as our mercy but also as our honor and glory.
Mercy is the most far reaching of God’s attributes. Mercy goes further than grace, for mercy reaches into a situation that is pitiful and unworthy of grace. According to our natural condition, we were far removed from God, totally unworthy of His grace and eligible to receive only His mercy. How wonderful that God’s mercy does not depend on our being in a good condition! Rather, God’s mercy is shown in man’s pitiful condition. It is God’s mercy that has reached us. We were so poor and pitiful that there was the need for God’s mercy to extend to our fallen condition. We need to see the preciousness of God’s mercy and praise Him for it and testify concerning it. Once we were sinners far from God; now we are one with the all-inclusive Christ. What a mercy! We are vessels containing the Triune God as mercy. In the words of a hymn written by Charles Wesley,
’Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O my God, it found out me.
(Hymns, 296)
When Paul wrote chapter nine of Romans, his thought was fully occupied with God’s mercy. He says, “It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God, the One who shows mercy” (v. 16). It is altogether a matter of God’s mercy that we are believers and that we are in the church life. Because all is of God’s mercy, we have nothing to boast of in ourselves. Our going on with the Lord is a matter not of our willing or running but of God’s mercy. Our willing is of no avail, and our running is vain. God’s mercy, however, works in a wonderful way. We are changeable, constantly fluctuating. Therefore, we should not trust in ourselves but in God’s mercy. We praise the Lord that we are vessels of mercy unto honor and glory. We now contain Him as mercy, and we shall contain Him as honor and glory.
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