God reserves the right to dispense His grace and mercy as He sees fit. When certain angels rebelled, God provided no redemption for their treason, and heaven did not even blink for a second – but the adoration of God continued unabated. The elect angels around the throne continued in one accord saying, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!”

God is always just when He dispenses justice. It is never wrong for a Judge to be just. This is true even in human courts. We could never have a judge removed from the court because we found him to be just.

Imagine the courtroom scene as the Judge declared a man guilty for a crime he had commited and sentenced him in accordance with the law. As we see this taking place in front of us, we shout out, “Excuse us Judge, but you cannot condemn that man or pass sentence on him because that is just!” How foolish that would be. We would be laughed out of court.

In the biblical scenario seen in Scripture, God has devised a way for Him to show forth His attributes of justice and of mercy. Both aspects of His character will be glorified, and this is a big deal to God. The showing forth of the splendor of His attributes matters greatly to God. It is perfectly right for the perfection of His being to be seen, hallowed and extolled. Verse 18 through to the end of the Romans 9 chapter articulates this in detail.

In the case of man, all of us have committed cosmic treason against a thrice holy God, and yet, in unspeakable mercy, He has chosen to redeem certain hostile rebels, saving them from His fierce, just and holy wrath.
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Largely forgotten today, David Garrick said of him, “I would give a hundred guineas, if I could say ‘Oh’ like Mr. Whitefield.” In his lifetime, Whitefield preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million hearers. Here are three of his quotes concering Divine election:

“Whatever men’s reasoning may suggest, if the children of God fairly examine their own experiences – if they do God justice, they must acknowledge that they did not choose God, but that God chose them. And if He chose them at all, it must be from eternity, and that too without anything foreseen in them. Unless they acknowledge this, man’s salvation must be in part owing to the free-will of man; and if so, . . . Christ Jesus might have died, and never seen the travail of His soul in the salvation of one of His creatures. But I would be tender on this point, and leave persons to be taught it of God. I am of the martyr Bradford’s mind. Let a man go to the grammar school of faith and repentance, before he goes to the university of election and predestination.” From George Whitefield’s Journals (London: Banner of Truth, 1960), p. 491. Quoted in George Whitefield, Vol. 1 by Arnold Dallimore, p. 570.

“I hope we shall catch fire from each other, and that there will be a holy emulation amongst us, who shall most debase man and exalt the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the doctines of the Reformation can do this. All others leave freewill in man and make him, in part at least, a Saviour to himself. My soul, come not thou near the secret of those who teach such things… I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to do of His good pleasure.” (George Whitefield, Works, pp. 89-90).

“Oh, the excellency of the doctrine of election and of the saint’s final perseverance! I am persuaded, till a man comes to believe and feel these important truths, he cannot come to himself, but when convinced of these, and assured of their application to his own heart, he then walks by faith indeed!… Love, not fear, constrains him to obedience.” (George Whitefield, Works, p. 101).