Sovereignty of God
“The hue and cry the Calvinist usually hears at this point [concerning the sovereignty of God] is “That’s not fair!” But what is meant by fairness here? If by fair we mean equal, then of course the protest is accurate. God does not treat all men equally. Nothing could be clearer from the Bible than that. God appeared to Moses in a way that He did not appear to Hammurabi. God gave blessings to Israel that He did not give to Persia. Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in way He did not manifest Himself to Pilate. God simply has not treated every human being in history in exactly the same manner. That much is obvious.
Probably what is meant by “fair” in the protest is “just.” It does not seem just for God to choose some and receive his mercy while others do not receive the benefit of it. To deal with this problem we must do some close but very important thinking. Let us assume that all men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. From that mass of guilt humanity, God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them. What do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody get injustice. Mercy is not justice. But neither is it injustice.
There is justice and there is non-justice. Non-justice includes everything outside of the category of justice. In the category of non-justice we find two sub-concepts, injustice and mercy. Mercy is a good form of non-justice while injustice is a bad form of non-justice. In the plan of Salvation God does nothing bad. He never commits an injustice. Some people get justice, which is what they deserve, while others get mercy. Again, the fact that one gets mercy does not demand that the others get it as well. God reserves the right of executive clemency.
As a human being I might prefer that God gives His mercy to everyone equally, but I may not demand it. If God is not pleased to dispense His saving mercy to all men, then I must submit to His holy and righteous decision. God is never, never, never obligated to be merciful to sinners. That is the point we must stress if we are to grasp the full measure of God’s grace.
The real question is why God is inclined to be merciful to anyone. His mercy is not required, yet He freely gives it to His elect. He gave it to Jacob in a way he did not give it to Esau. He gave it to Peter in a way He did not give it to Judas. We must learn to praise God both in His mercy and in His justice. When He executes His justice He is doing nothing wrong. He is executing His justice according to His Righteousness.” (Chosen by God, R.C. Sproul, Chapt. 2, pp. 37-39)