Does Grace Have To Be For Everyone?

A pastor once told me: “For grace to be grace, it has to be for everyone.” In other words, he was asserting that by definition, it is necessary for grace to be universal and indiscriminate; God has to exercise grace towards everyone without exception, for otherwise, it would not be “grace” in the biblical sense of the word. However, that is not at all the case.

Exodus 34:5 And YHWH descended in a cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of YHWH.

In Exodus 34, YHWH “proclaimed the name of YHWH” (v. 5) to Moses. In biblical thought, a person’s name is not just a bunch of letters, but the representation of that person; who he is, what he does, and what he stands for. So, when YHWH “proclaimed the name of YHWH,” he was making a statement about himself. So what kind of God is YHWH? YHWH himself explains:

Exodus 34:6 And YHWH passed by his face, and proclaimed: YHWH, YHWH, God merciful and gracious, long to anger, and great in lovingkindness and truth,

The terms “merciful,” “gracious,” and “lovingkindness” are commonly related to the grace of God. YHWH is a God of grace; no argument there. However, does that mean that God is gracious to everyone? Let us look at the very next verse, where the God of grace states how he exercises that grace:

Exodus 34:7 keeping lovingkindness for thousands, removing iniquity, transgression, and sin. But he will surely not acquit, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children and upon the children of children, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.

As the God of grace, YHWH “keeps lovingkindness for thousands, removing iniquity, transgression, and sin,” as expected. However notice that in the same breath, YHWH says that he also “will surely not acquit, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children and upon the children of children, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.” So even though YHWH is a God of grace, there are at least some people whom he will not exercise that grace towards.

Earlier on in Exodus 33:19, YHWH said: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful.” The Apostle Paul interpreted the expression “I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful” to mean that God has the freedom to choose whom he wants to be merciful to:

Romans 9:15, 18 For he says to Moses: I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful... Therefore, to whom he wants, he is merciful, and whom he wants, he hardens.

Some may argue that God wants to be gracious to everyone without exception. However, that cannot be the case, since according to Paul himself, there are some whom God “hardens.” Whatever “harden” means, these people are definitely not the ones whom God is exercising grace toward.

For grace to be grace, it has to be freely given. In fact, that is what the Greek word commonly translated “grace” in the New Testament, charis, actually means. The giver of grace must not be obligated, compelled, or restricted in any way in his giving of that grace, for otherwise, it would not be “grace” by definition. To say that the grace of God “must be for everyone” is to insist that God is obligated to exercise grace toward everybody—and that is to impose upon God the very restriction that is so contrary to what grace means according to the Bible.