For God confined them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
Truth to Learn
We were once imprisoned by sin, but God has set us free.
Behind the Words
The word translated “confined them all” is the Greek word sugkleiō. This word is made up of sun, meaning “together” and kleiō, which means “to enclose.” The notion is of a group of people who have all been incarcerated or put in prison together.
Meaning Explained
Let’s look carefully at this verse so that we get the true meaning. First of all, this verse does NOT say that God has caused all people to be in a state of unbelief and it does NOT say that God will show mercy to all people. Let’s see why.
God has put people in prison. In this case the prison is unbelief and the “who” is all of mankind. God has not caused this unbelief but, rather, having found all to be in unbelief, He has left them there where they cannot get out by themselves.
One of the best ways to understand what is meant by any passage of Scripture is to find a parallel passage and see exactly what it says. A parallel passage to the current verse is found in Galatians 3:22:
But the Scripture has confined [put in prison] all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ [freedom from the prison of sin] might be given to those who believe.
The word here translated has confined all, is sugkleiō, the same word as in today’s verse. Also, you may recall what Paul said back in the third chapter of this letter?
As it is written: there is none righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one seeking God. They all turned away; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12)
As we take these all together we see that all of mankind, Jews and Gentiles, are sinners and are bound in unbelief because of sin. But why would God do such a thing? The second half of today’s verse tells us why, “that He might have mercy on all.” As we compare this with our parallel passage we see that this mercy is not referring to “all people” but to “all who believe.” If you look at the context of the verse in Galatians (read it with the previous verse), you will see that “all” refers to “Jews and Gentiles.”
Finally, you may ask, “But if all are imprisoned in unbelief, how can they believe so that God’s mercy can be shown?” Only God can release a sinner from the prison of unbelief, and it is strictly by His grace and not from any action on our part. In Ephesians Paul tells us:
that in the ages coming He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:7, 8)
Application
If you are a born-again Christian then God has shown His mercy on you by allowing you to see and believe in the Gospel message. You were bound in prison by sin, but God has set you free. Think about that, and show your gratitude to Him!
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved