I Rest in Christ, Part 9: Grace and Mercy
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Romans 3:20-24 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 6:13-14 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
2Timothy 1:9-10 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Grace is one of those words difficult to understand mostly because it refers to the divine condition, not to the human one. There are many, many verses which refer to grace, some mentioning the word, some not. Far too many verses to quote in this post. Merriam-Webster defines grace as ‘unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.’ The secondary meaning is approval or favor. But just what does ‘unmerited divine assistance’ mean? And what about regeneration and sanctification? We’ll have to defer that discussion to another post. And let’s be clear here: We are not talking about karma. We are talking about help given by the Maker of the universe. He who made everything we can see and all that we can’t see is giving us the help we need in our current sinful condition to rise to holiness and righteousness. Rather a spectacular gift, don’t you think?
But grace is not just an idea; it has a purpose: It is intended to help human beings to rise to holiness and righteousness. In the leadup to the story of the Flood, in Genesis 6 there are two verses which illustrate the point. In Genesis 6:8 we read ‘But Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of God’, and in verse 9 we read ‘Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.’ Notice righteous and blameless come after grace. And notice also that grace does not come from ‘walking faithfully with God’, it’s the opposite; grace gives one the ability to walk faithfully. It is grace which allows humans to grow in righteousness. Noah’s righteousness was the product of his having found grace and is therefore the proof of that grace, God understands our human condition; He knows that we are incapable of things like holiness on our own. He understands that our sin nature (see next series on The Nature of Sin) inhibits our ability to draw close to Him. But please understand, that has been our condition since the Garden, and God knew it would be that way. So in His holiness he uses his own character of gracefulness to provide us with the ability to grow closer to Him.
But what about those times when we fail? When we sin, have we lost our access to God forever? Not at all, because grace is a coin which has two sides; the other side of that coin is called Mercy. When we fail God does not say, “OK, I’ve done all I can, you’re done!” No, God just flips the coin and begins to shower mercy on His child. Those of us who have kids know they mess up once in a while. We don’t just throw them away; we love them from the depth of our soul. So we help them get up, dust them off, mete out a consequence or two, and continue to love them. It is the same with God. He doesn’t absolve us of the consequence of our failure but He helps us up and continues to love us.
Mercy is compassion or leniency shown to someone under one’s authority. Also defined by Merriam-Webster as a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion. It certainly describes the relationship humans have with God. But mercy is more than forgiveness or compassion: It is faithful love. Jesus’ trip to the cross was the ultimate act of mercy because he was providing solution to our sin nature.
Our need for mercy usually comes as the result of two things: We have either simply made a mistake, or Satan has incited us into sin. Both things happen to every human being, and both things have the same solution. What is required from anyone who wants to be right before God is surrender. For while the devil would incite us to wrong, God would ask that we surrender to his will, to his way, that we would allow ourselves to be washed clean by the sacrifice that Jesus made so that we could be in that right relationship with God. Accepting Jesus as Savior is the ultimate acceptance of God’s mercy. We’ve said before in these posts that hell is the deserved consequence of our sin, but God offers us eternity with Him. What an act of mercy is that?
Mercy is even more wonderful than these things. When we give mercy to those who come to us, often it is tied to performance; we show mercy if the recipient does certain things or acts in certain ways. We expect a quid pro quo. Not so with God. What’s even greater about the mercy of God is he knows that for some his mercy, his pity, his compassion won’t change people at all, but he does it anyway. The parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18 illustrates the point. The servant was forgiven a debt equivalent to about $2 million in today’s wages but refused to forgive the debt of about $200 owed to himself. God forgives so much, showers so much mercy on us!