Dearest,
For the longest time, I suffered anxiety stemming from a fear of God. Not the fear that keeps one in awe of God’s holiness but a fear in anticipation of harm or evil. Whenever I did or said something wrong or sinful, or even failed to read my Bible or pray before leaving the house in the morning, I would suddenly feel trepidation, as though God would strike me dead, or permit some evil thing to happen to me.
Until He opened my eyes to His mercy.
Mercy is the attribute of God which disposes Him to be kind and compassionate towards us in our need, suffering and misery. However, the more popular connotation of the word is in connection to forgiveness, that is, waiving or withholding punishment or judgment that a guilty person is deserving of, not holding one’s sins or wrongdoings against them.
The mercy of God necessarily flows from His love and goodness. Because He loves us and desires our good and well-being, He does not inflict punishment on us but pardons our sins. In Psalm 51, the psalm David wrote after committing adultery with Bathsheba and ordering the murder of Uriah, he prays, “Have mercy on me, according to your unfailing love.” Elsewhere, the Psalmist declares:
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:8-10)
The word for ‘mercy’ in the Old Testament is translated as ‘steadfast love’ in English Standard Version and ‘faithful love’ in New Living Translation, and this gives us an idea of how interrelated both words are.
Although the Old Testament contains more verses proclaiming God’s mercy, it is in the New Testament, in the face of Jesus Christ, that His mercy is fully revealed. God’s mercy was freely and fully bestowed on humanity through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bore the punishment for our sins, in our stead, thus purchasing forgiveness for us. Just like the love of God, Scripture also attributes the salvation, redemption and reconciliation of humanity to the mercy of God. And so see in the NT that:
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:4-5)
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3)
By faith in the finished works of Jesus, we have received forgiveness of sins. We have obtained mercy. This is the blessing and inheritance of the believer in Christ. The Bible says:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7)
in whom [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:14)
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)
Because we are in Christ, mercy and forgiveness of sins is ours, not just at the point of salvation, but always.
The knowledge of God’s mercy should put us in a state of rest and calmness because:
God is rich in mercy: This is one of my favourite verses about God’s merciful nature. When you are rich in something, you give it liberally and without restraint, not reluctantly or grudgingly for fear that your supply will run out. GOD IS RICH IN MERCY! He pours out His mercy liberally on us. Isaiah says “he will abundantly pardon.” So we need not fear that God will withhold His mercy from us.
God delights in showing mercy: Many of us have the former mindset I had: a view of God as a grumpy Being waiting for us to sin so that He can pour out his wrath on us. The truth is He’d rather forgive than punish us. That’s exactly why He sent his Son. The Prophet Micah says God delights in showing mercy (Micah 7:18)
His mercy endures forever: Because He is eternal and unchanging, His mercy will not cease, and He will not decide to stop showing us His mercy. Jeremiah writes thus:
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
The Lord is calling us to rest in His mercy. He doesn’t want us to lose sight of His mercy because of our weaknesses and moral failings. He wants us to rest, not to be heavy laden with the burden of guilt and the fear of punishment, but to put our faith in the death and resurrection of Christ that has secured our forgiveness.
Yes, God’s desire is for us to be holy and righteous. And he has released grace and power over sin. Yet, He provided mercy for the times we err or fall. That’s why 1 John 2:2 is present in the Bible:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
John is saying, God’s will is that you do not sin. However, if you do sin, do not be afraid of punishment, rest in the fact that the finished works of Jesus is still efficacious, rest in the knowledge that your sins have already been atoned for.
Similarly, Paul writes:
“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)
You are justified, not condemned to punishment, because of Jesus’s saving work.
We shouldn’t be afraid to delight in God’s mercy in Christ Jesus, because we think we will regard it as a license to sin or take it for granted. For a believer who is truly in Christ, the knowledge of the mercy of God actually evokes humble gratitude and spurs us to strive to please this loving, good, faithful and merciful God, according to His grace. It is the unsaved and unregenerate that take God’s mercy as motivation to continue in their sins.
Believe that God’s mercy is lavished freely on you. Trust in the fact that He delights in showing you mercy. Depend on the atonement of Jesus that has purchased forgiveness once for all.
As we meditate on these words, please listen to this beautiful song about God’s mercy
Enjoy rest in Jesus!
With love from,
Dunnie.