This is good news for us; our hopeless situation is only changed when God has merciful compassion on us. Our lifeless condition creates a hopeless future with ample cause for grief. However, we are changed by the mercy of the Lord. God is moved by His mercy to regenerate and sanctify those who call upon Him for salvation. The mercy of God for the believer is His compassionate movement toward them for their welfare. Millard J. Erickson rightly identifies God’s mercy as “his tenderhearted, loving, compassion for His people. It is His tenderness of heart toward the needy.”[2]

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible explains, “Mercy is an essential quality of God. This is the quality (ḥeseḏ, “covenant love”), demonstrated throughout their history, by which God faithfully keeps his promises and maintains his covenant relationship with his chosen people despite their unfaithfulness.”[3] Mercy is one of the attributes of God (Ps 116:5; Joel 2:13) and is extended toward all those created in His image. God’s mercy is more than an action that is directed toward creation, His mercy flows from who He is. God’s mercy is characterized as abundant (Pss 51:1; 69:16); as going before Him (Ps 89:14); and available to those who call upon Him (2Ch 30:9; Ne 9:17). Nehemiah prays in recognition of the mercies of God throughout Israel’s history. It is because of His mercy that those who call upon Him are regenerated and sanctified as God pities our fallen state and rescues us from His justice.

This does not take away from the grace, wisdom, or love of God that is integral to our salvation. There is no division or distinction in the being of our God. Yet, even in His revelation, we see His mercy taking pity on the fragile minds of His creatures as He reveals Himself in ways that are comprehensible to the human mind. He reveals to us His mercy.

The Lord pities our condition and satisfies the deserved punishment of our sin in Christ. The Bible reveals that His justice demands that sinners face His wrath (Ps 9:6-8; Isa 61:8; Jer 23:5). C.H. Dodd wrote, “Wrath is the effect of human sin; mercy is not the effect of human goodness but is inherent in the character of God.”[4] The wrath of God does not diminish His justice, for we will give an account for all our actions and words. But his mercy does extend to us His love, by which He was compelled to send Jesus as “the propitiation for our sins, and not our sins only but for those of the whole world” (1Jn 2:2).

Where do we see God’s mercy in the Old Testament? The mercy of God is declared to Moses and the children of Israel (Dt 4:31; Ne 9:17). God’s mercy is recorded in the songs of Israel (as seen in Pss 86:15; 112:4; Hab 3:2). Jonah even laments the mercy of God in Jonah 4:2. The Lord reveals His mercy to Moses in Exodus 34:6, 7: “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

The Lord can pour out mercy upon us because He possesses mercy (Da 9:9). Here the word translated “mercy” is plural in Hebrew. The Lord possesses mercy and gives it to all His creation (Ps 145:9), and lavishly pours it upon those who come to Him humbly (2Ch 30:9). Mercy is a blessing to all mankind. Psalm 103:4 tells us we are “crowned with mercy.” This is fleshed out in God’s dealing with us in Psalm 103:10, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Even when we do not recognize the need for mercy, God provides it by sparing us from the destruction we deserve.

The Bible declares that all mankind has sinned (Ro 3:23; 1Jn 1:8). The Old Testament records both individuals and nations abandoning God’s instructions. They are conformed to this world in corrupt speech, wicked lifestyles, even pursuing false gods. Mercifully, God does not destroy mankind in the Garden of Eden, nor at the tower of Babel, nor entirely in the wilderness, and He does not destroy them when the people forsake Him, and He keeps His Word to send them from the land.

The compassion that He has on mankind is further declared in Psalm 103:13, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.” He does not merely look upon the weaknesses and fragility of mankind and feel an obligation to His creation. Rather, the Lord looks compassionately upon our tender state and moves toward us for our benefit.

Likewise, in the New Testament, we see the mercy of God declared and praised. The Greek word elios means, “to show kindness or concern for someone in serious need.”[5] Mary offered an inspired declaration of the mercy of God: “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (Lk 1:50-55).

Mary’s praise of the mercy of God could not have been timelier. The Lord was merciful when the nation of Israel was in great need as they suffered under the wicked Roman rule.

Likewise, we too are unable to overcome our sinfulness on our own. His mercy is known to those who fear Him from generation to generation through Jesus. The Lord is moved by His mercy to take pity upon us and bring us to life. The Lord moves toward us and gives us more life than we can imagine.

Jesus reveals divine mercy as He willingly touches lepers, heals the lame, opens the eyes of the blind, delivers the demonically possessed, and raises the dead. He answers the appeal for mercy by the ten lepers (Lk 17). Luke also records Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan who shows mercy to the injured traveler and instructs the lawyer who asked Christ the question to “go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).

First Peter 1:3-12 extols the great mercy of God for the benefit of believers. Peter lays out the mercy of God as the source of a believer’s spiritual life through Jesus’ work on our behalf. Truly, our God works in mysterious ways to rescue His enemies, regenerate them to a living hope, furnish them with unimaginable riches in Christ, and secure their new life by His hand. His great mercy is visible through the trials His sheep face which He brings them through. His great mercy is visible in the future salvation He has reserved for them.

This extension of His great mercy should give believers confidence in our sanctification. The testimony of those who longed for the advent of Christ is recorded for our benefit so that we might extol the abundant mercy of God. We are never in danger of His mercy running out or faltering, for it is richly abundant.

Lewis Sperry Chafer writes of this abundant richness of God’s mercy: “However, the mercy of God has had its supreme manifestation in the giving of His Son for the lost of this world. Sinners who believe are not now said to be saved through the immediate and personal exercise of divine mercy; but rather, since the mercy of God has provided a Savior who is the perfect Substitute for them, both as a sin-bearer, that they might be forgiven all trespasses, and as the righteous ground of a complete justification, God is said to be “just” when He justifies the one who does no more than to “believe in Jesus” (Ro 3:26). Thus, from every angle of approach, God is seen to be ‘rich in mercy.’”[6]

There seems to be no restraint on the pouring out of mercy upon the believer. Divine mercy sees our pitiful state and sends a substitute able to bear the penalty we incur. Compassion moves our God to work for our well-being and He continues to move toward us in compassion.

He has crowned us with mercy, according to Psalm 103:4. We can walk in a way that awaits the coming revelation of Jesus’ mercy (Jude 21). Even now, Jesus is extending mercy in His role as our High Priest (Heb 2:17); He sympathizes with our weaknesses and offers a way of escape from sin.

Jesus was tempted and did not sin. Hebrews 2:17 declares the result of God’s help toward us, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Who else could move toward us for our benefit more than our Creator and the One who has faced our trials without sin?

The book of Hebrews is rich with the impact of Jesus’ priesthood in the life of a believer. Those who call upon the Lord for salvation can have confidence in their sanctification, Christ being the “source of eternal salvation” (5:9), and constantly interceding for us (7:25).

There should be an awakening in the heart of each believer to the mercy of God each morning. Yes, we have tasks and cares and trials, but we have the merciful Triune God working within us. Yes, we are let down by believers, wounded by sinners, and persecuted by the world that hates Him and us; but we have the merciful Triune God with us. What hardship, fear, or ruin can come upon us if we are awakened to the mercy of God every day? Will He not compassionately receive us into His care? Will He not deal with us as He has always dealt with mankind? Are we in danger of awaking to find His mercy depleted? No!

We can show the world the mercy of God. His mercy is visible when we extend fellowship, seek reconciliation when we are wronged, and when we sympathize with those who are lost in the wasteland of sin. Mercy is demonstrated in action, though it is an action that is generated from the extension of God’s character in us. We are His new creations and given an incredible ministry of reconciliation. May our service to Christ bring glory to God because of His mercy (Ro 15:8, 9). May we live in the mercy of God and communicate this mercy to our world.

Though the mercy of God is connected to His grace and love, mercy is distinct. His mercy is abundant and free for those to whom He gives it. He spares us from the judgment we deserve because he is moved by compassion for our well-being!

When we recognize how truly pitiful and needy we are, we should rejoice in the mercy of God. Looking back, we stand in awe of the mercy He gave to us when we were enemies and hostile toward Him; looking forward, we should live in the hope to which we were born again. Let us be found to be those “waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 21).

ENDNOTES

[1] Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 172.

[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1998), 322.

[3] E. P. Myers, “Mercy” in D. N. Freedman, A. C. Myers, and A. B. Beck (eds.), Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans, 2000), 885.

[4] John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

[5] J. P. Louw, and E. A. Nida, “ἐλεάω or ἐλεέω; ἔλεος” in Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd ed.) (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 1:750.

[6] Lewis Sperry Chafer,  Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Kregel Publications,  1993), 1:207.