In a previous post I noted how the riches, the free and lavish expression of God’s mercy was found throughout the Old Testament, pointing to the ultimate expression of the glory of His mercy as it is revealed in and through the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 15:8-9). Jesus Himself tells us that God (the Father) did not send Him to condemn the world, but that the world through Him could be saved, as in mercy He would give His life to pay the unpayable debt of God’s judgement on sin, for all who would hope and trust in His mercy (John 3:16-18) (Mark 10:45). We are told in Hebrews 2:17 that He came as a man ‘that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people’, sins that would incur the wrath of God throughout eternity.
In Luke 1:77-79, it is revealed that John the Baptist’s ministry would be that of announcing the presence of the One who will manifest the tender mercies of God in forgiving and saving men and women from their sins. And while this was Jesus’ ultimate mission, His three plus years of public ministry would display the wealth of God’s mercy and His delight in displaying it in the midst of this present evil world (Galatians 1:4). During his public ministry, every need, every pain, every affliction that He encountered that was a result of sin and the curse of sin on this world received mercy.
The lavishness and freedom of God’s loving kindness and tender mercies is displayed by Jesus almost immediately upon Him entering into His public ministry, when He saves a family from what, in that culture at that time, would bring great public shame and embarrassment, namely running out of wine during a wedding feast (John 2:1-11).
In Luke 17:12-16, ten men suffering the severe effects of the disease of leprosy and thus excluded by law from society, cry out to Jesus for mercy and are immediately and completely healed by Him.
In Mark 10:46-52, we have a blind man who has to beg for a living because of his blindness, recognizing in his heart that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of David. He runs to Jesus for mercy, for healing of his blindness, and Jesus immediately restores his sight.
Mark Chapter 5 is filled with our Lord’s acts of mercy as He frees a man from a life of bondage to Satan and his demons, heals a woman from a chronic medical affliction that made her a social outcast, and then raises a grief-stricken religious leader’s young daughter from the dead. He would display His great compassion in raising a grieving widow’s only son (Luke 7:11-15), and His close friend Lazarus, in the midst of his family’s grief (John 11:20-27).
We see the kindness, the tender mercies of Jesus in His interactions with a woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11, and the socially reviled Samaritan women in John 4:5-26 who was searching for love in all the wrong places.
In Mark 6:34, we read “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.” These many things would have most certainly included revealing to them their desperate need for God’s mercy and Himself as the one who came to grant that mercy.
In Luke 19:1-9, Jesus mercifully grants repentance, forgiveness and a new heart to a despised tax collector, a Jew employed by Rome to extort money from his own people. As he is set free from his slavery to greed and covetousness, he volunteers to repay all He has extorted plus interest and give half of what he has remaining to the poor, not as penance or atonement, but in gratitude for receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah 55:7.
The loving kindness and tender mercies that you and I receive from God each day are so numerous that we foolishly take them for granted as if we deserved them and thus become indignant and angry when they are withheld. Every act of mercy is by divine prerogative (Romans 9:15), a sovereign act of kindness by a holy God extended to a rebellious, sinful race of beings who deserve only death and Hell, who in ourselves have no means of atoning for our Hell deserving sin or gaining God’s favor and acceptance (Ephesians 2:1-2). Every meal – every valued possession – every job – every paycheck – every moment of health and safety – everything that brings us legitimate pleasure and delight ––– every sweet kiss between a man and woman – every child born – every sinful word or action for which God does not immediately kill us and send us to Hell – everything that enriches and sustains our life in this world is a product of divine mercy, graciously given to point us to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – the Father of all mercies (2 Corinthians 1:3), such that we would respond with a humble, grateful and repentant heart (Romans 2:4).
The redeeming mercy of God is most clearly revealed in Luke 23:33-43, where we have Jesus placarded on a Roman cross, crucified between two career criminals. In the midst of His excruciating pain and mind-numbing torment He will pray for those responsible for it, those who unjustly have placed Him there, as well as those who are mocking and ridiculing Him. In Matthew 27:38-44, we have both criminals joining with the crowd in their blasphemous expression of disdain toward the One who had shown them nothing but love, mercy and grace. Even Jesus’ stern rebuke to the religious leaders who hated Him was an act of mercy, to awaken them to their desperate and dire condition before God and need for a savior (Matthew 23:13-36).
However, in Luke 23:40-41 we have the one criminal being mercifully granted by God the gift of repentance (2 Timothy 2:24-26) and of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). In the midst of the fog of his mind-numbing pain and torment he comes to his senses, acknowledging his sin and the justness of the judgement he is under. He recognizes His spiritual poverty, and can only hope that Jesus, who he now recognizes as the promised Messianic King, will grant Him mercy, which Jesus does, assuring him that on that very day he would be with Him in His Kingdom paradise (Matthew 5:3).
God’s saving mercy is not something we can earn or merit. It is not something we receive through law keeping or participating in religious rituals or ceremonies or by doing enough good works to outweigh our bad – that would be justice.
If we are to be beneficiaries of the eternal riches of God’s saving mercy, we must come to a place, actually be brought to a place by the mercies of God as the criminal on the cross was, wherein we recognize that we desperately need God’s mercy; that we deserve but have no hope of escaping God’s judgement apart from it (Luke 18:9-14) (Psalm 147:11).
Jesus Christ, God the Son, our infinitely compassionate, merciful, meek and humble but all-powerful redeemer, promises that all who come to Him with a humble and contrite heart will never be turned away (Psalm 51:15-17), but will be raised with Him on the last day in newness of life, in power and glory to rule and reign with Him in His eternal Kingdom, forever (John 6:37-40) (Revelation 3:20-21) (Luke 12:32).
Have you come, have you cried out to Jesus for mercy? If not, I pray that you would do so today.
Grace and Peace ×