Everything God has revealed about Himself in creation, everything God reveals about Himself in our salvation is revealed to impact our affections; that we would have a deeper love and devotion to Him, a stronger desire for intimacy with Him, and to impress on our hearts His infinite worthiness to be feared and loved, trusted and obeyed, worshiped, adored and delighted in forever as the object of our deepest love and the source of our greatest joy.
This is no more true than in His revelation of His magnificent, majestic, manifold mercies, displayed in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God the Son. The Bible reveals that Jesus came into this world as a man to demonstrate the exceeding riches of God’s mercy and grace by saving men and women who are living in opposition to God’s purpose for and rule over their lives, what the Bible refers to as sin, from an eternity of misery and torment under God’s judgement in Hell, and who in themselves are helpless to do anything about it (Titus 3:2-7) (Ephesians 2:1-9).
The riches of God’s mercy are revealed most clearly in Jesus’ life of compassion and grace toward people in need, people in misery, who because of their sin deserve that misery. His mercy was displayed most prominently in Jesus’ agonizing death on the cross, wherein He takes upon Himself the wrath and judgement of God that all men and women deserve for their sin. He is thus able to justly forgive the sin of those who come to Him repenting of their sin and acknowledging their desperate need for His mercy (Luke 18:9-14).
If that, is you, God has not only forgiven all of your sins, but has mercifully granted or imputed to you the perfect righteousness Jesus achieved as a man necessary for a person to live in the presence of God (Romans 5:17) (Psalm 24:3-5). God the Father has adopted you as His beloved child and loves you with the same intensity of love in which He loves His eternal Son, granting you an eternal inheritance in His Son’s Kingdom (Romans 8:14-17) (John 17:22-23). The Holy Spirit now lives in you, having restored you to spiritual life, transforming your heart, your nature and character to conform to that of Christ, so that our hearts are now inclined to love, trust, obey and worship God as He requires and deserves (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
This transformation is progressive, which means that we will continue to have to strive against our sin and selfishness while in this world (Romans 7:19-25), but now we strive in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, knowing we will never again come under His judgement and condemnation (Romans 8:1-4). All of God’s adopted children will finally be free from any remnant of our sin nature when we see Jesus at our death or His second coming and are perfectly conformed to his nature and character forever (1 John 3:1-3), as eternal trophies of His mercy.
In the interim, God leaves us in this world as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, representatives of its merciful King, our Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15-20). As noted in this passage, we gladly no longer live for ourselves, but for the One who loved us and gave His life for us. As such, we are to no longer be controlled/motivated by our sinful lusts and self-centered desires, but by love for God and a passion for His glory, and love and compassion for hurting, grieving neighbors.
Numerous passages in the Bible call us as the children of God to live lives of compassion and mercy as the means by which we glorify our Father in Heaven (Luke 6:35-36) (Matthew 5:16). And we live in a world where there will be no lack of opportunities to do so. It is a world where we are both perpetrators and victims of sin, which gives rise to all manner of pain and suffering, grief and sorrow, injustice and oppression, foolishness and futility, anger and frustration. God thus extends His merciful hand into this world to bring healing, comfort, reconciliation, restoration and hope through those who are the joyful beneficiaries of His saving mercies through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us that our salvation in Christ is for good works, works that please and honor and glorify God, works that bless and benefit others (Ephesians 2:10). God thus calls us to works of mercy, which we will gladly enter into if our hearts have truly been changed (Proverbs 22:9) (1 John 3:17). Jude 21 calls us to keep displaying the love of God, cultivating and displaying His merciful and compassionate nature. We are called in Philippians 2:1-7 to cultivate the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, that in mercy and love we would consider the needs of others more important than our own. We are told in Proverbs 11:17 that this is good for our soul.
To this end, we are to give freely of our time, talents and substance to those in need, recognizing that there is nothing we have that we have not been given by God to use for His glory (Proverbs 3:27-28) (1 Corinthians 4:7). We are to care for the poor, particularly those who are victims of oppression and injustice, who can give us nothing in return (Isaiah 58:6-7). We are to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us, especially those who abuse our acts of mercy, which, by the way, we do to God every day (Matthew 5:43-48). We are to be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:32), weeping with those who weep (Romans 12:15), and bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
Jesus gave us a wonderful example of how we are to display mercy towards others in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). At the end of the parable, he asks the inquiring lawyer which of the characters in the parable showed mercy in binding up the wounds and meeting the needs of the man who had been beaten and robbed? When the lawyer answers correctly, Jesus instructs Him to go and do likewise.
We live in a world where the trauma of human brokenness and consequences of sin prevail. Although there are afflictions, traumatic experiences such as the one noted in the parable that can be addressed directly and successfully through our personal acts of mercy and compassion and application of human wisdom, there are also many that cannot, many that will result in inconsolable grief, sorrow and pain. The loss of a beloved child or spouse in a violent shooting or tragic accident, or the trauma of being abused, rejected, abandoned by someone we trusted to love us, care for us, protect us, can crush our souls and break our hearts beyond what human wisdom and compassion can adequately address.
The only One who can heal such a person’s broken heart and bind up their wounds is the one who created them to know and love and be loved by Him, our eternal God, who has revealed Himself in the person and redeeming work of God the Son, Jesus Christ (Psalm 147:1-3). Thus, in ministering to such a person it is our responsibility to introduce Him to them. However, it is not enough just to introduce Him as the one who can heal them of the trauma of the sin that has been perpetrated against them, but as the One who can and wants to keep them from the inconsolable grief, sorrow and pain of God’s judgement on the sin they have committed against Him, and to restore them to the glorious love relationship with Him for which they were created (Matthew 11:28-30).
This is the ultimate expression of human compassion and mercy that only we, as the children of God, can and must display to lost, hurting people who desperately need what we have received, namely the saving mercy of God as it is revealed in the person and work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our mission of mercy is summarized in the great Fanny Crosby hymn Rescue the Perishing
Grace and Peace ×