Gods Mercy
Beloved in Christ, there are few truths more precious to the human soul than the mercy of God. If you take mercy out of the Christian faith, you strip the gospel of its sweetness, the cross of its meaning, and the believer of his hope. Without mercy, justice would crush us. Without mercy, holiness would consume us. Without mercy, none of us could lift our heads in the presence of Almighty God. But thanks be to God, we serve not only a just God and a holy God, but also a merciful God whose compassions fail not.
Mercy is the very air the sinner breathes. It is the ground on which the believer stands. It is the song of the redeemed and the hope of the broken. To meditate on mercy is to look into the beating heart of God Himself. And if there is one thing the world desperately needs today, it is a rediscovery of the mercy of God mercy that heals, mercy that forgives, mercy that restores, mercy that triumphs over judgment.
The psalmist declared in Psalm 103:8–10: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”
My friends, this is the gospel in seed form: God does not deal with us as our sins deserve, because He is merciful. So let us take a journey together through the Word of God, tracing the golden thread of divine mercy. We will look first at the nature of God’s mercy, then at mercy revealed in the Old Testament, then at mercy displayed in Jesus Christ, then at mercy in the believer’s life, and finally at the eternal mercy that secures our future. And as we walk through these truths, may our hearts be set ablaze with gratitude and shaped into vessels of mercy for others.
We must begin where Scripture begins: with the very character of God. Mercy is not merely one of God’s actions; it is part of His eternal nature. In Exodus 34, when Moses pleaded to see God’s glory, the Lord descended in a cloud and proclaimed His own name: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Notice, the very first attribute He declares is merciful. Before He mentions power, before holiness, before sovereignty, God reveals Himself as merciful. Mercy is not God’s reluctant duty; it is His chosen delight. Micah 7:18 asks: “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love.”
Did you catch that? God delights in mercy. He takes joy in compassion. What we struggle to offer grudgingly, He offers gladly. How unlike us this is! Our mercy is limited, our patience wears thin, and our forgiveness often carries strings attached. We forgive once, maybe twice, but beyond that, we hesitate. Yet Jesus told Peter in (Matthew 18:22) “Not seven times, but seventy times seven”. Why? Because our mercy must reflect God’s mercy, which is boundless and inexhaustible.
Think of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. The boy had squandered everything, disgraced his family, and rehearsed a pitiful speech begging to be treated as a servant. But the father, seeing him from afar, ran to him, embraced him, kissed him, and called for the robe, the ring, and the feast. That my friends is mercy in action, the father withholding the judgment the son deserved and instead restoring him to full sonship. That is a picture of how God receives us.
Beloved, if this is who God is, then we must cast off every distorted view of Him as a tyrant waiting to punish or a judge eager to condemn. He is merciful. When you stumble, run to Him, not away from Him, for His mercy is greater than your sin.
To understand the depth of God’s mercy, we must first look at His dealings with His people throughout history. The Old Testament is not a book of wrath versus a New Testament of grace. No, mercy saturates every page of God’s Word from Genesis to Malachi. Consider again Adam and Eve in the garden. The Lord had warned them: “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Yet when they transgressed, though judgment fell, mercy triumphed. Instead of instant death, God clothed them with garments of skin a foreshadowing of the covering to come through Christ. Mercy was present even at the dawn of human rebellion.
Think again of Israel in the wilderness. Again and again, they murmured, complained, and rebelled. They worshiped a golden calf at the very foot of Mount Sinai, where God’s glory blazed above them. By all rights, God could have wiped them out. Yet He relented at Moses’ intercession, proclaiming His mercy. Nehemiah 9:17 recounts: “But You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.” What a testimony!
And what of David? After his grievous sin with Bathsheba and his orchestration of Uriah’s death, judgment could have consumed him. But when David fell on his face and cried out, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love” God forgave him. Mercy restored the fallen king.
Jonah, too, gives us a vivid picture. Sent to Nineveh, a cruel, violent city Jonah ran away, because he knew the Lord was merciful. In Jonah 4:2 he complains: “That is why I made haste to flee; for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” Even Jonah could not stomach just how merciful God truly is!
And then there is Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Jeremiah wrote those words as Jerusalem lay in ruins, with the temple destroyed and the people carried into exile. Even in judgment, he saw mercy shining like the dawn.
Beloved, mercy is not an afterthought in the Old Testament. It is the very backbone of God’s covenant dealings with His people. If He were not merciful, Israel would have perished a thousand times over. But mercy carried them through. And mercy carries us still. This same mercy meets us in our wilderness, forgives us when we stumble, and renews us every morning.
Do not say, “I have sinned too much for God to forgive me.” Look at Israel. Look at David. Look at Nineveh. God delights in mercy. His mercies are new not just yesterday, not just last year but every morning. If the Old Testament reveals God’s mercy in shadows and promises, the New Testament reveals it in flesh and blood.
Mercy walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ. The Gospels overflow with stories of mercy. Blind Bartimaeus cried out by the roadside, Mark 10:46–52. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And though the crowd told him to be silent, Jesus stopped, called him, and restored his sight. Mercy heard his cry. A leper fell before Jesus, (Mark 1:40–42). “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean” Mercy touched the untouchable. A woman caught in adultery was dragged before Jesus, with stones ready in the hands of the Pharisees. “Moses commanded us to stone such women,” they said. “What do You say?” Jesus bent down, wrote on the ground, and then said from Mark 1:40–42. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one, they dropped their stones and left. Jesus looked at her and said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” Mercy touched the untouchable. Mercy spared the guilty.
Above all, the cross of Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God’s mercy. Justice demanded death for sin. Holiness demanded punishment. But mercy stepped in. Romans 5:8 declares: “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The wrath we deserved fell upon Him, so that mercy might flow freely to us. At Calvary, justice and mercy kissed. No wonder Jesus declared in the Beatitudes: (Matthew 5:7) “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” His whole ministry embodied mercy mercy to the sick, mercy to the broken, mercy to sinners, mercy even to His enemies. As He prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If grace is the heartbeat of Jesus’ ministry, then mercy must be the heartbeat of His church.
We are not called to be Pharisees hurling stones, but followers of Christ extending hands. The measure to which we have received mercy must become the measure by which we extend it. To withhold mercy after receiving it is to deny the very gospel that saved us. Paul writes in Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Notice what motivates the Christian life: not fear, not legalism, but mercy. Because God has shown us mercy, we surrender ourselves to Him. Every believer is a trophy of mercy. Paul himself testified in 1 Timothy 1:13–16: “Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief … and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me … that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.”
Paul never got over the mercy of God in his own life, and neither should we. But mercy received must become mercy given. James 2:13 warns: “Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Jesus told the parable of the unforgiving servant: forgiven of a great debt, he refused to forgive his fellow servant of a small one. The master rebuked him, saying, (Matthew 18:33). “Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”
We are called to be channels of mercy in a merciless world. This means forgiving those who wrong us. It means compassion for the poor, the hurting, the marginalized. It means patience with the weak, kindness to the undeserving, love for the unlovely. Mercy is not weakness; it is Christlikeness. Examine your heart. Is there bitterness you have held onto? Is there someone you refuse to forgive? Remember the mountain of sin God has forgiven you and let that mercy overflow to others. As Jesus said, “Freely you have received; freely give.” Mercy received must always become mercy extended.
Finally, let us lift our eyes to eternity. Mercy is not only for this life; it is our eternal hope. Jude 21 exhorts us: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” Did you catch that? Eternal life itself is described as God’s mercy. When we stand before the throne of judgment, what hope will we have but mercy? Not our works, not our righteousness, not our service. Only mercy. Titus 3:5 reminds us: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” From beginning to end, salvation is mercy. Heaven itself will be the eternal unfolding of God’s mercy. For ages to come, we will marvel at the riches of His grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4–7 says: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us … raised us up with Him … so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Eternity will be a school of mercy, and God Himself will be the teacher. Therefore, let us live not in fear but in hope. Whatever trials we face, whatever sins we struggle with, whatever burdens we carry, the mercy that saved us will sustain us to the end. Mercy will have the last word. We have walked together through the glorious landscape of God’s mercy its nature in His character, its display in the Old Testament, its embodiment in Jesus Christ, its power in the believer’s life, and its promise in eternity. From Genesis to Revelation, mercy flows like a river, cleansing, restoring, renewing, saving.
So, what must we do? First, receive God’s mercy. Do not harden your heart. No sin is too great, no past too dark, no failure too deep. God’s mercy is greater. Run to Him, and you will not be cast out.
Second, rejoice in God’s mercy. Let gratitude flood your soul. Sing with the psalmist, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
And third, reflect God’s mercy. Go and be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Love as you have been loved. Show compassion as you have received compassion. In a harsh and unforgiving world, let the church shine as a beacon of mercy.
I close with the words of Charles Spurgeon: “God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.”
May we live, breathe, and proclaim this boundless mercy until that day when mercy brings us safely home. Amen.
