Mercy, Love and Grace

Mercy was applied to Paul who said he was the worst of sinners.  If you feel that you are the worst of sinners, this same thing can apply to you.  

What is grace?  I would say it falls under the category of unmerited favor along with everything else the good Lord does for us because we deserve nothing from the Lord, nothing whatsoever and we can do nothing to obtain anything from Him.

Mercy is something else we don’t deserve from the good Lord.  What we deserve is condemnation and punishment, anger and rejection.  We definitely don’t deserve His love either, so why can we receive all these things?  It is because the Lord loved us, because that is His nature.

Read what David said about himself, he said that he was born in iniquity and in sin when his mother conceived him, in Psalms 51:7.  This was said after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was responsible for having her husband killed.  What you have read is part of David’s repentance and confession statement after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sins.  Did God chastise David?  Yes, He did.  Did God give up on David?  No, He didn’t.  God was the one who sent Nathan to David extending His mercy and grace to David.  Normally David was quick to repent after he sinned, he seemed to have a humble and repentant heart and he normally tried to please God in all things and I think that, plus other things, is the reason God said of David that he was a man after His own heart.  

When it came to David, and multitudes of others, God truly extended His grace and mercy.  Yet when we were His enemies He sent his beloved Son who was willing to lay down His life and die for all of us.  If we repent by turning from our sins, which the Bible says that we have all sinned and fell short of the glory of God, and confess and forsake our sins and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness, praise the Lord!!  That is called love and grace and mercy which I call unmerited favor, because none of us deserve any of these things from the Lord, but He still lavished them on us; and this includes all of us who believe on Him.

Please read John 3:16-21, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

God’s love, mercy and grace are all over the Word of God to the extent that no one can miss them if they read God’s Word with the purpose and intent of truly seeking the truth, because they are so evident.  I am going to add some other verses that the Psalmist wrote about the love and kindness of God in Psalms 118:1-4 please read, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’”

God’s love and kindness and mercy and grace are beyond our comprehension, but they are there for us if we will be willing to receive them.  If not, we can look forward to an unfulfilled life with only the prospects of torment in a place called Hell, that wasn’t meant for man but for satan and his fallen angels.  If anyone ends up there it is because they chose to go there, it wasn’t the purpose of God for their lives!!  

I believe this was God’s purpose and plan for all His people, something that was written to the Jewish people in Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.”

Because the Israelites sinned they went into captivity, in Babylon, but God was going to extend His grace and mercy once again and free them from their captivity.

Does God chastise us when we are disobedient?  Yes He does, please read Hebrews 12:1-17, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”

I will end this with this, humble yourself before the Lord and repent from the heart and He will do His part, it is your choice!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!