“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” – Abraham Lincoln

Merciful and mercy; sounds like this should be the title of a song, but in actuality these are the chords of life. When mercy is present life takes on hope, color, purpose and significance. Without mercy, life is unfriendly, sorrowful, antagonistic and guilt-ridden. If we are poor in spirit, mourn for our condition, in gentleness surrender to the will and ways of God, and hunger and thirst for righteousness, the next attitude that must envelop our life is to be merciful.

Mercy is active compassion. So being merciful is giving the attribute of mercy. Physically expressing what it looks like and feels like. We cannot be merciful and only feel sorry for someone. Mercy calls on us to do something to alleviate sorrow. And we cannot just alleviate someone’s sorrow. Mercy must also empathize with someone’s pain in such a way they feel no condemnation from us. That is the essence of mercy and being merciful. These truly are the chords that bring music to our lives.

Mercy is the fundamental character of God that allows humans to exist on earth. Without it God would have destroyed Adam and Eve immediately after they transgressed and sinned. Mercy is what moved God to set in motion an entire plan to restore humans to the people He had always intended for us to be since before the world was even created. Mercy is the love of God that nailed His own Son to the cross as the sacrifice for our transgression, sin and iniquity. Mercy is what allows God to declare us justified when in fact we are not righteous. Mercy is the patience of God working with us while we continually fall down in our meager attempts to walk by His Spirit and live the makarios life. Mercy is what drives propitiation, which is the means God uses to lavish grace and kindness on us sinners without violating His own judicial righteousness.

Without God’s mercy there would be no life on earth now just as there would be no life waiting for us in the future kingdom of God. So I have to ask this: If mercy is such an important attribute of God, is it even possible for someone to be restored to the image of God and not be merciful? If we are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then we would naturally yearn to be merciful.

Several times Jesus said that we are able to tell what a person is like by their actions.

“For each tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” (Luke 6:44, 45)

The heart referred to here is our nephesh and remember sin is that which flows from our transgression-affected nephesh. Sin is any action that Jesus would not do in the same circumstance. I like what it says here in Luke 6 that even our words are considered actions flowing from our nephesh/heart. So here is the bottom line to being merciful. We can only be merciful if active compassion is expressed in our words, deeds and feelings for mercy is the natural expression of a heart restored to the image of God.

This portion of our response to gospel of the kingdom shows just how important mercy is to God as He draws a line in the sand that only those who are merciful may cross. Just to place a little bit more emphasis on this, the mercy God says we are to show others should look just like the mercy God would show us if we were in the same situation. Now do you see why it is so important to learn to walk by the Spirit? The only possible way a transgressor/sinner can fulfill such a huge demand is to be empowered and controlled by the Holy Spirit. Mercy is a natural expression of the Holy Spirit, but not for us transgressors/sinners. Growth and change is the plan of God when we come to Him to be adopted. God loves us so much that His plan is not just about escaping His future judgment. He pleads with us to come enjoy the makarios life now, which can only be experienced when we are merciful.

One of my favorite stories of Jesus is found in Mark 1:40-45. This is one of the great expressions of active compassion.

“And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleaned. And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away. And He said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”

Jesus was moved with compassion by this leper’s passionate desire to be healed. Moved with compassion – if there is a better way to describe Jesus I don’t know what it is. He not only feels our pain from the unfortunate situations we experience in life but He is also extremely moved with compassion because of the difficulties these issues bring to our lives. His passion was so strong it moved Him to do something about this man’s plight. His mercy went way beyond the normal reaches of human compassion. Right before healing this leper Jesus told His disciples that He wanted to go to other towns and continue to preach the gospel of the kingdom. He sternly warned the healed leper to tell no one but the Jewish priest and then offer the customary sacrifice for being healed. Since Jesus often spoke of what would take place before it actually happened showing His knowledge of future events, He knew this leper would not obey His warning. The leper completely ignored what Jesus said and went out broadcasting everywhere that Jesus had healed him. After the healed leper spread the news of his healing, so many people began to flock to see Jesus that He could no longer publicly go from town to town preaching the message of the kingdom. Instead He had to stay out in the countryside, where He didn’t even have a place to lay His head. Knowing how this leper’s disobedience would get in the way of what He wanted to do and how it would disrupt His own personal comfort, Jesus chose to heal this leper anyway. He did this because He was moved with compassion.

That is the mercy Jesus offers all of us. It is the only way God can have a relationship with us transgressors/sinners. We are much too broken, much too disruptive to the plan of God, and far too disobedient to His will. God knew before He created us that His mercy was going to cost Him severely but He chose to create us anyway because He is always moved with compassion toward those who are desperate. In teaching how we should respond to the gospel of the kingdom Jesus does not say, if we are perfect He will give us the kingdom of God; He does just the opposite. All His promises are dependent on our attitudes and not our obedience, except this one. Jesus said only when our merciful compassion is actively extended to those transgressors/sinners around us will we receive His mercy. This is an eye for an eye situation and is one of the differences between grace and mercy. We are saved and kept in a declared state of righteousness by His grace, which has to do with God forgiving our transgression, sins and iniquity. Any good works from us has nothing to do with it.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

This appeasement of the judicial nature of God’s righteousness is the reason God can declare a transgressor/sinner justified, or as righteous as Jesus is. Grace is always involved with forgiveness and salvation.

“He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 4:25-5:1)

As you can see here, salvation, which is God declaring a transgressor/sinner as righteous as he was intended to be at creation, is a one-time event called justification that occurs through faith.

Mercy is different. Mercy is an active expression of God extending compassion on us transgressors/sinners because we are desperately in need of His merciful kindness. For example, God gives mercy to the human race every single day as He delays throwing us into hell. Judgment will occur one day in the future when all humans stand before Jesus to be judged for what they did with the redemption God offers through Jesus Christ. Until then we live because of God’s merciful compassion in giving us a new chance every day to surrender to the gospel of the kingdom and be restored to the way we are meant to be. Judgment is due but God extends mercy instead.

Every person who has not come to this place of believing in what Jesus did for them lives in a constant state of condemnation:

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)  

This is where we see the true sense of what mercy is. Every human stands before God judged and condemned for their transgression and sin. Yet at the same time every human receives God’s mercy because the justice of God that rightly condemns us is not being applied to us yet. God mercifully allows His justice to be held off until after we physically die. That is the truest sense of mercy. It is not giving acts of kindness to someone who is like Jesus the perfect Son of God. Mercy is giving acts of kindness to transgressors/sinners who deserve to be punished. Only when someone does not deserve mercy does the mercy they receive become that which Jesus speaks of here.

For example, when a husband or wife has an affair the other spouse has every right to condemn their mate. At this moment mercy and justice stand as a fork in the road because the sin deserves to be punished but Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Justice is deserved but mercy is what Jesus calls for.

Situations like this routinely occur in the lives of every one of us. We may never have been a victim of our spouses affair but we will have numerous other situations that bring us to a crossroads between choosing the road of justice or the road of mercy. According to Jesus it is a clear choice that stands before us. If we want His mercy, then we must give His mercy. 

As transgressors/sinners our only hope is that God will be moved with compassion toward us. But we cannot receive His mercy if we are unwilling to be merciful to others. This concept is stated just a little differently in other places in the Bible but it has the same eye for an eye meaning.

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1, 2)

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.” (Luke 6:36, 37)

“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)

Every single human being is dependent upon God’s mercy in order to be transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. God does not have to do this. It is only because of His mercy that He waits to issue His judgment; there are no exceptions to this. Without His mercy we would be lost forever the moment we are born with no possible hope of changing the outcome.

So then we are back at square one. If we are truly poor in spirit we cannot also be proud in spirit. These two concepts are diametrically opposed to each other. If we are poor in spirit, we will not choose to judge our fellow transgressors/sinners. Only when we understand how really bankrupt we are will we understand that we do not have the right to judge and condemn those who hurt us.

In life there is a direct correlation between the richness of the mercy we have received from God and our ability to be merciful. The immensity of grace we receive for our transgression and sins should always produce merciful actions toward those around us who need mercy. Unfortunately, we transgressors/sinners do not see ourselves as bankrupt as we truly are.

That is the essence of the response Jesus has towards a Pharisee who chided Jesus for allowing a prostitute to weep all over His dusty feet and dry them off with her hair. In His reply Jesus exposed the problem with this Pharisee’s limited ability to extend Godlike mercy. Jesus said, “He who is forgiven little, loves little.” In so doing Jesus connected our merciful expressions to the amount of mercy we have received.

This means anyone can increase their ability to be more merciful. All they need to do is be forgiven more. And how can we be forgiven more? It is not that we need to go out and commit more sins. We just need to be honest with our self-evaluation. We need to see ourselves through the eyes of a Holy and righteous God. If we did it would be impossible for us to stand in judgment of anyone else. We would be forgiven much therefore we could only love much.

Again, we are back to being poor in spirit for only those completely bankrupt will have tasted the fullness of God’s merciful forgiveness and restoration. It is only those who know they have been forgiven much who will hear the beautiful chords of God’s active compassion in their life.

 

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