The next two attributes we will be discussing are merciful and forgiving. This daily devotional looks at the abundance of God’s mercy and how it leads to forgiveness.
Nuggets
- God chooses to show us mercy in order to forgive us of our sins.
- Mercy plays a part in salvation.
- God’s abundant mercy stems from His love.
- The abundance of God’s mercy impacts God’s forgiveness.
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Devotions in the Finding Our Center series
Mercy is a major attribute for God. Then again, so is forgiveness.
Let’s Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let’s Put It into Context #2
God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
Forgiveness is, when we ask, God pardons us because we have broken His laws and commandments and restores our relationship with Him.
God Chooses the Recipients of His Mercy
“For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy” (Rom. 9: 15-16 CSB)
God chooses to show us mercy in order to forgive us of our sins.
When you first look at these words that Paul wrote, it appears that God is showing favorites. Paul has already said that is not the case. “For God does not show favoritism” (Rom. : 11 NLT).
That isn’t what Paul means here. Lyth interpreted it is “… God’s purpose in redemption is independent of man.”
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I think it makes sense if we look at it as God is the big-picture guy. Jesus is the little-picture guy. The Holy Spirit is the minutiae guy.
God makes decisions for mankind as a whole. Jesus brings each of us individually to salvation. The Holy Spirit leads in the day-to-day routine.
When Adam and Eve committed the original sin, God did not have to forgive us. He did not have to have any contact anymore with His creation.
Glossary
God chose to forgive us because of His mercy. We didn’t deserve forgiveness, but in His mercy, He chose to give it to us anyway.
Arnot cautioned that we have to remember that God has a Will. Worldview people — and sometimes disciples — question His Will.
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We’ve talked before how God has to work off of a plan. He knows what He wants and how to accomplish it.
God’s plan is that everyone have an opportunity to accept the gift of grace. Goodwin argued these were were not about preventing grace but what happens with justification, adoption, and all of the other churchy word.
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I wish Goodwin would have expanded on that statement. In my opinion, I think he is meaning either one of two things. The first is salvation itself.
All are offered the gift of salvation, but it is only given to those who accept it. Justification, adoption, etc. happens only when we turn our lives over to God.
But part of me keeps saying this is addressing Matthew 7: 21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21 ESV).
We have to have a genuine conversion. We have to sincerely repent. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
If we don’t turn away from the desire to sin, we aren’t saved.
The Gift and the Attitude of Giving
“Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need” (Heb. 4: 16 CSB)
Mercy plays a part in salvation.
Okay. Why do we “… receive mercy and find grace …” (Heb. 4: 16)?
Patterson explains “… that the former describes the emotion of kindness and compassion with which the application for assistance is met, while the latter describes the actual communications of celestial influence with which, in answer to prayer.”
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Ephesians 2: 8 says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift” (ESV). There is nothing we can do to earn salvation.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
- The consequences of sin are spiritual death and physical separation from God.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
• Eternal life is the promise of living eternally – even if we have died in this life – because we have admitted our sins, believed Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confessed God as Sovereign Lord.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
So if grace is the gift, mercy is the way the gift is given. It is the emotion behind the gift.
Havergal felt that the mercy is given to us first, then grace. I can see that. The mercy carries with it the element of pity. God pities the sinful state we are in and then provides the grace through which we are saved.
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However, Havergal went on to say something I need to process. He wrote, “You will not find grace to help in time of need till you have sought and found mercy to save.”
I am tripping over the mercy saves part. Ephesians 2: 8 does not says, “For you are saved by mercy through faith.”
I think Havergal was saying that God, in His mercy, sent Jesus to be our Savior. That mercy is the start of our salvation.
However we want to look at it we are saved through the grace and mercy of a loving God.
God’s Abundant Mercy
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us” (Eph. 2: 4 CSB)
God’s abundant mercy stems from His love.
Finally, I think we are going to get around to taking about mercy as an attribute. Bayne’s reiterated that God’s mercy is an offshoot of God’s love.
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Rossi gave us a good reminder. God doesn’t have mercy for only certain sins. God has mercy for all sins.
In regard to all divine perfections, Rossi said that “… it [His mercy] is as great as God Himself.” Because if this, it is the aspect which is needed first in the Plan of Salvation.
Spurgeon made a really great observation. He wrote, “Mercy is needed for the miserable, and yet more for the sinful.”
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God gives mercy to the depressed and discouraged. He shelters them and carries them through rough times.
Even more than that, God gives mercy to His sinful creations. Despite the fact we disobeyed Him and continue to willingly disobey Him, He has provided a Plan of Salvation so that we may be restored to Him.
God is said to possess abundant mercy. That is good news for us.
Mercy Leads to Confession and Forgiveness
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn. 1: 9 CSB)
The abundance of God’s mercy impacts God’s forgiveness.
Candlish wrote, “The forgiveness is so free, so frank, so full, so unreserved, that it purges our bosom of all reserve, all reticence, all guile; in a word, ‘of all unrighteousness.’ And it is so because it is dispensed in faithfulness and righteousness; ‘He is faithful and just in forgiving our sins.’”
How could mercy be high and forgiveness be low? How could mercy be low and forgiveness be high?
These two attributes must go hand in hand. Mercy leads us to confession, through which God forgives our sins.
Clarke pointed out that the forgiveness is contingent on a profession of faith. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
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Making the Connections
We see God’s mercy most in our salvation. Bevan wrote, “For man is not merely a sinner, but he perpetuates the sin, he continues sinning; he is alienated from God, and remains an alien, with hard and ever harder heart, going farther away, being less accessible, increasing his rebellion ever. And how yet God’s mercy does not cease. He loses no patience. He waits and watches. And of this mercy and clemency no one need doubt the power or the sufficiency.”
We don’t want to abuse God’s mercy. Yes, we continue to sin because we are still in sinful bodies.
But we do not want to continue to sin. We can’t think that we are allowed to continue sinning because God, in His mercy, will forgive us. We are forgiven when we ask and repent.
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Spencer made another good observation. Worldview people see the suffering disciples go through and form an inaccurate picture of God. God will not call us out of the trials. He will help us through with His mercy and love.
How Do We Apply This?
Recognizing God’s mercy is important. Spencer wrote, “By this attribute God peculiarly shows Himself” and “… in which the Deity peculiarly delights.”
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If we are going to ABCD, we have to know of God’s mercy. If we are going to accept His gift of grace, we have to know Him.
God does have abundant mercy and unending forgiveness. He will freely give them to all who accept His Plan of Salvation.
Father God. We cannot fathom why You deal with us in mercy and forgiveness. Yet, You do. We are immensely grateful for Your forgiveness. We confess our sins to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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