Mercy Of God

"O give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever" (Psalms. 136:1). For this perfection of the Divine character God is greatly to be praised. Mercy is essentially God’s relieving love poured out upon man in deep misery and trouble. God is a God of mercy.  When he appeared to Moses, he declared his name before himself in these words: "...The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.... " (Exodus. 34:6). It is God's mercy to which we sinners primarily appeal.  We see this demonstrated in the words of David in Psalm 51:1: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions." The Father assures us in Psalm 147:11 that he is pleased with such an approach, for the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy. Of course, the greatest act of mercy that God has ever demonstrated was to send his Son to die for our sins. In Titus 3:5 we read that “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy....” 

In endeavoring to study the mercy of God as it is set forth in Scripture, a threefold distinction needs to be made:

1. There is a general mercy of God, which is extended not only to all men, believers and unbelievers alike, but also to the entire creation.“The LORD is good to all, and his mercies are over all His works” (Psalms. 145:9).

2. Second, there is a special mercy of God, which is exercised toward the children of men a special mercy, to all of mankind. “Be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45)

3. Third, there is a sovereign mercy which is reserved for the heirs of salvation, which is communicated to them in a covenant way, through the Mediator.“For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Romans 9:15‐16).

Following out a little further the difference between the second and third distinctions pointed out above, it is important to note that the mercies which God bestows on the wicked are solely of a temporal nature; that is to say, they are confined strictly to this present life. There will be no mercy extended to them beyond the grave: "It is a people of no understanding: therefore He that made them will not have mercy on them, and He that formed them will show them no favour" (Isa. 27:11).God can never cease to be merciful, for this is a quality of the Divine essence (Ps. 116:5); but the exercise of His mercy is regulated by his sovereign will. This must be so, for there is nothing outside himself which obliges him to act; if there were, that "something" would be supreme, and God would cease to be God.

 Because God is a merciful God, he expects his children to be merciful. Mercy is so important that God instructs us to bind it around our necks and write it upon the tablet of our hearts (Prov. 3:3). The prophet Hosea informs us that God desires mercy, even more than he desires sacrifice (Hos. 6:6). When Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, he summarized the biblical teaching in these simple words, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matt. 5:7). In another place, the Lord gives us a simple command to be merciful: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).

“You that have received this mercy from God, show mercy to others. Use all that is within you so as to endeavor to beget men to God. Though God alone does it, yet he uses means; though means contribute nothing, yet God uses them as the clay to open the eyes. Have you a friend who lives with you, perhaps a student or brother who is unconverted? Oh, if you have received mercy from God, endeavor to bring them in to obtain like mercy with yourself.”