The Mercy and Grace of God

Receiving the mercy of God means we do not get what we deserve.

What do I mean by this?

As sinful human beings, each one of us deserved punishment (remember, the wages of sin is death), hell and eternal separation from God. But God has been merciful to us. Because of His mercy we do not get what we rightfully deserved.

Let me illustrate this through an example.

Suppose a teacher caught a student stealing money from the teacher’s office. No one else knows about this incident, apart from the teacher and the student. What does the student deserve? Punishment. But let us say, the teacher said, “My dear student, I have decided not to report this incident to the Principal. Nor will I punish you for this. But I want you to do something for me. You must promise me never to repeat this again.” I believe the student would be touched by the teacher’s love and advice and would decide not to steal again. But what exactly is the teacher doing? The teacher is demonstrating mercy.

Mercy is always extended to those who warrant punishment and, in humanity’s case, everyone needs the Mercy of God since all have sinned.

The good news for humanity is that God’s mercy is great; there is enough for everyone. In fact, the Bible tells us that God is “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4). In other words, God is not stingy in showing His mercy to us. His mercies are new every morning.

Now, God expects us to be merciful to others.

In the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells us the story of the king who was merciful to his servant and forgave him a huge debt of 10,000 talents. This man, however, did not show mercy to a fellow servant who owed 100 denarii (a very small amount in comparison to 10,000 talents.) The king who heard of this caught the servant whom he had shown mercy earlier and put him in jail. The king says: “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?” (Matt. 18:33). God expects recipients of mercy be merciful.

Additionally, those who are merciful are blessed, as Jesus says in the Beatitudes. And the blessing upon the merciful is evidence of God’s grace.

Grace of God

Whereas the mercy of God is not getting what we deserve, the grace of God is getting what we do not deserve.

What does that mean?

We do not deserve to be part of God’s family. We do not deserve eternal life or heaven. We do not deserve all the spiritual blessings we have today through Christ Jesus. But God has been gracious to us. He has decided to give us all those precious things we did not deserve. This is the grace of God.

Let me illustrate this through another example.

Some time ago, I heard of a story of a beggar woman and her three children. They had no place to call their own. They begged for their food and would rest wherever they could find rest. One day the mother died. The older children realized that something was seriously wrong. But the youngest child had not understood that her mother had died and was trying to drink milk from her mother’s body. This pitiable situation was captured by a journalist and published in a newspaper. A rich person seeing the plight of these children said to himself, “I am rich, yet I have no children. These children have no one to take care of them. I will adopt them as my children.”

The rich man did everything necessary to legally adopt them. Finally, he could bring them to his house. I imagine the scene thus: The former street children are now all cleaned up and tidy… they are being taken by the rich man around his house and garden… they are repeatedly being told… “All this is yours.” The food in the kitchen, the cars in the garage, the beautiful bedrooms, the library, everything now belong to these children. The rich man even attaches his own name to their names, for they are now his children. Now, did these children deserve all these good things? No, they did not. Then, what exactly is happening here? The rich man is being gracious. In his graciousness, he decided to share everything he had with these poor undeserving children.

This is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. We lived in the gutters of sin – filthy and stinking. God picked us up from there. He cleansed us with the blood of Jesus and made us whole. And then he provided us with the “riches of His grace,” (Eph. 2:7), just like the rich man did for the poor children. God gave us a new identity – we are now part of His family. In fact, we are now the children of God. We have the authority of His name to go with us. In His name, we can cast out demons and pray for the sick. We are sons and heirs of God… think of it… we have become heirs with Christ of everything that God has.

Now, God expects us to be gracious to others as well. Just as we received gifts from God, when we did not deserve them, let us be gracious to others and shower them with love and acts of grace.

God is merciful and He expects us to show mercy. God is gracious and He expects us to be the same.