Root Words | The Attributes of God – Mercy

Hey everybody! This is Bill Daly from Bitterroot Valley Calvary Chapel with this week’s episode of Root Words. Well, you likely know by now that we’re continuing our series on the Attributes of God. Each week I mention that THE most important aspect of our Christian walk is that we KNOW our God. But knowledge is NOT enough; we must ACT upon that knowledge. And having known more OF Him, we are called then to be TRANSFORMED, to be utterly CHANGED by that knowledge. As you know, we’ve been spending time studying the nature and the character of God as He has revealed Himself to us in His word. Now, if you joined us last week, we spent a few minutes discussing the “Grace” of God. So for this week’s topic, we’re going to examine the OTHER side of that coin: 

The Mercy of God: Even though at first it might not be easy to see a real difference between the grace and mercy of God because we hear those words often used interchangeably, it might be a big help if we consider how God deals with His angels. You ready for a shocker? Here it is: God has never exercised mercy towards the angels that remain in Heaven. But there’s a very good reason and the reason is that they have never had any need OF mercy even though they HAVE been the objects of God’s free and sovereign GRACE. You see, the very fact that God’s mercy even exists at all, implies that there is a need for it. That is to say, mercy implies that there is such a thing as sin. But mercy comes solely as a result of God’s own pleasure to extend it. The actual exercise of God’s mercy is only regulated by HIS sovereign will. And that HAS to be so, because there is nothing outside of Him that ever obligates God to extend mercy. By definition, it wouldn’t BE mercy if it were obligated, right? Check this out: It is purely the sovereign GRACE of God that alone determines his extension of Divine mercy to us. And the reason is that God is not influenced by things outside of Himself in the same way that we are. For example, if indeed God WAS influenced by the utter misery of diseased, sin-sick souls, then He would wash and save them all. 

Now there seems to be a sense where God extends His mercy to all men, both those lost in sin and those of us redeemed in Christ because we’re told in scripture that the sun rises on the evil AND the good and that God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. According to Psalm 145, His mercy is over all that God has made. But it’s important to note that the mercies which God provides the godless, the worldly, and the unrepentant are only temporal, which is to say that they are strictly confined to this present life, here on earth. There will be no mercy extended beyond the grave in death.

Remember, when He was speaking to Moses, God told him that He “will show mercy on whom He will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19). And sometimes, God decides NOT to show mercy, as we see from His words in Isaiah 27:11. So there seems to be a special mercy reserved for those that God, in His own pleasure, has decided to extend. A SPECIAL favor, if you will, extended to some and not extended to others. So what does that mean for us? Well, of course we can never know the infinite mind of God. After all, His word tells us that His ways and His thoughts are not OUR ways and not OUR thoughts. His secret determinations, that is the special mercies extended to those He wills to extend it to, are His business according to His imperial will and pleasure. But when we see the justice of God fall upon the sinner in his unrepentant state, we have this tendency to be offended because we have this almost ingrained notion that God somehow OWES a sort of perpetual mercy to mankind. But we should never take God’s mercy for granted and therefore, we shouldn’t ever lose our ability to be constantly amazed BY His grace. Remember, justice is something everyone merits. But mercy is something that is NEVER merited! And He certainly doesn’t OWE a fallen world, bent on sin and corruption and in full rebellion against Him any mercy. Let us make certain that His amazing grace is ALWAYS amazing in our own hearts and minds. And because God has this amazing ability to love the unlovable, let us as His children set our hearts to extend the same kind of mercy to those around us who are completely and utterly undeserving of it. After all, if we ourselves weren’t recipients of His grand mercy, we wouldn’t even be here right now. 

Well, I hope this has been a blessing to you – or at least given you something to chew on. I always enjoy the brief time we have together each week and I look forward to spending a few minutes with you next week as well as we continue our look into the Attributes of God. In the meantime, have a wonderful day in the Lord. God bless you.