The two attributes of God under consideration in this issue are special aspects of His goodness. Mercy might be defined as the outward manifestation of pity, or compassion in action. It often assumes kindness toward one deserving punishment and resulting in that person’s deliverance from the deserved judgment. Grace is perhaps a more positive quality. It denotes positive favor and blessing shown to those who do not deserve it, or who even demerit it, that is, deserve just the opposite.
God in His mercy has delivered us from the consequences and penalty of our sin, and is delivering us daily from the power of sin and from the misery which sin produces. God in His grace has promised us eternal life in His presence in heaven, united as a bride to His own Son, the Bridegroom; He has given us a heavenly inheritance; and He has already brought us into relationship as sons with Himself, our Father.
An event in the life of the prophet Elisha was used in the previous issue to illustrate the display of goodness to one’s enemies. We see the elements of both mercy and grace in Elisha’s actions. In his God-inspired mercy, Elisha prevented the King of Israel from killing anyone in the captive Syrian army. In grace he did even more_set a feast before them! (2 Kings 6:8-23).
The prodigal son hoped for mercy when he returned home after wasting his fortune and becoming destitute:"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son:make me as one of thy hired servants." But notice how much higher were the thoughts of his father:"Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:18-24). How the grace of the father toward the wayward son shines out here!
Let us consider what the Scriptures have to say about the mercy and grace of God.
"And the Lord passed by before [Moses] and proclaimed, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exod. 34:6,7).
When David was asked to choose among three punishments for his sin of numbering the people, he answered, "I am in a great strait:let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man" (2 Sam. 24:10-14).
In Nehemiah’s day, the Levites rehearsed before God the history of His mercy and goodness toward His people:"Our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to Thy commandments . . . but Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; yet Thou in Thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. . . . They were disobedient, and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs. . . . Therefore Thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them; and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto Thee, Thou heardest them from heaven; and according to Thy manifold mercies Thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. . . . And many times didst Thou deliver them according to Thy mercies.. . . For Thy great mercies’ sake Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for Thou art a gracious and merciful God" (Neh. 9:16-31). Similarly, the psalmist, in rehearsing Jehovah’s wonderful intervention throughout Israel’s history, exclaimed twenty-six times, "For His mercy endureth for ever" (Psa. 136).
David, repenting of his sin in connection with Bathsheba, cried out, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Psa. 51:1). Similarly, while the proud Pharisee paraded his own fancied goodness before God, the repentant tax collector pleaded the mercy of God for his case:"The publican . . . smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:11-13).
The progression from mercy to grace in God’s dealings with sinners is seen in the following passages in Ephesians and Titus:"But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith" (Eph. 2:4-8). "For we … were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…. That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7).
However wonderful it is to know that God in His mercy has saved us and pardoned us of our sins, delivering us from the coming judgment which we surely deserve, even more wonderful to us is the truth that He has justified us_cleared us of every charge that was against us. How God’s grace shines out in justifying the guilty sinner (see also Rom. 3:24)!
Notice in the verses previously quoted how God’s grace toward sinners is often referred to in terms of our eternal inheritance in the heavenlies with Christ. We find it similarly in Eph. 1:3-6; after speaking of our being blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, made holy and without blame before Him (only fully realized in the eternal state), and made the children of God according to the good pleasure of His will, the apostle bows in humble adoration:"To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has taken us into favor [or a position of grace] in the Beloved" (JND).
It is through the knowledge of His grace that we develop the holy boldness to come into God’s presence with our petitions and worship. And it is through the appreciation of all that His grace has given to us for time and eternity that we are led to devote our lives to His service. The apostle Paul, who at one time persecuted the church of God, claims, "By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all:yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:9,10).
God the Son, equally with the Father, was characterized by mercy and grace. Often needy people cried to Him for mercy (Matt. 9:27; 15:22; 17:15). And He is referred to as "a merciful and faithful high priest" (Heb. 2:17) in His present resurrected and glorified position. The people "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth" (Luke 4:22). John declared that He was "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Paul testified, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). And the Bible closes with the prayer, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (Rev. 22:21).
Believers in Christ are exhorted to be merciful (Matt. 5:7; Luke 6:36; Col. 3:12). But the real secret of the Christian’s spiritual success, as intimated in Rev. 22:21 quoted above, lies in being filled with the appreciation of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and allowing that same grace to flow out of our own lives. Our lips are to minister grace unto the hearers (Eph. 4:29), and our speech is to be always "with grace, seasoned with salt" (Col. 4:6). We are to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord (Col. 3:16). We are exhorted, along with Timothy, to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:1) rather than in any natural abilities. All are to minister their spiritual gifts "one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10).
At the close of his second epistle, the apostle Peter exhorts the believers to "grow . . . in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." But knowledge alone does not give power for a godly life. So it is fitting that he includes before knowledge, "Grow in grace." The Lord wants us to grow in our understanding of His infinite grace toward us, and correspondingly to grow in the manifestation of that grace one to another. May our hearts be challenged by this and may we examine ourselves as to the extent to which we are really growing in grace.