Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church
God is merciful. The mercy of God is the undeserved compassion and kindness toward those in a pitiable and helpless condition. God’s mercy shows itself when He withholds punishment and wrath from those who rightly deserve it because of sin. Mercy cannot be earned. No one deserves mercy. But everyone is in a state of needing mercy because of the lost and pitiable condition of mankind. Simply: mercy is God’s wondrous and undeserved kindness and benevolence toward the needy.
No wonder the Bible says you must praise God for his mercy (Rom 15.9). Indeed, God is rich in mercy (Eph.2.4). No wonder we should pause and praise the exceeding kindnesses of God. He is lavish in such benevolence to needy and lost souls like us.
God’s very own character is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth (Psalm 86:15). This astonishes our souls because we realize we are those conceived, born and living in such a miserable, lost and hopeless condition in our sin that we have nothing to claim from God. No merits of our own can save us. Due to sin and depravity, mankind sinks low in lost, wretched, and hopeless conditions. But Jesus entered as the merciful and faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2.17). All this bubbles forth from the very nature of God — God is full of compassion and merciful (James 5.11).
That God has not cast me and you into the punishment of eternal fire due to our sin is simply because of the abundant mercy of God. We were sinking low, heading to hell, lost in our spiritual blindness, unable and unwinding to choose God and yet He had benevolence and mercy toward us. This should result in your praise and worship because according to God’s great mercy He caused you to be born again (1 Peter 1.3). And though you were not a people of God, He has now given you mercy (1 Peter 2.10). His mercy is more than your sin and able to save and secure and glorify the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1.13-16). If God has shown mercy to you, then He calls you to show mercy toward others. Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy (Matthew 5.7). Be merciful as your Father is merciful (Luke 6.36).
Lost sinners must hurry to the mercy of Christ! Sinking down in rebellion and sin, with no hope of their own, sinners must cry out for mercy. Just like the blind men who had nothing to claim and nothing to offer in their pitiable state, they simply cried out for Christ’s mercy and they received it (Matt 9.27). Hallelujah for the tender mercy of Christ that seeks and saves the hopeless and helpless. Pause and praise God for his “great mercies” (Psalm 119.156) and “faithful mercies” (Isa 55.3). Truly He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” (2 Cor.1.3). This should produce wonder and ignite worship to the Savior of our souls!
