I am thinking about mercy this week. Mercy is unique. Mercy given must be received by the one who needs it. If we don’t receive it, we stay under condemnation. We stay in our guilt. And yet, many who need mercy refuse to admit that they do.
Why do we need mercy? We need mercy because of sin. Sin makes us lost. Being lost makes us separated from God. Without God there is no lasting life or truth. Without truth we sin again and again. It is a circle from which we cannot escape.
Mercy breaks the circle. Mercy inserts a miracle into the natural order. Mercy gives the condemned access to freedom. Mercy shows the lost God.
“So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” – Romans 9:16
God has declared that everyone who sins is separated from Him. He declares in the same breath that everyone has sinned. (Romans 3:23) So, what is our hope? Our hope is His mercy. It is God’s wonderful mercy that has stepped in and saved us. As Paul declares in Romans 9:16, “it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
What we could not do, God did. We needed mercy, but instead we tried to make ourselves better on our own. This led to an impossible legalism or hypocrisy. What was God waiting for? Why didn’t he save us when we tried really hard? He didn’t save us because saving us is not about just sprucing us up or making us a little better. Saving us is about transformation. To be transformed we must admit our need. He is waiting for us to admit that we need mercy. Admitting we need mercy involves both asking for help and being desperate enough to lean completely on Him.
When we admit our need for mercy, mercy comes. God transforms us. The question should really be: what are we waiting for?
Something to think about,
Pastor John
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