Mercy and grace

And truth

On Wednesday nights at church I’ve been in a class that’s going through the minor prophets, Hosea through Malachi. But because of all my traveling I’ve missed a few, so I’m just reading through them on my own.

Not gonna lie, I don’t understand a lot of it except to say that these guys were prophets during the reigns of certain kings of Judah and Israel, when the Jews’ behavior was less than stellar. And if you know anything about their history at all, you know it was one big ongoing loop of sin, consequences, and repentance, ad nauseam.

So God sent prophets to warn his people about what was going to happen if they continued in their sin. They ignored the prophets, and things went on like they always had. It’s hard to believe this kept on for hundreds of years and they did not pick up on the pattern. They never saw the big picture. It reminds me of me.

But they didn’t, and so the cycle persisted, even though God gave them every opportunity to follow him instead of their own desires.

Today I got to the end of Micah’s prophecy of gloom and doom where he switched to praising God for his mercy. Micah wrote this about the Lord:

… he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

God delights in mercy. He does not delight in harsh consequences. He would much rather be merciful. God gave his people every opportunity to turn back to him with hearts full of trust. He warned them about the consequences of continuing their pursuit of their own selfish lusts. He tried. He preferred to show them mercy, but they thumbed their noses at him and went on their wicked ways.

Micah continued:

… he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities …

That’s what God wanted. That’s what he still wants for us today. He would rather show us compassion and be full of mercy. That’s his desire. It’s who God is.

Then Micah speaks this directly to God:

Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

And those two words—mercy and truth—jumped out at me. Since I just finished reading the New Testament in August, I remembered John saying in chapter 1,

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Mercy and truth. Grace and truth.

And I thought it was interesting that God the Father is associated with mercy and truth. He is the Judge of all, meaning he upholds truth and also has the prerogative to give mercy. Mercy is when we don’t get the negative consequences we deserve. God has the power to not give us what we deserve. He has the right to pardon.

Jesus the Son, the one who came to provide the payment for our sins, is associated with grace and truth. He is 100% God so he also upholds truth. But he is at the same time 100% man who identifies with our frailties because he experienced them in his own body. The Bible says “he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” and so he was able to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He bought our forgiveness for us, so he is able to offer us grace. Grace is when we get the good that we don’t deserve. We haven’t earned it. We don’t merit it, yet Jesus gives it anyway—a free gift. That’s grace.

Mercy and truth. They go together in God’s character.

Grace and truth. They came together in Jesus.

And don’t we need them both?