Merciful!

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7 ESV).

We are a people of second chances. Even when it’s hard, we are prone to forgive those who sin against us, hoping that maybe they will treat us differently the next time. We give our children chance after chance after chance to obey. Second chances, in many ways, are built into our souls. We want them for ourselves and we grant them to others. And, second chances are often God’s means of providing mercy to his people. God is merciful. He is infinitely, unchangeably compassionate and kind. In our reading today, the Apostle Paul, writing to Titus, uses lavish words to describe the mercy God has shown toward us. He also is clear about the truth that it is nothing we deserved, nor earned. In his letter to the church at Rome he wrote: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." (Romans 9:15-16). As noted above, God’s mercy is inseparable from his justness. He is infinitely, unchangeably, unfailingly merciful; and, he is forgiving, lovingly kind toward us. He is inexhaustibly, actively compassionate. His mercy is also undeserved by us. Without the mercy of God, we would have no hope of eternal life. Because of our disobedient hearts, we deserve death. “For all have sinned and fall short glory of God,” and, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23). But because of mercy, we don’t get what we deserve. Instead, because of the mercy of God, we get life through faith in Christ. A. W. Tozer writes this about the mercy of God: “As judgment is God’s justice confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe. No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.” I can sleep easily knowing that this wonderful mighty God, creator of all things, shows me mercy through the grace in Christ. This is His character!