“... God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Luke 18:13
After my time of prayer and devotion this morning...
Luke 18:13
After my time of prayer and devotion this morning...
...the Lord showed me that I need to talk just a little more about His mercy.
Basically, God’s mercy is His “unmerited favor,” meaning there is nothing anyone can ever do to earn mercy or favor from the Lord. The Bible says we are all sinners, and there is no one who is righteous apart from the righteousness that Christ feely gives us. We cannot do good deeds to earn favor with God for salvation. We cannot, through human effort, work our way into God’s good graces. Many people believe we can, but the Bible does not teach this at all.
The Bible clearly explains that man is a lost sinner and can only be forgiven by placing his faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, by His willing death, paid the full price for all our sins. Thus, salvation is a free gift to all who come to Christ.
Many people, however, look at the sins of others and see people like myself, with my wretched criminal past, and they think, “Oh, I’m not as bad as that guy.” They falsely think that, because they’re “not such a bad person” by their own standards, or because they’ve never committed a serious crime or taken another person’s life, that God somehow sees them as deserving of His mercy, while a more outwardly wicked person would not be. These are the people who, regrettably, have a hard time understanding that a murderer, or serial killer, or any other kind of criminal for that matter, can be completely forgiven.
Again, I feel it is so important to mention that in God’s eyes, the entire human race is under sin – condemned to be separated from God for all eternity. Each one of us had done wrong in our lives. We have lied, cheated, gossiped, stolen, and had hateful and impure thoughts toward others. Any one of these sins can damn a person to hell, as surely as the sin of murder.
And since we are all sinners, even though the sins of some are worse by society’s standards than others, we must all appeal to God for His mercy so that we may be forgiven and our sins not held against us. This puts ALL people on the same plane, and ALL of us are equal before the eyes of the Lord. We are ALL sinners, and therefore we ALL need Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus that literally means “God’s Salvation.”
People who see themselves as deserving of salvation, but who cannot believe a murderer can be forgiven, are really looking at this subject from their own limited human intellect, not from God’s perspective or through His eyes. In a sense, these people are robbing Jesus Christ of His ability to “save...to the uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). They are saying that God’s power to forgive ALL sin is limited, because in their eyes there are certain sins He cannot forgive. This is an affront to the One who is all-powerful and all-sovereign. These people are actually trying to tell God what He can or can’t do.
Furthermore, by thinking along these lines, people are trying to steal God’s glory. Why? Because according to the Bible, God does get a certain amount of glory for Himself when He grants mercy to and forgives the worst of sinners.
So think about what I am saying. No one can merit God’s favor. None of us can put himself above someone else. This is what the self-righteous, religious leaders tried to do when they looked down in contempt at the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, but Jesus stepped in and set them straight, telling the women what He forgave her and then instructing her to “go, and sin no more” (John 8:1-11).
Likewise, the man who was a tax collector, but who begged for God’s forgiveness, is another example (Luke 18:10-14). Yes, this dishonest crook understood that his life was an abomination to God, so he beat his chest as an outward act of repentance and cried out to God for mercy. As a result, he was forgiven, while the self-righteous, religious man in this story was not.
Is God any different today? No! Hebrews 13:8 tells us He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” He is always merciful, and this mercy is an aspect of His love for ALL creation. He does not want to see anyone miss the wonderful offer of salvation that Jesus has already paid for. And today, Christ is still showing this mercy to all who come to Him, be they repentant “criminals” or so-called “good citizens.”
As it is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT).
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NLT).
D.B.
Basically, God’s mercy is His “unmerited favor,” meaning there is nothing anyone can ever do to earn mercy or favor from the Lord. The Bible says we are all sinners, and there is no one who is righteous apart from the righteousness that Christ feely gives us. We cannot do good deeds to earn favor with God for salvation. We cannot, through human effort, work our way into God’s good graces. Many people believe we can, but the Bible does not teach this at all.
The Bible clearly explains that man is a lost sinner and can only be forgiven by placing his faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, by His willing death, paid the full price for all our sins. Thus, salvation is a free gift to all who come to Christ.
Many people, however, look at the sins of others and see people like myself, with my wretched criminal past, and they think, “Oh, I’m not as bad as that guy.” They falsely think that, because they’re “not such a bad person” by their own standards, or because they’ve never committed a serious crime or taken another person’s life, that God somehow sees them as deserving of His mercy, while a more outwardly wicked person would not be. These are the people who, regrettably, have a hard time understanding that a murderer, or serial killer, or any other kind of criminal for that matter, can be completely forgiven.
Again, I feel it is so important to mention that in God’s eyes, the entire human race is under sin – condemned to be separated from God for all eternity. Each one of us had done wrong in our lives. We have lied, cheated, gossiped, stolen, and had hateful and impure thoughts toward others. Any one of these sins can damn a person to hell, as surely as the sin of murder.
And since we are all sinners, even though the sins of some are worse by society’s standards than others, we must all appeal to God for His mercy so that we may be forgiven and our sins not held against us. This puts ALL people on the same plane, and ALL of us are equal before the eyes of the Lord. We are ALL sinners, and therefore we ALL need Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus that literally means “God’s Salvation.”
People who see themselves as deserving of salvation, but who cannot believe a murderer can be forgiven, are really looking at this subject from their own limited human intellect, not from God’s perspective or through His eyes. In a sense, these people are robbing Jesus Christ of His ability to “save...to the uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). They are saying that God’s power to forgive ALL sin is limited, because in their eyes there are certain sins He cannot forgive. This is an affront to the One who is all-powerful and all-sovereign. These people are actually trying to tell God what He can or can’t do.
Furthermore, by thinking along these lines, people are trying to steal God’s glory. Why? Because according to the Bible, God does get a certain amount of glory for Himself when He grants mercy to and forgives the worst of sinners.
So think about what I am saying. No one can merit God’s favor. None of us can put himself above someone else. This is what the self-righteous, religious leaders tried to do when they looked down in contempt at the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, but Jesus stepped in and set them straight, telling the women what He forgave her and then instructing her to “go, and sin no more” (John 8:1-11).
Likewise, the man who was a tax collector, but who begged for God’s forgiveness, is another example (Luke 18:10-14). Yes, this dishonest crook understood that his life was an abomination to God, so he beat his chest as an outward act of repentance and cried out to God for mercy. As a result, he was forgiven, while the self-righteous, religious man in this story was not.
Is God any different today? No! Hebrews 13:8 tells us He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” He is always merciful, and this mercy is an aspect of His love for ALL creation. He does not want to see anyone miss the wonderful offer of salvation that Jesus has already paid for. And today, Christ is still showing this mercy to all who come to Him, be they repentant “criminals” or so-called “good citizens.”
As it is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT).
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NLT).
D.B.