The Lord God does not owe us anything! While it is certainly true that God is good, that doesn’t imply or mandate, as some false teachers would promote, that we, as sinful, rebellious humanity, rightfully deserve anything from HIM, a holy and righteous Lord! However, every day that one lives is actually an act of God’s mercy!
Lamentations 3:22-23 declares,
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses (mercy in the Hebrew text) indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
Accordingly, our Lord has an inexhaustible abundance of mercy that “never” ceases! Genuine (biblical) mercy is not what’s merited, but God functioning in His kindness and compassion toward humankind contrary to what is properly and rightfully deserved.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7
As an effect and result of the divine attribute … His “rich” mercy … grace (an undeserved/unearned gift of God’s favor) is bestowed as the Apostle Paul clearly and profoundly articulates.
Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor … Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:13-14
While mercy and grace are often connected spiritually, and regularly confused or treated similarly by many believers, they are definitely not the same, and for proper biblical understanding, their meanings should not be casually or intentionally interchanged. In the Scriptures (biblical text), mercy is often equated to deliverance from judgment (see Deuteronomy 4:30–31) … “Mercy triumphs over judgement” (James 2:13) … while grace is always the extending of a blessing to the non-deserving / unworthy.
In Psalm 51:1–2, after being confronted by the Prophet Nathan, King David cries out to the Lord, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Pleading for mercy is asking the Lord to show His loving-kindness and to withhold whatever judgment is deserved.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
IS THERE ANY GOD LIKE OUR GOD?
Please study these verses:
Hebrews 4:16, James 3:17, 1 Peter 1:3,
1 Peter 2:10, Jude 1:12 Jude 1:21-23
His and Yours, Because of GRACE (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense)
PF
