The attributes of God

The Mercy of God

An attribute of God · Exodus 34:6

The mercy of God means that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but bends toward the miserable with compassion and help. Mercy is love meeting misery. Where justice gives what is owed, mercy withholds the punishment we have earned and gives the kindness we have not. God proclaims his own name as merciful and gracious, and his mercies are new every morning.

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,Exodus 34:6 (KJV)

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,Ephesians 2:4 (KJV)

What the mercy of God means

Mercy is the goodness of God directed toward those in misery and guilt. It is not the same as grace, though the two are close. Grace looks at us as guilty and gives us a gift we do not deserve; mercy looks at us as wretched and spares us the ruin we do deserve. Mercy is why we are not consumed. It is compassion with power to help, pity that acts.

When God passed before Moses and proclaimed his own name, the first words out of the mouth of God about himself were merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. This is remarkable. Asked to describe himself, God begins with mercy. It is not a reluctant concession wrung from a stern deity; it flows from the center of who he is. Paul calls him the Father of mercies, and says he is rich in mercy, a wealth he loves to spend on the poor in spirit.

How the Bible reveals it

The story of Scripture is a story of mercy. God spares Cain, marks him, and lets him live. He preserves a remnant through the flood. He bears with a stubborn people in the wilderness for forty years, feeding them daily bread they did not deserve. The prophets plead with a nation racing toward judgment, because God is slow to anger and quick to relent. When Jonah is angry that Nineveh is spared, God defends his own mercy: should I not spare that great city.

In the Psalms mercy becomes a refrain: his mercy endureth for ever, sung line after line. Jeremiah, sitting in the ashes of a ruined city, finds hope in it: It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not; they are new every morning. Jesus told of a father who ran to a returning prodigal, of a tax collector who cried God be merciful to me a sinner and went home justified. Mercy is the heartbeat of the gospel.

Common misunderstandings

Some treat mercy as though it made sin unimportant, as if God simply overlooks what we do. But mercy never pretends sin does not matter; it costs God dearly to be merciful. Mercy does not ignore the debt; it pays it. The measure of how seriously God takes sin is not the absence of the cross but the presence of it.

Others fear they have sinned too far, that mercy has a limit their case exceeds. Scripture answers that his mercies are new every morning and his compassions fail not. There is no sin so great that the mercy of God in Christ is not greater. And some presume upon mercy, treating it as license, sinning freely because grace abounds. But true mercy received softens the heart and turns it from sin; it does not harden it in sin. To know you have been spared much is to love much.

Why the mercy of God is good news

Every one of us stands in need of mercy, for all have sinned. If God dealt with us strictly, none could stand. But he has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Mercy is the door through which the guilty may come home. It means the past does not have the last word, that failure is not final, that there is a way back for the worst of us.

Because God is rich in mercy, the gospel can be preached to anyone. No history disqualifies you, no record is beyond his compassion. The Father runs to meet the son while he is yet a great way off. To throw yourself on the mercy of God is the safest thing a sinner can do, for he delights in mercy and will in no wise cast out any who come to him.

How the mercy of God is seen in Jesus Christ

Jesus is the mercy of God with a face and hands. The crowds who could not reach the temple could reach him, and blind men by the road cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me, and he stopped and gave sight. He was moved with compassion for the harassed and helpless, and healed them. He forgave the woman caught in sin and the thief on the cross. Not one who asked for mercy was turned away.

And at the cross mercy and justice met. There God did not simply waive the debt; he paid it in his own Son, so that he could be both just and the justifier of the one who believes. The mercy seat of the old tabernacle, where blood was sprinkled, was only a picture of Calvary, where the true and lasting mercy of God was poured out. In Jesus, the mercy of God is not a distant hope but a present gift, offered to you today.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Grace of God · The Love of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God