The Mercy of God

Smooth. Sly. Shameless.
"I didn't mean to do it, she gave it to me and I had some."
Cunning. Confident. Concealing.
"I know what you said, but when I saw it, it looked so appealing and I wanted to be as wise as you, I had to have it."
Determined. Deceitful. Damned.
"You must not touch it or you will die."

"Where are you? Who told you that you are naked?"

"cursed are you above the livestock"
"I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth"
"cursed is the ground because of you"

Mercy is the motus operendi of grace. If grace is defined as getting what we don't deserve instead of what we do deserve, then mercy is the driving force behind that gift. Some have said that the attribute of mercy found in men is a weak and an undesirable trait that needs to be weeded out if men are to be strong. Mercy is for the weak. That sentence describes the whole of the message of Jesus. Mercy is not for the weak, it is for the dead.

For we are all weak. Actually, the bible says that we are all dead in our sins. Dead to the spiritual aspect of life that would bring us to Christ. " As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,"
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions...it is by grace you have been saved."
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God"
"remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world."
So if we were dead, how were we made alive? Dead people can't get out of the grave by themselves. Dead people can't will themselves back to life. How can a dead person become alive?

The patient lies in the hospital bed. All the machines and tubes have been disconnected and turned off. Doctors and nurses alike tell of how there was nothing they could do. There was nothing that the patient could do. All is lost. All is cold. All is dark.

Then a hand reaches up and gently pushes open the door. The sounds of footsteps lightly echo throughout the cold and quiet room as they come closer and closer until they are at the bedside. The same hand that opened the door reaches out and pulls back the sheet to reveal the lifeless shell on the mattress. Eyes piercing yet becoming wjudgmentears, mouth of judgement now speaks words of mercy. Live. Live! LIVE! The power of God awakens the person to the reality of Jesus and the reality of eternity. With or without the blood of the Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

Mercy motivating grace. God reaching out his hand to a people who have slapped him in the face with their own. He could have left us to our own fate. He could have chosen to not send his son to die. And he would have been justified in doing so. Yet we come to the cross and we see a man hanging there. Bloodied, beaten, shamed, spit on, mocked, abandoned by men. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Mercy is for the weak. No. God's mercy is for the dead. How's your pulse?