I like racing, so I like fast analogies. Let’s say you’re driving 100 mph in a 50 mph zone and you get pulled over. The officer does not give you a ticket, that is mercy. You did not get what you deserved. Now lets take the same scenario. You get pulled over for speeding and the officer gives you a thousand dollars for speeding, That is Grace. You received what you did not deserve. Mercy is when we don’t get what we deserve. Grace is when we get what we don’t deserve.
To live as the Bible Teaches is to love people who don’t deserve it. To pray for people who we dont like, and to give mercy to those who deserve punishment. We then become ambassadors for God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” What is the message of reconciliation? It is not counting their sins against them. In John 20 Jesus says who ever you forgive I forgive. We have the power to forgive anyone or the power to retain their sins. We aren’t God, but he has called us sons. The son of God became the son of man, so the son’s of men can become son’s of God
We fall short of our own expectations; we don’t need religion to tell us that we really aren’t all that good. We all have had to say “i’m sorry” or “I was wrong”. Jesus came and did what no one could ever do. He kept the Law. He declared God’s law is good. then offered himself as the answer to the question no one else could answer; “Now that i’ve messed up, what do i do?” What the rules and the rule givers could not do, Jesus did by laying down his life as the full and final sacrifice for sin. Christ’s death and resurrection signaled to the world that the kingdom of God is not reserved for good people. It is reserved for forgiven people.
I don’t believe that when we stand before God he will point his finger and say “You showed way to much mercy!” “You should have not forgiven that person.” “You didn’t judge enough”, or “you loved that person to much.” We should follow Jesus’ example towards others because He has given us Undeserved, unmerited, unexpected, unbelievable grace because of his love and mercy towards us.
Love God, Love People 