“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One last reflection from camp today, and this one will be short because we are hitting the road early. We have talked this week about having a pure heart that reflects God’s holiness, a humble heart that willingly acknowledges who God is, a trusting heart that is willing to seek God’s kingdom ahead of our own, and today we are talking about a willing heart that is ready to live in obedience to God’s command. This morning, though, I want to reflect for a few moments on yesterday’s topic: a merciful heart. Let’s go beyond the surface.

There are three attributes of God’s character that are the most primary. They are the ones from which all of His other various attributes can be derived. The first of these is His holiness. God’s holiness is itself a combination of two things: He is totally other than the rest of creation. God is one thing, a category unto Himself. The rest of creation is something else. If you want to put it another way, God is creator and creation is…well…created. The second aspect of His holiness is His moral perfection. It is not possible to understand God without grasping the nature and extent of His holiness.

The second two primary characteristics are one that can seem to be at odds with one another. The first is that God is just. This means He always does the right thing. It is from His justice that His judgment flows as well as His terrible wrath against sin and those who commit it. The second thing is that God is love. God’s love is itself a whole panoply of things including His covenantal faithfulness, His kindness, His goodness, and so on. What I want to give attention right now, though, is His mercy. God is merciful.

Defining mercy can be a little bit tricky. We might try to define it in terms of some of His other characteristics, but doing that is only so helpful. They actually gave a pretty good definition here at camp. Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

As the psalmist here celebrates, God does not give us what we deserve. He does not deal with us as our sin demands. Look at that again: “He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.”

Mercy is a very good thing. We all want mercy when we have done something wrong. While we can operate fairly cluelessly as to the real extent of our sin, when we come to understand just how grievous a thing it is—indeed, when we come to fully recognize any act our worldview holds to be wrong for what it is—there is a sense that rises up in us that grasps what we deserve for having done whatever it is. At the same time, once this realization dawns, we immediately begin grabbing wildly for any reason that we should not receive that particular punishment. We want to get off with less than we deserve. We don’t want to get what we deserve. That’s mercy. Thankfully, the God revealed in the pages of Scripture is rich in mercy.

Now, there’s a slight hole in this definition. What if we don’t get something we deserve when we have done something very good. That’s no longer mercy. It is now injustice. We are talking about times we don’t get what we deserve when what we deserve is some sort of punishment for our sinfulness.

There is still another potential problem with this definition. Just because we don’t get what we deserve when it comes to the full consequences of our sin doesn’t mean that God’s justice has been satisfied. In fact, it means just the opposite. We are escaping God’s justice by receiving mercy. How can this be, though, since God is fundamentally just?

The answer is Jesus. God can show mercy to us because Jesus has already satisfied His justice. Jesus gave up His life in our place on the cross, dying the death for sin that we deserved. His perfect sacrifice was declared acceptable by God to pay the price for our sins. This was, of course, wildly unfair, but in His mercy God allowed Jesus’ perfect life to be a substitute for our very much imperfect ones. Thus, with His justice satisfied, God is free to give us what we don’t deserve (grace) by not giving us what we deserve (mercy).

Here’s the connection point for us. If God has done this for us (and He has already; there’s no going back on it), we don’t have any legitimate reason to not do it for those around us. Whatever it is they have done, it is ultimately and primarily a sin against God. His is the first offense. Yet in Christ, His justice has been satisfied, and He has pronounced whatever it is forgivable (and indeed forgiven if it has been accepted). Because of this, all of our reasons for not showing mercy are broken and fail. Thus the heart that has been submitted to Jesus is a merciful one. Is yours?

You can’t show mercy until you’ve received it, but once you have, you don’t have any excuse for not showing it. If you name Jesus as your Savior and Lord, a merciful heart is your call and expectation. Find someone to whom you can show mercy today and get to it.