The Mercy of God.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 43, No. 10, October 1904.
Mercy is that benevolence or kindness of heart or disposition which induces a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender with greater forbearance or clemency than he deserves. The disposition of man as he is born into this world is enmity against God. His heart is evil continually. The fruit of his character is perpetually evil. Being a corrupt tree he cannot bring forth good fruit. He not only will not please God, having no desire to do so, but he positively cannot please him, having no moral ability to do so, for it is declared that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Whatever he receives, therefore, instead of deserved punishment for his evil disposition and corrupt conduct, is a matter of mercy.The universalist contends that every sinner is punished as much as he deserves for all his sins. According to this theory, God shows mercy to none, for no one is treated any better than he deserves to be treated. The Arminian contends that God has proposed to save sinners if they comply with the conditions of salvation. According to this theory, God shows mercy to none, for those who are saved (supposing any should be), having complied with the conditions, are treated no better than they should be. It is only on the plan of God's grace that mercy can be displayed in the salvation of sinners. Grace finds no merit in the sinner for he has none. He cannot be saved by punishment as the Universalist teaches, nor can he be saved by conditions as the Arminian teaches. It is through the channel of rich mercy only that sinners can be saved from a yawning hell and admitted into a pure and peaceful heaven.
Justice would have cut off the guilty forever from any hope of salvation, but mercy prepared a substitute to receive the crimes of those who are to be saved, so that by the satisfaction of justice, mercy is displayed. Thus mercy flows to the undeserving, to those who are deserving of nothing but punishment for their sins. The taking of their guilt from them and laying it upon Christ, was purely an act of rich mercy. His dying for them, the just for the unjust, is the only work that releases them. That work does release them as effectually and really as the payment of a given amount of indebtedness by another, releases the debtor. Since there could be no remission of sins without the shedding of the blood of Christ, or the laying down of his life, that secures the remission of sins. All who are ever reconciled to God are reconciled by the death of his Son. This could not be if he did not die for them; if he did die for them it must be - it will be.
It is declared that God is rich in mercy. It required all the riches of God's mercy to save sinners. We can no more fathom the riches of his mercy than we can the depth of his love. The infinite magnitude of sin requires infinite mercy to remove it from the sinner and liberate him from its deserving punishment. This is true of even one sin. When we think of all the sins of all the countless thousands for whom Christ suffered, we can see why it is so necessary that the mercy of God be infinitely rich.
The mercy of God is displayed and extended in a sovereign way. He declares in his word, "I will have mercy on whom I will I have mercy." That is, his own sovereign pleasure is the sole origin and channel of his mercy. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Neither the will nor the exertions of sinners is the occasion for the exercise of God's mercy. The whole matter of having mercy upon sinners is with God alone, independent of influence or control. The thing formed, no matter what its pretensions or station may be, cannot say to him that formed it, "Why hast thou made me thus, or why hast thou dealt thus with me?"
It is the pleasure and purpose of God to have continual mercy upon his chosen and redeemed people. Of them he says, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins will I remember no more." There is no end to this promise, no limitation of its extent, no cessation of its effects. It flows on and on and on, widening to embrace all the sins of all his people for all time. Through its wide and deep channel they will all be received ultimately, purified and glorified with Christ, to dwell with him forever and see him as he is.
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart,
Dissolved by thy sunshine I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I found.
Thy mercy in Jesus exempts me from hell;
Its glories I'll sing and its wonders I'll tell;
"Twas Jesus alone, when he hung on the tree,
Who opened the channel of mercy for me.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
