Saturday, July 7, 2012

Saturday, July 7th - mercy

Sorry for the long posts, I've just gotten carried away with how much I'm learning from these beatitudes!  This is definitely one of those passages where I thought I'd heard all about it so many times, what more could there be to learn?  When will I learn that the Word is living and active and always teaching us new things?

Today's scripture focus - part 2.
v7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
First a quick recap by MacArthur...
Matthew presents Jesus Christ as king and here we hear the king present the manifesto of His kingdom.  Now we've been saying that this is a twofold presentation.  Our Lord is telling the truth about how you enter His kingdom and how you live while you're in His kingdom.  Only the poor in spirit enter.  Only the mourners enter.  Only the meek enter.  Only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness enter.  And once they enter, they continue to be poor in spirit, mournful, meek, and hungering and thirsting after even more righteousness.

And now we come to v7.

MacArthur, in Happy are the Merciful, says...
Beloved, I would say again, it's the same twofold thing.  In order to be in God's kingdom, you must be one who seeks mercy.  And when you are in God's kingdom, you will be one who gives mercy to others....



These first four Beatitudes were entirely inner principles.  They dealt entirely with an inner attitude.  They dealt entirely with what you see of yourself before God.  But now as He comes to the fifth Beatitude, this while being also an inner attitude, begins to reach out and touch others.  There is a manifestation in this that is the fruit of the other four.  Where it is true of us that we are broken as beggars in our spirit, that we are mournful and meek and hungering and thirsting after righteousness we will find ourselves being merciful to others as a result of it.
Someone has said, "They who in their poverty of spirit acknowledge their need of mercy begin to show mercy to others.  They who mourn their sin begin while they mourn to wash their hearts clean so they are also the pure in heart.  And the meek are the ones who are always making peace.  And they who hunger and thirst for righteousness are ever willing to be persecuted for righteousness sake."  Do you see how the first four line up with the last four?  The first four are the inner attitudes and the last four are the things they manifest.  Where there is poverty of spirit, then you realize you're nothing but a beggar.  You're going to be willing to give to somebody else who's nothing but a beggar and so you'll be merciful.
And where you are mourning over your sin, you will wash your heart pure with the tears of penitence and you will be the pure in heart.  And where you are meek, you will always be a peacemaker, because meekness makes peace.  And where you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you will be willing to be persecuted for righteousness sake.  So we've made a transition now.  Now we're going to talk about the character that is manifest when that inward attitude is there in the first four Beatitudes.


Now, the verse doesn't mean literally that if we show mercy to others, others will always show mercy to us.  That didn't happen to Jesus and it won't happen to us either.

The verse means that if we show mercy to others, God will show mercy to us.

Mercy does not just mean forgiveness.  Mercy and forgiveness are definitely linked.  Out of mercy flows forgiveness.  But mercy is more than just forgiveness. Other things are associated with mercy....

Forgiveness flows out of mercy and mercy flows out of love.  They are all connected, even though they are all different.  It depends on the need, it depends on the circumstance.

Mercy and grace are also connected.  Mercy  always deal with elements of pain and misery and distress.  Always the result of sin... It deals with the pain and the misery and the distress.  But grace deals with the sin itself.
Mercy deals with the symptoms, grace deals with the problem.  You see mercy offers relief from punishment.  Grace offers pardon for the crime.  You understand?  First comes grace and grace removes the sin and then mercy eliminates the punishment... Mercy and grace are different.  Mercy eliminates the pain and grace grants a better condition...Mercy takes away the pain and grace gives a better condition.  Mercy says no hell, grace says heaven.  Mercy says I pity you.  Grace says I pardon you.  So mercy and grace are two sides of the same marvelous thing.  And God offers mercy and grace. 

Then there's also mercy and justice.  Mercy doesn't cancel out justice.  God had to send Jesus to take our punishment on our behalf so that justice would be served and mercy could be offered when we confess, repent and turn from our sin.

Mercy  is more than forgiveness.  It is less than love.  It is different than grace.  And it is one with justice.  It is more than forgiveness, less than love, different than grace, and one with justice. 

mercy is not a normal human attribute.  You'll never make it happen.  It doesn't work.  You be merciful to people and they'll be merciful to you.  Don't believe it.  Now and then some might, but that is not a normal human attribute.  The only way to be a merciful person is to have within you the God given mercy.  And the only way to have God given mercy is to have the righteousness of God that comes through Christ and that's what Jesus is saying.  Unless you come by this path to the place of hungering and thirsting for righteousness and you be filled by God, you'll never know mercy because mercy is part of His filling..... when God gives us His righteousness with it comes a capacity for mercy.

We can show mercy to people physically when we help meet their needs.

We can show mercy to people spiritually by looking at the lost with pity, by mourning lost souls, instead of thinking of ourselves as better than them.  We can also show mercy spiritually by prodding people, by confronting them with their sin so they might accept the gospel of salvation.  And we show mercy by praying for people.

One more thought about mercy.  Showing mercy to others is not what saves us. God doesn't save us because we've been merciful - that would be salvation by works.  Rather, showing mercy to others is proof or evidence of our salvation.  If we are not merciful to those around us, we need to question whether we are really saved.  Mercy is evidence of salvation.

1 comment:

Miriam said...

Great explanation of the difference between mercy and grace. Always wondered about that.