Daily Devotional For Saturday, August 24, 2024

Congratulations. You made it to the weekend. It’s Saturday – Kickback, rest, recover and relax Saturday. Yesterday, we looked at the Beatitude in Matthew 5:7,  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (NASB). Maybe you know but mercy and forgiveness are opposite sides of the same coin. And to gain a better understanding of mercy, we need to do some comparisons first. Mercy has a lot in common with forgiveness, but it also has its own distinctiveness. Look at Titus 3:5, “He (Jesus) saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (NASB).

Now what does Titus 3:5 tell us? God forgives us our sins due to His mercy, but mercy is bigger than this. Why? Because God is merciful to us even when we continue to sin. This is why we can be merciful to others. God’s forgiveness is not limited to just our sin, but it includes our failures, mistakes, weaknesses, short-comings and even our needs. I love how Lamentations 3:22 puts it: “The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail” (NASB). Meaning — God never stops showing mercy to His children. Never.

Forgiveness flows out of mercy and mercy flows out of love. This is the point of Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (NASB). Just like mercy is more than forgiveness, love is more than mercy. Because God is love (1 John 4:8), His love never ceases even when we are doing the right thing. We do not receive God’s love, mercy and forgiveness because we are sinners. We receive God’s love, mercy and forgiveness because God is love. His love has its natural outcome: mercy. And His mercy has as its natural outcome: forgiveness. 

Read pastor and author John MacArthur’s comments below to see if they help you understand the difference between God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness:

“Mercy is the physician; love is the friend. Mercy acts because of need; love acts because of affection, whether there is need or not. Mercy is reserved for times of trouble; love is constant. There can be no true mercy apart from love, but there can be true love apart from mercy. Mercy and its related terms all have to do with pain, misery, and distress—with the consequences of sin. 

Whether because of our individual sins or because of the sinful world in which we live, all of our problems, in the last analysis, are sin problems. It is with those problems that mercy gives help. Grace, on the other hand, deals with sin itself. Mercy deals with the symptoms, grace with the cause. Mercy offers relief from punishment; grace offers pardon for the crime. Mercy eliminates the pain; grace cures the disease.

When the good Samaritan bound up the wounds of the man who had been beaten and robbed, he showed mercy. When he took him to the nearest inn and paid for his lodging until he was well, he showed grace. His mercy relieved the pain; his grace provided for healing. Mercy relates to the negative; grace relates to the positive. In relation to salvation, mercy says, “No hell,” whereas grace says, “Heaven.” Mercy says, “I pity you”; grace says, “I pardon you.” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 191).

But some of you might be thinking or asking, “Okay, I get that but what about justice?” Mercy is in the same family as justice. They are related to one another even though some might think they are incompatible. Justice makes sure the punishment fits the crime. Whereas mercy gives us punishment and more help that justice says is deserved. This is why this confuses many people with God. They ask, “Well, how can God be both just and merciful at the same time?” If God is completely just, should He now punish sin accordingly? And if God is merciful, doesn’t it seem God is vacating His justice for mercy?” The truth is God never gives mercy without some punishment for our sin. And if God offered mercy without punishment, that would mean God does not show mercy and His justice is simply cruel.

Mercy that ignores sin and punishment is not mercy. It is a false or pseudo-mercy. We see this in 1 Kings 15, when King Saul first showed mercy to King Agag rather than killing him in battle as God told him to do. Another example of false mercy is the kind King David showed to his rebellious son Absalom and it cost David temporarily his throne and only encouraged and reinforced Absalom’s rebellion and sin.

We see this today in our own “justice system.” Criminals are freed because it seems to be cruel and harsh to punish these “victims.”This is what I call “cheap grace” and it is not merciful because it offers no punishment nor pardon for sin. And this position leaves the person still in their sin. To cancel justice is to also cancel mercy. To ignore sin is to deny the truth, and mercy and truth are inseparable. That is the point of Psalm 88:10, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (KJV).

To expect God to be merciful and forgive us of our sin without confession of one’s sin and repentance is to mock the love, mercy, forgiveness and justice of God. And churches that give hope to people about God’s mercy without a call for repentance is blasphemous. It is to give them a false hope and a false Gospel. If we think we can get God to give us mercy without confessing our sin and repenting from our sin is to overlook the price Christ paid on the cross. When we do not come to Christ on His terms, we cannot expect mercy from Him.

God’s mercy is grounded in God’s love and as well as His justice. God’s mercy is not grounded in some sentimental, emotional and psychological mumbo-jumbo. God’s mercy is grounded in the atoning sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ, which paid the penalty and met and paid for  God’s justice for sin. This cleanses the believer from their sin and here is the biblical truth — even the slightest sin in our opinion would still leave us lost in our sin, separated from God and on our way to Hell. 

Because Jesus Christ paid God’s price tag for our indebted sin, then Jesus Christ’s love and death satisfied God’s justice. The blunt truth of the Gospel is that God does not wink at sin, nor does He gloss over sin and He will not tolerate at all any of us compromising on God’s holy righteousness. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” and it was. This is why John MacArthur writes this:

 “Mercy, therefore, is more than forgiveness and less than love. It is different from grace and is one with justice. And what is true of God’s mercy should be true of ours” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, p. 193).

New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton writes these words about Matthew 5:7:

“Merciful people realize that, because they received mercy from God, they must extend mercy to others. The word “merciful” implies generosity, forgiveness, and compassion, and it includes a desire to remove the wrong as well as alleviate the suffering” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 79).

New Testament scholar Dougas Sean O’Donnell writes this great summary for us in quoting others:

“The first four beatitudes (vv. 3–6) basically say, “Blessed is the one who thinks little of himself or thinks enough of himself that he knows he shouldn’t think much of himself. Blessed are those who know they are spiritually poor and thus are meek before God and others. Blessed are those who know their sins, mourn over them, and long for a time when they won’t be weighed down by them.”

Those are the first four beatitudes, what one scholar calls “beatitudes of need” (Source: Daniel Coriani, The Sermon On The Mount, p. 17).  We need God. The last four beatitudes are “beatitudes of action,” (Ibid) that are pleasing to God because they are lovingly helpful to others (cf. 7:12)” (Source: Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, p. 114).

Questions To Consider

1. Today we talked about how we cannot and will not receive mercy from God if we are unwilling to give it to others. Would you say that you are a person who gives mercy to others consistently? Why or why not?
2. Giving mercy does not always mean the absence of punishment or justice. But when we have mercy, we are even merciful to and with the person as they undergo their punishment or justice rendered. When have you been part of something where punishment or justice was rendered either to you or someone else but mercy was also given? What difference did that make if any and why?
3. We are now in the Beatitudes of action. Who in the next few days can you give mercy to as a way to share Jesus Christ with them? As you think about this person, what or how is the best way for you to give them mercy?

Scripture To Meditate On: Micah 6:8, He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, this is an area where I am very merciful to the people I love and know, but to others I do not know, well, that is another story. Jesus, I know that you give me mercy every day and I do not deserve it. Please help me to give to others mercy, what you give to me daily. I love you Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly