Vessels of Mercy
TCF Sermon
May 6, 2012
“Drink tonight. Feel better tomorrow. That would be a miracle. Well, meet a miracle.”
That’s the advertising message for a drink which is marketed as a hangover preventative - it’s supposed to enable you to consume alcoholic beverages, even to excess, actually, especially to excess, and not have to deal with that nasty aftereffect called a hangover.
I’m not kidding. And neither is this company, even though they use this play on words to sell their product. Here’s some of the ad pitch on their website.
You like to drink, but don’t like to suffer? Good. You’ve come to the right place. Mercy is a gift from heaven that prevents hell. Here’s what it’s all about. Mercy is a non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated (drink) proven to protect your body as it processes alcohol. It actually gives a safe, natural boost to your body’s defenses, and flushes your system of (the toxin) that causes your hangover. In other words, the toxin is the devil. Mercy is the angel. And with Mercy as your angel, you get some real health benefits, and no hangover symptoms. And that, fellow hangover-haters, is the miracle of Mercy.
How much Mercy (the drink that is) should you have? Well, they tell us that depends on how much alcohol you consume, but they recommend one can of Mercy for every five alcoholic beverages.
They also don’t recommend more than three cans in any 24-hour period, and helpfully add that, “If you are drinking responsibly, that’s all the Mercy you’ll need to have.”
Now – my math says that one can of Mercy for five drinks, multiplied by three cans in any 24-hour period means 15 drinks. And that’s “drinking responsibly.” I’d hate to see what drinking irresponsibly looks like.
Now, this sermon-opening look at a cultural view of mercy is not meant at all to rag on people who drink, even to excess. It’s certainly not to alert you to a product that can help you drink more alcohol than you should. In fact, did you ever think that, with the way God designed our bodies, the hangover is the real mercy, and God uses it to slap us upside the head and say “don’t drink so much!”
The reason for this opening illustration is to introduce our theme for this morning by helping us understand how our culture views mercy, how we may view mercy, and comparing that to the biblical view of mercy.
It’s clear from the play on words that this company uses to market their product, that they understand at least this much: mercy has a divine origin. Paraphrasing their marketing pitch might sound something like this: You like to sin, but you don’t like to suffer. Mercy is a gift from heaven that keeps us from hell.
In fact, in Romans 9:23, we see mercy identified as one of the most dominant themes in the whole salvation narrative. In that verse, those who are saved are called “vessels of mercy.” That’s us – as followers of Christ, we’re vessels of mercy.
For me, the study of this theme began as I thought of the number of times we see the word mercy used right alongside the word grace in Scripture. In several of Paul’s greetings in his letters to different New Testament churches, we see him write something like he wrote in
2 Timothy 1:2 (ESV) 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Grace and mercy are so often seen together in scripture, so I wondered, what’s the difference between the two? Surely, if there are two different words used, there must be some difference in their meaning.
So I began to study biblical uses of the two words. First, we see how prevalent both are in scripture. Grace, of course, is the unmerited favor of God toward us – His creation. Grace in the New Testament is the Greek word charis, from which we get the English words charismatic, charisma, charity and more. One Bible dictionary defines this Greek term for grace like this:
Grace: particularly that which causes joy, pleasure, gratification, favor, acceptance, for a kindness granted or desired, a benefit, thanks, gratitude. A favor done without expectation of return; the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the Giver; unearned and unmerited favor. Cháris stands in direct antithesis to works, the two being mutually exclusive. God's grace affects man's sinfulness and not only forgives the repentant sinner, but brings joy and thankfulness to him. It changes the individual to a new creature without destroying his individuality (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:8, 9). Complete Word Study Dictionary
God’s grace is a consistent theme throughout scripture, especially tied to redemption.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Mercy is also a consistent theme we see throughout the Word of God. Mercy is tied inseparably to compassion and lovingkindness and forgiveness. In fact, we cannot understand God’s dealings with people, without having a grasp of mercy.
So, as I continued to ponder these themes, I began to spend more time with mercy than with grace, because it seems we don’t consider mercy in our study and teaching, as often as we do grace. Mercy is a quality of the nature of God.
Even in judgment and discipline, God’s mercy can be seen and hoped for… for it is part of the basic disposition of love toward His people, and it directs his actions ultimately in ways that benefit His people. Baker Theological Dictionary
Mercy is a personal characteristic of care for the needs of others. The biblical concept of mercy always involves help to those who are in need or distress. This help covers many different themes in Scripture, from assistance in finding a bride, to God’s forgiveness of sin. Because of this, many different words are used in the original languages to express these concepts, and an even wider vocabulary is found in English translations. Holman Bible Dictionary
One Hebrew word sometimes translated as mercy is used 245 times in the Old Testament, 127 times in the Psalms. The translators of the Greek Old Testament often used the Greek word for mercy to translate this word, but when translated into English, it was translated in various ways in addition to mercy, that help us understand the richness of the concept of mercy.
The KJV regularly translates this word as mercy or kindness, but other English versions render it as “steadfast love” or “lovingkindness” or “loyalty” or “constant love”, unfailing love or faithfulness.
So, when we see even secular businesses marketing a product designed to help someone escape the consequences of sinful behavior, as with the Mercy drink we talked about at the beginning of this message, we have to grant that even unbelievers can have an innate, rudimentary, though often twisted, understanding of mercy.
The world also has an innate, but also sometimes twisted, understanding of justice and injustice. We have a natural, built-in sense when something seems wrong, or unjust, whether we can articulate this in a biblical way or not. But in our flesh, what we typically want is justice for everybody else, and mercy for me.
As I studied mercy and grace, with a closer look at mercy, I began to consider how they might seem to be communicating different things. Here’s some of the initial thinking, which was refined some as I moved forward.
Mercy is not getting the bad things you do deserve (think things like punishment, destruction, death); Grace is getting the good things you don’t deserve (think forgiveness, redemption, life).
Grace may include mercy as a component. In a general sense, though, mercy may not necessarily also include grace. A cop who pulls you over for speeding might give you a lesser fine than he could based on how fast you were going. That’s mercy.
A judge sentencing you to prison might give you a lighter sentence than the law allows for. That’s mercy.
But the cop, though showing mercy to you, by not giving you the fine the law says you deserve, doesn’t then say, “but, hey, I’ve got to give you this ticket, but you know what, I’ll pay the fine for you.” That would be grace. And fiction.
And the judge, while showing mercy by giving you a one year sentence, instead of the five he could have given, doesn’t say, you know what, I’ll do your time for you. That would be grace.
In a Biblical sense, then, mercy means that, in Christ, we don’t get what our actions and attitudes have earned us, the wages of sin, which is death. That’s because forgiveness is closely tied to mercy.
But grace means we not only don’t get what we so richly deserve in terms of eternal separation from God, but we also do get forgiveness from sin, as well as the righteousness of Christ imputed, credited, counted, to us – a righteousness which we do not deserve, and cannot possibly earn.
So, I did find nuances of difference between how these terms are used, and found support for some of my initial thoughts about how they might be different. One Bible dictionary highlights the contrast between the two terms, and it seems to support the thought that there’s a difference between the two:
Contrast cháris which is God's free grace and gift displayed in the forgiveness of sins as offered to men in their guilt. God's mercy (éleos) is extended for the alleviation of the consequences of sin. Grace identifies the free nature of salvation, that which is unmerited and without obligation. Mercy is the application of grace and reminds us that redemptive freedom rescued us from the pathetic condition of our sinfulness. Complete Word Study Dictionary
In another Bible dictionary, we read:
Mercy especially refers to the remission and removal of sins; grace, to the saving bestowal of spiritual gifts JFB Commentary
Yet, as I got more deeply into these rich themes of scripture, I began to notice something. With the exception of these two dictionary definitions that I just read, both from good sources that I like and trust, I was surprised to learn that it seemed that there was more about mercy and grace that was very similar, than was very different.
For example, I learned that there’s no one word in the Hebrew Old Testament that carries the same kind of meaning as charis, grace, in the New Testament, for God’s unmerited gift of salvation. But when they translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek, they often translated one particular Hebrew word by using the Greek word charis, and we see this word 56 times in the Old Testament.
In Hebrew, the word refers to the kindness and compassion of one person toward another in an act of assistance, such as aid to the poor. Isn’t that what we’d commonly call a mercy ministry?
Yet we see translators using the Greek Word for grace to translate this Hebrew word for something more closely resembling our idea of mercy. Here’s an example, using the New King James.
Proverbs 14:31 (NKJV) 31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, But he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word for mercy in this verse is the same word used for grace in the New Testament.
Other Hebrew words convey the idea of God’s grace, such as racham/rachamim (“mercy”) and chesed (“steadfast covenant love”). These words are often combined with chen to refer to the one merciful, loving, gracious God (Ex. 34:6; Neh. 9:17; Pss. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). Holman Bible Dictionary
So, even as we see these terms used together in scripture, we see the effort by scholars to define and even translate these terms, and begin to conclude that they’re way more alike than they are different.
So, I was quickly coming to the conclusion that we shouldn’t work too hard to find differences between mercy and grace. Though there may be subtle elements that describe somewhat different things, mercy and grace are more like twin sisters, and maybe that’s why they’re used together so often.
I might tell you my wife is beautiful. I might say she’s gorgeous. Or good-looking. I might say she’s a babe. That’s 70s lingo, for the uninitiated. But you get the idea. I’m essentially communicating one basic idea.
So, again, while they are not exact synonyms, they are more similar than different. We can look at an Old Testament passage and see where this is true, too. This is a place where God was defining Himself. He’s with Moses, and here’s what this passage tells us.
Exodus 34:5-7 ESV The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Now, we remember that God had previously called Himself “I am that I am.” In that name, God is making Himself known to Moses in the glory of His self-existence, His self-sufficiency. But here, God is defining Himself in another way He wants to make Himself known to us.
And what does He choose to reveal about Himself? The glory of His grace. The majesty of His mercy.
This is prefixed before the display of his mercy, to teach us to think and to speak even of God’s grace and goodness with great seriousness and a holy awe, and to encourage us to depend upon these mercies; they are not the mercies of a man, that is frail and feeble, false and fickle, but the mercies of the Lord, the Lord God; therefore sure mercies, and sovereign mercies, mercies that may be trusted Matthew Henry
So, these are things God wants us to know, and understand, about Him. He wants us to know He’s merciful. He wants us to know He’s full of grace. He wants us to know He’s compassionate, like a father to his children. He wants us to know He’s faithful, even when we’re not. He wants us to know that He does get angry – why else would He say He’s slow to anger if He never got angry – but He doesn’t fly off the handle like we do – He’s slow to anger is another way of saying He’s patient, with us.
His love is steady and sure. He wants us to know He’ll forgive us, but also that His mercy has a timetable, and though it’s new every morning this side of eternity, there is a limit, and there is such a thing as eventual justice. Right now though, we’re living in an age of God’s mercy.
Isn’t it interesting, in all these things God chose to reveal about His nature, that the first two things mentioned are that He’s merciful and He’s gracious. And also that some of these other things, like his patience and his compassion, could almost be seen as examples of His mercy and grace. He’s a God of mercy and grace.
Moses had asked to see God's glorious presence (33:18), and this was God's response. What is God's glory? It is his character, his nature, his way of relating to his creatures. Notice that God did not give Moses a vision of his power and majesty, but rather of his love. God's glory is revealed in his mercy, grace, compassion, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice. God's love and mercy are truly wonderful, and we benefit from them. We can respond and give glory to God when our character resembles His. Life Application Bible
So, as I, over time and study, determined that I don’t need to see a huge dichotomy between grace on the one hand, and mercy on the other, I began to ponder the vast number of scripture passages, with the word grace and/or mercy featured prominently, and attributed to God.
And I began to consider – why is that? When something is mentioned that often, there’s got to be a reason. One reason we’ve already noted: Grace and mercy are literally a part of who God is. Why else would He include it as a part of His description of Himself? His very name. These things are part of God’s nature. And that’s wonderful news.
But the reason it’s wonderful news to us is not so wonderful. It’s good news – it’s gospel – that God is a God of mercy and grace. But we see this theme so prevalent in Scripture for one great reason:
We need it. We need God’s mercy. We need God’s grace. Without it, we are hopelessly lost and broken. Our sin problem is unfixable short of God’s mercy and grace.
I noted earlier that we all have an innate sense of justice. We see it in little children before they’re taught much of anything. “That’s not fair.” How many times have we heard, or did we hear, our little ones say that. Yet, that innate sense of justice is tainted by our sin. It’s there because God put it there in making us in His image and likeness. But it’s twisted, tainted, fallible, because we are sinners.
Most of us have an under-developed sense of our own individual sinfulness, when seen in the light of God’s holiness. That’s partly due to our human nature. That’s partly due to the enemy’s work in trying to blind us to spiritual reality and our sinful state. That’s partly due to our culture, which tells us we’re basically good.
But that’s just not true. We’re not good. Not a one of us. Scripture is absolutely clear about that, whether we’re clear about that or not. We’re a sinful race, unable to keep from sin, apart from the inward renewal of the Holy Spirit when we trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation.
Though most of us have an underdeveloped sense of our own sinfulness versus God’s holiness, Martin Luther was just the opposite. His sense of his sinfulness and God’s holiness were, if not overdeveloped, then it was certainly on steroids.
Whatever defense mechanisms most people have to quiet the accusing voice of our conscience, apparently Luther was lacking.
Some thought he was insane. In reality, he had a deeper understanding of the law than most had, and this understanding led to his seeing the truth of God’s mercy and grace, and our critical need for it. He was really a brilliant man, and when he applied that intellect to the law of God as revealed in Scripture, he saw things that many had missed, or at least forgotten.
When he saw commands such as love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, when he saw the Word telling us to love your neighbor as yourself, Luther realized there was no possible way he was measuring up to those standards, and he knew he never could. He realized that not a one of us can truly keep God’s law. Not for more than a few minutes. And that led him to despair at first.
Can you honestly say you love God with your whole heart? Maybe in a surface way, but if you think that’s totally true of you, you’re fooling yourself. Can you honestly say you love your neighbor as yourself? We don’t – let’s be real. We avoid thinking like this with any sense of depth.
I’d guess most of us here love God and love our neighbor much more than most of the people out there. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. God doesn’t grade on a curve. Surely this must be hyperbole – just to make the point. Surely the Bible couldn’t really mean what it says – that we all have sinned. That we all fall short of God’s glory. That there is no one righteous – no not one.
The Bible’s standard is this: No one has a perfect heart. Consequently, no one does a perfect deed. No one is truly good.
When we’re confronted with the absolute holiness of our great God, we instantly recognize the truth. That’s what happened to Luther, and as a result, the understanding of our absolute need for God’s grace and mercy was re-emphasized in the church of Jesus Christ. Isaiah, when confronted with the glory of God in holiness, responded like this:
Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) 5 And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Now, we’d look at Isaiah and say he was a pretty good guy. Yet, a moment’s encounter with the holiness of God, and he recognized instantly the depth of his own depravity.
When the apostle Peter witnessed a miracle of Jesus in the catch of fish that almost sank his boat, experiencing the power of a holy God up close and personally, he didn’t say, “gee, thanks for the boatload of fish, Jesus.”
Luke 5:8 (ESV) 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
An encounter with God’s holiness reveals our sin. And our sin reveals the great need we all have for His mercy. His grace. Mercy and grace are written about and described as the nature of God so often in scripture, because we need it so much. We need His grace, we need His mercy. We’re lost for eternity without it.
Yet, just as often, we see the reality in His Word that it’s available. Luther’s crisis of despair ended as he wrote:
It was an understanding of how God can be merciful without compromising His justice. It was a new understanding of how a holy God expresses a holy love: I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, "the justice of God," because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that "the just shall live by faith." Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning. This passage of Paul became to me a gate of heaven.... If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God's heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. From RC Sproul, The Holiness of God
God’s grace and mercy are revealed to us for our good and for His glory.
Isaiah 30:18 (ESV) 18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
Think of this: Isaiah tells us that God waits to be gracious to us. Isaiah tells us that God exalts Himself when He shows mercy to us. When we exalt and praise the Lord, we can praise Him for the things He’s done. But perhaps most importantly, we need to exalt Him for His mercy. And you know what. He waits for us to seek His grace and His mercy.
Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mercy is what we want first. We might think of other things we want and need, but first, I want mercy. I need pardon. I’m guilty, so my first prayer, my first cry, is for mercy.
A man who comes to God, not feeling his need of mercy, must fail (to obtain) the Divine favour; and he will be best prepared to obtain that favour who has the deepest sense of his need of forgiveness. Barnes Notes
Let’s close with this passage:
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
pray
