There are many different attributes that we could use to describe God's nature. In the Bible three of these are mentioned over and over and that is God's love, mercy, and grace. So in this sermon let's dive deeper into all three.
First let's take a look at the love of God. The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. Just three simple words. God's love is not merely mentioned a few times in the Bible, it runs through the entire Bible. Ask me to put into one sentence what the Bible teaches and it is, "God is love." Okay then, so as Christians, what are we supposed take from this? It's simple, two things. 1. We are to accept His love because there can be no greater sin than to despise and reject the love of God. 2. We are called to love others. In 1 John 4:19 it reads, We love because He first loved us. We should always show God's love to others because He loved us first.
Secondly, we have the mercy of God. Now, mercy is described in the Bible as forgiveness or withholding punishment. For example, God the Father showed mercy on us when He sacrificed his son, Christ Jesus, on the Cross to pay the price for our sins. In Psalms 51:1-2 the Bible says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. So then, we now see and understand that God shows divine mercy towards all sinners.
The Bible also defines mercy as going beyond forgiveness and withholding punishment. God shows His mercy to those who are suffering through healing, comfort, and caring for those in distress. He acts from compassion and acts with mercy. In Matthew 17:15-16 a man approaches Jesus and kneels before Him saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” Jesus' response was, when He divinely healed the man's son, was one of mercy and compassion. Jesus’ compassionate love mercifully heals and restores. God, our Heavenly Father, also shows us mercy and compassion, whenever we sin or fall out of His will. God is a God of second chances, and third, and fourth, God loves us unconditionally and has mercy on us even though we don’t deserve it.
Finally, we come to the grace of God. Now, the word “grace” is mentioned at least 170 times in the Old and New Testaments. And in those 170 times there are different applications of grace such as redeeming grace, imparted grace, indwelling grace and many others. In this message I'm talking about grace as an attribute of God and what His grace entails. To help give us a better understanding I would like to quote Christian author, Dr. David Reagan; he explained grace in this way. “Grace is God’s unmerited favor. That is, grace is God’s doing good for us that we do not deserve. Grace is God giving us blessings that we do not deserve. Because of God’s grace, we receive eternal life and a promise of heaven though we do not deserve them. Grace comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In Ephesians 2:8 the Bible says For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. So then we can see that “grace” is a gift freely given to us by God. Grace is given to us because God wants us to have it and not because of anything that we have done on our own to deserve it. Also, grace is necessary for salvation. God's grace is most manifested through the salvation of sinners. God’s free gift of grace is given to us only through his Son, Jesus Christ. It's only through this "grace" that we are redeemed and our sins forgiven because of Jesus’ death on the cross, burial, and resurrection. So, today, please accept God’s free gift of “grace." Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins, so that you may receive the reward of eternal life with God in heaven. AMEN
