The Wonder Of God's Mercy

Christchurch Bridlington 24. 01.99

"For he (God)says to Moses:

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Rom 9:15)

Have you ever wondered why we need God’s mercy.

Have you ever wondered how wonderful God’s mercy is

Introduction

Let’s start by looking at "What do we mean by mercy"?

I looked in the dictionary for some help:

1. Dictionary definition (Chambers Dictionary) of mercy

i) forbearance to someone in one’s power

ii) a good thing regarded as derived from God

iii) a happy chance

iv) a forgiving disposition

Heinrich Heine is reputed to have said on his deathbed: "Of course God will forgive me, it’s his job to do so!"

v) clemency

vi) compassion for the unfortunate

I don’t really like any of them with regard to God’s mercy. Although mercy is a legal term, God’s mercy is so much more.

God is a loving and a just God.

In his righteousness, he would condemn each on of us to death. Why becasue whe have broken his perfect law. And when we do this, there is only one sentence - death.

But he loves us, and so he sent his Son, Jesus to take the penalty of our sins. In other wods, Jesus died as a substitute for us.

Sounds incredible - Well yes it does - but it is true.

But how can Jesus die in my place you might ask?

Let me illustrate this by a story:

Story of Two brothers in Korea

In the fourth century in Korea, a father had two sons. the elder one was very studious and eventually rose to be the chief justice in the land. The younger one turned out to be a villain and soon became an outlaw.

One day the younger son was caught and was hauled up ,before the beak, who happened to be his brother. Everyone thought: He’ll get off because it was well known how much the elder brother loved his younger brother.

At the end of the trial it was clear that the younger brother was guilty and to everyone’s surprise the elder brother pronounced the death sentence.

On the night before the younger brother’s execution, the older brother came into the prison and said he would swap places with the younger brother.

The younger brother did the swap and walked out of the prison to watch the proceedings on the hill overlooking the prison. He did not believe that they would execute the Chief Justice.

At 4 o’clock that morning came and the procession filed out and the elder brother was executed as the younger brother.

The younger brother full of remorse ran down the hill and banged on the door of the prison. "I am Kim the criminal" he said.

The authorities looked at him and said: "We don’t know of anyone called Kim with any outstanding crimes" they said "Go away".

That’s God’s mercy.

We have been found guilty by the Law but God himself in Christ has taken the penalty of death in our place.

The requirements of the Law have been fulfilled

BY THE JUDGE himself.

Isn’t God’s mecy wonderful?