MERCY AND GRACE
- Mercy is God not punishing us as our sins deserve.
- Grace is God blessing us despite the fact that we do not deserve it.
- Mercy is deliverance from judgment.
- Grace is extending kindness to the unworthy.
Ephesians 2:8-9 Amplified Bible
8 For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favour drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; 9 not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation].
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Grace (God’s undeserved favour towards us) is not only the means by which we are saved, it is also a description of our present standing before God. It is not only the beginning principle of the Christian life it is also the continuing principle of the Christian life.
Many Christians begin in grace, but then think that they will go on to perfection and maturity by dealing with God on the principle of law – on the ideas of earning and deserving. Paul spoke against this very point in Gal_3:2-3 and Gal_5:1-4.
By Faith, or by Works of the Law?
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Gal 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
This lays out one of the fundamental differences between the principle of law and the principle of grace. Under law, we are blessed and grow spiritually by earning and deserving. Under grace, we are blessed and grow spiritually by believing and receiving. God deals with you under the covenant of grace; are you trying to deal with Him on the principle of law?
GAL5:4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
Gal 5:5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.
Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Gal 2:19 So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead—killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on his cross,
Gal 2:20 so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.
Gal 2:21 I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!
Heb 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Heb 12:15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Heb 13:9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace….
Heb 4:16 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.
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