© 2014 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Most who speak of God’s mercy ignore His severity. They view God as a loving “gentleman” but refuse to recognize His righteousness in judging the wicked. They seem to believe that God can only be called good if He meets our standard of kindness to everyone (except our enemies of course). How often, during times of disaster, have you heard folks say “How can a loving God allow this to happen?”

Such questions ignore the fact that our sinfulness has earned God’s righteous destruction of us all. However, in love, He has chosen to have mercy on some while allowing others to become established in their wickedness. God’s Word says, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth” (Romans 9:18).

Have you ever noticed Psalm 136? Read it carefully. It describes God’s great judgments upon the wicked as His means of being merciful to His chosen people. There you will find that the way He showed mercy to Israel was by killing the firstborn of all the Egyptians (verse 10), overthrowing Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea (verse 15), destroying great kings (verse 17), and slaying the famous kings of the Amorites and of Bashan in order to give Israel their land (verses 18-22). I seldom hear preachers comment on God’s judgment of the wicked while bringing mercy to His people.

If you are one that is opposed to those upon whom God has chosen to have mercy, beware. He is quite likely to bring judgment upon you in showing that mercy to His own. In doing so, He is acting with absolute righteousness because, in fact, all of us, including those to whom He shows mercy, actually deserve His eternal judgment because of our sins.

When God came as His own Son, Jesus the Messiah, He bore the judgment for the sins of His people by offering Himself as a sacrificial substitute shedding His blood on Calvary’s cross. Mercy upon your soul will only occur if God reveals your sinfulness to you and causes you to call out to Him for mercy based on the redemption payment of Jesus.

You and I both deserve God’s righteous eternal judgment. Will you cry out to Him, as did the publican in Luke 18:13, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”?

 

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