Living with Tozer's God

Blogpost #34

Chapter 15: The Mercy of God (pt. 2)

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

Matt 5:7 NASU

In the Old Testament, the first place we hear of mercy is in the Mercy Seat of the Tabernacle, the place where men could meet with God. Interestingly, the first place we hear of mercy in the New Testament is in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, where Jesus is teaching the people what the hearts of those who will live with God in His eternal kingdom will be like.

There is a transition in the New Testament in the teaching about mercy that we need to be careful not to miss. Clearly, the reality of God's mercy is established in the Old Testament. It flows naturally out of His essential goodness. But, now the instruction to the people is focused on how it applies to each of them, individually. Here the emphasis is on our showing mercy to others rather than God showing mercy to us.

Both are true, to be sure, but the point Jesus is making is that the people of God are to reflect the character of God. In the same sense that Peter exhorts his hearers to remember the Old Testament admonition to the people of God, "Be holy, for I am holy," we are to be merciful to others because God has shown mercy to us.

In the O.T., the focus was on doing something in order to be something. Israel was given commands to obey so that they would "be holy" or at least, be seen as holy by other nations. The general idea was that God wanted Israel to be distinct and different than all the other nations. They were given outward commands to obey. These commands reflected divine wisdom and resulted in great blessing to Israel when they obeyed them. They would glorify God; that was the ultimate goal.

The assumption was that they would have the inward heart attitude to see that God was worthy of their obedience and that His laws were wise. Obedience was the key to all the blessings. The intent was to bring Israel to a place of loving gratitude towards God. After all, why wouldn't you love someone who had promised to pour out such blessings on you that you couldn't run away from them if you tried! If you read Deut. 28, that's exactly what the promise is. But even if their obedience wasn't out of a heart of love, if it was fear of punishment or simply to obtain promised blessings, the outward obedience would at least make God appear to be great in the eyes of other nations.

But with the sermon on the mount, Jesus, in effect, begins teaching a new class on Kingdom Living. He's teaching the people that God wants them not only to obey Him, but to be like Him in their heart attitudes and the Beatitudes reveal what kind of heart He has and what kind of heart the people who dwell with Him in His Kingdom will have. Now the appeal is not to the nation as a whole, it's to each individual. One by one, the appeal is made that “if you will follow Me, I will make you like Me.” Some followed, most rejected Him.

The Heart of the Christian is Changed

Being like Christ, "being conformed to His image" is the goal in every true Christian's life. Paul said it plainly. "This is the will of God, your sanctification." John echoes the same thought in his first epistle..."when He appears we will be like Him." If we are going to be like God, we have to realize that it will mean forgiving people who hurt you badly, showing mercy to those who may not deserve it at all. But, isn't that exactly what Jesus did at the Cross? "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." Forgiveness is one of the main ways, if not the primary way, of showing mercy.

Mercy and Forgiveness

We are not always conscious that mercy and forgiveness often go hand-in-hand. Mercy is seen in the willingness to forgive others, even if they don't appear to deserve it. Mercy is to be shown to everyone, even if you are the one they offended. In the same sense that we commonly speak of the love of God as "unconditional love"; our forgiveness is to be unconditional. Paul confirms this in his Epistle to the Ephesians when he says:

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other,

just as God in Christ, also has forgiven you." Eph 4:32 NASV

It is the clear teaching of Scripture that if you cannot forgive others, there is something deeply wrong in your spiritual life. The Lord Himself could not have made it much plainer than He did in Matt. 6. Many seem to chafe at his words, thinking that He is putting some kind of "condition" on salvation (thus, invalidating the "free gift" concept). But the truth is very different. He is simply saying that IF you have been born-again and the “love of God is shed abroad in your heart,” you will forgive, you must forgive, it's your nature now to forgive. If it's not, then you have to question whether you've truly been born-again. The changed heart is the key to the new covenant/new birth experience!

One of the main passages the N.T. uses to teach this principle is in Matthew 18. Most people will remember the story of the king and the servant who owed a great debt, but they do not remember that the reason the Lord spoke the parable was because of Peter's question as to how many times you had to forgive a brother/sister who offended you.

Peter's question is illuminating. Clearly, he had gotten the message that he really needed to be gracious to his brothers who sinned against him. When he said to the Lord, "Up to seven times?" he really thought he was being extravagant in his willingness to forgive! So when the Lord responded, "seventy times seven," Peter was blown away. He couldn't comprehend such limitless forgiveness.

But that was the point! Jesus was trying to teach him what the forgiveness of God was truly like.

The King's Mercy and Forgiveness

It was at this point that Jesus spoke the parable about the king settling accounts with the servants who owed him money. Evidently one had borrowed an enormous amount of money. The experts calculate that ten thousand talents is worth something on the order of 150,000 years of wages! It's an enormous amount. If you earned $50,000 per year, it would amount to about $7.5 Billion dollars today. For the average person, it's an astronomical amount. The point is clear: the debt is too large to ever be repaid.

So what is the solution? The king's solution was to forgive the debt. The servant pleaded for mercy and the king extended forgiveness. Total forgiveness. Unconditional forgiveness.

But as we know, that's not the end of the story. The servant went out and seemingly oblivious to the mercy showed to him, found a fellow slave who owed him a relatively small sum (one which could be paid over time) and demanded payment of his debt. When the servant pleaded for mercy and time to pay the debt, the one who had been forgiven much hardened his heart against him and sent him to prison until the debt was paid.

No doubt the story of the staggering forgiveness the king had shown toward the slave who owed so much went out through all the land, so when that slave refused to forgive the paltry debt owed to him, that story also got wide circulation...ending up back with the king. The results were predictable. His life was over. He would die with his debt still unpaid, but he would die in prison.

As if to put an exclamation point on the seriousness the Lord saw in this, He spoke these words:

34 "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 " My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart." Matt 18:34-35 NASU

What's the Lesson?

The lesson to learn here is that God's mercy is meant to change us. Sadly, too many are deceived into thinking the free gift of God's mercy toward us in salvation requires no response from us, other than to just take it. Is that true? If so, who could pass up such a deal?

But beware! This is exactly the same attitude as the wicked slave. He took his master's mercy, he was glad to accept the forgiveness of his enormous debt. There were no conditions stipulated by the master. But evidently the King did expect something in return for his mercy. What? That he would treat others as he had been treated.

The Scriptures reiterate this expectation over and over. Twice in Matthew 6, the Lord specifically focuses on this. After directing the disciples to pray to the Father asking that we be forgiven our debts as we have forgiven others, He then stops and amplifies this in v.14-15 so that there can be no possible misunderstanding.

" For if you forgive others for their transgressions,

your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

"But if you do not forgive others,

then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

Matt 6:14-15 NASU

Without question salvation is 'free' in the sense that we can do nothing to earn or deserve it. But, if we receive it, God expects changes in our life. And He is right to expect them. Because biblical salvation is not merely a judicial declaration of righteousness, a forgiveness of our sin-debt because the price of our redemption has been paid by another, it is the fact that God has joined us to Himself through our faith in His Son...our nature has been changed. We are no longer what we were.

According to the apostle Peter, "...we have been made partakers of the divine nature." The apostles James and John tell us we have been born again...Paul tells us we are "new creations". Now we are able to act differently...and God expects us to do so. Part of "loving our neighbor as ourselves" is showing mercy to others in the same measure as we have been shown mercy.

God's mercy (like all God's gifts) should never end with us. God's mercy, grace, kindness, manifold love and long-suffering grace towards us is meant to be a window into the Kingdom of God. How? By our extending the same mercies and grace to one another. Surely we can look out onto the world and see this is a dramatic contrast to the way those in the world treat one another. More and more we are being faced with senseless acts of random violence and malicious greed. Sin in all its vilest forms is overtaking our culture. Against this backdrop stands the Kingdom of God. It is revealed in the hearts and actions of those who serve the King of Kings, who are willing to forgive even when it costs them dearly. They do this because they have become "like Him".

James sums it up well.

"So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy;

mercy triumphs over judgment."

James 2:12-13 NASU