What does it mean that God is merciful?
God is called merciful all through Scripture, but the word carries a precise meaning: it describes how God acts toward people in trouble, need, and guilt. Understanding it answers two questions at once — what moves God to help, and what it cost Him to help without ignoring the wrong that had been done.
Mercy Meets Misery
Mercy has a specific object. Writers regularly define it by contrasting it with grace, which they treat as a related but distinct word.
William J. HockingGrace is for the guilty, and mercy is for the miserable. This distinction has also been expressed in these words: "Grace is that energy and outflow of divine goodness which rises above men's evil and ruin, and loves in spite of it all"; while mercy is "God's compassionate consideration for individual weakness, need, or danger."
Another writer sets the same difference in terms of direction and measure — one lifts you up, the other reaches down.
Scripture QuarterlyGrace sustains, mercy delivers. Grace is worked in me. Mercy is done for me. Grace is according to the measure of God's heart; mercy according to the measure of man's need. Grace is the height to which we are brought; mercy the depth from which we were taken.
Its Source Is His Love
Mercy is not a mood God falls into. It flows out of what He is in Himself.
Truth & TestimonyGod's rich mercy is because of His great love. Love is His very nature, and love acts in mercy toward a wretched sinner, even when dead in sins, moving God's heart to work in the most helpful way possible. Mercy is that tender compassion of God toward the deep need of the soul in its circumstances of misery or of guilt. Mercy can forgive, and delights to do so.
That is why He is not merely someone who happens to be merciful.
Andrew MillerMercy is not merely a resource of God, but He is its source — "the Father of mercies." He is the well-spring of all the pity, compassion, tenderness, kindness, and charity, whether physical or spiritual, which flow through this world of misery. And this mercy, blessed be His name, is from everlasting to everlasting — without beginning, before time; and when time is past, without end.
Nothing In Us Deserves It
Because mercy answers need rather than merit, it can never be claimed as owed. That makes it the only footing that never gives way.
J. N. DarbyHe is "rich in mercy." There is a difference between 'mercy' and 'grace'. Grace is a free gift, but mercy is much more; it speaks of demerit and brings our souls to the heart of God Himself who has mercy. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." No claim. A great many young Christians have not taken their stand on the ground of mercy, and so when something or other breaks down that they trusted in, they are completely at sea.
Mercy That Does Not Bend Justice
If God simply waived every wrong, mercy would cost Him His character. Commentators insist that His mercy always rests on a settled basis.
J. G. BellettHe will not surrender His honour to bless us. He will secure both; be just, while He is a Justifier. Mere mercy is not known in His ways. It is mercy to the sinner founded on satisfaction to God. It is blood on the mercy-seat; the blood witnessing that the ransom has been paid, and giving mercy full warrant to open all its stores.
The mercy-seat was the gold covering over the ark in Israel's tabernacle, sprinkled with sacrificial blood. One writer notes that James chooses his words carefully at this exact point: mercy does not win an argument against fairness.
F. B. HoleNotice that the last phrase of verse 13 is not, "Mercy rejoices against justice," but, "against judgment." Divine mercy goes hand in hand with righteousness, and by that it triumphs over the judgment that would otherwise have been our due.
No One Is Out Of Reach
The clearest test case is Saul of Tarsus, the man who hunted down the first Christians before God stopped him.
An Outline of Sound WordsPaul realised that if God's mercy could save him, there was no one that that mercy could not reach, and that God had saved him, the chief of sinners, so that "Jesus Christ might show forth" in him "all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should afterwards believe on Him to life eternal."
Mercy For Every Day After
Mercy is not spent at conversion. Hebrews invites believers to keep drawing on it, and one writer points out when it is needed.
Hamilton SmithDrawing near we obtain mercy, not because we have failed, but so that in the trial we may not fail. The time of need is not here the time of failure, but the time when we are faced with trials and temptations that may lead to failure.
Mercy Received Makes Us Merciful
Those who have been shown mercy are meant to pass it on, and only one kind of person actually does.
The Bible TreasuryIt is only those who realise that "Nothing but mercy will do for me," who will be merciful… Whatever a person does to us, they can never owe us what we owe to God. If we are conscious of that, it will make us tender towards others.
Summary
- Source — mercy is not an occasional act of God but flows from His love; He is "the Father of mercies," its wellspring, not merely its user.
- Object — mercy is measured by our need, not our worth: grace is for the guilty, mercy for the miserable, and it is the depth from which we were taken.
- Ground — God never shows "mere mercy"; it rests on blood on the mercy-seat, so mercy triumphs over judgment without bending justice.
- Reach — the chief of sinners was saved as a pattern, proving there is no one that mercy cannot reach.
- Return — mercy stays available at the throne of grace for every trial, and those who know "nothing but mercy will do for me" become merciful to others.