SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2020
10:39 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: Mercy and Grace
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:7
Message of the
verse: “"Happy
are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!”
In today’s SD we will look first of
all at the short section about “Mercy and Grace” and then it is my desire to
begin the next section which will take more than one day to get through and
that section is “Mercy and Justice.”
Mercy and Grace: We have been
looking at different things that are related to mercy, and grace is also one
that is related to mercy as this flows out of love just as forgiveness flows
out of mercy. We have in the past looked
at all of Paul’s letters that he wrote to two Pastors, that is he wrote to
Timothy two times and also to Titus. In
each of these letters we see in the salutations the words “grace, mercy and
peace.” You will find them in 1 Tim.
1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2 and Titus 1:4 as seen in the KJV of the Bible. John MacArthur writes that “Grace and mercy
have the closest possible relationship; yet they are different. Mercy and its related terms all have to do with
pain, misery, and distress—with the consequences of sin. Whether because of our individual sins or
because of the sinful world in which we live, all of our problems, in the last
analysis, are sin problems. It is with
those problems that mercy gives help.
Grace, on the other hand, deals with sin itself. Mercy deals with the symptoms grace with the
cause. Mercy offers relief from
punishment; grace offers pardon for the crime.
Mercy eliminates the pain; grace curses the disease.”
The story of the Good Samaritan
helps us to understand this better. When
he came to the man on the road and bound up his wounds which he got because he
was beaten and robbed mercy was shown by him.
Now when he took him to the nearest inn and then he paid for his lodging
until the man was well that is when he showed grace. We see that his mercy relieved the pain and
his grace provided for healing.
One more illustration and that is
that mercy relates to the negative; grace relates to the positive. Now as we look at in relation to salvation
mercy says, “No hell,” whereas grace says “Heaven.” Mercy says “I pity you”; and grace says “I
pardon you.”
Mercy and Justice: As mentioned
this is a fairly long section and will take us some time to get through it as
we want to dig into this to best understand the relationship between mercy and
justice even though on the surface they seem incompatible. As we look at justice it gives exactly what
is deserved; however mercy gives less punishment and more help that is actually
deserved. This is why it is difficult
for some people to understand how God can be both just and merciful at the same
time to the same person. The question is
if God is completely just, how could He ever not punish sin totally? For Him being merciful would seem to counteract
His justice. Here is the truth and that
is that God does not show mercy without punishing sin; and for Him to offer
mercy with punishment would negate His justice.
I have told the story that I kind of
made up in my mind to understand what actually is going on in the world today
as it began way back in eternity past where the triune God was the only One
alive as He is always been alive, something else for our finite minds to get
hold of. I have said that this story in
a sense is fictional in how it happened, but it did happen. I think of all three Persons of the trinity
setting around a table having coffee and talking and God the Father says that
there were some aspects of Our attributes that are not seen and so this is what
I want to do. I want to create a world
which will have people on it, and before that I will create angels also. Angels and people left along will sin against
God, and so I will send my Son to earth and bring back people into fellowship
with God by dying for their sins and this will satisfy my justice as He gives
grace and mercy in doing this. Okay I
hope that this little story will help you see what is going on and what went
on, and if you want to look at the 2nd Psalm you will see where this
story came from in my mind. It is my
desire, Lord willing, to continue to look at this rather long section in our
next SD. We don’t want to go really fast
through this as there is some “heavy” things to learn from this section.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Beginning
to learn about “mercy and justice” and how they both work to my benefit is
probably one of the most important things that I can understand.
My Steps of Faith for Today: This section
comes from a SD that I wrote on May 26, 2006 when there were also some serious
things going on in my life and the life of my wife and as I read over it this
morning I thought that because of what is going on in our country it is appropriate
to look at again today. “I trust the Lord to continue to teach me from His
Word so as to direct my path. I continue
to ask the Lord to work out our difficult problem and believe He will in a way
that will be according to His will, and to continue to teach me contentment,
and give me the grace I need each day.”
5/5/2020 11:18 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment