Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the fifth installment in my series of posts on the beatitudes.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Matthew 5:7

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a parable of a king whose servant owes a great amount to his master. The servant cannot afford to pay his debt, and begs for mercy from the king. In compassion, the king forgives the debt and releases his slave. No sooner is he forgiven than the servant finds one of his fellow slaves, demanding that he repay a small sum he owes. This debtor pleads for mercy, but the servant throws him in prison. The king hears what occurred, and verses 32-35 tells us: “‘Then summoning him, his lord said to him, “You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?” And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.’”

Over and over again, the Bible says that we must forgive others if we are to be forgiven by God. One of the petitions in the Lord’s prayer is, “‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’” and a few verses later Jesus says, “‘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’” (Matthew 6:14-15). James 2:13 says, “Judgement will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.” It is hypocrisy to expect God’s mercy to cover our sins yet refuse to offer it to the other fallen people around us.

Which offends us more: the sin which hurts our own feelings or the sin which insults the very nature of our God? We are always quick to tell people, “God’s forgiveness can cover your sins,” and of course, we are right. But when we are the one who has been hurt…well, that’s different. If Almighty God, holy, just, omniscient, and omnipotent, has mercy on sinners fallen far from His glory, then who are we to refuse mercy to our fellow sinners? Sin is, by nature, a denial of God and His Word; when someone sins, they aren’t offending our holiness, they’re offending God’s. We need to realize that no one is truly indebted to us, but we are all desperately indebted to our Lord.

In Jude 1:21-23, Jude writes, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” Jude mentions three groups of people. The first is those who are doubting. It can be so easy to grow impatient with the world’s unbelief, but mercy never gives up on the salvation of a soul. The second group is in the fire: if we truly love those around us, we will not leave them in their sin. We will snatch them from it, caring too much for their eternal destiny to shut our eyes to their guilt. The last group serves as a warning: on some we must have mercy, but with fear. It is detrimental to let sin creep into our lives under the disguise of compassion. We must hate the garment (the sin) but love the wearer (the sinner).

You might be thinking, “There are some who just don’t deserve my forgiveness. You don’t know what they’ve done.” Have they spit on you and mocked you? Have they rejected you over and over again? Have they called out violently for your death, preferring even a murderer over you? Have they beaten you and driven thorns into your head? Have they nailed your hands and feet to a cross and left you to slowly die an agonizing death of oxygen deprivation and blood loss? Have their sins caused God to forsake you? We did all this and more to Christ. Yet even then, His love, grace, and mercy never wore thin. Isaiah 63:8-9 says, “For He said, ‘Surely, they are My people, sons who will not deal falsely.’ So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:8-9). What more can I say? How could I ever be unmerciful when God has shown me more mercy than I can even understand? We take our time to search out our fellow bondslave who supposedly owes us some small amount, knowing all the time that the Master of us both has forgiven a debt we could never repay. Judgement is held in His hands; we need not fear that justice will not be served. And until then, let our prayer be as the tax collector’s: “‘“God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”’” (Luke 18:13).