James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
This week, Michael writes: Life is more precious the less of it we have upon this earth. It’s precious because it’s rare. Life on this earth is but a vapor... a nanosecond in time. We’ve been given life because of God’s mercy. Love and mercy are the nature of God himself. Loving kindness and tender mercy are often-used descriptions of the Lord God Jehovah in the King James Version of the Old Testament. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “mercy” as: That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. Mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being – Creator God.
Mercy is God’s forbearance, abstaining from His righteous judgment that we deserve ... not because we’re deserving of His mercy but because love and mercy is the nature of God Himself. God is benevolent... his goodness and mercy endures to all generations. It is the goodness, the loving kindness, and tender mercy of God that calls people to repentance. (Romans 2:4). Webster’s dictionary goes on to define the word repentance” as: Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is called evangelical repentance, and is accompanied and followed by amendment of life. Repentance means to turn from sin and toward the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not the threat of eternal death and judgement that motivates people to turn to God ... He has called us unto Himself from the darkness of this world and into the glorious light of the gospel of truth.
According to Ephesians 1:4, Omniscient God in His foreknowledge knew us before the foundations of the earth. God exists and inhabits eternity, and there is no dimension of time in eternity. He saw the timeline of all history from His perspective outside the bounds of time ... before the foundations of the earth He saw that we would be holy and without blame before Him in love. God called us to His righteousness through His mercy.
Someone once said, “I wish God would give me my just desserts.” That would be justice, but be careful what you pray for. If God gave us what we deserved we’d be dead ... for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ – Romans 6:23. Ephesians 2 says, you who were dead in trespasses and sin hath he quickened (made alive) for by grace are you saved. It’s by Gods mercy that we draw breath upon this earth. We were not deserving of the breath in our lungs. However, even though we deserve death, Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Let's continue Michael's message on God's mercy in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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