Tuesday, April 28, 2009
1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
IN HIS GREAT MERCY
"We're all going to heaven. Only the really bad sinners are going to hell." At least that's what the man I talked to earlier this year thought. He said that he'd studied Christianity and lots of other religions, and just couldn't believe that people would go to hell just for not "trusting in Jesus".
He didn't understand what sin is, or how serious it is in God's sight.
The reality is that we're all going to hell, and Jesus is the only "escape hatch" to heaven. Sin set us on the slope that tilts downward to the maw of hell, and no matter how hard we scratch and claw (or wishfully think) we can't get off this downward slide.
That's what God saw in eternity when He decided, "I'll have mercy on them."
When you see someone in a hopeless condition, a tangled mess that he can't possibly untangle himself from but then you step in and free them -- that's mercy.
Like grace, mercy is not something earned, but something freely given by someone who has no obligation to do so.
You and I were born sinful -- spiritually stillborn. In His great mercy, God the Father has caused us to be reborn -- spiritually alive through faith in Christ Jesus. Reborn into God's Family.
And all this was born out of God's great mercy.
What a sacred thing it is when we have opportunity to have mercy on someone else. Then we can mimic our Father in heaven. Perhaps, we'll even have the opportunity to share what gave birth to our mercy.
