Living With God's Mercy (Ephesians 2:4)

The Scriptures tell us that God is rich or abounding in mercy.  Why is mercy so important to us?  Can we live without mercy and if so, what would it be like?

Without mercy, God's actions towards all men would be based on his holiness as dictated by the Law.  The principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth would result is us receiving an act of judgment against us for each sin that we commit.  Living under these conditions would be impossible to perceive because the consequence would be death after committing the first sin.  However if death would not occur, man's life would consist of experiencing judgment upon judgment for each sin committed.  During every moment of each day, man would live under the terror of when God's hand of judgment would fall upon.  Multiple times daily he would experience curses from God, physical plagues, domination from enemies and famine.  His life would be one without hope and death would bring greater terror than his life.

Praise be to God for the Scriptures state, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us (Ephesians 2:4).  From this we see that mercy is a product of God's love.  In other words, mercy is the means by which God acts towards us in love.  Mercy is dependent on God and not us.  We first received mercy when we were dead in our trespasses and sins.  Our lives could not get any lower than that.  Now that we have believed and have become children of God through adoption, we are joint heirs in Christ.  We have received his inheritance and righteousness.  However regardless of that great position in which we now stand, mercy continues to be based on God's love.  Regardless of whether I am up or down, abounding on the mountain top of struggling in the valley, I can still rest in the fact that God will deal with me in mercy.  As long as he loves, he will act in mercy.  He will always love because he is love (1 John 4:8).

Today, I can expect the best.  God loves me and because of that I can look to the God of mercy for the help that I need throughout the day.