Imagine that in the course of your life you cross paths one day with an extremely wealthy businessman. This is the kind of guy who just has it all together and doesn’t make mistakes. You strike up a conversation, share some common interests, and before long you two are doing business together.
Now because of some bad moves and poor decisions you wind up in the hole. Big Time. Like Hundreds of Thousands of dollars in the hole. So far down that you know there is no way on Earth you could ever get back to even. And so you do the only thing you can, you go to your wealthy friend and explain to what you have done. You’re expecting him to rip you apart and fire you, but he looks at you and says “That’s okay, You’re Forgiven”.
You wouldn’t believe it would you. He’s making an incredible sacrifice to wipe away your mistake. It’s not without cost to him either, he’s going to have pay for it. That’s what Mercy is all about. But it doesn’t stop there.
Your wealthy friend who has never made any mistakes offers to pay for your mistakes. But then imagine that he looks at you and offers you his share of the company. HIS Share. That just doesn’t seem to make any sense does it. He’s already forgiven your mistakes, but now he’s offering you his share, his entitlement as well. That’s grace.
Mercy is God bringing us back to zero and wiping away our sin. Grace is that when God sees us he sees the righteousness of his Son. We don’t deserve mercy, we surely don’t deserve Grace. But he gave them anyway.
