Mercy and Judgement

God is very merciful. Mercy is a word which is synonymous with the Lord. We as humans have compassion, usually for each other. The mercy of the Lord is his compassion to forgive us, holding back the punishment we deserve for sinning against him and breaking his commandments.

He understands fully our sinful nature and the earthly environment we must endure. God understands completely the magnitude of evil in the world today and the power that satan holds over us and how easily we are overwhelmed by our iniquity. So the Lord counteracts this, and as part of his grace, he extends mercy to us in order that we may be cleansed and receive his divine forgiveness.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. (2 Cor 1:3.)

Just as the Lord is merciful, its vital to understand his wrath and final judgements too. We must fully comprehend the contrast between mercy (for the living) and Judgement (for the unrepentant dead). Without drawing on this contrast, we won’t fully comprehend the judgements of God and this could eventually lead to our destruction at Gods throne.

A lot of people have a general understanding of God’s love and mercy however, what they don’t realise is that No Mercy will be available for the unrepentant on judgement day and love will have no relevance.

God’s judgements will be very harsh and severe, and as much as God wants salvation for us, at the appointed time of judgement there will be no more mercy and damnation will surely follow. This is the contrast in Gods attributes in that although he wants to save us, he will not let the unworthy go unpunished.

If God relented with the wicked, he would be doing an injustice to those already saved.

Judgement is of course reserved for The Lord alone and Its important that we try hard to fully grasp his character and nature lest we remain in ignorance.

No one who has committed a heinous act would expect to go into court and not be served proper justice. Judges always remain very steadfast and have no hesitation in giving out sentences in accordance with the law of the land.

At the point of sentencing, the judge (who may feel sadness and disappointment) has no thoughts of mercy regardless of how he feels and will rapidly proceed to pronouncing a sentence fitting with the crime.

If a judge didn’t carry out justice, there would be a public outcry and indignation would quickly follow. This is also how it will be when the dead are raised up. The Lord will separate the righteous from the evil doers and unrepentant, and his final judgements will swiftly follow. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13)

This above passage indicates that judgement will have no power over mercy, and that your mercy today will triumph over your judgment tomorrow. Just as God shows great compassion for us, we must therefore show the same compassion and forgiveness to others lest we be judged ourselves.

it’s so easy to become engrossed in our everyday lives and life likes to yank us all around. We all have our daily routines and these routines can impact on the amount of time we spend with the Lord. The busier our lives become, the more we come to rely on our own decisions and ultimately these decisions can eventually become self centred.

If we work ourselves into this life of darkness, we will eventually invite the most dangerous and soul destroying entity into our lives; an ungodly self deception. Self deception is one of the greatest and most powerful tools of the enemy. The enemy will lead you to believe that you are so kind and compassionate to others, and you don’t need to go to church or study the word of God to be a good person.

This is a lie of course, and all mercy or compassion you show to others will be in accordance with your own moral standards, which in comparison to God’s standards, will fall very short.

But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

This above passage illustrates that our good works without faith have little or no value to God. Most people have kindness and compassion, but usually for those that they already love. Some people say that charity begins at home, but I think this is a dangerous saying and that our compassion should stretch far and beyond our families.

Compassion is much more than just words or a feeling. When we see an injustice in the news or witness starving children in the world, in order to be merciful we must act upon this. The poor guy on the street deserves more than a few coppers in your pocket, and we shouldn’t judge anyone during a kind act as that would negate the kindness itself.

We should never ever boast about what we do and this should always be kept between ourselves and God.

The mercy and kindness we have should be led by God and entrenched with his love.

Jesus tells us on the Sermon of the Mount, Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7) which tells us something about the character of God and that we are all called to show mercy as God himself does, demonstrating his love for every individual.

So therefore it stands to reason that an act of mercy to someone you judge to be undeserving is a great act in the eyes of God, and as a Christian, its done with a cheer-fullness. A christian without mercy and compassion is not a christian and is not in a proper relationship with God.

No one convicted of the Holy Spirit will have nothing less than compassion in their hearts. Jesus was immensely compassionate when he walked the earth and backed up that compassion with love and acts of miracles to those that asked of him.

Jesus suffered and died for our salvation and that in itself was the greatest mercy and miracle ever shown to us.

If we follow Jesus example and we come to stand before the throne of God, those who show no mercy to others will be judged without mercy. However those who do show mercy to others will triumph over judgment and your mercy will surpass that judgment.

We must remember that God will judge the ungodly and mercifully save the godly.