His Free Offer of Mercy
There was a time when I thought I understood the Lord’s mercy, but I was sadly mistaken.
A while back, a member of the body of Christ had fallen into sin, and the word of the Lord came: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And if it were you…”Immediately, I burned with anger because I could not understand why the Lord had “allowed” this individual to seemingly get away with their sin. What I failed to realize was that, in that moment, I had appointed myself judge and, dare I say, became an accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Instead of helping restore my fellow brother or sister back into fellowship, I stood before the Lord presenting my case for why their sin should not be overlooked. How foolish I was. Yet sadly, I know I am not the only one who has felt this way.
See most of us like to deceive ourselves into believing that one sin is greater than the other. We set our own measure of evil, reassuring ourselves that we will inherit the kingdom of God because, “I don’t do x, y, and z”, all the while not realizing that sin is sin. No matter how small you think your sin is, it’s still sin, and it will not be tolerated by God.
Psalm 5:4 states “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil [person] dwells with You.” We serve a holy God who cannot and will not dwell with sin. Yes, that includes your “little white” lies.
Fast forward to the winter of 2025, I had a true understanding of the Lord’s mercy. The Lord laid it out clearly in Isaiah 55:6-9 AMP.
“6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him [for salvation] while He is near. 7 Let the wicked leave (behind) his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion (mercy) on him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. 8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
The Lord has every right to give each of us a punishment that we deserve but it is because of His mercies that we are not consumed (Lamentations 3:11). While a person still has breath in their body, they have an opportunity to call on the Lord for salvation. And if they truly desire to change, the Lord will give them, me, and you free offers of mercy, because He does not desire to see any of us perish. Therefore, it is not our job to understand why the Lord does what He does. We are not like Him and we will never be Him. I have received many mercies that I did not deserve, so who am I to be upset, when the same is given to a brother or a sister in Christ?
I will leave you with a word the Lord had given to me back in 2024.
9 “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have a good reason to be angry about [the loss of] the plant?’ And he said, ‘I have a very good reason to be angry, angry enough to die!’ 10 Then the Lord said, ‘ You have had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 [innocent] persons, who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [and are not yet accountable for sin], as well as many [blameless] animals?” (Jonah 4: 8-11 AMP).