BS2D - UNDERSTANDING "THE FATHER OF MERCIES"
We’ve been studying what God the Father is like so that we can understand what Jesus is like. For Jesus Himself tells us, in many different ways, that He is exactly like his Father. First, we saw that our Creator God is absolutely pure and holy. There is no defilement in Him.
Then we saw in our last study that everything flowing from God’s holy character reflects love because that is the essence of who God is. Love is the “river of living waters” flowing from the pure heart of God and that manifests itself in as many ways as there are people to receive it.
Now in this study we are going to see a God whom the Apostle Paul calls “The Father of mercies” and the “God of all comfort”. (2 Corinthians 1:3). For this we start by looking at Ephesians 2.
Why is it that you and I need “saving”?
Ephesians 2:1
Paul is talking about the fact that we all come into this world spiritually dead (separated from God) because we have inherited a sin nature going back to our first parents Adam and Eve.
Romans 5:12
We are alive physically and intellectually – full of plans and projects ---but in regards to God we are dead. A person dead in their sins is like a corpse that sees no beauty in God and no human power can arouse that person to act for God. “The same power is needed in the conversion of a sinner which is needed in raising the dead; and one and the other alike demonstrate the omnipotence (all powerful capacity) of Him who can do it.” (Albert Barnes: Commentator).
Before we are “converted” or “saved”, all of us live our lives much the same way. What way is that?
Ephesians 2:2
What Paul means is that we are following Satan (even if we don’t know it) because the very power of hell is inside of us – “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”. We don’t just occasionally slip up —we actually live in our sinful passions. Sin is our moment-by-moment existence in thought, word, and deed. And what’s worse is we are helpless to be and do anything else. It’s why we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1)
Most of us will protest: “Not me, I’m a good law-abiding citizen.” However, Paul who formerly was “a Pharisee of Pharisees” (i.e. the most upright of men) is the one writing this and he includes himself.
Ephesians 2:3
Notice the words: “Among these (spiritually dead people) we ALL once lived….and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the REST OF mankind.”
We can “live in our fleshly passions” by breaking all the rules or we can do so by keeping all the rules. We can be immoral dead people or we can be moral dead people. Either way we are DEAD!
Now we come to a truly wonderful verse that tells us WHY God saved us.
Ephesians 2:4
The fact that God is “rich in mercy” tells us that God is something other than what we believe Him to be! Mercy flows naturally from God’s heart of love and it is who God is. So, for God to be merciful means that He is just acting in accord with who He is. How does God feel when He extends mercy and lovingkindness to us?
Micah 7:18b
We can’t understand the mercy of God until we see why we need it. But once we see how naturally depraved we are, the rivers of mercy flowing from God’s heart become like a refreshing and healing stream to us.
These rivers of mercy are the “living waters” that take shape in the form of one man.
Titus 2:11
When Paul speaks of the “grace of God” appearing or being revealed to us, he is speaking of Jesus. When we study the ministry of Jesus and how He conducted Himself with sinners, we’ll be able to see what being “rich in mercy” looks like.
Whatever makes you and I want to hide the most, will make Jesus hug us the harder and open the floodgates of His mercy. That which makes us most ashamed is the very thing that God loves to work on in us. NOTHING is a problem for Him.
How is this mercy of God manifested to us?
- God wholeheartedly pardons us when we confess our sins and it is forsaken.
Numbers 14:18-20 / Isaiah 55:7 / Micah 7:18-19 / Psalm 103:2-3, 10-12 - If we don’t forsake our sins and instead harden our heart and persist in them, what does God do? As you read these verses make a list for yourself.
Nehemiah 9:16-17, 26-27, 30-31 / 2 Peter 3:9
God’s mercy reaches down to obviously bad people as well as fraudulently good people. He doesn’t withhold mercy to certain kinds of sinners while extending it to others. We see this demonstrated in Christ’s ministry when He spent time with those who were deemed bad in society: tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and many other kinds of sinner.
- God graciously delivers us from sickness, sorrow, and oppression.
Psalm 34:7 / Isaiah 53:4-6 / 2 Timothy 4:18 - He maintains the security and safety of those who trust in Him.
Psalm 91:1-16 / Psalm 125:2 - God acts as our defense and refuge in the day of our troubles. Our weakness becomes God’s opportunity to help us.
2 Chronicles 20:12 / Psalm 46:1-3 / Psalm 59:16-17 / Psalm 116:6
And now we must ask another question. Towards whom is the mercy of God manifested? The answer might surprise you!
Exodus 33:19 (also repeated in Romans 9:15, 18)
God is absolutely sovereign in the exercise of His mercy. He wills to have mercy on all upon whom He can have mercy.
2 Peter 3:9
Men can be proud and stubborn – some even thinking they are doing God’s will when in actual fact they are opposing Him. Jesus clashed with the Pharisees time and again in this regard. Jesus was heart-broken at their hardened hearts. What did He want to do?
Matthew 23:37
In the end, Jesus was left no choice. What would He have to do?
Matthew 23:38
Jesus was just like His Father in extending mercy towards us. He wanted to forgive us, protect us, deliver us, heal us, and gather us fully into the family of God. Jesus never changes and He still wants to do all that for us. But there is one requirement on our side of things. We need a humble heart that is willing to receive His mercy and help in our time of need. Without that we will be left to ourselves as the Pharisees were.
In our next study we’ll look at one more aspect of God so that we can see more of what Jesus was like. We’ll study the righteousness and justice of God.
Next Study: BS2E-Understanding the Father's Righteousness and Justice