THE INFINITY OF GOD’S MERCY.
“His mercy endureth forever.” Mercy is that quality of disposition which treats an offender better than he deserves. It is the basis of all compassion, pardon, and forgiveness. As God’s mercy endures forever, so will He forever forgive the offender who seeks His pardon. There is no end, no limit to God’s mercy on His part. “But,” says an inquirer, “are we not taught that mercy will sometime fold her wings; that God will refuse to forgive? Is there not danger that we will sin beyond His forgiveness, sin so greatly that He will no more have mercy upon us?” These are important questions, which affect not only our relation to God, our ideas of God’s character, but our relations to our fellow-men. The Word declares over and over again that “His mercy endureth forever.” We may know, then, that His mercy is unlimited in extent. “Thy mercy is great unto the heavens.” The infinite God has infinite mercy. “With whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.” This mercy is not dormant, but active on God’s part, outflowing, full and free. Is it not written, “He delighteth in mercy;” “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy”? Our God is pleased to exercise mercy, and pleased with those who hope in His mercy. The object of the exercise of God’s rich mercy is the cleansing from sin. After speaking to those who had once been “dead in trespasses and sins,” who had once “walked according to the prince of the power of the air,” “fulfilling the desires of the flesh,” children of wrath and disobedience, he refers to their change, and that by which the change was brought, in these words: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [made us alive] together with Christ.” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” “According to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” To whom is His mercy extended?—To every soul who will receive it, for God will compel none. He holds it for us in all its infinite fulness, ready to pour it out abundantly if we will but open our hearts, and “hope in His mercy.” He holds mercy especially for the needy. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” But the wicked must forsake his wicked way. God’s mercy is exercised in harmony with His holy law. It is one of the “weightier matters of the law.” It must therefore be in harmony with the law; and if the sinner is to receive it, he must give up his transgression of God’s law and yield to its righteous demands. Then he will receive of God’s mercy. Then that mercy will cleanse from sin, and renew the sinful soul. It matters not how sinful that soul may be. “Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “But my sins are so great,” says a poor soul. Listen: “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” “To the uttermost,” however great the sin, if you will yield it all to God and submit to His holy law. He will remove every blot. He will wash away every stain. O soul, laden with sin, only believe God, and submit all to Him, and let Jesus Christ take away the sin He has purchased, and recreate you, the man He has bought, into His own image! Knowing God’s willingness and power of forgiveness, you will forgive your brother. God represents your debt which He forgives at 10,000 talents, $9,000,000. His mercy is not exhausted in this. He represents a debt which man will not forgive at $15, one six-hundred-thousandth of man’s debt to God! See Matt. 18:23-35. But he who will not forgive the little, can not receive God’s forgiving mercy. He is not in harmony with the law of that mercy. “Forgive and ye shall be forgiven,” is a law of receiving mercy. “But he has done the same thing over and over,” you say; “and shall I still forgive him?”—How has God dealt with you? What does Christ say? “Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” That seemed many times to Peter, and even more to others. Hear our Lord’s reply: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven”—an indefinite number. “And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” Do you hope in God’s mercy?—grant it to others.