But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7 NASB
We have looked at man's lost condition; the fact that he is dead in sin, a slave to his passions and lusts, an enemy of God, and a child of wrath. Let's take a look now at another aspect of God's character, His love and mercy.
We read in our Bibles that God is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). As a holy being, God cannot tolerate sin, and in His absolutely perfect justice, He must punish it. That is a fact, and no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves otherwise, it can be no other way. The very character of God demands it. Yet we also read of God's unwillingness that any should perish. We read of His love, as in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." As our text states, God is rich in mercy, because He loves us with a great love. Even though we have sinned against Him time and time again, He loves us, and has made provision for us, so that we could be saved from our sin.
All of this flows out of His love. It is love that sent Jesus down to this earth to bear our sins on the cruel cross. We are told that as a demonstration of His love, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Motivated by great love, God has done everything possible to bring us into reconciliation with Himself. He did not wait for us to clean up, to become good enough, or to change our ways. He took the initiative, and sent Jesus to die on our behalf, while we were yet sinners.
The Bible tells us that God is rich in mercy. He is generous, and willing to forgive. Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to reconcile us to God. He is willing to clean up our lives, to change us and make us a new creation in Him (2 Cor 5:17). Once again, it is not based upon anything we have done, but on His mercy (Titus 3:5). Do not misunderstand this however. God's love and mercy do not do away with man's responsibility to repent of His sinful ways. As we previously read in 2 Peter 3:9, ...Not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
There are those who believe that God's love and salvation are universal in the sense that all will be saved in the end regardless of how they conducted themselves in this life. They would have you believe that repentance and obedience do not matter. They go so far as to teach that because of Christ's offering of Himself, you do not need to even believe in Him; everyone gets saved in the end, it is an automatic thing. Watch out for this false teaching! In His love, God has made a way to save us from our sin. That is, not only the guilt, but the power of it over our lives. There is a saying that goes something like this, God, not only loves us enough to forgive our sins, but loves us too much to leave us in them." This is the true picture of the grace and mercy of God. He has reached down to His enemies and offered them pardon, if they will submit themselves to Him.
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