God is Love and He is Merciful.
We are in a series talking about the different attributes of God. It is important because His attributes reveal who He is and how He moves and works. This attribute is, God is love, and that He always loves.
Without a doubt, for me, this is the most important attribute of all and has to do with all His other attributes. It is a great help to study these attributes through the lens of God being love and loving us. I really like what 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (NIV). How wonderful this is, it says that He not only loves, but that He is love.
God is the true source of love. The most important thing about our God is that He loves and is love. It is His nature. God’s love is seen throughout the Bible. He is
always caring for his people and his children. Almost all of us know what John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV). What love from the Father to give the best of heaven to save and rescue us, and what love from the Son to come and sacrifice everything for us. If you are doubting this great love of God, you only need to look at the cross, because it is the greatest sign of love in all of history.
God loves you, and something beautiful about this love that we see on the cross is that it is shown through generosity. God is very generous with us, and there are always blessings and provisions and healings because He loves us, and that is why God is generous with us. We know that the original language of the New Testament was Greek. Almost always in the New Testament when talking about God’s love, the Greek word used for God’s love is agape, which is the greatest and deepest love there is, and which always thinks of others above its own needs, and that is the love of God, and that is why Jesus came.
Love is God’s most important attribute, and we can have great confidence in God because he undoubtedly loves us and is love. I am always grateful to him for his great love. He is a perfect father who loves his children.
This attribute of love then leads us to the other attribute for today, which is mercy. God is merciful. He is a God of mercy and of grace. Look at what Exodus 34:6 says: “As the Lord passed by, he proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (NIV) And also look at Psalm 103:8:” The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (NIV) He is a God of mercy and grace, and this is a very good attribute of him and something we all need. That is, we have all failed before God and need his mercy.
Perhaps someone is thinking, what is mercy? More than anything, it is not receiving what we deserve from him for all our failures and sins. What we all deserve is punishment, but instead He gives us mercy and not judgment. It is like someone being tried in court and found guilty, meaning this person did commit the crime and deserves prison, but then the judge says, even though you are guilty, I will not punish you; you are free. This is what God has done for us. Even though we have all sinned, God declares us innocent. Do you know why? It is because of Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross. He took our punishment upon himself on the cross, and that is why today there is forgiveness and mercy. All because of what Christ did. If mercy is not receiving the punishment we deserve, then grace is receiving what we do not deserve. Receiving forgiveness, blessings, new and eternal life. And we have all these things from God by His grace and again because of what Christ did 2,000 years ago to save us.
What a great blessing this attribute of mercy and grace is. You don’t have to walk around with feelings of guilt or depression or anxiety. Our God has mercy and grace to help us today. If you need His forgiveness today, there is forgiveness. If you need strength or help or healing, all of this is available to us today because of the great mercy and grace of our Lord.
These two attributes today are very good. God is a God of love and mercy.