Mercy

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:23–26)

When God announced His own name, the first word He chose was "merciful" — and that mercy is what we remember at the table.

Communion Can Become a Thing We Do Without Thinking

Father, help us to wrap our minds around this. Communion can become just a religious thing that we do, a tradition we observe on the first Sunday, something we don't even think about — and yet it's supposed to direct our thinking to You. Lord, would You direct our thinking now? So many things battle for our attention at any given time, and we're told our culture has a short attention span. You have the power to direct it. Stir us up by way of reminder. I'm also stirred by the reality that many in our fellowship are sick or suffering through illness or loss, and we lift them into Your hands. Minister Your grace, Your merciful touch. Speak to us now, in Jesus' name. Amen.

But God: Our Condition and His Intervention

Turn a few books to the right to Ephesians 2, where Paul reminds the church of glorious truth:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God... (Ephesians 2:1–4)

We know our condition, and the enemy reminds us of it regularly. We're reminded of our sinfulness especially when we look into what James calls the perfect law of liberty, the Scriptures. He says it's like a mirror. When we read God's Word or come to a Bible study, we're reminded of how sinful and lost we are. The closer we draw near to God, the more His light shines on our lives, exposing the darkness, exposing those areas where we are terribly lost. And what that should do is remind us how great a salvation we have in Christ.

We were dead in trespasses and sin, completely separated from God, and we conducted ourselves as lost individuals — walking according to the course of this world, that wide path to destruction Jesus spoke about, doing what gratified our flesh but disgraced God, falling far short of His glory. We were created for His glory and pleasure and completely disregarded it. We walked the way the enemy bids the world to go, contrary to God's way. But God intervenes. How does He intervene? He came.

The Mercy of God: A Spiritual Speed Bump

"But God, who is rich in mercy." This attribute of God's character is impressed upon me more and more the longer I walk with the Lord. It's a word that now jumps out of the pages of Scripture every time I read it — like a spiritual speed bump. It stops me and causes me to think about God.

The attributes of God are innumerable. If we went around the room, we'd say God is truth, God is love, God is just, God is sovereign — the list would go on all night, because we cannot completely comprehend how awesome His character is. There are places in Scripture where He reveals it: I am just, I am holy. When you ask people about God today, many go to His holiness, and that's good. We should recognize that God is holy, that He is just, completely separate from sinners.

But if all God was were holy and just, this could not exist — the opportunity for those dead in trespasses and sins to come before Him, to have fellowship and communion with Him. I don't want to diminish His holiness in any way; that would be a sin, just as it would be a sin to diminish His sovereignty. But I believe God Himself exalts His mercy in the Scriptures repeatedly. If it weren't for His mercy, we would be completely and rightly consumed. There would be no way to approach Him.

Holiness Seen in the Distance Between Man and God

God makes this very clear, especially in the Old Testament, where He reveals how far and separate we are from Him. Remember Moses' first introduction to God: "I AM. Take the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground." The dirt was transformed by God's mere presence. That which we like to wash off, which our culture of hand sanitizer and cleanliness doesn't want on us — that dirt became holy because of God's presence. And it wasn't even the fullness of His presence. Had it been, not only would the bush have burned, Moses would have been consumed. It was God's very mercy that Moses was even allowed to come there.

I find myself constantly going back to Exodus when Israel has broken God's law. It's apparent — Moses casts down the tablets and they break, a visible sign. Just forty days before, in Exodus 19, they said three times, "All that you have said we will do and be obedient." They professed it: You redeemed us, You brought us out of Egypt, You're worthy of our honor. Forty days later they're dancing around a golden calf, attributing their deliverance to an idol. God in His holiness and justice has every right to consume them, and He even tells Moses, "I'm going to destroy them in My wrath; we'll start over with you."

Moses doesn't say, "God, that's unjust" — because it's completely just. He says, "Lord, please don't, because the nations will think You brought them out to kill them." He never questions God's holiness or justice in doing what He says He'll do.

"I Want to See Your Glory"

As God reveals mercy to Israel and to Moses, Moses, in absolute wonder, says, "God, I want to see Your glory." God reminds him, "You cannot see Me and live," because of that separation. But God makes a provision: "I will pass by you, and you'll see what you could almost call My afterglow." If God came into this room and left, His glory would linger for a while. So God places Moses in the cleft of the rock and passes by, and Moses sees something of the glory of God — which afterward made his face shine, so much that he veiled it. When that glory began to fade, he didn't want anyone to see it fading.

But God reveals something to Moses in Exodus 34 that I go back to constantly. In Scripture, a name is often synonymous with the person and their character. Abraham means "father of many nations," and he became one. Jacob means "heel-catcher," "supplanter," "deceiver" — and for years that's exactly what he was, leaving a trail of deception with his brother, his father, his father-in-law, until God cornered him, popped his hip out of socket, and changed his name from Jacob to Israel, from "deceiver" to "governed of God." A change took place in his heart from that point on.

God Proclaims His Name: "Merciful"

So God defines His nature for Moses:

And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. (Exodus 34:5)

It's interesting that God surrounds Himself with a cloud or thick darkness, as if hiding His glory, because contact with His full glory would obliterate us. He comes down and proclaims His name — He's going to announce who He is. Our ears should perk up. This is something we'd never learn through general revelation. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God, so we learn things by looking at creation — but we'd never know this by looking at creation. It comes only by special revelation.

And what's the first thing He says?

The LORD, the LORD God, merciful...

I believe He did that purposefully. Remember the context: Israel has just broken His law. A chapter earlier He told Moses they deserved complete wrath. He could have said, "The LORD, the LORD God, just," and no one could object. He could have said "holy." But He chose "merciful." I believe He exalts this attribute because, if it weren't for His mercy, we would all deserve just punishment.

Mercy and Grace Defined

...and gracious...

Maybe second He'll say "holy"? No — "gracious." Let's step back and define the difference. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Israel deserved wrath; they're not getting it. Grace goes a step further — it's getting what we don't deserve. Mercy would be sufficient if God simply said, "I won't obliterate you in hell." But He goes further: "I'm going to bestow on you all the riches in heavenly places. I'm going to give you an inheritance with My Son." Romans says we are joint heirs with Christ — receiving the same inheritance as the very Son of God.

If you want to comprehend grace, study God and get to know who He is, because that's where you learn what grace is all about. He doesn't merely do gracious things; in His character He is gracious.

...longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6–7)

He is longsuffering — patient by nature, willing to wait for His people. He keeps mercy for thousands; His mercy is never drained away. Lamentations says His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness. There's no drought of God's mercy. You never come to the throne of grace, as Hebrews says, to obtain mercy in your time of need, only to hear, "I'm sorry, someone took the last bit of mercy today; come back tomorrow." He never does that.

God Defaults to Mercy

This doesn't diminish His justice or holiness. God's mercy, grace, patience, goodness, truth, justice, and holiness all exist in perfect harmony in Him. That may be a paradox to us, and that's okay, because God is outside our thinking. If we could fully comprehend Him with a finite mind, He wouldn't be worthy of all devotion — He wouldn't be God.

He keeps mercy and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Here's where His justice comes in: He will by no means clear the guilty. He doesn't blindly look away from guilt. But His default is mercy; His default is grace. What do we default to when we're tired and spent? I'll confess I default to being grouchy — my wife could confirm that. That's our flesh. After a long day, we default to being not merciful. God defaults to mercy. We never see Him snap to instant hellfire and brimstone. Even upon Sodom and Gomorrah, how long was He merciful, calling them to repent before, after a great period of long-suffering, He acted justly?

Remember, in Genesis 18 Abraham asks, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" If God is going to judge, He must do it righteously, and God acknowledges that: if there are ten righteous, He won't destroy the city. I'm reading through Jeremiah right now, preparing to teach it at the Bible college, and just this morning I read where God tells Jeremiah to go through Jerusalem — if he can find anybody who stands up for truth, God will be gracious to the whole city. Jeremiah couldn't find anyone, and the city fell to Babylon — a sad testimony. God is just and righteous when He judges, but He defaults to mercy.

But God, Rich in Mercy, Raised Us Up

That's what we see in those two words, "But God." He who is rich in mercy, because of His great love, even when we were dead in sins, even when we were His enemies following the prince of the power of the air, quickened us together with Christ — by grace. He defaults to mercy. We deserved judgment, but He offers us His grace in Christ. If you'll trust Him and put your confidence in Him, you receive the gracious gift of salvation and a mercy that extends to an inheritance in heaven.

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6–7)

Positionally, those who have trusted Christ are seated in heavenly places — a position at God's table because of what Christ has done. This is more than the Jehovah's Witness idea of living forever on a paradise earth. We get to be in the very presence of the King of Kings, seated at the table. And it will take all eternity for God to reveal to us the exceeding riches of His grace, because it's such a vast expanse our finite minds cannot grasp it. For eternity He will be revealing what actually happened at Calvary — that transaction between the Father and the Son on our behalf, when He who knew no sin became sin for us.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)

There's much debate among theologians about what "the gift of God" refers to — faith, grace, or both. I asked a friend from Greece who knows the language well, and he said that, breaking down the tenses, the gift is salvation itself. That's what we receive in Christ. But what we should have received was justice, judgment, and wrath — and it was poured out on Christ for us.

Just and the Justifier

You probably know the first verse of the Romans Road:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:23–26)

In his God-given wisdom, Solomon — a wise man who still made foolish decisions — says in Proverbs that he who justifies the wicked is an abomination to God. So how can God justify us, who are wicked, and still maintain His justice? How can He forgive our sins and yet remain holy? This is the paradox we struggle with, and it's answered here. In His patience, long-suffering, and mercy, God was forbearing toward all the sin humanity had committed. He defaults to mercy. But He must maintain His justice; there has to be a payment. So Jesus is the propitiation — the atonement. On Calvary God poured out all His just wrath upon Jesus, who became sin for us. That transaction proves God is still just and yet able to forgive our sins in Christ.

What We Remember at the Table

That's what we remember when we partake of the bread and the cup. That's what Jesus told His disciples, what Paul recounts in 1 Corinthians 11. He broke bread and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." Remember what I did at Calvary: He who knew no sin became sin, took all our sin — past, present, and future — upon Himself, and the Father poured out all His just wrath on Jesus so He could give us mercy, because He Himself is merciful. Beyond mercy, He also gives grace. But there had to be that transaction.

Then He took the cup, saying, "This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood." Without the shedding of blood, Hebrews 9 says, there can be no remission of sins. The old covenant was established on the blood of lambs, bulls, and goats, which could never fully take away sin. But Jesus comes as the Lamb without spot or blemish — "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Not merely covers it; takes it away. "This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

So we remember that God became a man, took on a human body given for us, with blood coursing through His veins that was shed as the sacrificial Lamb, the propitiation, so God could maintain His justice while declaring us righteous and imputing to us His righteousness. It's phenomenal — and we will spend eternity grasping the manifold grace of God in what He did.

Until He Comes

This is why He told us, "Do this until I come." Why "until"? Because when He comes, we'll have the visible representation. We'll see Him as He is and won't need bread or a cup to remember He's the Lamb slain. What does John see in heaven in Revelation 5? A Lamb that was slain. That's what we'll see. But here and now we need it, because we're so prone to forget.

Jesus established two sacraments — two visible things He wants us to do. Baptism reminds us we died with Him, were buried with Him, and were raised to newness of life; you can't get more clear than that. And the Lord's Supper reminds us of His broken body and shed blood.

So we'll continue to worship, and the communion elements will be here for you to come and take. If you need prayer, our pastors will be available, or you may pray silently in your seat. Partake of the bread and the cup as the Lord leads you — with a brother or sister, or alone — and remember all that took place.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I love that You said, "As often as you do this" — so we should do it regularly, here at the church and even as a family at home, wherever we are, stopping to remember Your body and Your blood. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for being merciful, though we don't deserve it, and gracious, though we could never earn it. Help us be mindful of this when we're going through crisis and when we're experiencing ecstatic joy — both ends of the spectrum can distract us from Your grace and mercy. And in the mundane, day-to-day things, keep us mindful that You have been gracious and merciful to us because of Your great love, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins. Lord, thank You. We praise You.