In this lesson, I dig into the topic of Mercy in the Bible and explain how God’s mercy is one of the most exciting things for a Christian to understand.
I discuss what it actually means for mercy to triumph over judgment. I also go into depth about how God giving mercy greatly contrasts with our keeping rules (or keeping the law).
There has long been debate over whether or not the message of mercy (and/or grace) should be tempered with a stern warning about how folks still “better live right”.
In this teaching I discuss why it is wrong for Christians to present the message of mercy with a safe padding of “holy living” built up around it. Many in the church have tried so hard to be sure that people approach the mercy and grace of God with a sense of sober warning hanging over their heads like, “Yes God is merciful, but you better watch out if you don’t straighten up.”
For far too long some people have believed that they have to eek out a life of holy living in order to maintain God’s grace and mercy on their lives rather than embracing, with reckless abandon, the fullness of His grace and mercy, and letting the revelation of God’s kindness lead to repentance and then ultimately into living a holy life.
This message presents a biblical case for why we need to strip all padding away, and give people direct access to God’s grace and mercy. It also explains why, if we don’t, all we will be producing are sons of hell rather than lovers of God.
DISCLAIMER: The last 8 minutes or so of the audio are of a question and answer time/discussion time that spontaneously happened at the end of the message. The audio quality during this part is not as clean because I had to adjust the levels somewhat to try to get the questions from the congregation somewhat audible. So, please forgive the extra noise that may occur when other people are talking. Thanks!
