When Mercy Met Truth

Psalms 85:10

God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), and Jesus is the embodiment of that mercy. On the cross, Jesus took what we deserved, so while the Father was not merciful to His own Son, He cannot help but be merciful with you and me. It has been well said that mercy is you not getting what you deserve while grace is you getting what you don’t deserve. In both cases, Jesus took care of us by paying for the judgment meant for us and giving to us the glory meant for Him.

God’s righteousness demands holiness and perfection, which is why the law could never bring man to fulfillment. No man has ever been able to keep the law in its entirety, thus all men are declared guilty and sinners. Jesus lived sinless and died sinless, thus becoming the first human to whom the law had no hold. Since holiness and perfection had been met, Jesus could lay His own life down as the sacrifice for all of us hopeless law-breakers. Now, when we accept Jesus by faith, we are declared righteous in the eyes of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

With God’s demands for righteousness having been met in Jesus, peace was the end result. At Calvary, righteousness and peace met together in the form of the crucified Christ. God had been appeased for a man had lived righteous and following His violent death for the sins of the world, peace would be the resultant emotion. This is why Paul said, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

The Psalmist takes this allegory a step further, showing us that righteousness and peace have kissed one another. This makes the cross a beautiful picture of love, not a gut-wrenching scene of blood and death. True, the cross was the violent sacrifice of the Lamb, but it was also the marriage of righteousness with peace forevermore. You and I are free to be at peace, because the Lamb was at war!

Jesus embodies mercy and He called Himself “the truth” (John 14:6). These two qualities met in the form of Jesus and they can never be separated again. When you speak of Christ’s mercy, you are speaking of Him as truth. It is absolutely true that He cannot be anything but merciful to those who accept His love and favor. It is also true that when you see His mercy in your life, you are seeing the Ultimate Truth.

Mercy and truth in their combined forms are manifested in one other important word: grace. Remember, grace is not a doctrine; it is a person and His name is Jesus. The law was given (denotes distance) by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Where the law was cast at you from the mountain (and it is still hurled at us by many pulpits), grace always comes to you.

Notice that truth must line up on one side or the other. Truth is either lined up with the law or with grace and the Word makes it clear that it is with grace. This shows us that all truth is “grace truth”. While the law is “true”, only grace is “truth”. If you want to see mercy and truth, look past the veil of the Law and see what only grace (Jesus) can offer.

Angels' Food

Psalm 78:25

This verse is not referring to the sponge-like sweet treat that is often served as a dessert in America and called “Angel Food Cake”. Believe me, this food was much better! What a delightful vision we get in the words, “Man did eat angels’ food”. When did this blessed event occur? Who were these men? And, can we expect to eat this food as well?

The answer begins in the wilderness between Egypt and Mt. Sinai, where Israel began to whine to Moses about the lack of food in the desert. God opened the windows of heaven as they slept and rained down bread upon the earth. When they awoke the next morning, they looked outside of their tents and saw the small substance covering the ground around them. They said, “Manna?” meaning, “what is it?” in Hebrew. The name stuck, and manna had become their provision.

The provision of the manna was given as a gift of God, with no performance required on the part of the Jews. They simply collected it every day and twice as much on the day before the Sabbath. They did not plant the seed, nor cultivate the ground nor pray for rain. They need not harvest or grind the wheat to bake it into bread; it simply existed every morning of their lives. This was grace in the form of bread and each man could have as much or as little as he so desired (Exodus 16:16-18).

Jeremiah said that the Lord’s compassions fail not, “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22). Just as the bread was new every morning for Israel, the compassions and mercies of God are new every morning for each of us. We have a day-to-day, fresh provision from heaven for our day-to-day problems!

Jesus called Himself, “the bread of life” (John 6:48). We consume a little more of Him each day, giving us a spiritual diet of His beauty and loveliness. Just as manna came from heaven, Jesus is our spiritual manna, and we consume His mercy and goodness to get us through each day. Notice that we do not consume things OF Jesus, but rather we actually consume Jesus Himself. Feast on who He is, not just what He can do.

After growing wearied by the wilderness journey following the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai, Israel begins to look around at the things of the world around them. Their eyes glaze over with lust at the things that the heathen nations had nearby, and their longing and desire for the Lord began to wane. As soon as they desired something else, the manna began to be viewed as “worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5). Had the manna changed? Absolutely not, but their perception of it had. When other things steal your affection, the lovely Jesus will seem a little less lovely than before.

Angels wish that they could eat what the redeemed can eat! You have the sacrificed Lamb of God to consume each day. No angel has ever been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, but you have. No angel has been transformed from one creation into a brand new creation, but you have. No angel can know the joy of sins forgiven or the bliss of having no wrongs counted against them, but you do. Christian, you are most blessed, because you not only eat angels’ food; you eat better than they do, for you eat of Christ. Hallelujah!

Christ's Broken Heart

Psalms 69:20

At Calvary, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves on either side of Jesus so that they would die sooner, but when they came to Jesus they found no reason to break His legs, for He was already dead. Instead, a soldier took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus, thrusting the sharp point between His ribs and into His heart. Out of this wound poured blood and water, as the sack of water surrounding His heart exploded onto the crowd. From the spear pierced side, Jesus formed His church and we are covered with His blood for our sins and His water of Words for our cleanliness.

The breaking of Jesus’ heart in the physical happened after He was dead, but the breaking of His heart in the spiritual occurred before He drew His last breath. No doubt it was heart-wrenching to see doubt at the tomb of Lazarus, but Jesus had grown to expect as much from mankind. It was awful to know that Peter would deny Him, but denial is part of humanity. It was torture to receive the kiss of betrayal from Judas in Gethsemane, but Jesus prophesied that it would happen. None of these things were the spiritual breaking of the heart of our Savior.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psalms 69:20). This Psalm could probably be called a Psalm of Reproach for the word appears six times, and each in characterizing the coming Savior and what He would face in death. In verse 7, He bears reproach for the sake of His Father’s name, showing us that Jesus was constantly mocked for claiming that He and the Father were one.

The worst reproach of all was not done at the hands of man, but at the hands of His Father. For three hours at Calvary, the sky went black and the earth began to tremble. In that time, God turned His back on Jesus as Jesus bore the sins and sickness of the world. Because God is holy and just and good, He cannot look upon sin, thus He abandoned Jesus there to suffer for us all. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; calling His Father “God” for the first and last time in His life. Feeling distant because of sin, He lost the spirit of son ship that so characterized His ministry.

Since Jesus paid for us at the cross, we are so blessed in that we get His benefits through the grace and favor of God. God turned His back on Jesus so that He will never turn His back on us. God abandoned Jesus to suffer so that He would never abandon His church to suffer. Jesus cried, “My God, my God”, so that you could always cry “Daddy, Daddy!”. You gained the spirit of son ship because Jesus surrendered it. You are never reproached because reproach broke His heart (Psalms 69:20).

There was no one found at Calvary to provide comfort to Jesus as He suffered for our sins, thus we have the everlasting Comforter to walk alongside of us every day. Since Jesus faced all of hell alone; we receive all of heaven and sit together with Him. How wonderful is our Jesus?

Water From the Rock

Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8

While wandering through the wilderness of Sin (what a name!), Israel stops in Rephidim and murmurs against Moses that they are thirsty, “Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3). God’s response to this murmuring was to command Moses to take his rod and smite a rock, so that water could come out of it and Israel could drink. God provided this water in spite of their complaining for He was dealing with them by grace and favor, not based upon their performance.

The rock in the wilderness was a “spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). God’s command to smite the rock was to be used as a shadow of things to come, with Jesus being the Rock. At Calvary, Jesus was “smitten of God” (Isaiah 53:4) and “came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). While a rock in the wilderness brought forth only that which satiated the physical thirst of man, the Rock Jesus provides blood for our redemption and spiritual water for our daily thirst, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38).

About 20 years later, while wandering through the wilderness of Zin (not Sin, but very similar), Israel stops in Kadesh and “chode with Moses, and spake, saying, ‘Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!’” (Numbers 20:3). Again, they are thirsty and they murmur against God. God’s response this time was to tell Moses to gather the assembly together and “speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water” (verse 8). Now that Israel is under the Mosaic Covenant, they deserve to be killed for their murmuring, but God is willing to show them New Covenant mercy and grace.

Instead of speaking to the rock in front of their eyes as he was instructed to do, Moses “lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice” (Numbers 20:11). Notice that it took two hits to bring the water out, as if God was holding it back the first time to give Moses a chance to re-think things and do it right. Because of this moment of anger and frustration, Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Numbers 20:12).

What was the big deal with smiting the rock? They got the water didn’t they? All things in the Old Testament are done as a shadow of the substance of the New Testament. There is an object lesson of the cross of Christ in this story that is important to see.

Jesus is the Rock, smitten for our sins. He needed to be smitten but once, and never again (Hebrews 10:12). Now that Jesus has paid for everything, we need but speak of Him and His loveliness. We need to speak of ourselves as His righteousness and see Him working in us. We do NOT need to put Him back on the cross every moment that we fail, for Jesus has already paid for our failures. He is alive, and so are we!

What you say of Jesus is always “before their eyes”. If you make God out to be mad and hard to please, then you fail to sanctify Him in the eyes of the people. God has already smote Jesus so that you and I can drink freely anytime that we need. May we cease to present God as slow to bless and quick to kill, and see our Jesus flowing with the blood for our sins and the water for our sanctification.

Clean Living, Prior to the Law

Genesis 37:3; 39:9

Joseph is an amazing typology of Jesus in so many different ways. Both were children of Abraham and beloved of their father. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and Jesus was put on a cross by His brethren. Joseph was purchased with silver; Jesus was betrayed for silver. Joseph was revealed to his brothers the second time that they visited him; Jesus will be known by all of Israel at His Second Coming. Joseph married a Gentile bride, and Jesus has taken us as His Gentile bride.

Joseph’s ability to live above the fray is phenomenal, as he is an Old Testament type of a believer living under love and grace. Joseph lived over 4 centuries before the law was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, so everything that he does is a type of living under a covenant free from works and performance. The covenant that God had with Abraham was such a covenant, which mirrors our covenant through Christ Jesus.

Jacob gave his beloved son Joseph a “coat of many colors”, which showed everyone exactly what the old father thought of his son. The confidence that this coat gave to Joseph must have been enormous as he knew in each and every circumstance of life exactly what his father thought of him. Jesus shared this knowledge as He was baptized in the Jordan River and heard His Father say of Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Having the knowledge in His heart of His Father’s love, Jesus was perfectly equipped to face the devil in the wilderness. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that Jesus overcame the devil with fasting; in fact, Satan waited until Jesus was at His weakest to attack Him. Jesus overcame the devil in the wilderness with the knowledge of His Father’s love and favor for Him.

God’s favor was on Joseph from day one as “his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand” (Genesis 39:3). Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, promoted his slave Joseph to overseer of his house, putting everything that he owned into Joseph’s hand. Great blessing was on Joseph, thus great blessing landed on Potiphar (Genesis 39:5).

Potiphar’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and lusted after him. Left alone with her and completely trusted by her husband, Joseph had every opportunity to sleep with this woman, but he refuses, asking her, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Notice that Joseph does not call it a transgression, but rather a sin. Sin exists whether there is law or not, but a transgression is a breaking of the law. Joseph had no law, as he is living prior to the Mosaic Law; so what causes him to say “No”, when it would have been so easy to say “Yes”?

Some say that grace is great but that you need law to know how to live. They are only half-right; grace is great, but law will only teach you how to sin! It is grace that appears to us and teaches us how to live (Titus 2:11, 12), while it is law that explodes sin within us (Romans 5:20). Joseph said no to Potiphar’s wife because he had an intimate relationship with God, birthed by his father’s love for him. The knowledge of that love gave him the power to face any temptation; just like Jesus did in the wilderness.

You have a coat of many colors, given to you by your Heavenly Father. Just as the prodigal was clothed in a robe, so you are clothed in robes of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). Look at those robes as a representation of your Father’s love for you. Fully comprehend that love and you too will live beyond the clutches of this world.

No Separation

Romans 8:35-39

Romans chapter 8 opens with “no condemnation” and closes with “no separation”. In between is the working of the Holy Spirit within our lives. With only one mention of the Holy Spirit prior to the eighth chapter (Romans 5:5), the text now explodes with His activity, mentioning the Holy Spirit 19 times in this chapter alone! Only when the believer realizes that they are under no condemnation because of the finished work of Christ do they allow the Holy Spirit to do His perfect work in their life. The end-result of this work of the Spirit will be a complete knowledge of just how loved that you are.

So secure is the believer in the love that Christ has for them, that Paul uses as many different terrible circumstances as he can think of to show that there is nothing that trumps God’s love. No tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword can ever sever the tie that binds us with our loving, heavenly Father (Romans 8:35).

Paul points out some powerful truths about God’s love in these passages, beginning with our position in Christ as “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). The word ‘conquerors’ in Greek speaks of “gaining a surpassing victory”, meaning that in Christ, our victory over sin, the flesh and the devil is an overwhelming victory. We are so victorious because of what Jesus did for us, but until we grasp a singular point of verse 37, we do not know how victorious that we are. How are we more than conquerors? “Through Him that loved us”. Know how loved that you are, and you reap the benefits of Jesus’ victory at the cross!

Paul’s “persuasion” of verse 38 is “confident” in the Greek, denoting that he had become intimate enough with the Lord and His love that he could say unequivocally that there was nothing in the universe that could cause God to stop loving His creation. Even “things to come” (verse 38) were covered. There is no amount of technology or futuristic inventions yet thought of that can outdo or outlast the love of God. How sweet to know that no matter how sophisticated man becomes, or how many new ways that he invents to sin against God, there is no separating man from God’s abundant love and grace.

The word ‘separate’ is particularly interesting because it literally means “to divorce”. God views His relationship with His children as both Father to son/daughter and Husband to wife. There is nothing that can ever divorce the love of God from His bride. Jesus has married Himself to us through the blood covenant of the cross. He even gave His mother away at Calvary so that He could be free to cleave to His wife. What an awesome God!

Finally, the love of God is “in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Everything that God does for us is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are blessed, favored and loved because Jesus paved the way through His sacrificial death. See your sin in Jesus and know that you are no longer condemned. When you realize that He does not condemn you, you will comprehend His mighty love for you and you will be more than a conqueror. Let it begin today.

Our Helper

Romans 8:26, 27

When you have a big job to do, isn’t it nice if someone comes to help you complete it? With an extra set of hands, you have twice the labor being performed, cutting the work time in half and you have someone to fellowship with as you finish the project. In some respects, the Holy Spirit is in us as a helper; quick to pick up the areas in our life where we lack and are slacking and it is certainly nice to have some fellowship along the way.

In many other ways, the Holy Spirit is in us doing absolutely all of the work, because the task at hand is quite literally, out of our hands. Our sicknesses and our infirmities are possessions that we would rather not have, and sometimes they are things that we don’t even know that we possess until it is too late. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to deal with those infirmities as they arrive, making intercession for us “with groaning that cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

The groaning that are going on in us are on our part and not the Holy Spirit. He is perfectly capable of uttering whatever He needs to say, but we do not always know what it is that needs to be said. This is why we have the marvelous gift of praying in other tongues that we can use whenever we so desire. As we pray in tongues, we are praying the language of the Holy Spirit. Though unknown to us, it is His language and it ministers the things that only He knows.

We would all be quick to admit that the Holy Spirit knows everything that is going on in both our spirit man and in our physical bodies. There is not one blood cell that He does not have in His sights. Since He knows what we can’t, the Holy Spirit must intercede in areas that we do not have knowledge. When we pray in tongues, we are praying that area aloud, joining our faith with the intercession of the Holy Spirit. Jude called it “praying in the Holy Ghost”, which causes you to edify yourself “on your most holy faith” (Jude 20).

A second role of the Spirit in our hearts is to intercede for us according to God’s will for our lives. In this role, He is not only addressing the physical needs of our bodies, but He is positioning us for God’s best blessings in our lives. In other words, the Holy Spirit never goes to sleep on the job, but He is always looking out for our best interests.

It should be a blessed consolation to know that God has provided you with two wonderful gifts: the ability to pray in tongues over your situation and have the Holy Spirit working for you and the knowledge that at every moment of the day, the Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf to His Father regarding every area of your life.

You should regard yourself as very special in light of all that God has done and is doing for you, even as you read this. You must be greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved for God to take such a keen interest in your very best. Hallelujah!