Grace and Mercy

So today I thought I would think about grace and mercy. Here is what Merriam Webster says:



Grace: unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.


Mercy: compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power.


Hmmm. Whatever. I guess I’m not too concerned with what the WORLD thinks about grace and mercy.


So I thought I’d do some Biblical research. The Greek word for grace is caris. “Non-meritorious or unearned favor, an unearned gift, a favor or blessings bestowed as a gift, freely and never as merit for work performed.”      OK. . . ?


Mercy as defined or translated from the Greek word eleos (as used in the New Testament) means compassion (divine or human, especially active).


Okey Dokey. I’m really confused now.


So here is what I think. I’ll go with Dr. Milton Jones’ definitions:


Grace is getting something you DON’T DESERVE and


Mercy is NOT getting something you DO DESERVE.


There, now isn’t that better?

And really, isn’t this the whole basis of our Christian faith? Grace is freely given to us by the Lord, when we soooooo don’t deserve it? All we have to do is ask. And mercy. . . oh, there is so much punishment that I DO deserve, for all the things I have done wrong in my life, but JESUS took my punishment for me, He paid my fine, so to speak, in the most horrid/beautiful way ever, taking MY PLACE on a cross.


In today’s world, I guess it would go like this:


I have been found GUILTY and sentenced to die by lethal injection. But all my appeals have been denied, and the governor did not stay my execution. I have just had my last meal, and I have walked down that lonely hall to the last room I will ever live in, with the media is in that little room with the window, and I am strapped in, the IV started, and the lethal dose ready to be injected.


But wait!!!! There is a commotion! MY JESUS is here, and He says, “NO. Get up. Move out. I AM going to take your place.”


“No, no,” I say, “I did it. I deserve this. I have failed.”


“I know, my child. Yes, you did. But I am here to take your place.” And then Jesus takes my place, takes the IV, takes the lethal injection, and DIES for ME, because of what I DID.


So that is mercy. I didn’t get what I did deserve.


But instead, I got His grace, which I didn’t earn and don’t deserve.


Thank You Jesus, thank You. . .