In view of God’s mercy
Please read Psalm 51: 1-12, Luke 18: 9-14 and Romans 12: 1-2, and then pray; Gracious God, as I come before your Word today, show me again the wonderful nature of your precious mercy in Jesus, and then in loving response to your saving grace, may I live the life you have given me to the glory, honour, and praise of your name. Amen.
We begin a new teaching series today, one which I am very excited about. In the coming weeks, right up until advent (and perhaps beyond) we will be considering Romans Chapters 12 & 13. Those in the Church who have been attending “Know and Grow” this year have been studying “The Romans Course” produced by The Bible Society and written by the gifted Christian communicator Dr Andrew Ollerton. I have decided to preach this series to give our wider Church fellowship, and particularly our Sunday morning congregation of worshippers, a taste of Romans, and of a relatively small section of what most believe is the most important letter (epistle) in the NT Testament. If you want to know what Christianity is and what the Christian life should be like – then spend time seeking to understand the message of Romans. This will be a life-changer.
Why Romans 12 and 13? Simply because this is where Paul begins to outline the practical side of the Christian faith in detail. We will of course need to understand all that has gone before and I will be briefly referring to that today, but I felt the desire to preach a series of sermons on what might be referred to as the practical outworking of the Christian faith. We will discover that much of the apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans 12f is based on Jesus’s own teaching in the sermon on the Mount. (Matthew Chapters 5-7) You cannot get more practical than that!
Now I have to say immediately that you will never be able to practically live the Christian life without first understanding and being totally transformed by the Christian message – the good news of Jesus Christ. In other words, you must have understand Romans 1-11 before you have can live out the message of 12-16. Understanding and belief come before practice. Put simply, you must become a Christian before you can hope to live the life described in Romans 12f.
You sometimes hear people lamenting over the fact that we no longer appear to be a Christian nation. We have become almost entirely secular in the UK, and our precious and important Christian heritage and foundations have disintegrated. Christian faith and fervour have disappeared, and some people long for a return to a more Christian Britain. But you cannot have a Christian country unless you have a country with people who have personally understood, received, and been totally transformed by Christian gospel. You cannot have the joy of Christian fruit, life, blessings, and love without first having the Christian roots and tree. You do not get Christian culture and practice without true Christian faith.
This is why I want to begin today with a simple yet very significant message based entirely on the first few words of Romans 12: 1;
Therefore, I urge you brothers (and sisters) in view of God’s mercy…
We cannot go further than that today. This is because you and I must understand “the why” of Christian living before we can go on to “the what” of Christian living. Before you go on to consider “what” you are called and urged to do as a Christian believer, you must know “why” you want to do these things in the first place. Why do we live the Christian life? What is my chief motivation for Christian living and serving? Why do we “offer our bodies to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God?” (1)
Paul’s answer to that is this. We seek to live differently, we seek live the Christian life and to glorify God because of God’s incredible and amazing mercy or mercies. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
The practical living out of the Christian life is all down to the fact that you and I have experienced, tasted for ourselves, been radically transformed by God’s mercies, and especially by His mercies to us through Jesus Christ.
We do not live and we cannot seek to live the Christian life on the basis that “this is what I think God wants, so I better do it.” Or, based on, “If I do these things I may a decent chance of getting into heaven.” Or, “if I do this and this and this, God will be pleased and impressed with me and will bless me and my life will be good.”
No. Christian living and practice and service is based entirely on gratitude and thankfulness for all the mercy God has shown to us. The Christian life stems from pure gratitude for the generous mercies and love that God has poured into our lives through His Son Jesus Christ. “In view of God’s mercy!”
It is therefore vital for us to understand who God is in His own Divine Essence and Being – and the bible from beginning to end proclaims that God is merciful. God is glorious, God is Holy, God is Love, God is good – and God is Merciful. As we sang earlier in our opening hymn; Holy, holy, holy – merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity! We also sang – The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases – his mercies never come to an end… Later, we will end this service as we sing with joy in our souls – Praise Him! Praise Him, Praise Him! Praise Him! Widely as His mercy flows.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes God as being – “rich in mercy.” (Ephesians 2:4) “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich is mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” You may recall that beautiful and precious phrase in the famous prayer of humble access – God, whose nature is always to have mercy. What a beautiful, reassuring, and blessed thing this is. There have been many times in my ministry where I have had to stress to certain individuals in desperate need this glorious truth and reality – God is merciful, and God is merciful to sinners. Do you need to be reminded of that today?
When you think of the concept of mercy – what comes to mind? Perhaps the mercy of a Judge in a courtroom? A Judge who has mercy on someone who has clearly broken the law and deserves punishment. They should be sent to prison, but the Judge decides against prison. The Judge shows mercy. Jesus tells a parable about such mercy. It concerns man who owes a substantial debt and has no ability to pay it. His situation is serious and all looks bleak. The king to whom he owes a lot of money forgives the man and lets him go free. The debt is wiped clean and forgotten. The story goes on to describe how the man who has been shown great mercy and forgiven his debt later refuses to forgive a tiny debt he is owed by another. The one who was shown great mercy does not himself show mercy to another. The one who has been forgiven will not forgive another in need. This lack of mercy will land this man in deep trouble. (The Parable of the unmerciful servant Matthew 18: 21-35) The whole point of the parable is to illustrate God’s mercy towards us as debtors and how we must in turn show mercy to those indebted to us.
God’s mercy is great. God is rich, loaded with mercy. We see this time and again in the Old Testament. God being very patient, kind, forgiving and all together merciful. We see it for example in the story of Jonah and the Ninevites. God has mercy upon the citizens of Ninevah. We see it with King David who experiences God’s mercy and forgiveness after committing adultery and murder. We see it in David’s Psalms. Multiple Psalms are based on the truth that God is a God of tender mercy, and if, in humble prayer, we appeal to that mercy and plead for mercy, God will reach out to us and forgives us and restore us. God delights to heal and restore. (Psalm 51) But if we want definite and unquestionable proof that God exudes mercy and grace, then we must look to God in flesh – Jesus Christ. Look at what God incarnate, God among us, did and taught. Jesus came to reveal God to us – and to do so clearly. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
If we had been in Galilee when Jesus was here on earth, one of the most outstanding things we would have seen was his mercy. Is this not why thousands crowded around him and flocked to him? Examples of Jesus’s mercy appear on almost every page of the four gospels. A lonely man suffering from leprosy comes to Jesus and begs Jesus to cleanse and heal him. Jesus touches him with pure compassion and mercifully heals him. On another occasion it is ten lepers. They are all healed. Famously, only one comes back to thanks him and he is a Samaritan. Those who cried out for mercy to Jesus, and there were hundreds upon hundreds, received it. Here are just 2 examples. (Read Matthew 17: 14-18, 20: 29-34)
Jesus not only showed and demonstrated mercy time and time again, he taught his disciples that if they were to walk and live in the ways of his kingdom, they would have to be merciful. So, in the beatitudes Jesus teaches; “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) On one occasion whilst teaching Jesus points out to those listening something that was spoken of in the writings of the prophets;” I desire mercy not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9: 13)
In what are perhaps Jesus’s two most famous parables – he teaches the need for mercy. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan – we find these words; Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ And in the Parable of the lost son. To a son who deserved absolutely nothing, a father places a ring on him, the best robe, and the fatted calf is killed so that the party celebrating his return might begin. The father has mercy and compassion on the desperately wayward and selfish son. And never forget the guilty thief hanging next to Jesus on the cross. Even then, Jesus can minister mercy to a dying man and assure him of free forgiveness and paradise. (Luke 23:43)
And it is in those first eleven chapters of Romans where the apostle Paul masterfully reveals this good news of grace and mercy in Jesus and shows us how anyone, no matter how vile and evil, can find mercy – because of Jesus just as Paul himself did. (1 Timothy 1: 13-15) The first 2-3 chapters in Romans address the entire world (Gentile and Jew) in its rebellion against God and fall into sin and with all sin’s destructive consequences. The horrible mess and pain of the world is down to our sin. All are involved. All are guilty. As Paul says – All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are in desperate need and in a desperate mess and we are consequently living under the just judgement of God.
But into this situation, into the crippling moral and spiritual mud and mire of the world, God out of pure love and grace – sends his only Son. He comes into the world to show us how to live, how to be merciful creatures made in the image of God, but even more importantly, Jesus lays down his life for us upon the cross – and in doing so, not only takes our sins, but also the punishment for them upon his own shoulders. Let me just lift 2 verses from Romans to show this amazing truth and love of God.
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just, and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3: 25-26)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us
Paul is teaching that the cross is unique in that it demonstrates God’s perfect and pure justice and God’s love at the same time. Sin and evil are rightly punished – justice is enacted – BUT – the wrath is taken by God himself in His Son. He takes it for us. He takes our sin and the punishment for it. All we are required to do to place our whole faith and trust in that act of love by Jesus. We are justified (forgiven and made right with God) simply by faith. No works are involved! That’s Romans! That’s also the teaching of Jesus in that parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector….
Romans teaches, and this is the glory of this gospel – that if we place our trust in Jesus and in his death for us on the cross – the blood of the new covenant – we can be freely forgiven, we can receive the gift of Jesus’s righteousness, ( a righteousness from God – 1:17, 3:21) the gift of eternal, the gift of the Spirit and the gift of adoption. All for nothing. All because of God’s grace and mercy.
As I read through Romans chapters 1 – 11, I am reminded that when I became a Christian, when I put the whole of my trust in Jesus and his death for me – God made mighty and powerful declarations over my life. He made these pronouncements and they are to stand eternally:
- You are totally forgiven of all your sin because of the blood of my Son!
- You are now clothed from head to foot in the righteousness of my Son!
- You are now reconciled to me. You have peace. I am your Father, and you are my chosen and specially adopted child. You are a joint heir with my Son. You have my Spirit as proof.
- You are united to my Son in every possible way. You are in Christ – my Son
- Nothing can separate you from my love. You are mine forever.
- None of this is down to anything you have done. It is all down to my grace and mercy! Remember that!
I could share more – but have you heard and understood those six truths. If you have, and if you know them to be true in your life – what happens next?
Romans chapter 12 – THEREFORE – I appeal to you, I urge and encourage you, my fellow Christians – IN VIEW OF GOD’s MERCY – in view of those 6 points listed – and so much more – in view in of every aspect and evidence of God’s mercy shown to you – offer your bodies (offer everything) as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
We now step out to live a new life, very different, not conformed to the pattern of this world where there is nowhere near enough mercy, but a new life in which, with the power of God’s Spirit in us, we seek to live in the light of God’s mercy and grace. We will see that so much that follows is about you and I and the whole Church aiming and striving to be merciful people, people who “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) The prophet Micah asked the people of his day; And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
This word from Micah sums up Romans 12. Read again Micah 6:8 and then Romans 12. Romans 12 is calling for you and I to be people of justice, mercy, and humility.
Read Romans 12: 3, 6-8 (especially 8), 10, 13, 15, 16. It is all humility and mercy, isn’t it?
You can be merciful because mercy can flow out from your life like a constant stream from all the mercy you have experienced in Jesus, and all the mercy you continue to experience every day of your walk with God. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. Or as Paul puts it in Romans 8: 31-32. “What shall we say then in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Practical Christian love flows out of lives that have been touched and transfigured by the grace and mercy of Jesus. Mercy received from Jesus inspire mercy shared freely within the Church and with all others, including enemies. And exercising mercy and kindness is not a burden but a real joy, delight, and privilege because we demonstrate mercy for Jesus’ sake, for Jesus’s glory, and in the light of all Jesus has done and is doing for us now – even today in this meeting. His merciful touch is here.
The big question that I put to you at the beginning of this study of Romans 12 is this. Why do we pursue the life Paul exhorts us to in this chapter?
It is all down to this.
God’s mercies.
Next week we go on to consider “the how” of Christian practice and living. Today we have dealt with “the why.”
It is vital to understand both but should anyone ask you why you live the Christian life – the best response to give is this;
I seek to live the Christ-shaped life – because of all I know and continue to experience of God’s mercy to me in Jesus Christ.
In view of God’s mercy. (Roman 12:1a)
Amen!
Revd Peter J Clarkson (6.7.25)