Irresistible Mercy: Part 1

What causes one to simply reject God’s mercy for themselves? What makes the mercy of God so irresistible?

These are two questions that I’ve been asking myself over the last month or so. I believe it’s time for me to flesh out some of what I have gathered from the Holy Spirit on this topic.

Mercy by definition is to have compassion on another or to be tender towards one who has wronged. Titus 3 illustrates this very well:

“When the extraordinary compassion of God our Savior and his overpowering love suddenly appeared in person, as the brightness of a dawning day, he came to save us. Not because of any virtuous deed that we have done but only because of his extravagant mercy.” (Titus 3:4-5 TPT)

A healthy understanding of the Father’s mercy will enable one to no longer look at their past and to devote their gaze only on what lies ahead as Apostle Paul said.

But why do people have trouble receiving the mercy of God for themselves? Here are some lies I want to debunk:

• The sin their minds is bigger than the blood of Jesus.

• They believe they must jump through religious hoops to be deemed worthy enough to receive it.

• Salvation was their doing, not his. (Salvation happens when one is awakened to their union in Jesus.)

Lie 1: The sin in our mind is bigger than the blood of Jesus.

Romans 3:24 says that Jesus has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin.

Romans 3:25 says that mercy was made available through the sacred blood of Jesus.

Romans 4:5-6 says that Abba will never hold our sins against us. It has been removed, not covered.

There is absolutely no sin too big or despicable that hasn’t been completely removed by the blood of Jesus. Christ is now our mercy seat and the lie of sin keeps us from sitting at that mercy seat.

Lie 2: We believe that we still must jump through religious hoops to be deemed worthy.

Galatians 5:1 says that we have freedom because Christ has set us free. When we submit to life of striving we let in the bondage of our past when the old man is dead.

By operating from the revelation of being union with God, we live from grace.

Galatians 5:6 says when we are joined to the Anointed one, circumcision and religious obligations can benefit you nothing. In other words, being in union with God, striving will not do us any good because in that union we operate from faith which is expressed by and through love.

There is absolutely no benefit to us when we try to live our lives by our own means. We were created for union.

Lie 3: Salvation was our doing, not His.

You are probably ready to stop reading from here, but hear me out. There are a lot of views on salvation and I am not going to break that down for this particular piece.

When we believe that we played a role in our own salvation we set ourselves up to reject Yahweh’s mercy.

2 Timothy 1:9 in Brian Simmons passion translation says, “He gave us resurrection life and drew us to himself by his holy calling on our lives. And it wasn’t because of any good we have done, but by his divine pleasure and marvelous grace that confirmed our union with the anointed one Jesus, even before time began!”

There is a lot going on in this one passage, so let me try and break it down for you. First Jesus is drawing us to himself, not because we did anything. It simply brought him pleasure.

Second, our union is simply confirmed through the grace to not have to do anything on our end. We simply receive it.

We receive mercy when we view salvation through the lens of Yahweh drawing us to himself through His son Jesus.

I believe that we cannot partner with God in our salvation, but we can participate in our salvation by way of walking in union with Jesus. I hope this is making sense to you and setting you ablaze by now.

Our salvation is a gift, not a reward to be earned (See Eph. 2:8-9). We’ve got to stop treating the gospel like a reward to be earned as if it’s up to us make it happen. It has already happened. Jesus has happened to us. Just receive it.

The moment we believe that our salvation came by way of us doing something in order to receive it, we have immediately reverted back to a performance mindset and have diluted the gospel.

Landing the plane here, I want to take you back to what Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:

“However I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future.”

Paul forgot his past because in Christ he has discovered that Yahweh no longer holds on to it either. Remember Romans 4 from earlier?

Paul disregarding his past allowed him to be a receptor of Abba’s irresistible mercy.

The more we engage with Christ within, the more we distance ourselves from an old way of thinking and living.

Ephesians 2:5 says that “even when we were dead in our many sins, he united us into the life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace.”

By and through Yahweh’s immense mercy, He embraced us in Christ. And His embracing saved us. He needed no help from us.

Let’s take our hands off salvation and let Abba embrace people again. You with me?