Grace: The Mercy of Jesus

Providing Some Context

As this is the final instalment in my series on Jesus as the personification of Grace I wanted to represent correctly. For me, this topic is could be the one that holds it all together. It is the topic that speaks so clearly on our unworthiness and exactly why Jesus as the personification of Grace is our doorway to salvation and to God the father.

I have been on an extremely revealing and testing journey. I have made choices and decisions I am not proud of. I have made sacrifices to get to where I am in life but I can guarantee you that I cannot take any credit for where I am in life. It is all a result of God’s grace towards me. Like a blind person relies on their stick to help them along their path or on their dog to lead them, I rely on God’s leadership because my natural eyes do not offer me the sight I need to deal with spiritual things.

I order for this to make sense we must go through several steps and I am going to need you to bear with me on this one.

1.     We need take a look at the birth of sin and what it meant for human beings

2.     We need to look at how atonement was made for sin under the old covenant

3.     We need to understand the law that was given and governed the old covenant

4.     We need to then look at the teachings of Jesus on sin and atonement

5.     We finally need to look at what Jesus did and the new covenant that was created as a result

This is a topic that is so close to my heart so forgive me if I get a little ‘excited’ and ‘carried away’.

The Birth of Sin

This is the part of this writing that plays like the beginning of one of those Hollywood movies and you get the flashback to the past.

Our story doesn’t go back to when Eve took the fruit of the tree and bit into it. It doesn’t go to where she gave Adam some of the fruit to eat. Our story goes back to when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of life because once they did, they would surely die.

Right at that point, Adam and Eve were given a choice and a decision to make. They had the choice as to whether to be obedient to the commandment of God or whether to satisfy their curiosity and see what the fruit on that tree was all about.

Let’s put everything into context, God had said to Adam and Eve that they could eat of anything in the garden. It says in Genesis 1:29:

The God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food”.

What I found most interesting in the account of creation is that God planted two trees in the middle of the garden. He planted the tree of life and he also planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I do not believe that the tree of life is mentioned for the sake of it. I believe there is significance in the mentioning of the tree of life. Given that Jesus is often referred to as a tree and we are his branches. Jesus is also referred to as the bread of life. I believe the tree of life was planted in the garden for the benefit of Adam and Eve. The tree of life was planted there for them to enjoy and to eat freely from. Remember there was no restriction of eating from the tree of life. Just like how Jesus came that we may have life and life more abundantly. The tree of life was there for Adam and Eve to eat from and to eat from in abundance.

The other interesting point is that the tree was of life was planted right next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, taking me back to my first point.

Our story starts before the fruit was eaten. Our story starts at the point where Eve is stood in front of that tree.

I’ve met people with resolve. People that no matter what you say to them you cannot convince to go against their convictions. If someone is going to be swayed into making a particular decision, they already had a seed of curiosity growing and the words to convince them are just water for that seed.

That is the position we find ourselves in when considering Adam and Eve. They were already curious about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God placed the tree next to the tree of life to give them a way out when the temptation to satisfy that curiosity came knocking. All they had to do was look across to the next tree and pluck from the tree and eat of life, but they had to know! They wanted to know what death tasted like.

Sin was born at the point where Adam and Eve made the choice to walk past the tree of life (their God given escape plan) and walk up to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eat of its fruit.

So, what did this mean for us as humans? Well it meant shame, guilt, insecurity, anger, disappointment, pride, lust, envy, laziness and many other emotions and character traits we now readily identify with.

The biggest consequence was the introduction of death. God planted the tree of life that man may eat of its fruit and live forever in communion with him. When God banished the man and woman from the garden it was not out of cruelty, it was out of love. God did not want them to live eternally in their fallen state. If they had eaten of the tree of life after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then they would have lived for ever in a state of brokenness and disconnection from God. That was not his plan or desire for his most precious of creations. That was not what he wanted for the only creation he formed with his hands. Everything else was spoken into existence but we were fashioned from the dirt by his hands and received his breath to make us live.

When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit they were immediately aware of their nakedness and were embarrassed/ashamed. Sin exposes us and makes us feel ashamed of ourselves. It creates a feeling of unworthiness in us and that is not what God planned for us.

The Atonement for Sin

Reading through the story of Adam and Eve I realized something. God may have ejected the man and woman from the garden but he did not take his presence from them. Verse 16 of Genesis 4 says:

So Cain left the LORD’S presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

In order for Cain to leave the LORD’S presence, he had to be in it first. I’ve had many a debate with Jehovah’s witnesses about what happened to Adam and Eve after their fall. They would have you believe that Adam and Eve died in their sin and were beyond redemption and that was the end of their story. That to me does not sound like the actions a loving and forgiving father would take. His first born child did wrong so he cast him out and left him to die, a one strike God. If that were the case then why are there any people on this planet? God is slow to anger and full of mercy. His plan is that no one (especially the first two people he specifically molded and formed with his hands) to die.

Adam and Eve dwelt in the presence of the LORD even after they were ejected from the garden. Their expulsion from the garden was for their own salvation so they would not eat of the fruit from the tree of life and live forever disconnected from God. Adam and Eve suffered a consequence for their sin, it cost them their place in Eden but it did not cost them their place in God’s presence. God continued to commune with them and speak with them directly.

It is interesting that we do not have any account of any atonement for sin until Exodus 29:14. Prior to this God commanded Noah after the flood that anyone that blood will pay for blood. Whether that is the shedding of blood by human hands or that of a wild animal. Whosoever sheds blood would lose their life to repay the blood debt.

Those who followed God made burnt offerings as gifts to him but as we read the accounts of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Rebekah and all their descendants we see that their behavior was deplorable. They were self-serving, manipulative, deceitful, liars and other things. Yet, God still spoke to them and visited them in dreams. He sent his angels to communicate and deliver messages to them. Their actions had many repercussions but they did not separate them from the covenant promise God had made to Abraham and reiterated to Isaac. God had made a promise and as part of that promise there was a period of separation from God and a time of captivity and slavery. These were consequences of some of the bad decisions that had been made by Abraham, by Rebekah by Jacob and their descendants.

Since God made man to commune with him he had to put something in place to make this tainted vessel worthy to re-enter his holy presence. He gave Moses instructions on rituals to bring about the purification of the people of Israel and also a means of consecrating an appointed people from the line of Aaron (who was of the tribe of Levi) and leading to what is known as Levitical law.

Exodus 29:14 tells us of the sacrifice that was required as an atonement for sin. The animal being brought as the sacrifice needed to be slaughtered in the presence of the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle The blood had to be sprinkled outside the curtains of the inner court (where the burnt offerings are made). The internal organs and the fat surrounding these organs are offered up as a burnt offering in the outer court on the alter set for making burnt offerings. The hide, the meat and the dung were taken outside the camp and burnt somewhere defined as being ceremonially clean. I believe that the sin offering being made outside the camp was symbolic of removing sin from the community. The blood of the young bull or young goat had to be put on the horns of the alter and poured out at the base of the alter. A blood offering had to be made in exchange for God’s mercy. The sacrifice was not a permanent solution; It bought you a period of grace until you sinned again and then you had to come back and repeat the process.

Leviticus 4 provides a detailed account of the procedures for the sin offering.

The key points to take from this are as follows:

·      Sin resulted in death

·      Blood was required to pay the price for blood (death)

·      The sacrifice as an atonement for sin was not permanent

These points are really important because they help us build the picture of what Christ did and its significance.

The Old Covenant and The Law

To understand why the sin offering was required and the peace offering and all the other sacrifices that needed to be made for atonement, we must understand the covenant and the law.

The covenant was made with Moses when God took the people of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 19) and the law was given to Moses when he met with God on mount Sinai (Exodus 20).

The covenant God made with the people of Israel was that he would keep them as his special people, consecrated to himself, his chosen nation, as long as they obeyed his law. The law, usually referred to as ‘The law of Moses’ is the 10 commandments. Now some would say ‘how hard is it to follow 10 simple rules?’ well I would like to say it is a lot harder than you think. In addition to the 10 commandments there were the rules on being ceremonially clean and it was pretty easy to accidentally break those rules. Now God did not put these rules into place so that people would stumble. God being holy could not have sin in his presence as his holiness would consume the individual. The rules were there so people could come to God without being consumed. The people had their place outside the holy of holies but the priests, those who were descended from the line of Aaron and the tribe of Levi, who were consecrated unto God for his service were able to go into the holy of holies. Exodus 28 tells us of the priestly garments that were designed for them. These garments were beautiful but they also included a safety measure. The garments had bells attached to them so that the other priests could hear the one who had entered the holy of holies moving around. The priest on duty also had a rope tied to him. If the sound of the bells stopped, they knew that the priest was dead and they could pull him out using the rope that had been tied to him.

The priests themselves had to go through a 7-day ordination ceremony that included daily sin offerings. The number 7 is the number of completion in the bible, this is a whole study in itself, but we will go with the root of the meaning which comes from the book of Genesis and Gods completion of creation on the 7^th day.

Before a priest could serve, their preparation and their cleansing had to be complete. They were washed over and over again and they offered up 7 sin offerings to complete their cleansing from sin. The priests also had to make a sin offering if they became aware that they had accidentally sinned against God. Should they enter the presence of God in the holy of holies without being cleansed of their sin they would die. Jumping quickly back to the new testament, it says in Romans 6:23:

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sin has a price, and that price is eternal. God does not want anyone to be eternally disconnected from him, that is why he removed Adam and Eve from the garden.

Genesis 3:22-23 says:

Then the LORD God said ‘look, the human beings have become like us knowing good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever’. So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.        

God’s plan for us was always eternal life, eternally connected and in communion with him. I believe that is why he planted the tree of life but as soon as we sinned we created a path to eternal disconnect from God. There was no atonement at that point, so any person who ate of the tree of life in their disconnected state would be eternally disconnected from God. There was still a chasm that needed to be breeched. The stench of sin had become so much that God could no longer commune with man that he created. There were few righteous men left on the earth so God needed a way to bring these covenanted people back into his presence. He needed a right of passage for them to go through to allow them to come into fellowship with him.

His people made a new covenant with him. They choose him as their God and promised to heed his commandments.

The ten commandments were the pillars of the law, a law that included rules on what was right or wrong in the eyes of God, what resulted in death and what resulted in a lesser punishment. It laid out what was acceptable treatment for property, possessions, slaves and foreigners. God laid out the rules for social responsibility amongst his people and clear instructions on what was acceptable as an offering to him.

Now it was possible for people to observe the letter of the law but to ignore the spirit of the law. What I mean by that is this; we know of the Pharisees who were religious experts. They knew and observed every religious ceremony but Jesus described them as ‘white washed tombs’ meaning their outsides looked perfect but internally they harbored so many skeletons and unclean things.

The law was not there to condemn the people, rather it was there as a guide for them to live by but God knew that they would struggle and that is why he gave them a means for atoning and making recompense for their sins.

The law that God gave to his people still stands today. It is still as relevant today as it was when God gave it. Those who obey it and obey it with the right spirit do well but our human nature is inherently evil and as much as we may desire to observe the law in its fullness we inevitably fall short as clearly stated in Romans 3:23.

Jesus’ teachings on sin and atonement

When I look through the teaching of Jesus I take comfort in the fact that he did not persecute the sinners as the Pharisees did. If he did then there would clearly be no hope for me as I consider myself to be a compulsive sinner by my inherent nature. I remember a line from one of my favorite Christian rappers, Bizzle, which said something along the lines of “no one had to sit me down and tell me this is what lying is, I learned to do it when I knew the truth would have a consequence”. I completely relate to that. We excuse lies as ‘trying to protect someone’s feelings’ or we say we are ‘stretching the truth’. The fact is we learned to lie because the selfish nature of sin which seeks self preservation tells us that if we say x,y and z we are likely to avoid an uncomfortable situation or get a more favorable result.

Jesus knew the heart of every man and woman that he came into contact with and they didn’t even have to say a word.

I love the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. Jesus tells this woman of her sin of being with 5 different men and not even being married to the man she is living with now. Jesus did not tell her this to condemn her, but to open her eyes that she may realize whom she was speaking with. Earlier in the passage Jesus said to the woman “if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water”.

Jesus knew this Samaritan woman had a capacity for faith in her. He told her of her sin so that she would know who he is and that he is the key to her redemption. He is her doorway to salvation.

Jesus never taught on sin or the atonement for sin. Jesus taught on the kingdom of God because Jesus knew that he was the key to freedom from sin. He knew that all who had faith in him and believed in him would be freed from sin. He knew that he was the ultimate sacrifice for the Jews and gentiles alike.

Jesus taught the people to repent and turn to God for the Kingdom of God is near.

In John 3:16-18 it says:

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

Speaking to Nicodemus, a highly respected Jewish leader, Jesus clearly gives account of his purpose. Jesus gave a clear picture, no parables, just a simple instruction on how one could receive salvation.

Jesus did not say one must follow all these rules and cleanse themselves in this manner and then go out and find a male goat without blemish to sacrifice. Jesus said one thing, whoever believes in God’s one and only Son will be saved and receive eternal life.

I know this message is leaning towards Jesus’ mercy in relation to our sin infected state but I want to show you the heart of Jesus as well because when you see the heart of Jesus and the character of Jesus you understand the depths of his love and therefore the extent of his grace.

John 5:1-15 says this:

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people – blind, lame, or paralyzed – lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always get there ahead of me.”

Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘pick up your mat and walk.’”

“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him at the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders it that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The pool of Bethesda had 5 covered porches on which the sick laid; 5 being the number of grace, meaning that the grace covered the pool of Bethesda. When the pool bubbled up the first person to enter the pool would receive healing. Now this man had been there for a long time. This man had more than likely given up all hope of being healed because he couldn’t get himself up and into the pool when it bubbled up. When healing was about, he was not able to get up and get his share. As I have been sharing, grace is a man and that day grace visited him. Grace looked upon him and had mercy on him. Even when Jesus asked him ‘Would you like to get well?’ he didn’t grasp what he was being asked. He didn’t appreciate that the question was presenting an opportunity for healing in that immediate moment. Despite his inability to grasp that grace was standing right in front and offering him an opportunity that he would never get, Jesus extended mercy to him and healed him. The reaction of the religious leaders is outstanding, a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years has just stood up and walked and the first thing you say to him is “you can’t work on the Sabbath! The law does not permit you to carry that sleeping mat”. Those who do not understand grace will always operate by the law and the law is unsparing and clear cut. The law will condemn and punish you for your guilt but this is not the nature of Jesus. We see later in the text that Jesus tells the man to stop sinning now that he is well. He is telling him, I have cleared your debt and given you a clean slate BECAUSE I am at liberty to do so. I don’t care what your history is, I have seen you fit to be redeemed and cleansed you so that you can live a fulfilling life. Everyone may have written you off, no one may have been willing to help you get better but I have the power to make you better and I have made you better so go now and refrain from sin, in other words go and live your life for the God that has made you whole.

That story for me is a perfect picture of grace. A man so trapped in his current situation, who could not recognize freedom as he stood in his presence is given a gift he didn’t deserve or earn in any way. That is what grace looks like to me, but anyway, let’s get back on track.

The finished work of Jesus

Jesus gave up his life on the cross and died so that we could be redeemed to God and have fellowship with him. If we left it here then we would be doing a disservice to what Jesus did on the cross. You see what Jesus did when he died on the cross was far more significant than what many Christians would have you believe (no disrespect to them).

Matthew 5:17- 20 says:

Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

You see what Jesus did on the cross was fulfil and accomplish the purpose of the law. Earlier I said that God gave his people a series of rules and regulations, ceremonies and rituals for cleansing and preparation for meeting with him. God laid down a plan for his people to allow them to commune in his presence but our desire to sin was greater than our desire to do what is good.

As a people we have become so accustomed to sin that we do it by reflex. The same way we blink or breathe, it is now a part of our make up, an action we carry out without thinking.

Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice for all humanity. An unblemished lamb, one without sin.

We needed a perfect sacrifice, a sacrifice that paid the price once and for all and then sealed the deal by conquering death. Jesus allowed himself to be subject to the law that he created and took on the sin of the world. He who knew no sin allowed himself to become sin to redeem his creation. His blood was shed to pay the price that only blood could pay. He made himself a curse for us, he became the detestable thing that is sin so that we could be restored to our heavenly Father. God covered the land with darkness and hid Jesus from his face so as to not look upon his son covered in sin. When Jesus died, something amazing happened. The curtain that separated the inner court of the temple from the holy of holies was split in half signifying what the death of Jesus did spiritually. Man and God were brought back together. The presence of God was no longer reserved to the priests, instead all men could now go into the presence of God freely. Jesus did what he vowed to do, he destroyed the temple and at the resurrection it was rebuilt. The destruction of the temple was brought about not in terms of physical building, rather the system that had been instituted. The sacrificial rituals and the ceremonies of purification that had been instituted for men to enter God’s presence had to be destroyed and rebuilt. They were not destroyed and cast away, instead they were fulfilled and replaced with a new system that made salvation easily accessible and freely available to all men; that system was grace.

Before the temple (that is you and I) could be rebuilt, there was an enemy that had to be rendered powerless; that enemy was sin.

I have a whole post dedicated to this already but I love talking about it so much I will share it once again.

Romans 6 in its entirety talks about the power of sin being broken and I believe this is something we as Christians should meditate on. It is a constant reminder of what we have been given, what we have been set from and who we have become.

Let me concentrate on verses 14 – 18:

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become a slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin and you have become slaves to righteous living.

When Jesus died on the cross he fulfilled the law of Moses by being the perfect sacrifice meaning that no other sacrifice was ever needed again. What that means is that whenever we sin something unique happens. Where our sin would automatically be directed to an altar where the blood from the previous sin offering would have now run out and be completely dried up, it is directed to a new altar. It is directed to the cross where Jesus died and where the blood of Jesus runs freely atoning for past, present and future mistakes. It is pointed to that never-ending source of recompense. The price has been paid and is paid forever more. When guilt and shame come to collect their debt following your sin, Jesus says remember, I have paid the price for that. What Romans 6 is telling us is that we should not see our position of grace as an excuse to live in sin and to willfully go out and sin. That is what it is talking about above where it mentions being a slave to sin. When we willfully go out to sin we allow our sin to lead us, direct us and govern our actions. It becomes the master and we live according to that. Our liberty under grace is that we remember that we have died to sin and sin has no power over us. The law either finds us innocent or guilty but grace finds us redeemed. Being in a position where you are either guilty or not doesn’t leave you with much room to maneuver, you live with an expectation of either being unfit and therefore living in fear barely existing or you live with an over confidence in your own ability to keep the law and putting yourself on a pedestal taking glory for your position. This state in itself leads to pride which means you actually fall short and end up guilty so it’s actually a lose/lose scenario. Grace means that God looks to what Jesus did on the cross and allows you to live striving for holiness and no beating yourself up when you make mistakes. YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES.

In Romans 7:15 Paul says:

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

We have sin in our nature but when we accept Christ and when we are baptized we begin a new life. A life where we can constantly look to the cross and remember that the price has already been paid and not live under guilt and condemnation. We can confess our sins to God and ask him for the strength to overcome the temptation to do what is wrong. The desire to sin will always live within us and we will always struggle with it but with Christ we have victory over sin and can begin to choose what is right and live in freedom.

The mercy of Jesus is underpinned by what he did on the cross and that underpins our victory over sin. I would encourage you to go back and read my blog on the gospel of grace as there are things in there that I just do not have time to mention in this one but they will really help you in understanding and appreciating the grace that has been freely give and the mercy of Jesus.

God bless.