Basic HTML Version
63
14:3. By grace sinners receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ, Acts 18:27; Eph. 2:8. By grace they
are justified, Rom. 3:24; 4:16; Tit. 3:7, they are enriched with spiritual blessings, John 1:16; II
Cor. 8:9; II Thess. 2:16, and they finally inherit salvation, Eph. 2:8; Tit. 2:11. Seeing they have
absolutely no merits of their own, they are altogether dependent on the grace of God in Christ.
In modern theology, with its belief in the inherent goodness of man and his ability to help
himself, the doctrine of salvation by grace has practically become a “lost chord,” and even the
word “grace” was emptied of all spiritual meaning and vanished from religious discourses. It
was retained only in the sense of “graciousness,” something that is quite external. Happily,
there are some evidences of a renewed emphasis on sin, and of a newly awakened
consciousness of the need of divine grace.
d. The mercy of God.
Another important aspect of the goodness and love of God is His mercy or
tender compassion. The Hebrew word most generally used for this is chesed. There is another
word, however, which expresses a deep and tender compassion, namely, the word racham,
which is beautifully rendered by “tender mercy” in our English Bible. The Septuagint and the
New Testament employ the Greek word eleos to designate the mercy of God. If the grace of
God contemplates man as guilty before God, and therefore in need of forgiveness, the mercy of
God contemplates him as one who is bearing the consequences of sin, who is in a pitiable
condition, and who therefore needs divine help. It may be defined as the goodness or love of
God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts. In His mercy
God reveals Himself as a compassionate God, who pities those who are in misery and is ever
ready to relieve their distress. This mercy is bountiful, Deut. 5:10; Ps. 57:10; 86:5, and the poets
of Israel delighted to sing of it as enduring forever, I Chron. 16:34; II Chron. 7:6; Ps. 136; Ezra
3:11. In the New Testament it is often mentioned alongside of the grace of God, especially in
salutations, I Tim. 1:2; II Tim. 1:1; Titus 1:4. We are told repeatedly that it is shown to them that
fear God, Ex. 20:2; Deut. 7:9; Ps. 86:5; Luke 1:50. This does not mean, however, that it is limited
to them, though they enjoy it in a special measure. God’s tender mercies are over all His works,
Ps. 145:9, and even those who do not fear Him share in them, Ezek. 18:23,32; 33:11; Luke
6:35,36. The mercy of God may not be represented as opposed to His justice. It is exercised only
in harmony with the strictest justice of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ. Other terms
used for it in the Bible are “pity,” “compassion,” and “lovingkindness.”
e. The longsuffering of God.
The longsuffering of God is still another aspect of His great
goodness or love. The Hebrew uses the expression ’erek ’aph, which means literally “long of
face,” and then also “slow to anger,” while the Greek expresses the same idea by the word
makrothumia. It is that aspect of the goodness or love of God in virtue of which He bears with
the froward and evil in spite of their long continued disobedience. In the exercise of this
attribute the sinner is contemplated as continuing in sin, notwithstanding the admonitions and