God’s Mercy and God’s Righteousness
“God’s Mercy and God’s Righteousness” – June 22nd, 2025
Today we’re looking ever so briefly at God’s mercy and God’s righteousness in the final sermon in our short series, God: The One Who Loves in Freedom. We’ve been considering pairs of attributes of God that seem to stand in some kind of tension with one another.
God is merciful! In Psalm 145:9, we read that “the Lord is good to all, and his compassion [his tender mercy] is over all that he has made.” Jesus tells us in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” God is merciful. And we are called to be merciful. The Message translation renders this even more simply: “Our Father is kind; you be kind.” To be merciful is to be kind.
God is righteous! In 1 John 3:7, we are told that “Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as [God] is righteous.” God is righteous. And we are called to be righteous. The Message translation explains plainly how to do that: “It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah.” We look at how Jesus lived, and we live like that – that is what it means to “act right.” To be righteous is to act right.
God is always merciful; God always acts in kindness. God is always righteous; God always acts right! Here comes the hard part – we are to act in kindness and to act right, too. Easier said than done, right? Maybe you feel like you walk a line between mountain top and desert, between virtue and vice, between saint and sinner. It’s important to realize that God doesn’t give us any commands that are impossible for us to obey. But we can’t obey them only in our own strength.
We can’t be merciful apart from God’s mercy. Firstly, we have to receive the mercy of God. Receiving even such an incredible gift like that can be hard for us, because we are so very aware of our own brokenness. The amazing thing is that God’s mercy is greater than all of our fears, all of our sins, all of our broken places. The good news is that Jesus gave it all, his very life, by dying on the cross for you and for me – why? So that we can live. Not so that we can be robotic rule followers or so that we can barely survive. Jesus came to give us a full and satisfying life, a thriving life, a shalom life characterized by universal wholeness, flourishing, and delight! Secondly, God wants us to receive God’s mercy and righteousness and then to live as merciful and righteous ones who point others to the mercy and righteousness of God, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What is the mercy of God?
The mercy of God encompasses four main areas: heart, healing, solace, and strength. Heart, God’s compassion at the sight of the suffering which we humans bring upon ourselves, is the mercy of God. Healing, God’s concern to remove our suffering, is the mercy of God. Solace, God’s comforting us in our pain and difficulties, is the mercy of God. Strength, God’s helping us to overcome our pain and difficulties, is the mercy of God.
Our merciful God acts on our behalf in freedom and in power. Our sin and guilt were ours, not God’s. And yet Jesus took all of our sin and guilt upon himself, an act of God’s grace which we did not deserve. This is God’s mercy demonstrated in freedom. And in taking our sin and guilt upon himself, Jesus removed them from us. This is God’s mercy demonstrated in power. God, the one who loves in freedom, loves with mercy!
What is the righteousness of God?
Let’s start with what the righteousness of God is not. On the one hand, God’s righteousness is not about woodenly following rules and regulations. On the other hand, God’s righteousness is not about us doing whatever we like.
In order to understand the righteousness of God, we must start with the revelation of who God is. We know who God is by looking at Jesus Christ. The love of God is distinct from every other kind of love precisely because it is righteous. The world tends to define love in terms of feelings and emotions, affection and admiration, commitment and care, romance and respect. These aren’t necessarily bad things but God’s love is so much more expansive! Jesus’ unconditional love of God and his disturbingly inclusive love of others reveal the image of God. Jesus showed us in both his life and his death what love looks like, in his radiant human expression of the eternally self-giving, other-affirming, community-forming love of the triune God. The apostle Peter beautifully sums up for us in Acts 10:38 what God’s righteousness looks like: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power … he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” God, the one who loves in freedom, loves with righteousness!
How then shall we live in view of God’s mercy and God’s righteousness?
Just as God as with Jesus, God is with us! Jesus is still going about doing good and healing: Jesus does this now through his followers, the body of Christ, the church, that’s us! In closing, I want to encourage us to remember two crucial things. Did you know that the word crucial is derived from the Latin word crux, which means “the cross.” The very shape of the cross upon which Jesus gave his life for the sake of the world reminds us of the two most important things.
The first crucial thing to remember is that God loves. In every situation, whether there is congeniality or conflict, warm-and-fuzzies or war, we need to keep uppermost in our minds that God unconditionally and perfectly loves every single person involved, no matter what’s going on! God is on the side of people and is always doing a good, holy, and beautiful work in each one, whether we can perceive that or not.
The second crucial thing to remember is that we show our love for God by how we treat others. We are to pray for and act in love towards each person and side of whatever conflicts or wars we encounter. We need to remember that anger and aggression and victimization and violence typically end up hurting the most vulnerable people the most – the poor, the powerless, the disabled, the downtrodden, the very old, the very young. By all means, we are to pray for and act in love towards this person and this side, yes. And we are to pray for and act in love towards that person and the other side, too. God cannot treat anyone with anything less than mercy or righteousness because God is merciful to ALL, and God is righteous to ALL.
We are going to close with an updated hymn, There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy.
Please bow your heads as we close in prayer:
Precious Lord – Father God, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit – we thank you for the wonderful wideness of your mercy and your righteousness!
We confess that our best justice is incomplete and unfair, and at times distorted and vindictive. We cannot redeem our own lives! We cannot make sufficient amends for any of the wrongs we have done! We cannot save ourselves! Our best thoughts are negligent and narrow. Our best welcome is wobbly and weak. Our best vision is bounded and blurry. Our best love is so very lacking and limited.
We praise you, oh God, that your justice is brimming over with kindness, in which there is more than enough liberty for ALL. We can never thank you enough that in your death for ALL on the cross is plentiful redemption, enough for ALL. Thank you, precious Jesus, that in you there is room for ALL to live in the abundance and broadness of your joy and grace and love!
We ask you to help us to trust you in simplicity, to follow you in humility, and to take you at your word. Widen our vision, Lord, to live in your mercy and your righteousness, so that we can proclaim and demonstrate the good news of your kingdom, a kingdom in which there is enough love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control for ALL! Your grace embraces ALL the world! As we follow you, Jesus, we ask you for the grace and the grit that we need to embrace ALL the world, too, by loving God and loving people. Please transform us from the inside out, so that everything we think, say, and do is ever illumined by your presence. Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit! It is in your name and for your glory that we pray, Amen!
