Our First Glimpse of Mercy

 Read Genesis 17

Have we ever seen this sort of language from God before?

Adam and Eve were created good, very good.

There were consequences for disobedience.

Cain killed Abel.  There were consequences for disobedience but also protection from harm.

Noah found favor with the Lord.  We don’t get all the details, but Noah and his family were saved from the judgment that came upon the earth.

Abram has been promised many descendants and a land for them to live in.  There were other people living in the land at the time of this promise and Abram and Sarai were childless.  Abram did have a son by his maidservant, but this son is not the one through whom God would deliver on his promises.

So we come to chapter 17 and God reaffirms his promises to Abram—descendants and a Promised Land, but this time is different.

Yes, God will change Abram’s name to Abraham and he will command that Abraham and all males in his household and in his promised lineage be circumcised—that they receive a sign of this covenant in the flesh.

But God did something else.  He commanded Abram, who by the end of this chapter we will call Abraham—to walk faithfully before him and be blameless.

God said to live in faith and be blameless. Realize that God has already credited Abram with righteousness because of his belief—his faith—but Abram has not always lived in accordance with what he believed.

He has been obedient to what God told him to do, but he has had some difficulty believing that God will follow through on his promises.

There was a kid named Ishmael running around to prove it.

So, God has finally told Abram—told someone—to live a life that brings glory to God.  Live faithfully and be blameless.

God commanded Abram to do what no human flesh could ever do—be blameless.  We all fall short and this is not just a modern-day thing.

Only Jesus who was God in the flesh could live a blameless—and unblemished life.  He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it and he did.

Neither Abraham nor Moses did this.  They were not blameless before the Lord.  No one was!

Now, we know there will come a time when we will be blameless, where the good work that God began in us will be complete. But we are not there yet?

We also know that we cannot stray so much that God’s grace will not cover those sins as well.

So should we even try knowing that we can never fully succeed?

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?

We know the answer is no, by no means, but what’s the point of trying if we know that we cannot never achieve walking blamelessly before the Lord?

Why don’t we just say whatever and chill out in this righteousness that we have been given?

C’mon.  We will never score 100%.  We will always fall short. And if we don’t keep the whole law then we are guilty of breaking all of it.

We are studying Abram.  We haven’t even got to the law yet.  We have not yet studied be holy as I am holy.  We are just to walk blamelessly before God.

But it can’t be done, so why try?

You may or may not like this answer, but don’t argue with me.  Argue with God.

Remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Do you remember those words from Isaiah?

Now hear these words from the apostle Paul.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

What?  God knew that we couldn’t score 100% and yet he told us to live blamelessly anyway, really?

Really? Yes!

We should live fully doing our best to please holy God, rejoicing when we do and shouting hallelujah when we tried but fell short, for in our shortcomings we see the mercy of Almighty God.

OK, Tom, you are just making this up as you go along, right?

Should we not try to do our best to walk blamelessly before God?  Yes we should seek to live righteously, justly, and without fault.

But when we fall short, we truly know the mercy of God.

There should be no dichotomy between seeking justice and loving mercy.

Seek justice.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly before your God.

All come to God and his salvation out of disobedience.  Our human minds think that we should score 100 on every test.  God wants us to seek to please him by doing our best to be blameless but he values mercy more than living without mistakes.

When we know his mercy, we are better equipped to show mercy. God desires mercy over judgment. He desires mercy over sacrifice. 

God called Abram to be faithful and to live blamelessly.  In this we see the beginnings of the mercy of God that we know so fully now.

Keep the faith.

Seek justice—to live rightly and blamelessly.

But love mercy.  Learn to be merciful.

Then, we can walk humbly with our God.

Amen.