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The Attribute of Mercy
- 08/06/06
- 17
I have been reading John Ensor’s The Great Work of the Gospel and came across an interesting section I thought I’d share with you today. Ensor is reflecting upon what motivates God to forgive sinful human beings. I was particularly interested in the quote he provides from his friend Dana Olson, who suggests the reason God decided to allow sin in this world: so that He might be able to show mercy, an attribute he could not otherwise display. What follows is excerpted from the first chapter of Ensor’s book.
There is one question that rises above all others, one question I did not think to ask until I was in seminary and took a course on the writings of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards, an eighteenth-century Puritan preacher and philosopher, has been called America’s greatest thinker. He wrote a treatise titled The End for Which God Created the World (published 1765). It asks why God does what he does. What motivates God to do one thing and not another? The reason this is important is that it gets to the very heart of the issue before us. What motivates God to want to forgive?The fuller answer will develop as we go, but for now, let me summarize what I think the answer is. Why should we take God’s invitation and promise to heart? Because God’s own great passion is to glorify himself in our knowing him and enjoying him. More particularly, he wants to show us his grace; more particularly still, he wants to show us his infinite mercy, to the praise and glory of his own name. In other words, God desires to make his mercy the apex of his own glory in the eyes of all creation. It is the ultimate reason for the creation of the world and the plan of redemption. It is the ultimate reason we should believe he is ready to do a great work of grace in us!
Dana Olson, a pastor friend of mine, opened my eyes to this. He wrote:
Prior to creation God had no means of revealing one pinnacle attribute of his glory, mercy. While he could within the fellowship of the Trinity express love and maintain justice, mercy inherently requires some injustice or inadequacy before loving-kindness can be expressed in forgiveness. For this reason God set in motion redemptivehistory—to manifest his glory by revealing this very capacity to redeem, mercy.God wants to do a work “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6). God wants to show us his grace so that we “might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:9). This is precisely the reasoning of Romans 9:22-23: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory … ?” In his final judgment God will display the power of his wrath. But God could not demonstrate his capacity for mercy apart from ordaining a world of sin and a way for redemption. He endures with great patience the impenitent, so that he can magnify his all-glorious mercy in the eyes of those who put their hope in him!
My question is whether or not you agree with Olson, and hence with Ensor. Do you feel it is likely that God set redemptive history in motion particulary so he could display mercy, an attribute he could not otherwise display?
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Comments (17)
There was an amazing documentary on PBS this year regarding an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn whose grandfather and brother, at great risk to their own lives, were hidden from the SS by a Polish farmer and his family during WWII. The story is primarily about his effort to track the farmer down. Throughout this process the grandson and his children (grown men really) continue to ask themselves why these “gentiles” risked their lives to save their grandfather and his brother. Especially as they become more familiar with how many Jews from the same area were killed and how ruthless the Nazis were with any families that helped them. It completely perplexes them. In the most compelling scene the grandson asks his grandfather whether he would have done the same thing. In a moment of shocking honesty the grandfather says no, he wouldn’t have risked the lives of his family for strangers. Of course, because it’s PBS, there is never a word mentioned of the Gospel or whether that figured in the farmer’s decision. But, if the farmer’s decision mystifies us, how much more a God who demonstrates His love by sending His son to die for sinners (I am sure the grandfather and his brother seemed much more worthy to the farmer than we do to God!)?
As you’ve probably surmised by now, I am certainly not intelligent enough to answer your question. The best I can do is to tell you of the 2 greatest miracles I know:1) That God sent His son to die for sinners.2) That I, a sinner with a heart “that is decietful above all things” can, by His grace, really believe that.
To His Name - Jesus Christ - Be the Glory!
Did God create moral beings, men & angels just because above all else, want to show mercy? This so easily leads to UniversalismAnd why then did He create the Angels, toward whom He had no wish or plan to show mercy? He created them for a reason, and knew sin would be found amomg them first.
And if he created humans just for the reason of showing His mercy, then He must have also created them because He wanted to have the Vessels of wrath as the justly condemned, so as to show the contrasts? - Surely we have no justification to say this.
We are so Anthropocentric about these things. What if the issues were far greater than simply the salvation of men & woman, as glorious as this is to the elect.
What if God wanted to have sin incarnated in the vessels of wrath, and eternally incarcerated, so that a break-out of sin such as occurred in Lucifer & his followers would never again be possible. So that there could never again be a Fall. So than sin, now in person, was forever contained, quarantined, its ability to infect creation again destroyed?
Is this why God’s plan will come to a climax in the world with the full flower and fruition of the Mystery of Iniquity?
I don’t know, just thinking, but I don’t think it was only ever all about us.
Ps 92:7. “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.”
2Th 2:7 “For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now lets, will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
I am not sure I agree with the idea that God creates the world and wills the fall and redemptive history so that we can see his mercy. I think it is all done to show Gods glory and his manifest wisdom, of which mercy is a central part.
THat might sound a bit pedantic, but I would like to be a bit braoder than the quote seems to be saying. However it is a great quote.
Interesting thesis. We would have to be careful not to imply that God “needed” to demonstrate His mercy. This would imply that our existence completes God in some way.
I guess I’m not so concerned with how God went about displaying His incredible mercy as I am concerned about why I display so little of it myself.
Maybe, when I am more merciful towards others, I’ll spend more time thinking about why God did what He did the way He did it. Until then, I’ve got so much to clean up in my own house that I can’t afford the time to think about these kinds of questions. These are great and wonderful questions, but I’m not sure they make me more merciful toward others. They might increase my knowledge, but not necessarily my love.
As perhaps this comment demonstrates.
My two cents worth is that the Scriptures referenced in Romans and Ephesians tell us about all we can know this side of eternity of God’s purposes in this. I don’t think we can know that God was “unable” to display His mercy, or any other attribute, since He doesn’t tell us that.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace,
which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Well, we know this much, for sure: One of the reasons God saves people (or set redemptive history in motion, to use your words) is to show his grace, so I think it’s a reasonable conclusion that to show his mercy is one of the purposes of salvation as well.
The best passage to prove that is in Ephesians 2 though:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you are saved! and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Not just so he could display mercy.
Also, for example, so that he could display his glory by uniting us with Christ - making us better, holier and more reflective of his glory than we could ever have been by mere creation.
Why did He create the Angels He knew would fall and toward whom He had no wish or plan to show mercy? He created them for a reason.
God makes/made EVERYTHING for one reason…FOR HIS OWN GLORY.
For His own glory is what we cannot understand. This is not an, “I believe” concept in itself. It is a reality which comes from the “unseen realm” which manifests itself in the world of the seen. It makes no “common sense” to man nor can it.
I have no problem with God doing as He so pleases; whether I am a vessel of wrath or mercy. He is what He is: to bring the Hebrew out of first person into third person. Why does God do what He does? It is for the simple purpose of pleasing Himself.
In the fall of angels and lack of redemptive plan for them we see that God is not obligated to save fallen creatures. It makes the redemption of fallen sinful man all the more amazing.
God is honored [glorified] even thru the judgment of the wicked. Exodus 14:17 says that God would be honored thru the Egyptians who were about to chase after the Israelites into the Red Sea and find that the water would not hold back for them.
It isn’t about man - but it is about God’s glory. Mercy and love displayed to fallen man highlights God’s incredible nature
Did He ‘need’ to create to fulfill Himself?
All we know is that it was His will to create - and we are here as evidence of that will
Scripture is clear that He ‘needs’ nothing from anyone - being the source of all things [Rom. 11:35,36]
Is it wrong for God to seek His own glory?We think of men as vain who seek after their own glory
The difference is that man is not the most glorious thing in the universe - so He should not be seeking His own glory - that is a form of idolatry. He should be seeking the glory of God who deserves such a thing.
If you are God - the highest being in the universe - whose glory do you seek?
If God did not seek His own glory - He Himself would be guilty of some form of idolatry placing anything before Himself.
That’s why I really have trouble with the ‘Above all’ - song sung by Michael W. and a few others - in referring to the cross
‘Like a rose trampled on the groundyou took the falland thought of me above all’
He did not think of us ‘above all’
He did think of us in a powerful way - we should not denyHe put us above His own physical comfort, etc.He loved us enough to leave glory and to suffer and die
But - I don’t believe it is scriptural to say that He thought of us above all - that would be idolatry
The cross was to the glory of God
God’s glory in Scripture often seems to be attached to His two great works: creation, redemption
Rev. 4:11 - ‘Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for Thou didst create all things and because of Thy will they existed and were created.’
Rev. 5:9 - ‘They sang a new song [to the Lamb] saying, “Worthy art Thou to take the book and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’
Was God glorious before creation and redemption?We would have to say ‘yes’ - John 17:5
I agree with those who say the Biblical references about God’s glory and grace are foundational. I think that Jerry is probably correct about the reason for creating angels, but even in the Romans 9 quote Paul states it as a hypothetical.
But with Solomon we can know that “The Lord made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” (Proverbs 16:4 ESV). So, while we do not always (often?) know “why” we can trust God and say, in the words of Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (ESV)
An important thought is missing here. If God requires us to be merciful, is God self-existent? See my post on this at my blog (Click on the Thinking category if you don’t find it on the main page and select The Lesson of Job).
I just want to thank you, Tim, for drawing attention to John Ensor’s wonderful book, The Great Work of the Gospel. My friend John writes as one who is not only a deep thinker and theologian and shepherd of people, but also as a man who has spent 20 years in the front lines of spiritual battle as the founder of the largest crisis pregnancy ministry in New England. His book is full of illustrations of the power of the gospel in broken lives, and how by God’s sovereign grace thousands of infants have been saved from prenatal death, and mothers and fathers and families have been greatly changed. This book certainly magnifies the glory and grace and mercy of God. May many more read it as a result of your posting. Warm regards with thanks. Dana P.S. to Jerry…when I am in a worship service where the song you referred to is sung, I change that last line, like this:
“Like a rose, trampled on the groundYou took the fallAll for the glory of God!”
SDG
Thanks for the tip, Dana. I really like the song - but the theology grates on me every time I hear it.