The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9, Pt 5

9.  The mercy of God runs into a theological question or spiritual problem.  Sinners have trouble understanding why God allows bad things into their lives.  It really is not a spiritual problem because we are sinners and merit hell by our very existence.  The God of the Bible is a superlatively holy God but human beings are sinners saved by the sufficiency of grace alone.  The question is not how bad things happen but how a holy God allows good to happen to bad people.  God is good and He also blesses us with a spiritual life to come!  Does God compromise His holiness in showing sinful creatures good things?  If God is holy He must punish sin.  God takes sin seriously in an eternal perspective.  God the Father punished sin at the Cross of Jesus Christ in place of God's sinful creation.  God can be merciful according to His holy character through the Cross.  God shows mercy because God is good. 

10.  The mercy of God is through the Cross of Jesus.  Muslims repent without a divine atonement.  Scientologists reject the command of repentance and speak of man's basic goodness.  Rome combines the merit of Christ with the creaturely merit of sinners.  Orthodoxy defies her members through the atonement of Jesus.  Buddhists rely on the teaching self-reliance.  But the Bible teaches that man is in eternal need of a divine atonement.  Repentance will not save us.  Denial of repentance will not save us.  Combining merits of saints with Christ will not save us.  Making us gods will not save us.  The only way we can be saved is through Christ.   Christ is not found in icons or the bones of saints!  The mercy of Christ is found at His Cross.  This is where mercy is given and it is where we lay our burdens.  No burden can be lifted through mere repentance.  Rather it must be through the Cross of Christ alone.  Do you possess God's mercy through His Son?   Do you cherish the Cross?  The Cross is the abundant mercy of God.