When I was a 12-year-old “bad boy” I learned how to receive mercy. Two friends got me to join them in raiding a Lays Potato Chip van. My two buddies grabbed some bags of chips and took off running. I followed a little late and got caught by a teenage neighbor that was a track star. I broke down in contriteness and begged him to take the chips and not tell my parents. He said he would if I would get my friends to return their chips. I agreed, so he showed mercy and let me go. My contriteness seemed to satisfy his sense of justice.
Mercy never works without satisfying God’s law. It always operates in harmony with God’s law. There is no mercy without satisfying God’s law. Mercy never runs from the law. Someone on Face Book said “Run from the Law of Moses that condemns you, into the city of Refuge who is Jesus Christ!” No one gets mercy by running from God’s law. The way to get mercy is by siding with God’s law against self. Jesus said, “Agree with your adversary quickly… lest your adversary deliver you to the judge” (Mat 5:25).
Mercy does not triumph over the law. James says it triumphs over judgment. Running to the City of Refuge is not running from the law. It’s running from the judgment of the law. Nobody can outrun the Law. The City of Refuge is a provision of the law. Mercy only comes by making satisfaction in accord with the law. Only the merciful receive mercy. The law itself requires mercy. The merciful are those who are taught by the law that they need mercy and do not deserve it. That’s why they can forgive others.
To excuse sin is not the same as mercy. In order to receive mercy, the law must be satisfied. God cannot be in harmony with His holy nature and excuse sin at the same time. That would violate His sinless nature. God forgives in accord with His holy nature, and so do the merciful. Satisfaction must be made.
The law of aerodynamics does not triumph over the judgment of gravity by eliminating the law of gravity. Gravity is God’s law. Aerodynamics does not triumph over gravity. It triumphs over the judgment of gravity in harmony with it. The judgment of the law of gravity is “what goes up must come down.” When the plane crashes, that is the judgment of the law. Mercy does not triumph over the law; it triumphs over judgment.
Satisfaction is called propitiation or atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb 9:22). Christ “Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). He made satisfaction available for the whole world, but until personal satisfaction is made also, there is no forgiveness. David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart” (Ps 51:17). Both God and the merciful do not have mercy on those who are in denial. Satisfaction must be made. But if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That’s when mercy triumphs over judgment.
