What exactly is the difference between grace and mercy? And why does it even matter?

“Nobody Greater”

Psalms 86:8-10
8 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

In all of history past, and all of time to come there is one person who stands alone, he is above all others, and there is salvation in no other name (this person is Jesus)!

ON ITS BEST DAY, the love human beings express will never compare or amount to the love God made available to us through Jesus Christ! This is because human love is conditional, temporal, inconsistent, and nonexclusive. This is precisely why we can fall in and out of love so quickly and easily!
Jesus glorified the Father. Everything we do is meant to glorify God and His greatness., “When Moses would set forth the greatness of God, he does it not by explaining his eternity and immensity, or describing the brightness so this glory in the upper world, but by showing the faithfulness of his word, the perfection of his works, and the wisdom and equity of all the administrations of his government; for in these his glory shines most clearly to us, and these are the things revealed wondering him, which belong to us and our children. (Deut 32:4).”

God’s plan for us is greater than the world’s plots and ploys. The enemy has been given the world where he can run rampant, and we shouldn’t be shocked by the many things that vie for our attention and the promises that attempt to distract us. God is greater. His purposes are greater. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. A popular church response, this exact phrase isn’t a Bible verse. However, its prose is inspired by the biblical truth about who God is. God is good. Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “For I know the plans I have for you …plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God is unchanging. Psalm 107:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever.”

1. God’s Mercy and Grace.
2. Unconditional Love.
3. Miracles of Jesus.

1. God’s Mercy and Grace.
Neither are deserved. God has compassion on sinners who deserve his wrath.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 145:8)
What exactly is the difference between grace and mercy?
And why does it even matter? Can’t we just use them interchangeably?
Nope. If we do, we miss out on some glorious truths.
God’s mercy and God’s grace are not the same things, though the differences are subtle, and they are often mentioned together.
In many ways they overlap; usually when God pours out his mercy, he pours out his grace as well.
In other words, God’s mercy is NOT giving sinners what they DO DESERVE.
And God’s grace is POSITIVELY GIVING sinners what they DO NOT DESERVE.
This is mercy: We have all sinned against a holy God. We deserve eternal wrath in hell. But in his mercy, God poured out on Jesus the wrath we deserved on the cross, so we could escape his wrath.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

For reasons known only to God, though we had spit in his face, broken his laws, rejected him and disobeyed him, he had compassion on us.

God doesn’t take any pleasure in punishing people, even those who reject him and hate him outright. So in his mercy, he didn’t give us what we deserved, eternal punishment, his infinite wrath. Instead, in his mercy, he poured his wrath out on his beloved Son.

Jesus didn’t have to die for us. He didn’t have to pay for our sins. But our God is compassionate and merciful. So he didn’t give us what we deserved. He gave it to Jesus.
Deuteronomy 4:31
For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

Hebrews 4:16
16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

2. Unconditional Love.

We as humans have much love to give, but God is love.
He embodies love. As the author of love, He cannot nor will not ever fail at His unconditional love for us.

When we look to others to make our hearts full, we hold them accountable for something they are incapable of fulfilling. We set them up for failure and we set ourselves up for hurt.

However, perfect love is calling. And if we anchor ourselves to that perfect love — God’s unconditional love for us — we will rest in perfect peace and love. we find the ability to love others from an overflow rather than from the leftovers of a broken soul.
John 3:16 –
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 –
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s love is unconditional. There is nothing we can do to change God’s love for us. His love is deep and has nothing to do with us or our actions. Other people may love us for various reasons, but God’s love is different. we can exchange anxiety for peace, depression for joy, and fear for confidence as we begin to understand how God loves us.
The word, “love” in the general sense, means to be pleased with; to regard with affection.

To many, the words, “I love you” are mere words that hold very little meaning. However, when God says that He loves us, He means it in every way that is important and vital to us. His love always moves Him to action on our behalf.

God’s love (agape) seeks the welfare of all and works no ill toward any. It seeks an opportunity to do good to all men. God’s love is the love of a perfect being toward entirely unworthy objects (us).

God’s Word states that He loves us because He wants to, and it is His kind intent. God loves because He must—it is who He is. God is love! Therefore, when we receive Christ as our savior, God’s love comes to live inside of us and when that happens, love spills out of us and onto others. When we love others as God loves us, we live a life that honors God.

3. Miracles of Jesus.

Acts 3:16
16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
When you seek God’s presence and request Him to intervene in your situation, you can see miracles happen! God has power over all creation and has the ability to work a miracle for you.

Jesus was able to heal bodies, diseases and even bring people back from the dead. The Lord had power over the physical universe. All that the Lord did in the physical realm was to help us learn who He was in the spiritual realm. Every one of these miracles had a physical result, but they can be used to teach us about a God in Heaven who wants to have a relationship with man. Through Jesus Christ, God revealed Himself to us.

We can put our faith and trust in the power of the Lord for our eternal lives as well as our temporal ones.

Jesus performed many miracles, including12:
Raising people from the dead
Restoring sight to the blind
Casting out demons
Healing the sick
Walking on water
Changing water into wine
Curing the nobleman’s son
The great haul of fishes
Casting out an unclean spirit
Curing Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever
Healing a leper

Jesus fed at least five thousand people (Matthew 14:15-21).
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

1. God’s Mercy and Grace.
2. Unconditional Love.
3. Miracles of Jesus.

Many of us are looking for love in all the wrong places. Our negative experiences with love have left holes in our physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological lives that only the Holy Spirit can fill. When we accept that God loves us despite our flaws and faults, God expects us to go and do likewise. Whitney Houston’s song claims that the greatest love of all is learning to love ourselves. We cannot love ourselves or others effectively until we know and accept that God’s love is selfless, sacrificial, serves, and is submissive to God’s own will. God did this just for us because there’s “Nobody Greater!”
He’s higher than the highest, greater than the greatest, mightier than the mightiest, and lovelier than the loveliest. He always was, always is, and will always be. He’s unmovable, unchangeable, and undefeatable!

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