God is Gracious and Kind
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.
Hebrews 4:16
God is righteous and cannot be unjust at any time. To administer justice is to give people what they deserve. If justice were served, we would all have to face eternity in hell. But God is also merciful, and because of His love, He did not want to give us what we deserved. Instead, Jesus satisfied the righteous demands of God by paying the price for our sins. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4-5).
Grace is like the flipside of mercy. Grace is giving people what they don’t deserve. Because of God’s mercy, He looked for another way to satisfy His justice so we would not have to pay our own wages for sin, which is death. Because of His gracious nature, He gave us eternal life. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is unwarranted favor. It cannot be purchased and it cannot be earned. We can only respond to a gracious gift by humbly receiving it, giving thanks, and then praising the character of the giver.
In order to bear the sins of humanity, Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). He became one of us in order to be our “kinsman redeemer.” He became our scapegoat (substitute) by taking our place on the cross. There is another benefit of Jesus’ becoming one of us: He can relate to us in every way. He faced every temptation, suffered every hardship and was totally rejected. He spoke the truth and loved sacrificially. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Being omniscient, God fully understood the suffering and hardship of fallen humanity. He didn’t have to become one of us in order to know and feel our plight. God already knew what we thought and how we felt, and His plans were in place long before Jesus came. The limitation is in our understanding, not His. It would be harder for us to believe that Jesus actually does “empathize with our weaknesses” if He had never suffered or been tempted as we are.
People don’t want to share their burdens with someone they don’t think can relate to them or understand their situation. Nor do people unburden themselves to those who are unable to help them. Jesus not only understands, but He also responds to us kindly, because He is kind and loving by nature. God gives us what we need, not what we deserve, because by nature He is gracious. He has called us to do the same to others: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). In other words, don’t give to others what they deserve, but don’t stop there. Give them what they don’t deserve—that is, love one another.
A few questions to ponder:
What is the difference between justice, mercy and grace?
For what two reasons did Jesus take on the form of humanity?
How can we know that God understands our suffering and hardships?
How does it help you to know that Jesus was tempted in every way and suffered to the point of death for your sake?
What will happen to you if you come boldly before the throne of grace? What will happen if you don’t?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.