The LORD JESUS CHRIST: Friend of sinners & Mighty to Save
"Who
is a God like unto Thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the
remnant of His
heritage? He
retaineth not His
anger for ever, because He
delighteth in mercy."
-Micah
7:18 [KJV]
God
delighteth in mercy. It is not drawn from Him unwillingly; it is not
forced out of Him even by importunity; it is not dragged out of His
heart by the cries of His family; but He delights in it as being His
darling attribute, the very pleasure of God being in shewing mercy to
the miserable. How hard it is for us to believe this until mercy
visits the soul and a sweet sense of it is felt in the conscience.
How we represent to ourselves God in His anger, in His justice, in
His terrible displeasure against sin and sinners; how unable to
believe that there is mercy for us, and that He delights in
manifesting mercy to poor miserable, penitent sinners.
Whoever
would have thought of mercy unless it had first been in the bosom of
God? Who could have ventured to entertain or suggest such a thought,
that "there is forgiveness with God;" that He can "pardon
iniquity, and transgression, and sin;" that He can cast all our
sins behind His back, and blot them out as a cloud, yea, as a thick
cloud? This is what God has revealed of Himself in His word, but it
is only as mercy visits the troubled breast, and God displays His
goodness and love in the revelation of His dear Son, that we can rise
up into any sweet apprehension of what His mercy really is, and
rejoice in it not only as suitable but as saving.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802 – 1869 A.D.)
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