Mercy or Law, Which Priority Is for the Christian?

Mercy or Law, Which Priority Is for the Christian?   By Kelly Durant 8-12-18

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

2. There is a story about a man who was ready to be executed by Napoleon, I think for treason, and from the crowd the mother of the young man started yelling, “No, no please do not kill him!” “Have mercy, please don’t kill him!” 

He called the woman up and Napoleon told her that her son had broken the law and had been tried and sentenced and that his death would bring justice. But then the woman replied, “Well, I am not pleading for your justice, I am pleading for your mercy!”

Can mercy and justice ever meet or are they opposites? The law is justice, a person gets what’s coming to them. But Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross represents a forgiveness for a lack of obeying the law, so Jesus is mercy. Is it clear how it all works? Only those with Jesus can obtain God’s mercy.

3. I have observed that recently people are curious about how much grace, or how much law we should have to live by? In part I am refereeing to the extremes of theology where you have the ‘Jesus only’ movements deeming the Old Testament law as totally irrelevant: And on the other side of the spectrum you have those who demand the total adherence to the law such as is done by the Jewish faith, and these people are known as Messianic Christians. Why the confusion? Why do people not read the Bible instead of following leaders?

The current climate of politics, education in the schools, and the lifestyles of famous people plant the seeds of confusion in the general populous of what is right and wrong. And even some churches with their theology being one thing, and their practice being another brings on great confusion. It is apostacy!

People want clarity and standards, and both mercy and justice are necessary! Deep inside we all want mercy for ourselves! And it is a lack of justice that is creating so much of a double standard today provoking oppression and suffering, the very things Jesus Christ came to abolish! There is a time for each application.

4. Why does the law of the land apply to some and not to others? Considering the politics of today permeating every institution we get mixed messages as what is legit and what is not. A political group may spy on another group without legal permission stealing, deleting, or using files to blackmail, a felony offense in the past decades, but at the whim of people controlling the law, it gets conveniently overlooked. Under certain governing bodies the breaking of the law was deemed unforgivable but today we have hypocritical double-standards everywhere. Jail time is not even considered for certain habitual law breakers yet others pay big for petty things! This is an example of the ‘lawlessness’ Jesus mentioned would come to exist in the end-times in Matt. 24; this is not ‘mercy’ as some think, it is an injustice, a double standard, and an unfair advantage tactic by power abusers.

So the effect of this “on again, off again” application of the laws of the land brings confusion into people’s minds. It even affects the reasoning ability of people concerning their faith! It usually brings on frustration and anger, and then big discords with fellow Christians! Some churches tolerate all kinds of sins and are popular, but we know from the 7 seals from the Book of Revelation God is not pleased and will allow judgments upon these offenders. Because God is patient that all should repent, some abuse their freedom, but the standards of God are clear to those who have studied His Word in the Old and New Testaments. 

The application of the law, in varying degrees in all countries, is often circumvented. Also, many of man’s laws are not God’s laws, but we submit to not cause trouble. We must study Romans to understand more about the laws of the Jews and the laws of the land. Romans 13:1 ‘Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.’ The people of the world must submit to laws but many of these laws originate from the past pyramid system of rulers with slaves which Satanic men impose. Our God given conscious  and the Holy Spirit must tell us which laws are from God and which are not! We must ‘obey God rather than men’ when the law demands worship of one of Satan’s dictators or prohibits us from talking about Jesus then we desist. (See Acts 4)

5. Another confusing and damaging conjecture is a false education concerning laws. The application of morality, or truth, or standards is erroneously taught in many schools to be relative to one’s personal preference or culture and are not absolute?! Einstein himself exposed this fallacy and quoted that ”relativity” was to be applied to the mechanics of the physics of space time, but never was it intended to be applied to morality and the law!  

Imagine if all people had their own standards or laws as they please?! If all fabricated goods, replacement parts, or any chemical formula for medicine or machinery were all done at the whim of the designer, then we would have absolute chaos and no modern advancements at all! There must exist measurements and standards! People do want morality standards as well! Do you know of any culture that allows stealing, raping, and murdering as acceptable? (Actually some do allow horrific crimes, in the name of their false religions!)

Absoluteness, standards, and laws, and the consistent application of them, has brought us to a higher level in society, so why do we question moral and Biblical  laws presuming each person or deviant group can chose the standards they please? I don’t want to be killed, so I will not kill you! The ‘eye for an eye’ works!

6. The law serves as a standard for order but it cannot complete the perfection that God wants from us.Matt. 19:18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ 

”21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

What is obvious here is this rich young man understands that you must be correct in all of what you do in observing the laws of God. Jesus confirms he did well by obeying the law, but what did he lack? He lacked mercy on the poor! The observance of the law without love for God and others brings on condemnation! The law is good, but too many people want to just do a minimum and be done with it. The answer of Jesus is to preach the gospel sharing and helping others! No tradition, sacrificial rite, or no Mosaic laws can be enough to please God. Read Galatians to learn more on this. God is merciful, and if the law will not make us perfect then we must practice mercy as we want to receive mercy pleasing Him.  

7. Romans 7: 6 ‘But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.’ Paul who was one who observed the law to perfection in his pre-Christian life is correct in his analysis that the law itself is not a saving force, but rather the Spirit (which comes from Jesus’ teachings and the Holy Spirit) is the saving force. 

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” Here we see confirmed that if we obey the old law only we will not bear fruit for God! After Jesus came, we got new commandments from Him (laws on love which were already in the old law), however, Jesus reaffirmed the highest law standard, which is…

Matt 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (This is in the old law of Deut. 6:5) To love is a law! To love fulfils the law!

8. So if you love God and you neighbor with all your heart you will not disrespect him and do things contrary to laws harming Him, but rather you will respect him. You will not cheat on your neighbor’s husband or wife, steal from them, or murder them either! Do you see how the law goes hand in hand with God’s commands all of which fulfill the command to love? To show love to another is to show them mercy! We have freely received, so we must freely give!

To love, even to love enemies, is hard! This is why some comfortable Christians prefer to belong to some aberrant sect of Christianity to just obey a set of laws the church says is Kosher rather than to live in obedience loving others. Because the law is black and white and clear to lay out what should be done and what is not permitted it tends to get corrupted with legalism and hypocrisy. Being legalistic implies you are accepted (by other foolish men only) doing no personal sacrifice for those you don’t care for. In the end to just do your duty with the law transforms into a habitual ritual which renders null and ineffective your spiritual growth and connection to God. A few thousands of years of Bible history with true merciful God lovers verses fruitless law obeying hypocrites prove this!

The rich young ruler loved his own riches more than the suffering poor that Jesus wanted him to have mercy on! So many people miss this verse in the Bible as well, Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” And Jesus idea of sinners was not just the publicans, harlots, and tax collectors, the sinners, the ones He often was addressing were the religious hypocrites who obeyed every jot and title of the law but had absolutely no love for God or man! In conclusion, if you show no mercy (which comes only by obeying the highest law: love), then no mercy will be shown to you! The law only will not justify you.

9.  So what are we to emphasize as Christians? God’s love and to be full of mercy! But should mercy extend to the point that we allow others to repeatedly abuse the commands of God and damage relations with Him and others? Obviously not! We are to be fair and balanced, lawful yet merciful. We must be people who apply common sense and discernment by the Word of God to everything we do. God grants mercy on sinners but if they keep sinning and abuse His mercy then the law will take over to condemn them. We must, “Go and sin no more!”

Repeat offenders are unrepented souls and are condemning their own selves to lose it all, even losing salvation. In this life many get away with horrible offenses not obeying God’s or man’s laws, but that rebellion will end in death when having to give an account for all things done before God’s judgment throne.

A full perspective of what is right and wrong according to God’s love is the wisdom we must long for! It is a balance of discerning what laws apply within the new commands (that you love one another) that Jesus practiced and taught. Law breakers have always been punished, in all cultures throughout time and with God, unloving, non-compassionate, unmerciful people will be punished as well by not gaining heaven and rewards in heaven.  

After Jesus sacrifice on the cross the law becomes overshadowed by mercy as the law does not justify or save, but we do need to learn all about it so we do not offend God or others. Also we pay a price for not obeying man’s laws, so discerning by the Spirit is key. People who observe the law only, cannot learn compassion and mercy as Jesus pointed out with the rich young ruler. Jesus is the One who teaches us mercy and the giving of our lives for God’s use. Jesus fulfilled the law and God’s effective plan of bringing about His Kingdom of love, mercy, and salvation to ‘whosoever’ will receive it! Jesus truth has been marching on ever since! Spread Jesus good news to all!