A God of Mercy

A God of Mercy

 

 By BYU Professor Rodney Turner

“Without the idea of the existence of the attribute of mercy in Deity, the spirits of the Saints would faint in the midst of tribulations, afflictions and persecutions which they have to endure for righteousness’ sake.

God is a merciful God: gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, patient and longsuffering.  If He were not, human nature, which is a relative compound of ignorance, immaturity, instability and impotence, would render the hope of eternal life an impossible dream. 

The gulf between divinity and humanity, holiness and unholiness, is so vast that any faith we might muster would eventually be swallowed up in paralyzing doubt.  How could we ever become acceptable to a flawless God with his ‘all-searching eye (Mosiah 27:31)?

How could we be at ease, much less happy, in his presence?  But because of our faith in the redemptive power of Christ, we can ‘come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help (us) in time of need (Heb 4:16).  Without divine mercy, heaven would be hell (Mormon 9:4-5).

Paradoxically, it is His very holiness which makes mercy essential if we are ‘to be received into the kingdom of the Father and go no more out’ (3^rd Nephi 28:40).  For salvation depends far more upon what God is and does, than upon what we, of ourselves, are or can do.

We are hopelessly lost unless a higher nature overwhelms and transforms our fallen natures.  This higher nature, with its attendant powers, is found in Jesus Christ.

Divine mercy is not limited to those moral and spiritual issues which dictate our destiny in some future life; he is merciful in the here and now.  His invisible hand is extended to us far more often than we realize.

Only at the last judgment when the full account of God’s dealings with mankind, collectively and individually, are revealed, will we learn the full extent of his providential care.  We are never alone, even when we feel abandoned.  God is not some remote, disinterested ‘force’ in the universe.

Human nature being what it is, there is a danger that God’s mercy will be interpreted as divine weakness or indifference (Rom 2:4-6).  This would be a fatal error.  We must not be slothful simply because God is merciful.  The Almighty has infinite patience, but he will not extend it to us infinitely.

We are given adequate opportunity to reveal our true selves to ourselves, to establish what we everlastingly are.  God can do no more; He will not coerce us into being what we do not choose to be.  The last judgment is the finish line.  When we reach it, the race with ourselves is over and ‘the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed’ (Alma 34:33) will descend upon mankind’s day of probation.”