An Attribute We May Share

[Thompson, Darryl]

An Attribute We May Share 

     Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Luke
6:36.  

     Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God, thus
cooperating with Him. Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God
purify the soul and beautify the heart, cleansing the life from
selfishness. . . .  

     God's love for the angelic host is as a part of Himself, direct and
positive in its divinity. God's love for the human race is a peculiar
form--a love born of mercy, for the human subject is all-undeserving. .
. .  

     Mercy implies the imperfection of the object upon which it is
bestowed. Because of man's imperfection, mercy was brought into active
existence. Sin is not the object of God's love, but of His hatred. Yet
He pities the sinner, because the guilty one bears the Creator's image
and has received from Him the capabilities that make it possible for him
to become a son of God, not through his own merits, but through the
imputed merits of Jesus Christ, through the great sacrifice the Saviour
has made in his behalf. . . .  

     In the church militant the children of men will be ever in need of
restoration from the results of sin. . . . We are all dependent on one
another. Almost invariably a man who is superior to another man in some
respect is inferior to him in other respects. Every human being on earth
is subject to temptation. And all are in need of human influence and
sympathy. . . . He who cooperates with God by showing mercy brings
himself into a position where God will extend mercy to him, for he is in
harmony with the divine attributes.  

     God's love and mercy are ever extended toward sinners. Shall men
who themselves have sinned against God, refuse to forgive and accept a
repentant sinner? . . . God loved us while we were yet sinners. How
clear and unmistakable the line of duty is made by the words, "As ye
would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke
6:31). . . . Only those who walk with Christ can be truly merciful.

>From That I May Know Him - Page 46