A Glorious Truth About God’s Mercy

In a recent sermon, I quoted the Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes, who famously said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” That’s a proposition that you could savor for a lifetime. For a child of God, however deep the sin that remains, God’s mercy is deeper still. I suspect that as the church, we struggle to hold a biblical perspective on license and despair when it comes to our attitude towards sin. Sometimes, we take sin too lightly. Other times, after we have strayed, we despair of hope, as though Christ has not promised to keep us.

Wisdom calls us to grieve our sin but to never despair of hope. To despair of hope is to regard the power and promises of God as weak and fallible. To despair of hope doubts the superiority of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood to the old one. And to despair of hope is to put the emphasis of the gospel on us instead of God’s faithfulness. While it’s true that the godly will be sanctified, that by the Spirit, we will put to death the sinful deeds of body, yet the promise teaches us that God’s people, because of God’s mercy, will persevere to the end.

What does a wise attitude towards sin and mercy look like? It looks like striving to obey God’s commands while fully embracing the promise. Apostle Peter holds before us a hope initiated by God’s mercy, and guarded God, Himself:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Friends, as we strive to please Christ, and as we inevitably fail at times, do not despair. Repent. Turn back to Christ as you remember that your inheritance is in heaven—out of the reach of your enemies, even your sin. Hold fast to a God whose mercy is holding onto you. Remember: “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”