Mercy, Not Sacrifice
“But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” Matthew 12:7 KJV
It’s challenging for us to realize in our present era what a radical statement Jesus made in telling the Jews of that time to have mercy, not sacrifice. The entire Jewish religion was about sacrifices to God. Jesus was bluntly stating that their entire way of worship, from generations of tradition and history, as taught by Jehovah, was not what God desired of them now.
The sacrifices offered by Jewish priests on behalf of the people were external acts meant to atone for their sins, but clearly did nothing to change their hearts. Through the centuries, the Israelites had continually drifted far from God. Their hearts were hardened towards others, far from the mercy and compassion God desires.
Jesus’ new covenant set forth a new order of the heart for God-followers. His word is still calling us to lay down traditions and history, habits of worship and praise, patterns of fellowship, and performance of rituals that have become hollow, lacking spiritual power.
Though it may not be animal sacrifices, many today rely on external acts sacrificed to God, such as doing good works, following rules and laws, church traditions and expectations of their leaders. Present-day outward religious behaviors cause many to lose sight of their relationship with the Lord Himself, along with His promise to change Christians from His kingdom within.
The word mercy comes from the Greek word eleos, meaning active compassion and tenderness. It appears many times in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. God’s essential mercy for us is shown in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, planned for our redemption from the foundation of the world. The gift of His son to the world is exemplary of what mercy is to accomplish. His mercy flows freely, forgiving all, showing forth compassion without blame or condemnation.
Because of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and restored to the Father. Because of our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for the world, none of us gets what we deserve! Our Lord clearly states His desire, His preference for mercy over any outward acts of sacrifice.
We deceive ourselves, if not others, when we continue with unexamined ways of serving God without meaning or power to change our hearts, our essential human nature. You are missing out if your faith in God is not changing you! When Christians look back on the days since meeting the Lord, we should surely recognize how our hearts and character have been changing.
God is in the business of changing His own to be like Him. He can do what we cannot do. He can create in us His heart of love, mercy, and faith. The Lord Jesus Christ came so that His words and His ways can be written within, by the holy spirit. Then He will be seen outwardly! Paul spoke passionately and definitively about this:
“But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NASB
Of course, sacrifices to the Lord, such as times of fasting and prayer, are a part of our walk as the holy spirit leads. Traditions can be meaningful when they come from the heart. The key is our purpose in doing so, in the motive and intent within for carrying such acts out. Some sincerely sacrifice something they love during the Lent season, for example, doing so as worship to the Lord.
Others do this as a rote law because it is expected or part of their tradition. Paul warned Timothy about following a form without the power to change the heart:
“...But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without the love of good, traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!” 2 Timothy 3:1-5 BSB
The Amplified Bible states this even more succinctly:
“…holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.” 2 Timothy 3:5 AMP
Paul was talking about those who claim to be godly without the power of change dwelling within to create godly character. Words without power are a waste of time, accomplishing no lasting spiritual work. Paul lists many common conditions of the heart, then and now, naming many of the things we humans love instead of loving God and His ways.
God will not settle for His people merely appearing good and religious. He wants our all, everything in us. That is how we are gaining the power to overcome as He did to obtain all of the promises to the overcomers that He has outlined in Revelation. Paul was teaching Timothy that God changes us and that the godly change in believers is to be visible to the world.
Yes, God leads us to spiritual acts such as fasting when we sacrifice the pleasure of food and drink for a period of time. He calls us to fast and pray on specific occasions of intercession for others or ourselves. God puts in our hearts a desire to temporarily sacrifice our usual life’s pleasures, including the most basic—food and drink—to be separate, alone, consecrated to Him and seeking His face.
If you’ve ever been led to fast by the Lord, you realize it is a sacrifice. But a spiritual fast is not will worship, gritting our teeth for self-control. When God lays a fast on us, He locks us into this purposeful sacrifice for intercession, answers, or deeper worship and understanding. He causes our focus to be on Him, not our hunger. It is quite different from dieting, to be sure!
The key here is what is in our hearts at such times as this. We recognize that all things are in Him:
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’” Acts 17:28 KJV
God is the Father of us all. We are His deeply loved offspring and He is dedicated to raising us well. Though it takes a lifetime and beyond, we are learning how to live and move and have our being in Him. What if we submit ourselves to His hand in working true mercy, creating kindness, compassion, empathy, and understanding instead of outward religious busyness?
We learn to listen to that still small voice of the Holy Spirit as He works within us, being led by Him as we walk together. The distinction and volume of His voice are more apparent as we know the Lord more intimately and deeply. He works to create a clean heart, willing to do His will and purpose from within.
When we know God wants us to have mercy but our flesh is weak, even disinterested, we back up our prayers to where we actually are by asking God to create willingness in us. He is the changer of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Why pretend with the all-seeing, all-knowing God of the universe that we are willing when we are not? Father God knows.
This can be a particular battle when God is whispering to us to have mercy, to let go of a suffered wrong, to forgive when we are angry and hurt, or a myriad of other trials He allows to come our way. It is challenging when we sense God telling us to do something that our flesh really does not want to do.
“A fool makes his vexation known right away, yet a prudent man covers up an affront.” Psalm 12:16 CLV
How tempting it is to chastise someone who has affronted us, but is it not merciful to cover up an affront? Truth can be harsh, demanding, and unrelenting while mercy is lenient and forgiving. Only the Lord marries the two together in perfection. Only God knows what is in the heart. He does not delight in outward acts, such as the Jews’ animal sacrifices that no longer have lasting power to cleanse the inner man.
God is not pleased by a show of obedience, doing anything for outward appearance, to look like we are godly, out of fear of punishment, to become worthy enough, or to persuade God to do things our way. Here is the future hope of what He can do:
“Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 NASB
Certainly mercy in the heart should parallel mercy in thought, word, and deed. No matter how far away we seem from this ideal, we continue to pursue being like the Lord we love. When we seek mercy, we are seeking God Who is mercy. He desires us to delight in Him, doing everything to please our God and making melody to Him in our hearts.
We need much more understanding of His mercy because it is far beyond our human ability. As soon as you believe you can be merciful to all, the Lord will bring someone who tests you in that. It’s easy to have mercy for those we love and understand, for those who are experiencing issues with which we are familiar.
It takes God to love the unlovable, to have mercy for those we do not understand, and particularly for those who cause offense and wounds to others. The Lord enables us to have His perfect balance of mercy and justice. God’s merciful ways are hard to comprehend with so much wrong around us—let alone when He reveals what is within us.
God leads us from within, by His Spirit, beyond the expectations and confusion of our human condition. God can work His mercy within us for those we do not understand, those that our own soul would condemn. Our Lord is replacing our will, thoughts, and emotions— all of our soul realm—with His thoughts, emotions, and will.
Thus, we are becoming more and more like our Master, just as He directed us. God is a passionate God! He’s not against emotions, He created them:
“‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will imprint my laws upon their heart, and on their minds I will inscribe them [producing an inward change],” Hebrews 10:16 AMP
This is the new covenant brought forth by Jesus Christ our Lord. God has always known that we humans cannot serve Him in our flesh. There’s no good or lasting thing in our flesh. The scriptures clearly state it is impossible to please God in our flesh! We all require the mercy of which Jesus Christ speaks and represents.
We are promised that He can give us His mercy, writing it in our hearts and minds so that it is lasting, changing our human nature forever. Such is the way to His fullness, to be delivered from working at it and brought into His rest. We are His workmanship, not our own self-improvement project.
As He does this inner work, we move past acting as if we have mercy in our hearts to a true inner change, showing forth the character and mind of Christ.
“For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works,
which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” Ephesians 2:10 AMP
Of course, this is a very difficult transition! Wouldn’t it be easier if God just gave us a to-do list to follow? Or zap us into change as He seemed to do by changing Saul into Paul? The Bible puts many things on our to-do list that Father God knows we cannot do. He knew it in the garden with Adam and Eve and had already prepared, before the foundation of the world, the sacrifice of Jesus to make the way.
When we love the Lord, we often try to do it ourselves, to bring this flesh under submission to Him. It doesn’t work, have you noticed? We cannot command or will our stubborn, fleshly hearts to be merciful. Without our Lord’s coming within, all we have are outward acts.
When we ourselves constantly measure ourselves against the Lord’s character and ways, it leads to discouragement and fatigue. We are to delight in the Lord, and He will bring it to pass. There is only one measurement God uses, to which Paul speaks after the list of ministries given by God for the edification of the Body of Christ:
“…until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity].” Ephesians 4:13 AMP
It is so easy for us humans who love the Lord to want to do what pleases Him, but how do we do mercy? God has no interest in an outward show of being a good and merciful Christian. After all, unbelievers do many acts of mercy and kindness. But doing acts of mercy that do not stem from the heart are difficult to sustain. Inevitably, our own mercy runs short for others.
Without the measure of the fullness of the Christ within, we all fall short, but this is what we are reaching for, why we pursue Him above all. We cannot even successfully measure ourselves; it takes God to do that, too. How hard it can be to rest in His work, with patient endurance, until He creates more depth in our love and mercy for self and others!
God has been about the business of teaching and changing us throughout our lives. Oh, how carefully He guides His own! God is in charge of changing Christians who desire to serve the Lord, creating mercy where there is none. He has prepared our paths and will enable us to walk in them.
He is mercy, He is love, and He is the beginning and end of all things within and without. His intent, even the disciplines of adversity and loss, is always redemptive, for our good:
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 BSB
Yes, yes, it’s about the heart! Only God knows when we search for Him with our entire hearts. He sees any hidden areas within that cause us to fall short of the measure of His mercy. He provides a future and hope for us, making us know that all things are possible in Him.
Mercy makes a way when there is no way. Mercy considers the root, the heart of the matter, not just the act or behavior. There’s a higher purpose of God’s mercy seen in redemptive justice. And how wonderful to know that God cannot help but be merciful:
“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises all bowed down.” Psalms 145:8-14 NKJV
Do you notice the word all here? Father God does not exclude anyone from His goodness and tender mercies. Mercy is revealed here with its specific qualities. David says that our Lord is gracious, from the Hebrew word channan, meaning “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor; show mercy; show pity.”
God surely is gracious to all of us, as David notes in another of his psalms:
“He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Psalms 103:9-14 KJV
Do you want a guarantee in life? Here it is. How very gracious and compassionate is our heavenly Father! It is very comforting to remember He knows what we are made of and considers that in His mercy. It’s wonderful to remember that He understands His creation. He is never surprised at our human lack and failure and has provided for this in His eternal plan.
Thankfully, He does not deal with us after our sinful nature, which Jesus dealt with on the cross. Yes, that work is done, but we are now learning to walk in all He accomplished. Mercy is the source of the Lord’s great compassion:
“The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB
Our compassions fail but God’s compassions never fail, never coming to an end. They are always available to us and others, freely given, never having to be earned. Isn’t that what grace is, His unmerited favor? Why, then, would we think that others need to earn what we have been freely given, to shape up before they come to God or upon our judgment?
Why would we expect sinners to behave as we are taught before they know Him? We do know Him and we often can’t get it right! When we wake each morning, we can rest in knowing the faithfulness of our God. His compassion renews each morning, regardless of what the day brings. He definitely allows do-overs in His growth plan!
Going back to Psalms 145, David states God is slow to anger and great in mercy. We know our all-powerful God could take us out of this earth in anger and disgust for what the human race has become any time He chooses to do so. Jehovah God did this often in the Old Testament, but He is slow to anger, with a plan of redemption for all.
This is a different nature than the one some preachers talk about that creates fear and dread of an all-powerful and wrathful God. Their God condemns the faithless to an eternal hell, ready to inflict His anger in an instant for any wrongdoing. Actually, God’s wrath is His passion, meaning that He feels strongly about us and the world!
God loves this world He created so much, and yet it is difficult for us to be merciful, particularly when we see the ugliness and evil in human hearts and all the suffering this costs humanity. If God so desired, He could be angry day in and day out because of what we humans have wrought upon this earth. But He is not.
He is slow to anger…think about it! Here, slow to anger means “long-suffering, patient.” We rejoice along with David that this is our Lord and King! He is good to all, whether they know it or not. He raises us up when we fall and lifts our spirits when we are low, just like He faithfully did for David, over and over again.
God hates sin, but the sinner… He loves us passionately and eternally! And there is a special promise for being merciful, for allowing God to grow and nurture this aspect of His nature in us, His called, chosen, and faithful ones. It is clearly stated in the Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Matthew 5:7 NASB
When we sow mercy, we receive it back from God. What a deal! We can grow in God so far as to even become mercy in this earth. The chorus of a favorite song encourages us this way:
Sow Mercy
“Sow mercy. Sow grace.
Sow kindness. Sow faith.
Words are like water, sprinkled with love.
You will harvest all your heart's been dreaming of.
Sow mercy.”
(D. & R. McGuire)
What an awesome God we serve!