Morning Star
January-March 2008: Merciful Father

God's Amazing Mercy
by Rev. Lloyd Burghart
Executive Secretary, North American Maritime Ministry Association

In Romans 5:6-11, the Apostle Paul writes about how we who were by nature God’s enemies have received God’s gift of reconciliation. Paul writes, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

God’s enemies; powerless; ungodly; sinners - When we were in this condition; alienated from God, Jesus died for us. Well how did we get to such a sorry state?

From the very beginning of creation, humans who once walked and talked with God became alienated from him and turned their backs on his blessings and did the one thing they were told not to do and began the sorry business of blaming someone else for their own misdeeds. Adam blamed his wife (and God for giving her to him), “If she wasn’t here I wouldn’t have done this thing,” and Eve blamed the snake, “It’s all his fault.”

And so humans became misfits in God’s creation, unable to do anything to improve their condition, powerless, ungodly. God’s enemies, sinners, until the time in our helplessness and inability, God intervened on our behalf. God showed us mercy not because we were worthy, but because he loved us.

When Jesus walked this earth who did he go to? Whom did he select to be his closest followers? The rich? No. The powerful? No. The self-righteous religious leaders? No. Instead he chose from among the least, the lost, the lonely . . . despised tax collectors, angry zealots, poor fishermen. And in his mercy and by his grace he changed them into his followers.

Charles Wesley in the mid 1700s put it this way:

And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain—
for me, who caused his bitter death?

Amazing love! How can it be
that you, my Lord, should die for me?

He left his Father’s throne above—
so free, so infinite his grace---
Emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race!

What mercy this, immense and free,
for, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature’s night.
Your sunrise turned that night to day:
I woke—the dungeon blazed with light!

My chains fell off, your voice I knew;
I rose, went out, and followed you.

No condemnation now I dread,
for Christ, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.

Amazing love! How can it be
that you, my Lord, should die for me?!”

Amazing love, amazing grace, amazing mercy, that God in Jesus reached down, all the way down, to rescue from eternal death the least, the lost and the lonely, the powerless, the ungodly, the very enemies of God, sinners all, by dying for us, each and every one.

Amazing . . . Simply amazing!