Grace or Mercy?
“And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He was come into the house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto Him, Yea, Lord.” Matthew 9:27-28
Jesus had just healed a young girl (verses 23-26) and returned to where He was lodging in Capernaum. As He and His disciples walked, two blind men followed them. They had heard about Jesus’ healing powers and desired healing for themselves. They cried out to Him, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on us”. Up until this time, no one had called Jesus the Son of David publicly. In Matthew’s recording of the gospel, he identifies Jesus as the Son of David. It was God’s plan that His Son would come through the line of David. Several Old Testament prophecies made that fact clear, particularly Isaiah 11:1-2: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse (David’s father), and a Branch shall grow out of his roots…” These two blind men were apparently knowledgeable about Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah and believed Jesus to be the One who was to come. By their crying this fact out loud, the Pharisees became very agitated because they did not believe that Jesus was sent from God.
These two blind men pleaded with Jesus to have mercy on them by giving them sight. Since they could not see Jesus, someone had to point them in the right direction, however, isn’t that true for all people? All people are spiritually blind until God points them to the Savior who has all power to open their eyes to the truth about themselves and about Christ. The Holy Spirit brings conviction upon them, and only then can they see their need to confess, repent, and receive the spiritual healing that Christ brings. We are not saved by mercy. We are saved by God’s grace. David Roper, in his “Seasoned With Salt-Lessons from Elisha”, wrote that “God’s grace is not based on mercy, but on the cross and a finished salvation.” Ephesians 2:4-5 states: “But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved”. Lewis Sperry Chafer, in his book “Systematic Theology VII”, points out that “Mercy is therefore the compassion of God which moved Him to provide a Savior for the unsaved. Had God been able to save even one soul on the ground of His sovereign mercy alone, He could have saved every person on that basis, and the death of Christ would not have been a necessity. Divine love on the other hand is the motivating plan behind all that God does in saving a soul. But since God is holy and righteous and sin is a complete offense unto Him, His love or His mercy cannot operate in grace until there was provided a sufficient satisfaction for sin. This satisfaction makes possible the exercise of God’s grace. Grace thus rules out all human merit. It requires only faith in the Savior.”
We’ve all heard the basic definition of grace and mercy: grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. These two blind men, in asking for mercy, were pleading for Jesus to lift what seemed to them a curse. The Jews taught that if someone suffered an affliction, it must be punishment for some sin. In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus if the young man in that passage who was born blind had sinned or was it his parents who had sinned. Jesus said that it was neither one, “But that the works of God should be made manifest in him”. The two blind men were allowed to enter Jesus’ lodging place, and He asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” Our destiny lies in how we respond to Jesus. These two men did not stand around trying to reason and analyze whether or not Jesus could and would heal them. They knew that He was God’s Son and had no doubt that He would heal them. They answered, “Yea, Lord”. Jesus then touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith be it unto you”.
Jesus knew their faith in Him and His ability to heal them was sincere. Unger’s Bible Dictionary states: “Faith is not simply the assent of the intellect to revealed truth; it is the practical submission of the entire man to the guidance and control of such truth”. Folks use that old standby analogy to explain faith: one sits down in a chair without even thinking about it because one knows it will hold him or her. Jesus is looking for the kind of faith that submits without doubt or reservation. Jesus did heal these two men. When they opened their eyes, the first thing that they saw was the One who had healed them, the One in whom they trusted completely. Nothing of consequence happens without faith. Not faith in faith, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In summary, God loves His creation, but hates their sin. His holiness and righteousness could not allow Him to accept man in his sin. God’s mercy caused Him to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for man’s sin. Through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, men and women are saved and made righteous before God. And this entire process is made possible by God’s grace. He didn’t have to do any of this. He could have let us all go to hell and been perfectly justified in doing so. However, His grace, His desire to give us opportunity to be reconciled to Him, can keep anyone out of hell and on their way to heaven, but they have to come through Christ, His way, His truth, and His life. Thank God for His wonderful grace.