The God of Mercy and Kindness

Dane Ortlund's book Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers has not only helped renew my awe of God's love for me, but it has also opened my eyes anew to God's mercy and kindness that He lavishes on us as His children.  

It is comforting to know that when we fail and sin against Him, He doesn't abandon us.  He comes after as to pour His love and mercy over us.  It's as if He pursues us more when we have sinned or are suffering as we look to Him for forgiveness and help.  The key is that we need to come and turn to Him.  When we do, blessings abound:

What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to him.  Whatever our offense, he deals gently with us.  If we never come to him, we will experience a judgment so fierce it will be like a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth at us (Rev. 1:16; 2:12; 19:15, 21).  If we do come to him, as fierce as his lion-like judgment would have been against us, so deep will be his lamb-like tenderness for us (cf. Rev. 5:5-6; Isa. 40:10-11) (p.54).

Further, Dane concludes chapter 5, "He Deals Gently," by reminding us:

Contrary to what we expect to be the case, therefore, the deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ's solidarity with us.  As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ's very heart, not away from it.

Look to Christ.  He deals gently with you.  It's the only way he knows how to be.  He is the high priest to end all high priests.  As long as you fix your attention on your sin, you will fail to see how you can be safe.  But as long as you look to this high priest, you will fail to see how you can be in danger.  Looking inside ourselves, we can anticipate only harshness from heaven.  Looking out to Christ, we can anticipate only gentleness (p.57).

At the end of Chapter 6, "I Will Never Cast Out," Dane reminds us:

[Christ] cannot bear to part with his own, even when they most deserve to be forsaken...For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental; it is your new permanent residence.  You are not a tenant; you are a child.  His heart is not a ticking time bomb; his heart is the green pastures and still waters of endless reassurances of his presence and comfort, whatever our present spiritual accomplishments.  It is who he is (p.66).

Romans 5:20b states, "but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (ESV).  Dane expands that thought by stating:

The guilt and shame of those in Christ is ever outstripped by his abounding grace.  When we feel as if our thoughts, words, and deeds are diminishing God's grace toward us, those sins and failures are in fact causing it to surge forward all the more (p.68).

To further help us wrap our minds around such a glorious concept, Dane brings out an analogy:

...Christ being perfectly holy, knows and feels the horror and weight of sin more deeply  than any of us sinful ones could...Just as the purer a heart, the more horrified at evil, so also the purer a heart, the more it is naturally drawn out to help and relieve and protect and comfort, whereas a corrupt heart sits still, indifferent.  So with Christ (p.69).

Dane goes on to share a passage of Thomas Goodwin's book The Heart of Christ and summarizes it beautifully: "If you are part of Christ's own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity...He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin.  He hates sin.  But he loves you" (p.71).

Just as a father does not abandon a son who messes up terribly, God our Father does not abandon us when we mess up terribly.  Thanks be to God!

Whether you have messed up and sinned terribly, or someone else's sin has splashed on you wounding you deeply, or whether you are suffering as a result of living in a broken world, take comfort!  God's mercy and kindness and love abounds!  He meets you where you are and pours a never ending love and mercy into you.  He sees and knows your pain, and He loves you all the more for it.  Keep turning to Him as the source of your comfort!

Meditate on the truths of "Mercies Anew," a song that sits among my favorites and so fitting for all that Dane reminded me of in Gentle and Lowly:

VERSE 1
Every morning that breaks
There are mercies anew
Every breath that I take
Is your faithfulness proved
And at the end of each day
When my labors are through
I will sing of Your mercies anew

VERSE 2
When I’ve fallen and strayed
There were mercies anew
For you sought me in love
And my heart you pursued
In the face of my sin
Lord, You never withdrew
So I sing of Your mercies anew

CHORUS
And Your mercies, they will never end
For ten thousand years they’ll remain
And when this world’s beauty has passed away
Your mercies will be unchanged

VERSE 3
And when the storms swirl and rage
There are mercies anew
In affliction and pain
You will carry me through
And at the end of my days
When Your throne fills my view
I will sing of Your mercies anew
I will sing of Your mercies anew

Music and words by Mark Altrogge and Bob Kauflin. © 2002 Sovereign Grace Praise/BMI (adm. by Integrity Music). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. All rights reserved.

My Loving Advocate

 "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted" by Thomas Kelly has been among my favorite hymns.  It vividly paints the picture of the affliction Jesus suffered on our behalf and tells us that because of that suffering, we have a firm foundation, a refuge, in the Rock of our salvation.  This hymn kept coming to mind as I continued to read Dane Ortland's Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, because Dane points out how much the suffering of Christ allows Him to pour his love and mercy into our hearts and lives and how the more we suffer, the closer He gets and the more He pours into us.  During a time of reflection with the words of that hymn stuck in my mind, I decided to write a bit of poetry of sorts pulling in the truths I was reading in Dane's book about Christ, reflecting on that in light of my own afflictions, and connecting those reflections to the opening words of the great hymn.

My Loving Advocate

By: Christine Russell

 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, Christ hangs dying on the cross.

 Tempted and tried by the devil, Christ rebukes Satan standing victorious.

 Quick to love and longing to embrace, Jesus stands with open arms ready.

 Knowing the pain of rejection and abandonment, Jesus relates to mortal men.

 

 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, I lie buried in my loss.

 Tempted and tried by the devil, I wallow in my sin, far from glorious.

 Quick to hate and pushing Him away, I fail to keep my gaze steady.

 Knowing the pain of rejection and abandonment, I get stuck in the pit again.

 

 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, Christ carries me through the worst.

 Tempted and tried by the devil, Christ advocates for me and my hurt.

 Quick to love and freely embracing me, Jesus’ heart of mercy is my refrain.

 Knowing the pain of rejection and abandonment, Jesus walks beside me in my pain.

 

 There is no greater Advocate than Jesus Christ alone.

 As I sin, as I sorrow, He stands before God’s throne.

 He speaks of me as holy, a beloved child of the King.

 Grace and mercy, peace and comfort are what He’ll bring.

 

©Copyright October 2024 Russell Musings

The God Who Sympathizes With My Weakness

 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16, ESV).

Jesus experienced all of the human emotions related to hard times, temptations, and deep suffering.  He truly knows our pain. He sympathizes with our pain, and He draws near to us in our pain allowing us to approach Him boldly to find mercy and grace to help us in our pain. 

I have been so encouraged reading Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund.  He uses Scripture to pull back the curtain to reveal the heart of Christ for what it is. Christ's heart is glorious!  I have found myself falling in love with Christ all over again as I realize the depth of His love for me and how much His love seeks after me and pours into me in my hardest times.

Dane points out in the forth chapter "Able to Sympathize:" "That enticing temptation, that sore trial, that bewildering perplexity--he has been there.  Indeed, his utter purity suggests that he has felt these pains more acutely than we sinners ever could" (p. 48). He then goes on to say, "...when the fallenness of the world closes in on us and makes us want to throw in the towel--there, right there, we have a Friend who knows exactly what such testing feels like, and sits close to us, embraces us. With us. Solidarity" (p. 48).

When hard times come, I tend to pull back and isolate.  Loneliness becomes my constant presence.  I look to God for help, but He feels distant, far away.  This book has opened my eyes to how much my Savior can relate to my suffering and how much He pursues me in it rather than flees from me. Dane described me perfectly then helped me see the truth of the Bible: 

"Our tendency is to feel intuitively that the more difficult life gets the more alone we are.  As we sink further into pain, we sink further into felt isolation.  The Bible corrects us.  Our pain never outstrips what he himself shares in.  We are never alone.  The sorrow that feels so isolating, so unique, was endured by him in the past and is now shouldered by him in the present" (p.48).  

Dane concludes chapter 4 by stating, "If you are in Christ, you have a Friend who, in your sorrow, will never lob down a pep talk from heaven.  He cannot bear to hold himself at a distance.  Nothing can hold him back.  His heart is too bound up with yours." I've been washed Christ's His blood.  He laid down His life for me.  As a result, my heart is bound with His, so He can't leave me or forsake me!  Praise the Lord, I'm never alone! Praise the Lord that my God sympathizes with my weakness!