That phrase has rattled around in my head for months. (Thank you, Beth Moore). What does it mean? How? What does it look like when mercy triumphs?
Here’s the thing. We’re all lawbreakers, every one of us. We know it when we come to Christ. We fall on his mercy, knowing that it is the mercy of God that delivers us from judgment. Yet somewhere along the way we forget. We start making new laws—unwritten rules of how we’re supposed to look and act and behave. And when people show up who don’t follow those rules we get uncomfortable. We judge. We criticize with our hands over our mouths so other people don’t hear.
What we’ve forgotten is that we all deserve judgment. Or maybe it’s that we know it and we just make excuses for why it’s okay for us to judge them. (Why is it always us vs. them?) We—I—deserve judgment, but God has shown us mercy. Christ’s death made it possible for mercy to triumph, to win over judgment.
Mercy triumphs when we stand as forgiven sons and daughters of God. And it triumphs when we extend mercy to others. Mercy triumphs when we respond to others not as they are, but as who God has called them to be. It triumphs when we put down the gavel and forget the rules and welcome the broken with open arms. It triumphs when we refuse to play favorites, when we relinquish control, and recognize we all stand equally in need of the grace of God. Christ died for us and rose victorious. Mercy triumphs.
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday linkup hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker over at her blog. She posts a prompt and this crazy group of bloggers writes for five minutes on whatever comes to mind. No editing. No second guessing. Just “finger-painting with words.” Click on over her blog to check it out and play along.
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