God, Mercy and Judgment

Christians can seek and pray for both these things:

If you are anything like me, you increasingly grieve over all the evil, deception, ungodliness and immorality sweeping the world. You long for it all to come to an end, and you pray for Christ’s soon return. I pray daily that he will come back – and the sooner the better. But of course, I recognise that it is God’s timetable that counts, not mine.

And we believers can be in two minds about all this. While we may hope and pray for a speedy return of Christ, we also know that each day that he does not return is another day of mercy and grace for the lost. That is just what we read about in 2 Peter 3:1-10.

Peter speaks about how “scoffers will come in the last days” saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (vv. 3-4). He speaks of “the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (v. 7). And then he says this: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (v. 9)

So every day that he does not come is another day of mercy. But he will indeed come back quickly, “like a thief” (v. 10). So we dare not presume upon God’s grace and patience. His longsuffering with us WILL come to an end one day for those who continue to shake their fists at him and reject his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Thus Christians can affirm both realities: we rejoice in God’s grace but we also long for him to finally put down all sin and evil. We can long for both, and we can pray for both. Having just finished once again reading through the book of Isaiah, I see this sort of thing being affirmed over and over again.

The last ten or so chapters of the book especially look ahead to what is coming – the Day of the Lord. These chapters speak to both mercy and judgment. The outline as offered in the ESV will suffice here for the final eight chapters:

Is. 59:1-13 Evil and Oppression
Is. 59:14-21 Judgment and Redemption
Is. 60:1-22 The Future Glory of Israel
Is. 61:1-11 The Year of the Lord’s Favor
Is. 62:1-12 Zion’s Coming Salvation
Is. 63:1-6 The Lord’s Day of Vengeance
Is. 63:7-14 The Lord’s Mercy Remembered
Is. 63:15-19; 64:1-12 Prayer for Mercy
Is. 65:1-16 Judgment and Salvation
Is. 65:17-25 New Heavens and a New Earth
Is. 66:1-6 The Humble and Contrite in Spirit
Is. 66:7-14 Rejoice with Jerusalem
Is. 66:15-24 Final Judgment and Glory of the Lord

A key thing to note here is how we see both judgment and mercy alternating in these chapters, if not intermingling. Of course that is true of most of the prophetic books, and much of the Bible. There are warnings about judgment in the same portions of Scripture that speak of God’s grace and mercy.

Consider for example what we find in Is. 61:1-2:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;

But recall that Jesus picks up this passage in Luke 4:16-19:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Of interest is how Jesus stops midway through Is. 64:2. Why is that?

What Sort of Messiah?

Part of the way we answer that question is to look again at Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah. While this can be a rather complex matter, we Christians at least with hindsight can say this much: What was not clearly revealed in the Old Testament was made much clearer in the New Testament and the passing of history.

That is, the coming of Messiah actually has two aspects: a first coming where the sin question is dealt with in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and a second coming, where God finally deals with his enemies, judges the unrepentant, and restores all things.

All this helps us to better understand more clearly how the Jews of Jesus’ day responded to him. Most were focused on this latter understanding. They wanted a great and glorious King to restore their fortunes. They wanted God to come in judgment to deal with their enemies and once again make Israel great as during the days of David and Solomon.

That of course was a legitimate desire and focus, but they missed the other part of all this. As we read in Is. 52:13-53:12, this Messiah is also a Suffering Servant. This clearly refers to what he has done at his first coming. As verse 5 states:

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

Thus both aspects of who this Messiah is are found in Scripture. But it seems most Jews back then wanted the one who will appear in the Second Coming. They missed this twofold sense of the coming Messiah. And as we know, many Old Testament prophecies can have more than one referent.

Some of these refer both to an event in the near future as well as events in the distant future. An obvious case in point is the sign of Immanuel as found in Isaiah 7 and 8. The first four verses of Is. 8 give us the immediate fulfilment (a son born to the prophetess), while Matthew 1:20-23 gives us the latter, greater fulfilment (the birth of Jesus the Christ).

So the point is, both aspects of how Messiah is to be understood can and should be affirmed. We should desire and promote the view of a Messiah who comes to save people from their sins, who extends mercy and grace, and who brings healing and wholeness in so many ways.

But we can and should also long for his next appearing, where he does come to put all his enemies under his feet, and when he does right every wrong and reward every right. These longings for God’s just justice are not amiss, and we all should yearn for a time when all evil is no more, along with all suffering and all tears.

As such, we can fully concur with the longing and the prayer found in places like Isaiah 64:1-2:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
    as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

I certainly desire that so very much. But I also desire to see more of my friends and family members come to know of the matchless grace of Jesus. So I pray for both of these things. And I must side with God here: if folks now refuse to meet Christ as their Saviour, then they WILL face Christ one day as their Judge.

As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20: “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Although the world seems to be getting worse each passing day, and we long for it to come to an end, in the meantime we have a job to do. There are people to be reached for Christ. They will be your friends, neighbours and family members.

So the way I pray every day can be a way that you pray: I pray for Christ to return real soon, and I also pray for those who need to come to Christ. God will honour both sorts of prayers.

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