Truth and Mercy

Psa. 8510"Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed."What a beautiful picture of the results of receiving Christ personally and experiencing His full provision of redemption.  Mercy, or God's grace has joined with truth.  Jesus is the embodiment of this verse.  He is fully truth and cannot be polluted or diluted. Yet, he is fully grace and mercy.  As the redeemed of the Lord, it is difficult for us to maintain that balance.  It is very hard for us to keep the scales in that delicate equilibrium.  We either come down too heavy in grace or too heavy in truth.  It is one of the most challenging aspects of living as Jesus wants us to live.  We see and hear the mushy, gushy folks who always say, "just forgive, live and let live."  Truth cries out, "but what about sin?"  We hear the black and white prophetically inclined say, "they must pay for their sin."  Mercy cries back, "Yes, but we must forgive!"  It is our humanity that takes us out of balance.  So which is right?  Neither and both!  Both are essential to life.  In God they are perfectly adjusted in just the right chemistry.  

Again, Jesus is the perfect incarnation of mercy and truth.  John 1:14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Moses brought the law, the strong one sided picture of truth without grace.  A part of the purpose of the law was to prove to humanity that the law could not be kept by man.  It pointed to the Savior.  When He came he brought with that truth of the law, the mercy of grace.   We have choices.  As free moral agents of God's creation we are allowed to weigh the evidence and make a judgment for ourselves.  When we hear Truth and embrace it then great grace and mercy follows us.  If we choose to reject God's Truth, His Word, we reject mercy as well and then the law becomes a cruel taskmaster and circumstances our disciplinarian.  Jesus came to remove the curse of the law for all who will choose and believe.  God's nature is not one of harsh truth.  His nature is truth and mercy in union producing the fruit of righteousness and peace in all who have accepted Jesus, who is full of grace and truth.  Psa. 1005For the Lord is good;His mercy is everlasting,And His truth endures to all generations.