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Post by randy on Aug 12, 2021 22:43:05 GMT
Mercy beyond the Law. Mercy was demonstrated under the Law of Moses by the offering of gifts and rituals that God accepted in exchange for His mercy. But there was also mercy demonstrated by God apart from the Law that would make atonement for complete national failure under the Law.
It is this that Jesus referred to when he said: "But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matt 9.13.
The book of Hebrews is excellent in its explanation that the Law was incomplete, and could only bring Israel into fellowship with God on a temporary basis. Forgiveness needed to be had not just for occasional sins, but also for the entire Sin Nature of Man. Atonement had to be made not just for individual sins, but also for the whole nation, which ultimately failed under the Law.
The system of Law had to be replaced and fulfilled. It had to be replaced with a system of righteousness free from the constraints of a Law that kept Israel out of the Garden of Eden and away from the Tree of Life. It had to be fulfilled by a system of mercy that freed them from making atonement for sin endlessly, without any ultimate closure.
Hosea 6.6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 As at Adam, they have broken the covenant;
they were unfaithful to me there.
Let me know what you think?
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Post by foxjj on Aug 13, 2021 7:36:43 GMT
That our God is merciful is supported by Scripture’s such as Psalms 116:5 “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.” Also Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
That God is merciful also means that He is long suffering of which humanity has tested by leading sinful rebellious lives. Exodus 34:6-7 speaks to both the mercy of The Lord, and also the consequences when people do not repent and forsake their ways: “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
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