Rex Trulove
Far too many Christians today misunderstand the difference between mercy and grace. Even worse, many think of them as the same thing. They are not the same. These are fundamentally different and if people misunderstand the fundamentals, it becomes almost certain that they will misunderstand more intricate and complex parts of the bible.
Simple but profound difference
It really isn’t difficult to define both words briefly.
Grace is something that is given that isn’t deserved.
Mercy is something that is not given that is deserved.
These may sound like the same thing, but they most definitely are not. In fact, it is impossible to fully appreciate the good news of the bible without knowing the difference between the two. Our salvation requires both, for different reasons.
Understanding grace
God’s grace surrounds us on a daily basis, from the simple things to those things that are far from simple. Let’s look at what grace is not.
Let’s say that someone hires you to do a job for them. When the job is finished, they pay you $10. Is this graceful or full of grace? No. There is no grace involved. You are paid for something you did. The money is earned and assuming that you did the job properly, you deserved it. By definition, then, this can’t be grace. The money that is given is something that was deserved.
Now, let’s say that a neighbor gives you a pie, just because they made several and had one that was extra. Perhaps they say that the didn’t want it to go to waste. Regardless of the reasoning, this is grace. You did nothing to earn the pie, you didn’t contract to get the pie, you didn’t pay for the pie, but it was given freely, even though you didn’t truly deserve it.
Understanding mercy
Suppose that you are late in picking up your kids or spouse. You are driving a little over the speed limit and blow a stop sign. Though there is no traffic, there is a police officer who pulls you over.
You apologize and explain the situation. The officer tells you that they are giving you a verbal warning, only because there was no traffic, but tells you not to do it again.
This is mercy. Why? Because you deserved to get a ticket. Though you deserved the ticket, you weren’t given one, so it is mercy.
God’s mercy and grace
It is through God’s grace that he allowed his beloved son to die to pay for your life. If you believe in Jesus as your Lord, believe that he was resurrected, have asked for forgiveness, and have repented, you have passage to eternal life and wonders you can’t begin to imagine. This is grace. You’ve been given something you don’t deserve and in fact can never earn, no matter what you do.
However, God’s grace would mean nothing at all if it wasn’t for His mercy. The wages of sin is death. This can’t be put more clearly than in Romans 6:23.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What do you deserve? Death. All people have sinned at one time or another. However, you’ve been given a way to not receive what you deserve. Thus, the mercy came first. Without mercy, the grace wouldn’t be possible.
Grace and mercy are two different things. They can go hand in hand and one can strengthen the other, but they should never be thought of as the same. This is exactly why 2 John 3 says:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
If they were the same thing, this scripture would be needlessly redundant.
I would not say that the difference is that great. They both come from love.
Perhaps grace is a form of love, and mercy is a form of grace in that mercy allows grace, and grace allows love.
Mercy is the compassionate love living out its existence in you, because it has been given to you. Love is accepting the gift of mercy, and grace is the fact that it is freely given out, without price to it.
very interesting post here, I never thought the 2 were the same as you have
pointed that out in how they have different meanings all together. good job
It is really surprising how many people tend to use the two words interchangeably. It isn’t that hard to know the difference, though.
well you know how people are these days, they sure not like they
were 30 yrs ago or even 50 yrs ago there’s a WHOLE new breed.
Just wait until I write about the difference between knowledge and wisdom. LOL
oh now THAT ought to be really interesting to read on
can’t wait to see that 1.
I posted it. I hope you enjoy it.
I just found out something interesting, in German grace and mercy are the same word, Gnade.
That *is* interesting! Especially so since the two words have different meanings. It goes to show that many people are confused about this. I’ll have to look up the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words. I suspect that in German translations of the bible, they probably use other words to convey the meaning. For that matter, perhaps I could simply look up a cross reference with a German Bible.
Great post and photo, thank you for sharing!
I’ve used that explanation in the past as well. It’s short, sweet and to the point.
That is exactly true. It only takes a bit of thought to be able so understand the difference.
Thank you for explaining Rex. Words can be misinterpreted so many times. This is a great post and message for all to read. It helped me understand better.
That is a very good thing. It is so easy to think of different words as the same thing when they aren’t at all the same thing.