“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.”
1 Peter 1:3-5 NLT
In the previous verse, Peter wrote about grace. But he moves on now, to writing about God’s “great mercy”. What’s the difference? I came across this definition recently, “In His mercy, God does not give us [the] punishment we deserve, namely hell; while in His grace, God gives us the gift we do not deserve, namely Heaven”. That mercy is surely “great”. Imagine turning up in a court of law, knowing that we were guilty of the crime for which we have been charged, only to hear the judge declare us not guilty through an act of mercy. Our guilt was undisputed. Our punishment was deserved. But the judge had mercy on us. It will never happen we think, but God’s mercy extends well beyond that analogy, because He not only declares that we are guilt-free. By His grace He allows us to be born again into His Kingdom.
Nicodemus, in his night-time visit to Jesus, couldn’t get his mind around this at all. The concept of being reborn spiritually had never occurred to him. We read his earth-bound response to being born again in John 3:4, ““What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”” Jesus clearly explained to him the difference between a natural birth and a spiritual birth, and the necessity of both to be come a child of God. Jesus said in John 3:5-7, “Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’” God, in His great mercy, and through the Holy Spirit, brought us believers through a second birth.
Sadly, today, being a “born again” believer is treated with scorn and contempt by the media and anyone else who considers spiritual matters the source of ridicule. But Jesus was very clear about the necessity of being reborn spiritually to become citizens of, and in, the Kingdom of Heaven. If we only experience a natural, physical birth, that is how our lives will end, because we know that one day our natural bodies will die and decay, one way or another. But a spiritually-born person will find that after their natural bodies have died, their spirits will continue to live in God’s Kingdom. He promised never to leave us. And one day our spirits will be united with a new body. We read what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1,3, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands … For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies“.
God’s grace and mercy are intertwined into a loving outworking of His character. There was that moment when God chose to express His love for mankind by sending His Son, Jesus, to this planet, to save us from the consequences of our sins. We didn’t deserve such kindness. Jesus didn’t deserve to die. But it was all part of God’s plan. We are spiritual beings and God has planted within us His Spirit as a guarantee of the life to come. God is mercy. He can’t be anything else.
Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Heavenly blessings, so rich and undeserved. We worship You today and every day. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 