The Merit of Mercy: Matthew 5:7

Have you ever wondered at the confusing beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy?" Why does it sound like works-based religion when Christianity is supposed to be full of grace? In this beatitude, we are given not a moral teaching, but a gospel reality.

The first four beatitudes examine the need of the Christian. They address the heart: poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, and longing for righteousness. But here, at the halfway point, the page takes a flip and we get to look more at our disposition than our need. In some respect, all the beatitudes have to do with salvation and matters of the heart and the Christian life, but generally speaking, if the first four are aimed at the root of the matter, this one hits a little harder on the fruit.

Among all the Beatitudes, however, this one has a unique challenge. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" seems to suggest that we must give mercy in order to get mercy.

We know that cannot be true because our God is the God of mercy and grace and his salvation is of grace. The Bible does not teach salvation where the recipient does things in order to earn, but rather a fully merciful salvation where God saves in spite of you, not because of you. The transaction was done in Christ at the cross, not with you and your merit.

If this is true, then how are we supposed to take this passage that seems to point to the contrary? We will examine the verse under three headings. First the meaning of mercy, then the merit of mercy, and finally the mandate of mercy.

The Meaning of Mercy

It has often been said that grace is getting what you do not deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. That pretty much hits the mark. In essence, mercy is being spared what you should have gotten in light of something you did wrong; however, this only gets at part of the picture. Though we have been spared the wrong we deserve, we also have been

given compassion and forgiveness—that is a part of mercy as well. Lloyd-Jones defines it like this: "While grace looks down upon sin as a whole, mercy looks especially upon the miserable consequences of sin. So that mercy really means a sense of pity plus a desire to relieve the suffering... pity plus the action." This definition is helpful because it hits at the meaning of the word Jesus uses in Matthew 5 when he says blessed are the merciful. It has to do with compassion, kindness, action and even light of someone who has just offended you.

There are a few views of mercy that were present during Jesus' day that I think are helpful to have in mind as we go along. The gentiles listening would have likely subscribed to the Greco-Roman view of mercy. Roman society held mercy in low esteem. This was likely due to the Stoics and Aristotelians who were heavy influences in Jesus' day. They were philosophers that did not value mercy at all. It was seen as a disease of the soul or a weakness. It might be foreign to our Christian ears to hear something like that, but mercy was viewed this way by a culture that was influenced by Athenians and Spartans of the centuries prior. If you're familiar with the history of ancient Sparta and Athens, they were ruthless military city-states home to some of the toughest people in history. Thus, ruthless toughness was valued in Jesus' day, especially among men. It was okay to be merciful if you were a child or if you were elderly, but for anyone in between, it was not a good thing.

In the Jewish system of the day, primarily led by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, there was abundant legality in the way they viewed mercy. Because law is king, mercy looses its place. The Pharisees were especially guilty of this, and the overwhelming testimony of the gospel accounts confirms their hardness of heart. Time and time again they were found lacking mercy. As the Pharisees were the Jewish academics of the day, likely held sway over common Jewish thought, so mercy was likely not viewed highly among the Jewish population listening to Jesus as he taught.

In contrast to both of these, the Christian view of mercy is abundant. When Peter asks Jesus if he must forgive his brother seven times, a large number in Peter's mind, Jesus replies that he must forgive seventy times seven times—hyperbole for mercy without limit. Just keep adding to your mercy, Peter, for as long as your brother is sinning, you are to be forgiving him. This positive emphasis on mercy would have been very surprising to both the Jews and the Gentiles listening. Jesus was telling them that mercy is the good reflex of the Christian soul, not something we distain.

The Merit of Mercy

Armed with an understanding of Christian mercy, we can now unpack the seeming self-contradiction in the verse. It seems to read, "Blessed are those who are merciful, for they will earn mercy." Although it may read like that, we know it cannot be that, for the Christian religion is founded on the gospel, and the gospel is grace and mercy. So what do we do?

A helpful method of answering is the analogy of faith—to let Scripture interpret Scripture. We can apply this principle right within the beatitudes. Examine the first four as if we are interpreting them the way the one on mercy is often interpreted and see if they hold up:

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for that is how they earn the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are those who mourn, for they now deserve comfort.

• Blessed are the meek, for they have merited the earth.

• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they have earned

• salvation.

Of course, none of these correct. The verses don't read anything like that. When you read them in your Bible prior to reading this article, you probably didn't think of them like that either. You likely read them in light of the gospel:

• Blessed are those who Jesus has made poor in spirit, for He gives them the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are those who Jesus has made sorrowful over sin, for He comforts them.

• Blessed are those who Jesus makes meek, for He gives them the earth.

• Blessed are those who Jesus makes hungry for righteousness, for He fills them.

Now put Jesus in the verse about being merciful, and it starts to make more sense: Blessed are those who Jesus makes merciful, for He gives them mercy. Suddenly it doesn't sound so much like we're earning our way to mercy, right? Jesus is the one who gives us mercy.

The verse here doesn't point to our own merit. It points to the merit of Jesus on our behalf. There is a merit for mercy, but it's not us. It's him. To get here, we put the gospel underneath this verse as a light that shines up through it and helps illuminate the dark spots.

First, who are the merciful? The merciful are people for whom Jesus has merited mercy. The gospel is the way this makes sense. Recall the great exchange that took place at the cross: God lays our sin upon Christ and Christ's righteousness upon us, treating us both as the other deserved. The great exchange is the height of mercy—to be the vilest offender and yet receive a full and final pardon, not just of sin being removed, but of righteousness being given. That's incredible, but that's the gospel: the height of mercy.

The gospel means that this verse cannot apply as a moral teaching to non-Christians. Some would take this as "blessed are you if you're merciful, for people will probably be merciful to you in return." It cannot work that way even as a general rule for believers' lives because the gospel demands that Christ merit the mercy. There is no true mercy without the gospel.

One of the truths of being Christian is that your good works are fruit of the root, which is salvation. Consequently, anything good we do in this life (our sanctification) comes as a result of something that has been done for us. Any grace we display is a result of greater grace that was given to us. Any kindness we display is a reflection of the kindness of God to save us. And in the same way, any true mercy that we can display to people is a reflection of the mercy God has given us.

Now, if in the first half of the verse we've already been given mercy, why does Jesus say "they will receive mercy?" Although there are a couple ways that people have taken this, the most plausible one to seems to be that this is talking about the eschaton. Someday when we go to meet the Lord, God will be merciful to us in the fullest and most final sense. Even though we have still been sinners after we've been saved, He will welcome us pure and clean and

righteous into His kingdom forever—the height of the finished work of mercy.

This highlights the boundless kindness of God, does it not? God Is merciful to us (in salvation) in order to be merciful to us (in the end). Even though we still sin after salvation, He says that because He was merciful to save you, He will continue his mercy to receive you in the end. As such, mercy begets mercy, and that should be the case for us. A good summary of this is, as one commentator said, "God's mercy to us is the cause of our mercy to others."

The Mandate of Mercy

This beatitude stands as a tough moral wake-up call. It is challenging to us, personally. We just got finished saying that we couldn't take this as a moralistic teaching—it has to be something that is interpreted in light of the gospel, and that is very true. But once it has been interpreted in light of the gospel, and once you, who are saved, realize what this means for you, it can also serve as a searching question. Do you live as a merciful person?

To encourage us to be merciful, we will use two biblical stories, starting with John 7:53–8:11. In this story, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the sin of adultery to Jesus in order to test him, hoping to catch him in the wrong. If he condemned her to death, he would be going against the Roman government of the day, which did not condemn adulterous behavior—they could turn him in for insurrection. But, if he does not condemn her to death, they could punish him for heresy against the Mosaic law. Jesus responds with great wisdom and says, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” This response does not deny that she deserves death, like the Mosaic law says, but that the one who would execute her must be sinless. No one qualifies, so they all leave, and the only one who is qualified (Jesus), remains and grants her mercy.

Why is this important and why did Jesus say what he did? Because you are a hypocrite if you need mercy and don’t show it. Jesus showed the Pharisees that they were in need of the very thing they withheld from this woman. That is the height of hypocrisy! And just like the Pharisees, we are people who stand in dire need of mercy. We are wretched, depraved, and full of sin. Our instinct naturally is to demand justice of other people, not be merciful, and we thus need mercy most of all.

But those of us who have been redeemed and made alive by the gospel have the ability to show mercy. Why? Because we have been shown mercy! So when we don't show it, we're being hypocritical because the highest, deepest, broadest possible mercy that could ever be given to anyone has been given to us. A full and clean slate before God for somebody who has, by definition, offended every point of the law is the height of mercy, and receiving it gives us the ability to show it.

Consider also the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. Immediately after Jesus answers Peter's question about forgiveness, he explains himself with a parable. A master had a servant who owed him a massive debt, but when it came time to collect, that servant pled for mercy because he could not pay. The master forgave him. The servant then went out and beat and jailed a colleague of his over a trivial debt. The other servants caught wind, reported to the master, and the master threw the wicked servant in jail.

How does this teach us about mercy? It seems like the master was not merciful at all. But the point of the story is twofold: You are a hypocrite if you have been shown mercy and don't show it. This is a message to the believer. You who are in Christ are charged to live to others the way Christ has lived for you. Further, if you are the merciless servant, you have turned down God's offer of free mercy to you. The servant represents the unbeliever. If your life is a habitual show of merciless, ruthless behavior, think again about your soul's state before God, because the Christian will have the fruit of mercy in his life in some measure. Do not be like the servant! Take the free offer of mercy from your heavenly Master.

While these stories are compelling, how do they become tangible in daily life? The practical solution to becoming a merciful person is meditating on the gospel. Whether you are facing tenaciously challenging children, a coworker who is repeatedly rubbing you the wrong way, or your spouse who did that thing—again—that you don't like, the gospel applies. All these opportunities to show mercy will be incredibly easy to overcome when you instill a habit of remembering this: he died for me. When I want to be merciless, the mercy Christ has shown for me pushes me to live like him, even if in the smallest way.

Of course, in all of this I am not suggesting that we never enforce deadlines or discipline our children. Prudence (wisdom applied) tells us that there is a time and place for different things. But mercy should be the natural reflex of the regenerate heart, not something we dread and wish we didn't have to bother with.

Consider these things, dear Christian. Pray that the Lord would make your heart more like the heart of Christ. Let the promise of mercy received move you to be merciful. Let the warnings sink in also: hypocrisy in mercy is a serious sin, and one that could indicate your lostness if had in significant measure. But for those of you in Christ, pursue mercy, and remember this: the mercy of a Christian should never run out because he has been shown mercy that will never run out.

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This post was first delivered in sermonic form at Community Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, MI, on November 6, 2024.