Day 12: God Is Merciful, He Delights to Pardon

Scripture

“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Psalm 103:8 ESV

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.” Micah 7:18 ESV

Confessional Summary
The Reformed confessions do not treat mercy as a soft spot in God. They confess it as part of who He is. Westminster says the Lord is “most merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin” (Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1). That is not a denial of His holiness. The same confession says He is also “most just,” and will not “clear the guilty” (Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1). Mercy does not erase God’s standards. Mercy is God providing pardon without becoming unjust.

Westminster then explains how that pardon is given. God justifies His people, not by pretending they are innocent, but by “pardoning their sins” and “accepting and accounting their persons righteous,” doing so “for Christ’s sake alone,” by “imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them” (Westminster Confession of Faith 11.1). And when Westminster speaks of repentance, it is blunt. Repentance does not earn mercy and it does not pay God back. It says we must not trust repentance “as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof,” because pardon is “an act of God’s free grace in Christ” (Westminster Confession of Faith 15.3).

Heidelberg puts the comfort right in your hands. God “grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ,” as if I had never sinned, because Christ has fully answered for me (Heidelberg Catechism 60). Belgic confesses the same point, saying we find comfort in forgiveness because Christ’s righteousness is ours by faith, apart from our merits (Belgic Confession 23).

In plain terms, the confessions are saying this: God’s mercy is not Him lowering His standards. It is God meeting His standards through Christ, then freely pardoning every repentant believer who clings to Him.

Reflection


The Bible never describes forgiveness as God looking away. It describes forgiveness as God making a way for the guilty to be cleansed without God becoming crooked. Mercy is not God lowering standards. Mercy is God meeting standards with grace.

Micah goes even further and says God “delights” in steadfast love. Many Christians live as if God forgives with clenched teeth, as if grace has to be pried out of Him by enough shame. Scripture says the opposite. God is not stingy with mercy. He is opposed to self-righteousness, but He is glad to pardon the contrite.

That is why mercy is only sweet to the honest. Not because honest people deserve it, but because only honest people will receive it as mercy. If you will not admit guilt, mercy feels like an insult because it implies you needed pardon. But if you admit guilt, mercy revives you. It awakens hope, because God is not asking you to pretend, perform, or pay. He is calling you to confess and come.

Application


Confess one specific sin plainly today, without dulling it. Then refuse self-punishment as if Christ’s satisfaction were incomplete. Finally, extend a concrete act of mercy to someone who has given you no good reason to do it.

Prayer

Merciful Father, make me honest about my sin and confident about Christ. Teach me to confess freely, to receive full pardon through Jesus, and to show mercy as one who has been forgiven. Amen.