Quotes About Mercy

if I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history. I deserved stern lectures and crawl-on-your-knees repentance; I got a banquet—Babette's feast—spread for me.

instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offences willingly, comfort the afflicted, pray for the living and the dead.

A human being is not someone who once in a while makes a mistake, and God is not someone who now and then forgives. No, human beings are sinners and God is love.

by denying forgiveness to others, we are in effect determining them unworthy of God's forgiveness, and thus so are we.

As a counterbalance to the list of seven deadly sins, the church in the Middle Ages came up with a list of seven works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captive, bury the dead.

The world starves for grace.

Grace comes from outside, as a gift and not an achievement.

How can Christians dispense grace in a society that seems to be veering away from God?

In sum, I would far rather convey grace than explain it.

Somehow we need to reclaim the "goodnewsness" of the gospel

Amar la justicia es hacerla crecer, no vengarla

At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God's hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.

For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

I leave in God's hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.

forgiveness alone can halt the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace.

Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it

Grace is unfair, which is one of the hardest things about it.

Grace, however, is not about fairness.

Only forgiveness frees us from the injustice of others.

when we appeal to God's grace and compassion the fearsome God soon disappears.

Forgiveness is not the same as pardon, he advises: you may forgive one who wronged you and still insist on a just punishment for that wrong.

for the resulting chasms of ungrace there is only one remedy: the frail rope-bridge of forgiveness

Forgiveness has its own extraordinary power which reaches beyond law and beyond justice.

grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us.