We hear of the mercy of God, but many refuse to embrace it. Shakespeare had a knowledge of scripture. He made a revealing truth about mercy. “Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.” Sin is so hardened in the soul it resists the mercy of God. Only the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to remove this rebellion. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12) Elliot’s Commentary on the “kingdom of heaven suffers violence” writes; “The Greek verb may be in the middle voice or passive. Since dead men cannot respond, it was the acting of God impressing on them the reality of the kingdom of heaven. The words describe the eager rush of the crowds of Galilee and Judea, first to the preaching of the Baptist, and then to that of Jesus. It was, as it were, a city attacked on all sides by those who were eager to take possession of it.” John the Apostle writes, “And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light; that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” (I John 1:5-10)
The kingdom of darkness has no interest in the mercy of God. The veil of darkness has blinded those who love the light of this world. The glitter of the world with myriads of counterfeit lights have embraced sin. It manifests itself in false apostles, Satan its author. “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ; And no wonder! For Satan transforms himself into an angel of light.” (II Corinthians 11:13-14) I’m reminded of my professor in seminary at CIU, Dr. Harold Burchett, saying, be careful of which Jesus you believe. The Galatian Christians were in danger of being guilty of the same. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-8)
The love of sin manifests itself in a hatred of the mercy of God. “For the fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:7-8) Many who are in addiction to sorcery, an enchantment for drugs, are deceived. It is the snare of the devil to counterfeit euphoria and light in that lust. My beloved professor said those clouds may be fluffy but they will not hold you. It is a light but not the True Light. Beware! Jesus is the True Light.
Consider an illustration from Flannery O’Connor’s work “The Violent Bear It Away”. Jonathan Rogers wrote a book entitled “The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor” (Thomas Nelson 2012) Ralph C. Wood reviewing the book writes; “O’Connor’s fiction is shocking and arresting, Rogers contends, because of its inward even more than its outward violence. Mason Tarwater, the backwoods baptizer in The Violent Bear It Away, encounters God as if he had been wrestling a wildcat, “Have you been torn by the Lord’s eye?” He later asks. Yet the aging prophet fears a threat greater than the fury of the violated Savior. It is a far more dreadful thing to be hounded down by Christ’s forgiveness. Hence this paradoxical call to the youth who he hopes will become a new Elisha: “Go warn the children of God of the Terrible Speed of Mercy.”
John Bunyan writes in his autobiography Grace Abounding how his conscience was wounded on Sunday by the sermon of the pastor speaking of the evils of breaking the Sabbath. While playing a game of cat, “A voice did suddenly dart from heaven into my soul, which said, Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell? At this point I was put to an exceeding maze; wherefore leaving my cat upon the ground, I looked up to heaven, and was, as if I had, with the eyes of my understanding, seen the Lord Jesus looking down on me, as being very hotly displeased with me, and as if He did severely threaten me with grievous punishment for these and other ungodly practices.”
Three hundred seventy-five years after Bunyan hearing a voice, my own conversion came with the terrible speed of mercy in my slavery in sin. While in a bar Mercy fell with speed from the throne of grace with a dart in my soul “Will you leave your sins and go to heaven or continue in your sins and go to hell?” I was emboldened by sin to resist it. And I did. The second time shortly thereafter, driving home from a night out I spun around my car, slammed into a curb, causing an awful pain in my left thigh. I threw up my hands and said to God “I surrender”. I was immediately swept into the kingdom of God. The terrible speed of mercy granted me repentance. That was at the age of 29 years old. Praise God for “his terrible speed of mercy to my lost soul.” May His mercy hound you into the Kingdom of God. I pray that He will.
Where the Grace blows,