Grace and Mercy

Grace and Mercy

 

Ezra 9:13-15

 

¹³ “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. ¹⁴ Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

 

The exile was over, the people of Judah had been allowed to return to the land God had given them and rebuild the temple.  They had settled in to their towns and began to reestablish life according to the covenant...or did they?  Zerubbabel was dead and Haggai was no longer prophesying and it seemed as though the strict adherence to the Law of Moses was once again being compromised; not just by the general population but as it turned out by the leadership and even the Levites and priests.

 

Ezra was a teacher who was "well versed in the Law of Moses".  He was leading another group of exiles back to Judah sometime later, excited for the opportunity to go up to Jerusalem.  Once he arrived however he found that with a lack of strong leadership, the distinctiveness of the covenant people was not being maintained.  Some of the leaders came to Ezra, either having been grieved by the sinful direction of the people however unable to stop it, or being challenged and awakened by Ezra's teaching of the Law; came to him and informed him that there was much intermingling with the tribes and nations around them through marriage.  Though strictly forbidden by the Law of Moses, even the priests and Levites had corrupted themselves in this way.

 

Ezra was horrified!  After the history that the Nation of Israel had experienced, after the exile that they had so recently returned from, how could they once again so easily turn from the ways of God and do as they pleased.  How could they once again sin so greatly against the Lord when He had once again delivered them from their enemies and proved His love and faithfulness to them.

 

After grieving and mourning from this revelation, Ezra interceded in prayer for the Nation.  In his prayer he acknowledged that from the days of their forefathers, the sins of the Israel had been great, reaching to the heavens and had brought judgment, humiliation and captivity to them.  But even in this, God's mercy and graciousness had preserved a remnant brought them back, giving hope and a ray of light in the darkness.  While still under the control of Persia, God had granted them favor in the eyes of the king and they had been given new life in their land, a new temple to worship in and a wall of protection around them.  Identifying with and in behalf of the Nation, Ezra confessed their continued guilt before God, for in spite of all God had done for them they had once again disregarded the His commands.  They had been explicitly prohibited from marrying and intermingling with the peoples around them and yet here they were.  Then Ezra makes this acknowledgment of God's great GRACE: "What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved".  

 

In all the punishments that had ever been placed on Israel due to their disobedience and unfaithfulness, Ezra realized that they had deserved much more than God had given.  Truly, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20b KJV)".  They had received grace that they had not deserved.  They had been saved and delivered (once again).  And now should they break His laws (once again) and walk right into sin and disobedience by intermarrying with these people?  Surely they were provoking the Lord to such wrath that He would destroy the completely.  But yet they remained.  They did not deserve it, no God would be righteous and just in destroying them but there they stood.  It was only because of God's GRACE and favor, His mercy and His LOVE that they remained.  Even in their guilt they remained though in their sin, not one could stand in His presence...no not one (see Romans 3:10-12).

 

What a beautiful picture of God's Grace.  Over and over our (all of mankind's) sin would require a total and complete physical and spiritual death penalty.  This was true from our first parents and while the results and consequences of a fallen world have snowballed since the first bite of the forbidden fruit, creating misery, discomfort and many man-made problems; God withheld that death sentence in His great mercy until the day of salvation would be upon us (see Romans 3:21-26).  Then there is the glorious plan of redemption in which Jesus took upon Himself the punishment for our sin.  Through his sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross, we were truly punished far less than our sins deserved.  In fact it is by GRACE that we live and breathe at all, it is by His GRACE that we are able to be saved and by GRACE that those of us who are saved...well...are saved (slightly awkward, I know :) ).  

 

And now that we are saved, shall we continue to walk in sin?  The Apostle Paul says, "By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?".  Throughout much of the New Testament, moral instruction is given for New Covenant people.  This is not given a way to be saved, to remain saved, or as warnings of what will make God mad at you and punish you for all your sin was already punished in the body of our Lord on the cross.  You can not be saved by doing right and avoiding wrong and you could never perform your way into being good enough to even be in the presence of God at all.  We are saved by GRACE through faith in Jesus Christ period.  The moral instruction given for new Covenant people is there to show us how we are to live BECAUSE we are saved.  We are saved from the power and dominion of sin so we can reign over sin in life.  Do we accomplish that perfectly at all times?  Of course not but praise God when we fall, we fall directly into the never ending supply of the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 John 2:1-2).  Moral instruction for the believer is also written for our benefit!  We are to throw off the sin that so easily entangles for just that reason, it wreaks havoc in our lives through pain, consequences, broken relationships and damage to our witness, none of which are God's plan for us.  As a response to God's great GRACE and mercy, shall we despise the work of the cross and continue to walk in sin?  God is still God and He is still Holy.  May we never forget that He would have been righteous in punishing us for our sin and never take lightly the wonder of the plan of redemption.

 

Oh the wonders of the cross, that we could stand in the Lord's presence at all.  That He loved us so much that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  Glory to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  Bless His Holy Name!  

 

 

 

Grace to you,

 

Pastor Tony

Freedom Church, USA