He will again have compassion on us
he will tread our iniquities underfoot
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea
- Micah 7:19
There have been times in my life where I’ve had a clouded view of God’s love. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience? Seasons of doubt, rebellion, pride, and disobedience, coming face-to-face with my sin, wondering whether God’s mercy really could go that far. In my head, knowing what the Bible says, but in a moment feeling the heaviness of my sin. Utterly broken. Surely, I’ve exhausted God’s patience?
In moments like these we need the church to remind us who we are. Brothers and sisters in Christ, not to pick us up, but to point us to the only One who raises us to new life (Col 2). Friends who won’t just offer advice, but who offer God’s Word to remind us that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cover all our sin (Eph 1:7, Heb 10:14, 2 Cor 12:9)! So that instead of turning to our own strength, we can turn to the very Spirit of God working powerfully within us (Rom 8:13). Remembering that for those who would throw themselves on the mercies of God, trusting in the redemptive work of Christ, God really has removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12).
This beautiful modern hymn from Matt Papa and Matt Boswell was inspired by a letter written by John Newton (writer of “Amazing Grace”):
For the more we know of ourselves, the more we shall prize and love Jesus and His salvation. I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience will humble you, but not discourage you: humble you it should, and I believe it does.
Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you?
But let not all you feel discourage you. For if our Physician is almighty, our disease cannot be desperate and if He casts none out that come to Him, why should you fear?
Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power. Most of our complaints are owing to unbelief, and the remainder of a legal spirit. And these evils are not removed in a day.
Wait on the Lord, and He will enable you to see more and more of the power and grace of our High Priest.
No matter how bad we’ve been, no matter how far we’ve run from God, no matter awful our sin, His mercy is more. This is incredibly good news! What other response can we have than to praise the Lord for His glorious grace in Christ Jesus!
His Mercy is More
Written by Matt Papa & Matt Boswell
Lyrics:
What love could remember no wrongs we have done?
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
Praise the Lord, His mercy is more!
Stronger than darkness, New every morn’
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
What Father so tender is calling us home?
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
What riches of kindness He lavished on us?
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
© 2016 Getty Music Hymns and Songs, Getty Music Publishing, Love Your Enemies Publishing, Messenger Hymns / CCLI #193208
Also appearing on the Getty’s Newest Album
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