Mercy is simply
justice tempered by that wisdom which grows out of perfection of knowledge and
the full recognition of the natural weaknesses and environmental handicaps of
finite creatures. "Our God is full of compassion, gracious,
long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy." Therefore "whosoever calls
upon the Lord shall be saved," "for he will abundantly pardon." "The
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting, to everlasting", yes, "his
mercy endures forever." "I am the Lord who executes loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight."
"I do not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men," for I am
"the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." P.38
The affectionate
heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided
personality--one of justice and one of mercy--neither does it require a
mediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is
not dominated by strict retributive justice, God as a father transcends God as
a judge. P.41
God is love, the
Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry--the ministry of divine love and endless
mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is the personification of the
Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him are they eternally united for
universal service. The Spirit is love applied to the creature creation, the
combined love of the Father and the Son. P.94
Moses feared to
proclaim the mercy of Yahweh, preferring to awe his people with the fear of the
justice of God, saying. "The Lord your God is God of Gods, and Lord of
Lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible God, who regards not man." Again
he sought to control the turbulent clans when he declared that "your God
kills when you disobey him; he heals and gives life when you obey him."
But Moses taught these tribes that they would become the chosen people of God
only on condition that they "kept all his commandments and obeyed all his
statutes." P.1058
Little of the mercy
of God was taught the Hebrews during these early times. They learned of God as
"the Almighty, the Lord is a man of war, God of battles, glorious in
power, who dashes in pieces his enemies." The Lord your God walks in the
midst of the camp to deliver you." The Israelites thought of their God as
one who loved them, but who also "hardened Pharaoh's heart" and
"cursed their enemies." P.1058
In Palestine the
wisdom and all-pervasiveness of God was often grasped but seldom his love and
mercy. The Yahweh of these times "sends evil spirits to dominate the souls
of his enemies: he prospers his own and obedient children, while he curses and
visits dire judgments upon all others. "He disappoints the devices of the
crafty, he takes the wise in their own deceit." P.1060
Only at Ur did a
voice arise to cry out the mercy of God, saying: "He shall pray to God and
shall find favor with him and shall see his face with joy, for God will give to
man divine righteousness." Thus from Ur there is preached salvation,
divine favor, by faith. "He is gracious to the repentant and says,
'Deliver him from going down in the pit, for I have found a ransom.' If any
say, "I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me
not," God will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and he shall see
the light." Not since the times of Melchizedek had the Levantine world
heard such a ringing and cheering. P.1060
Hosea followed Amos
and his doctrine of a universal God of justice by the resurrection of the
Mosaic concept of a God of love. Hosea preached forgiveness through repentance,
not by sacrifice. He proclaimed a gospel of loving-kindness and divine mercy,
saying: "I will betroth you to me forever, yes, I will betroth you to me
in righteousness and judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will
even betroth you to me in faithfulness." "I will love them freely,
for my anger is turned away." P.1066
Hosea faithfully
continued the moral warnings of Amos, saying of God, "It is my desire that
I chastise them." But the Israelites regarded it as cruelty bordering on
treason when he said: "I will say to those who were not my people, 'you
are my people', and they will say, "you are our God." He continued to
preach repentance and forgiveness, saying, "I will heal their backsliding;
I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away." Always Hosea
proclaimed hope and forgiveness. The burden of his message ever was: "I
will have mercy upon my people. They shall know no God but me, for there is no
savior beside me." P.1066
Ever the burden of Micah's message was:
"Shall I come before God with burnt offerings? Will the Lord be pleased
with a thousand rams or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my
first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown me, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but
to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." And it
was a great age, these were indeed stirring times when mortal man heard, and
some even believed, such emancipating messages more than two and a half
millenniums ago. And but for the stubborn resistance of the priests, these
teachers would have overthrown the whole bloody ceremonial of the Hebrew ritual
of worship. P.1067
The Jewish
priesthood made liberal use of these writings subsequent to the captivity, but
they were greatly hindered in their influence over their fellow captives by the
presence of a young and indomitable prophet, Isaiah the second, who was full
convert to the elder Isaiah's God of justice, love, righteousness, and mercy.
He also believed with Jeremiah that Yahweh had become the God of all nations.
He preached these theories of the nature of God with such telling effect that
he made converts equally among the Jews and their captors. And this young
preacher left on record his teachings, which the hostile and unforgiving
priests sought to divorce from all association with him, although sheer respect
for their beauty and grandeur led to their incorporation among the writing of
the earlier Isaiah. And thus may be found the writings of this second Isaiah in
the book of that name, embracing chapters forty to fifty-five inclusive.
P.1068
And it comforted
the Jewish captives, as it has thousands upon thousands ever since, to hear
such words as: "Thus says the Lord, 'I have created you, I have redeemed
you, I have called you by your name, you are mine." "When you pass
through the waters, I will be with you since you are precious in my
sight." "Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not
have compassion on her son? Yes, she may forget, yet will I not forget my
children, for behold I have graven them upon the palms of my hands; I have even
covered them with the shadow of my hands." "Let the wicked forsake
his ways and unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." P.1069
The farseeing and courageous
Isaiah effectively eclipsed the nationalistic Yahweh by his sublime portraiture
of the majesty and universal omnipotence of the supreme Yahweh, God of love,
ruler of the universe, and affectionate Father of all mankind. Ever since those
eventful days the highest God concept in the Occident has embraced universal
justice, divine mercy and eternal righteousness. In superb language and with
matchless grace this great teacher portrayed the all-powerful Creator as the
all-loving Father. P.1070
Religious habits of
thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One
can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual
stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious
growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of
religious living in others, reflective meditation of cosmic meanings,
worshipful problem solving, sharing one's spiritual life with one's fellows,
avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the
presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the
growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious. P.1095
Jesus' originality
was unstifled. He was not bound by tradition or handicapped by enslavement to
narrow conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence and taught with
absolute authority. But his superb originality did not cause him to overlook
the gems of truth in the teachings of his predecessors and contemporaries. And
the most original of his teachings was the emphasis of love and mercy in the
place of fear and sacrifice. P.1102
To material,
evolutionary, finite creatures, a life predicated on the living of the Father's
will leads directly to the attainment of spirit supremacy in the personality
arena and brings such creatures one step nearer the comprehension of the
Father-Infinite. Such a Father life is one predicated on truth, sensitive to
beauty, and dominated by goodness. Such a God-knowing person is inwardly
illuminated by worship and outwardly devoted to the wholehearted service of the
universal brotherhood of all personalities, a service ministry which is filled
with mercy and motivated by love, while all these life qualities are unified in
the evolving personality on ever-ascending levels of cosmic wisdom,
self-realization, God-finding, and Father worship. P.1175
As man shakes off
the shackles of fear, as he bridges continents and oceans with his machines,
generations and centuries with his records, he must substitute for each
transcended restraint a new and voluntarily assumed restraint in accordance
with the moral dictates of expanding human wisdom. These self-imposed
restraints are at once the most powerful and the most tenuous of all the
factors of human civilization--concepts of justice and ideals of brotherhood.
Man even qualifies himself for the restraining garments of mercy when he dares
to love his fellow men, while he achieves the beginnings of spiritual
brotherhood when he elects to mete out to them that treatment which he himself
would be accorded, even that treatment which he conceives that God would accord
them. P.1302
"In your lives
overthrow error and overcome evil by the love of the living truth. In all your
relations with men do good for evil. The Lord God is merciful and loving; he is
forgiving. Let us love God, for he first loved us. By God's love and through
his mercy we shall be saved. Poor men and rich men are brothers. God is their
Father. The evil you would not have done you, do not to others."
P.1444
"The mercy of
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him and his
righteousness even to our children's children. The Lord is gracious and full of
compassion. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his
creation, he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Whither shall I
go from God's spirit? Whither shall I flee from the divine presence? Thus says
the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell
in the high and holy place; also with him who is of a contrite heart and a
humble spirit!' None can hide himself from our God, for he fills heaven and
earth. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let all nations say:
The Lord reigns! Give thanks to God, for his mercy endures forever.
P.1444
"The heavens
declare God's righteousness, and all the people have seen his glory. It is God
who has made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people, the sheep of his
pasture. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.
Our God is governor among the nations. Let the earth be filled with his glory!
O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful gifts
to the children of men! P.1444
"I have come
to proclaim the establishment of the Father's kingdom. And this kingdom shall
include the worshiping souls of Jew and gentile, rich and poor, free and bond,
for my Father is no respecter of persons, his love and his mercy are over
all." P.1536
Love and mercy. A
compassionate father is freely forgiving, fathers do not hold vengeful memories
against their children. Fathers are not like judges, enemies, or creditors.
Real families are built upon tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.
P.1604
"Your sonship
is grounded in faith, and you are to remain unmoved by fear. Your joy is born
of trust in the divine word, and you shall not therefore be led to doubt the
reality of the Father's love and mercy. It is the very goodness of God that
leads men into true and genuine repentance. Your secret of the mastery of self
is bound up with your faith in the indwelling spirit, which ever works by love.
Even this saving faith you have not of yourselves, it also is the gift of God.
And if you are the children of this living faith, you are no longer the
bondslaves of self but rather the triumphant masters of your selves, the
liberated sons of God. P.1610
"Your
forebears feared God because he was mighty and mysterious. You shall adore him
because he is magnificent in love, plenteous in mercy, and glorious in truth.
The power of God engenders fear in the heart of man, but the nobility and
righteousness of his personality beget reverence, love, and willing worship. A
dutiful and affectionate son does not fear or dread even a mighty and noble
father. I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, joy in the
place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service and
appreciative worship in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of slavish
bondage and meaningless ceremonies. But it is still true of those who sit in
darkness that. 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' But when the
light has more fully come, the sons of God are led to praise the Infinite for
what he is rather than to fear him for what he does. P.1675
While the religion
of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such
a transient satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom and
religious liberty. My Father does not require of you as the price of entering
the kingdom of heaven that you should force yourself to subscribe to a belief
in things which are spiritually repugnant, unholy, and untruthful. It is not
required of you that your own sense of mercy, justice, and truth should be outraged
by submission to an outworn system of religious forms and ceremonies. The
religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the
leadings of the spirit take you. And who can judge--perhaps this spirit may
have something to impart to this generation which other generations have
refused to hear? P.1731
Never forget there
is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt
to discover the will of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of
honestly trying to do that divine will. And fail not to remember that the will
of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and
others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led;
that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and
restrained by fairness--justice. The spirit which my Father and I shall send
into the world is not only the Spirit of Truth but also the spirit of
idealistic beauty. P.1732
"A part of
every father lives in the child. The father enjoys priority and superiority of
understanding in all matters connected with the child-parent relationship. The
parent is able to view the immaturity of the child in the light of the more
advanced parental maturity, the riper experience of the older partner. With the
earthly child and the heavenly Father, the divine parent possesses infinity and
divinity of sympathy and capacity for loving understanding. Divine forgiveness
is inevitable; it is inherent and inalienable in God's infinite understanding,
in his perfect knowledge of all that concerns the mistaken judgment and
erroneous choosing of the child. Divine justice is so eternally fair that it
unfailingly embodies understanding mercy. P.1898
"He who
believes this gospel, believes not merely in me but in Him who sent me. When
you look upon me, you see not only the Son of Man but also Him who sent me. I
am the light of the world, and whosoever will believe my teaching shall no
longer abide in darkness. If you gentiles will hear me, you shall receive the
words of life and shall enter forthwith in the joyous liberty of the truth of
sonship with God. If my fellow countrymen, the Jews, choose to reject me and to
refuse my teachings, I will not sit in judgment on them, for I came not to
judge the world but to offer it salvation. Nevertheless, they who reject me and
refuse to receive my teaching shall be brought to judgment in due season by my
Father and those whom he has appointed to sit in judgment on such as reject the
gift of mercy and the truths of salvation. Remember, all of you, that I speak
not of myself, but that I have faithfully declared to you that which the Father
commanded I should reveal to the children of men. And these words which the
Father directed me to speak to the world are words of divine truth, everlasting
mercy, and eternal life. P.1903
Throughout the
vicissitudes of life, remember always to love one another. Do not strive with
men, even with unbelievers. Show mercy even to those who despitefully abuse
you. Show yourselves to be loyal citizens, upright artisans, praiseworthy
neighbors, devoted kinsmen, understanding parents, and sincere believers in the
brotherhood of the Father's kingdom. And my spirit shall be upon you, now and
even to the end of the world. P.1932
The sufferings of
Jesus were not confined to the crucifixion. In reality, Jesus of Nazareth spent
upward of twenty-five years on the cross of a real and intense mortal
existence. The real value of the cross consists in the fact that it was the
supreme and final expression of his love, the completed revelation of his
mercy. P.2018
Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love. No longer did these believers look upon Yahweh as "the Lord of Hosts." They now regarded the eternal Deity as the "God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ." They made that progress, at least, even if they did in some measure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the spiritual Father of every individual. P.2064
These quotes are from the Urantia Book.