Early on in my Christian life I heard these catchy definitions of grace and mercy:
Grace is getting what you don't deserve, and mercy is not getting the bad that you do deserve.
This made the concept of "mercy ministry", as well as many passages in the Bible regarding mercy to Christians from God, very confusing. Mercy ministry is helping the poor and sick and such, but how is that withholding from them the bad they deserve? Perhaps some deserve to be in their plight, but not others. Is it only "mercy ministry" when their predicament is their fault?
I didn't understand how the Bible could speak of Christians receiving further mercy, as in, e.g. 1 Timothy 1:2, because if we're justified, isn't it the case that we no longer "deserve" punishment? Passages mentioning ministries of mercy didn't seem to fit either, e.g. Romans 12:8, because how could I "make a whole ministry out of" not giving people bad things they do deserve from me?
In chapter five of Future Grace, John Piper offers different definitions that I had not heard before (though he calls them common, so perhaps I am simply a latecomer):
"Grace is the goodness of God shown to people who don't deserve it; mercy is the goodness of God shown to people who are in a miserable plight."
And now, suddenly, the biblical concepts of God's mercy towards Christians and the mercy of Christians towards their fellow man through, e.g. feeding the homeless, makes sense to me. Good done to someone in response to their miserable plight is mercy, and we are all in need of it.
I'm a Christian, recent Computer Science graduate from Cornell University and puzzle enthusiast working part-time in Ruby on Rails development.
