The Jesus Prayer Part 16 - Me

1Tim 1:15
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Ps 70:5
But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

The final word of the Jesus Prayer that I will write about here is the word "me". We do not approach God alone or by ourselves, but we do relate to Him on an individual and personal level. Just as God calls on us to relate to Him as a member of His family, the Church, "likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind", we are also called to relate to Him personally as it is written that "In my Father's house are many mansions" and "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour". It is in this context of approaching God that we ask Him to "have mercy on me" in the Jesus Prayer. Just as we are called to unite ourselves together in Peter's confession of Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the Living God", we are to personally follow Him as our own Lord and call on Him as our own Savior and "me" is the sinner in need of God's mercy in Jesus Christ.

Just as scripture records the history of how God has related to mankind through a covenant established with a body of people (Adam's family, Noah's family, Abraham's family, the united Israel, Judah (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), and finally the Church established by the apostles who received their authority from Christ Himself), scripture also bears witness of God's call to personally respond and relate to Him from within His covenanted community. This is why it is written that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" and Paul writes that  Christ "loved me, and gave himself for me".

As we approach God, we are called to do so with humility. The apostle Thomas called Jesus "My LORD and my God" when seeing Him raised from the dead. In parables Jesus taught us to imitate the prodigal son in saying "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" and to avoid imitating the pharisee who was blinded to his own sinfullness but rather to imitate the publican who "would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner" because "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted". This is why Paul writes "to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly", "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall", and James instructs us to "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

The Psalms also give us an example of how to approach God in prayer and how to form our own attitudes toward God. We have to ackowledge our need and reliance on God as the source of our life, to pick us up when we fall, and to know that in Him is great mercy for those who call on Him. It is written "But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.", "Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.", "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.", "O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.", "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.", "O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.", "Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.", "For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:", "I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.", "In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.", "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.", and "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.".

Jonah also cried to the Lord from the belly of the fish "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

MAKE HASTE, O GOD, TO DELIVER ME; MAKE HASTE TO HELP ME, O LORD.

The Jesus Prayer Part 15 - Personal Sin

James 1:14-15
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

1John 1:8-9
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In my last post, I discussed the fallen nature in which we are all born subject to sin and death because of the transgression of our first parents. At some point in our lives, we all go from simply inheriting the effects of sin to rightfully deserving the effects of sin by committing our own sins. In this post I will discuss how personal sin and its effects are described, how we receive the forgiveness of our sins, and how we are to live in accordance with that forgiveness.

The apostle John defines sin as "the transgression of the law" and James writes "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.". We are also told that "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" and that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin". Our sins are described as "an heavy burden", wounds that "stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness", and "a loathsome disease". We are told that our sins harden our hearts, have dominion over us, give us "disquietness of heart", make us "not able to look up", cause our hearts and strength to fail, and cause affliction and pain. David asks the Lord to "heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee". We are told that "every man shall be put to death for his own sin", "transgressors shall be destroyed together", "workers of iniquity shall be scattered", and that the wicked will "perish at the presence of God".

We know that we cannot hide our sins from God becuase it is written "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.". It is also written "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." and "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.". How is it that having injured ourselves with our sins, we are able to find healing simply by not causing further injury? It is only because Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people" as it is written "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." and that Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification". When asked how to respond to the message of Christ's death and resurrection, Peter told the people to "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins". Paul writes that we are "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" and it is written in Isaiah "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.". And when we fall to temptation after having been baptized into Christ and His Church, we are to seek his forgiveness from Him in His Church. We are to follow the example of David who while seeking forgiveness from the Lord also confessed his sin to the prophet Nathan. James tells us to confess our faults one to another, and pray one for another, that we may be healed. Christ told His apostles that "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" which we see exercised by the apostle Paul  when he writes to the Corinthians "To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ".

How are we to act in response to the forgiveness we receive in Christ? We are told to "walk in newness of life" and to "not serve sin". We are to yeild our "members as instruments of righteousness unto God". We are told "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.". We are to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We are told to give thanks in all things and to pray without ceasing. We are to "have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." It is only fitting that we should love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. Christ tells us not to judge because we will be judged by how we judge others and that we must forgive others in order to be forgiven.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

The Jesus Prayer Part 14 - Original Sin

Gen 3:23-24
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

1Cor 15:21-22
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Part of understanding what it means for us to be sinners is to look at what is meant by Paul when he writes "by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" and David when he writes in the Psalms "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me".

When God made Adam, Adam was made in God's own image and likeness and God placed him inside the garden of Eden and formed Eve from Adam's rib. It was man's place to be the caretaker over the garden and the animals and to live in communion with God as the source of life. God told Adam to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and warned him "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". Being deceived by the lie from the serpent that "then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil", Adam and Eve ate from the tree. They went from looking to God as their source of life and identity to looking to the created things of this world to give them life and to make them like God. Their first reaction was to see themselves as naked and, being ashamed of what they had done, to hide from God. God told Adam "cursed is the ground for thy sake" and "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" as the consequences of his actions and placed Adam and Eve outside of the garden. But hope for the future of mankind was given in what God told the serpent "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel", in reference to the Messiah as it is written "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage".

So now mankind, originally created for life in union with God taking care of God's creation, is seperated from God, subject to death, and looking to the created things of the world for life. This disordered nature that was brought about by the fall was transmitted to the entire human race, as it is written that Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth" and "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned".

The physical effects of the fall include being subject to corruption and death and having bodily desires disordered. There are lines in the Psalms reflecting this in our bodies such as "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up" and "My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass". And Paul writes "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members". And not just the human race, but also the creation that mankind was intended to be the head of as Paul writes "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body". We await the undoing of this at the return of Christ when "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" and "we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth" accomplished by the power of His own resurrection from the dead. This is why Jesus said "I am the resurrection, and the life" and it is written "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory", that Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself", and "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him". Jesus, as the author and source of life, had to be crucified and raised from the dead in order to restore us to life because we are unable to do it ourselves as the Psalms say "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?".

While we await the resurrection of the body, we are given the opportunity in this lifetime to have our spirit renewed in Christ by being baptized into His death and raised up in newness of life, and to repent of our sins and be conformed to Christ. It is in Christ that we are united with God as He Himself said "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" and "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me". It is in baptism that we are born from above after being buried in the likeness of Christ's death. This is why it is written  "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ", "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all", and "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ". It is in baptism that we are received into God's covenant as His people as it is written "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead". But baptism is not the end of Christian life, but the beginning, where we are introduced to having a right relationship with God that must be continued in through daily self examination and repentence, walking in the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and struggling against the lusts of the flesh in order to grow and mature in becoming conformed to Christ. We are to do this in this life because it is written that all "shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" and "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting".

Having been buried with Christ by baptism into His death, that as He was raised from the dead so I could be made to walk in newness of life, may God let me not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind.

The Jesus Prayer Part 13 - Sin as Missing the Mark

Rom 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

In the Jesus prayer, we confess ourselves to be sinners. In this post I am going to discuss the nature of sin as it is defined in Strong's concordance as "properly, to miss the mark".

So what is our mark, or rather "Who" is our mark? Our mark is nothing short of God Himself as the source of our life and very existence. God said in creation "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" and it says "male and female created he them". This makes God our model for who and what we are intended to be, and this applies to all human beings without exception. It is also written that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" bearing witness to God as the cause of our existence and that not only did He bring us into existence, but sustains our existence, which is "in Him". The farther we stray from being in God's likeness, the more we seperate ourselves form what we are intended to be and lose our life, movement, and our very existence. This is why "the wages of sin is death".

Before the coming of Christ, mankind was given two ways of recognizing our standard for living. First, all mankind is given a law written in their hearts with their conscience bearing witness. There was also the law that was delivered to the Jews by Moses, of which Paul wrote "for by the law is the knowledge of sin". Because  the law was given to help recognize God, and not just a checklist of things to do and not do, as our standard of living, James writes "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.". This is why we are told that we are given the choice to yield ourselves as servents "whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness".

With the coming of Christ, mankind received two things. First, we received the full revelation of the One who is our standard of living. Christ Himself said "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father". Paul calls Christ "the image of God" and says that we recieve "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". Not only does Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God", show us what we are meant to be as humans, but  being the Word by which God created all that exists, also has the power to restore us to the image in which we were created but had strayed from through sin. This is why we are "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". This is why we are to "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" in baptism.

Two other words used to describe types of sin are transgression and iniquity. Transgress means "to go contrary to" and implies the violation of a command. Iniquity means "without law". These must be understood within the context of God as the source of our very existence and standard for living, as revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ as the One who gives the law, perfectly fulfills it, and heals the damage caused by sin when we turn to Him for healing.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

The Jeus Prayer Part 12 - Mercy in the Orthodox Tradition

Kontakion From the Akathyst Hymn to Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ
To Thee, the Champion Leader and Lord, the Vanquisher of Hades, I, Thy creature and servant, offer a song of praise, for thou hast delivered me from eternal death. But as Thou hast ineffible loving-kindness, from all dangers that can be do Thou deliver me, that I may cry to Thee: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.

Having looked at how mercy is defined and expressed within the context of scripture in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, I am going to look at mercy within the context of Orthodox Tradition, primarily within our main worship service, the divine liturgy. My two main resources for this are the service book used in my church, and my personal prayer book. Mercy as it is expressed within Tradition should not be viewed as an addition to or seperate from scripture, but must be understood within the context of how I have discussed mercy in the scriptures in my last two posts.

Before vesting for the liturgy, the priest recites "Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for laying aside all excuse, we sinners offer to Thee, as to our Master, this supplication: have mercy on us.", calling on God's mercy to accept and guide the service of the priests as they minister to Christ's flock, and to accept the worship of all the people that will be gathered together. In the Trisagion (thrice holy) prayers, we cry out "Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal! Have mercy on us." and ask the Trinity to have mercy on us by cleansing our sins, pardoning our transgressions, and healing our infirmities by God's presence as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the prayer before the first antiphon, God's mercy is described as "immeasurable" while we ask God to "impart the riches of Thy mercy and Thy compassion to us and to those who pray with us". In the prayer of fervent suplication, we ask God to "have mercy on us according to the multitude of Thy mercy. Send down Thy bounties upon us and upon all Thy people who await the rich mercy that comes from Thee.". We finally end with the dismissal of "May He who rose from the dead, Christ our true God, through the prayers of... all the saints: have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and loves mankind.", proclaiming Christ as the source of our mercy and trusting Him to answer the petitions of all that pray to Him with us and on our behalf.

The response to many of the petitions prayed for in the various litanies throughout the liturgy is "Lord, have mercy". This response has a twofold meaning. First, just as the Psalms describe the very act of answering prayer to be a mercy, we acknowledge that is a mercy of God just to be heard by Him and to have our prayers answered. In responding with "Lord, have mercy", the people unite their prayer with the priest or deacon chanting the petition so that the entire congregation may be of "one accord in prayer and supplication". Second, just as the entirety of scripture describes any act of compassion and kindness to be a mercy, we ask that our petitions be answered and acted on as mercies from God. In the various litanies we ask that His mercy be "according to Thy great goodness" and that all answers to our prayers are done "O God, by Thy grace". We also pray "having remembered all the saints" as we are mindful of our angels who behold the face of our Father in heaven, the great "cloud of witnesses" who have finished their race in faith, and all those who are gathered in the Church in this life "called to be saints" in Christ. In the great litany we pray for "the peace from above and for the salvation of our souls", for the welfare of our churches and all those that "enter with faith, reverence, and the fear of God", for our bishops, priests, deacons, and all the people, for our civil authorities entrusted with our care and our military entrusted with our defense, for "seasonable weather" and "abundance of the fruits of the earth", travelers, the sick and suffering, prisoners (whom Christ personally identified Himself with in Matthew 25), and our "deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and necessity". We pray for those departed this life and that their sins are forgiven and they be established among the just. We pray for those about to be sacramentally received into the Church that God may "teach them the word of truth", "reveal to them the gospel of righteousness", and "unite them to His Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church".

Before beginning the prayers for the celebration of Communion, the celebration itself is referred to as "a mercy of peace, a sacrifice of praise". It is a "mercy of peace" because that just as Paul writes that we "shew the Lord's death till he come" as often as we "eat this bread, and drink this cup", and it is through Christ's sacarifice of Himself on the cross that "we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" in His resurrection. And just as "we being many" are "one body" because "we are partakers of that one bread", we offer ourselves up to God in unity with Christ as a "sacrifice of praise".

There are a number of penitential canons in which we call on Christ to have mercy on us and forgive our sins including the Canon of St Andrew which we chant every year during lent and the Supplicatory Canon to Our Lord Jesus Christ in which we ask Christ to have mercy on us as was shown in the scriptures to the prodigal son, the base harlot, and king Manasses. On cheesefare saturday we sing "take not Thy mercy from us" and that sunday "Have mercy, O Merciful One, on me who have fallen.". But the greatest mercy we chant about in our hymns is the resurrection of Christ. Our hymns of the resurrection in the third, fourth, and seventh tones all say that Christ has granted the world "great mercy" by raising us from the dead by His resurrection from the dead. This is echoed in  ode six of the Paschal Matins where we sing "Jesus, having risen from the grave as He foretold, hath granted us life everlasting and great mercy." and in the troparia for St Thomas Sunday and the Myrrh-Bearing Women. And this is because it is in and through being crucified and raised from the dead with Christ that our repentence brings us life in Him.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.

The Jesus Prayer Part 11 - Mercy in the New Testament

Luke 10:36-37
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Having discussed mercy in the Old Testament, I am now going to move forward into the New Testament. A number of people are mentioned in the New Testament as crying out for mercy and for receiving it. The blind men cried out "Thou son of David, have mercy on us" seeking to receive their sight. The woman of Canaan travelled from the coast to ask Jesus to have mercy on her by healing her demon possessed daughter. Jesus was aked by the man in Matthew 17 to have mercy on his son and heal him because he was a lunatick and often fell into fire and water. Mercy was what the ten lepers cried out for and all ten received from Jesus, even though only one would return to give Him thanks. It was a great mercy from the Lord that Elizabeth was able to conceive and bear John  the Baptist beyond the age of child bearing. It was a mercy to Epaphroditus that he should be healed from being sick close to death, and Paul called that a mercy on himself also because of the sorrow that he would have felt over the loss of such a good friend and brother in the Lord. And when Paul did lose his friend Onesiphorus to death, Paul prayed for mercy both to be shown towards the Onesiohorus's household in his abscence and for Onesiphorus himself to find mercy of the Lord "in that day".

But the greatest mercy shown by God in the New Testament is the sending of His own Son and our salvation in Him. Zacharias proclaimed "That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham," and "Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us," in prophesy of Christ, Whom John was going to prepare the way for. Mary sang that the Lord has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy upon hearing that she would become the mother of the Son of God and Savior. It was in Christ's mission to  heal our fallen humanity that He announced that He desired mercy because He had come to call sinners to repentence. Paul writes to Titus that it wasn't by works of righteousness that we have done but according to His mercy that He saved us "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" in reference to our baptism wherein we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection. This doesn't exempt us from doing good works, which Paul writes elsewhere that "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works", but only that God has saved us from destruction purely out of His love for mankind and not out of some debt that is owed to us. Peter writes that we had obtained mercy by being called from darkness to light and becoming the people of God. Paul writes that he had received mercy because his previous blaspheming was done ignorantly in unbelief and so that "first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting".

In repsonse to the great mercy that we have been shown by God, we are required to show that same mercy to those around us. We are called to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful and that "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy". In the parable in Matthew 18, the master tells the ungrateful servant that he should also have had compassion ("mercy" in greek) on his fellowservant as the master had shown to him. Christ also used the parable of the good samaritan as an illustration of how we are to be merciful towards each other, regardless of social status or how we may feel towards each other. James writes that the one who shows no mercy shall be judged with no mercy, but mercy rejoices against judgement. We are told by Paul that when we show mercy that we are to do it with cheerfulness. But once again, the requirement to show mercy doesn't negate or replace our need to seek the lord in regular prayer, fasting, alsmgiving, church attendance, and any other religious observances that we have. When Christ reprimanded the pharisees, it wasn't for their keeping of the law and their observances, but for neglecting "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith" where He says "these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone".

Knowing that we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let me therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that I may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The Jesus Prayer Part 10 - Mercy in the Old Testament

Psalm 25:10 (KJV)
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

In the Jesus prayer, we ask for God to "have mercy" on us. What is this mercy that we ask for? Mercy is a major theme in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the hymns, prayers, and worship services of Christians for the last 2,000 years. The definition given in Strong's Concordance for the hebrew and greek words for mercy are kindness and compassion, and can also be found translated as kindness, lovingkindness, and compassion. So when we ask the Lord to have mercy, we are asking Him to be kind, have compassion, and to be good to us.

In the Old Testament, mercy is used to describe the rescue of Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom, how Rahab was spared from the destruction of Jericho, and letting go of the man who showed the way into the city in Judges 1:22-26. It was mercy that Joseph was delivered from the Pharoah's prison. It was a mercy to be buried after dieing. Abraham's servant called it a mercy of God that he met Rebekah at the well. It was mercy that God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt as sung in the Song of Moses and Psalm 136, and anytime they were victorious over their adversaries in battle. It was the Lord's mercy that Israel was able to endure the Babylonian captivity, and a mercy that they were freed from it. It was God's great mercy that he promised to send a Messiah from the Seed of David to rule on His throne forever, which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament scriptures tell us that it is the Lord's mercy that holds us up when our foot slips. It is the Lord's mercy that delivers us from our enemies that seek after our soul. It is mercy that we find pardon for our iniquity and our transgressions are blotted out and no longer remembered. It is God's mercy that our prayers and supplications are heard. It is in His mercy that our repentence is accepted and the Lord gives us good when we had evil coming to us. It is a mercy when we are corrected by a righteous man. And it is a mercy that we are granted salvation.

While we are told that God's mercy is everlasting and endures forever, our reception of that mercy is not unconditional. We are told that His mercy is as great as the height of heaven from earth  and is everlasting upon them that fear Him. The Lord shows mercy to those that love Him and keep His commandments. The proverbs tell us that mercy is to them that devise good and he that follows after mercy shall find life, righteousness, and honor. Upon finishing the Temple, Solomon acknowledged that God's mercy is on His servants who walk before Him with all their heart. We are told that we must show mercy and compassions every man to his brother. This is why the Lord said that He desires mercy and not sacrifice and that He has controversy with those who show no mercy. This is not a condemnation of following religious observances, only that they be made with the right heart, as Jesus would later tell his disciples to be reconciled to their brother before making their offering on the altar. The prophet Jonah said that they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But Psalm 147:11 says that the Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him and hope in His mercy, so keeping that in mind, let us all strive to please the Lord in this way.

May God have mercy on me and according to His lovingkindness and according unto the multitude of His tender mercies blot out my transgressions.