Articles
Grateful for God's Mercy
Sometimes you can’t appreciate mercy until you see what life is like without it. My heart broke this week as I watched North Korea pass a merciless sentence on a U.S. college student. 21 year old Otto Warmbier, of the University of Virginia, was on a group tour of Pyongyang and stole a banner with a political slogan on it from his hotel. Stealing is wrong, no doubt. But the North Koreans sentenced him to 15 years — I say again, 15 years, in a hard labor prison camp where torture is commonplace. His confession was hard to watch. With anguish and tears Warmbier pleaded, “I entirely beg you, people and government of the DPR Korea, for your forgiveness. Please! I’ve made the worst mistake of my life! Please act to save me! Please think of my family! My brother and my sisters need me. I beg that you see I am only human, and how I have made the worst mistake of my life.”
I don’t know how long Otto will be held before the U.S. intervenes, but I do know how grateful it makes me for the mercy of Jesus Christ. I’ve done far worse than steal a hotel banner. I deserve far worse than 15 years in a labor camp. I deserve to be lost eternally, yet Jesus did act to save me! Jesus did forgive! I think about the adulterous woman in John 8. Cast before the judgment seat of Jesus, the Pharisees said, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act! Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do you say?” (John 8:4-5). Jesus’ pause must have felt like an eternity for this woman. Time stopped. She held her breath. Jesus stooped down to write on the ground. What would He say? If He said “Stone her!” it’d be inconsistent with His compassionate character and He’d set Himself against Roman law which forbade the Jews from capital punishment. If He said, “What you did is no big deal, you’re free to go,” He’d be undermining God and Moses who said adultery is a big deal (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22).
The response? “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (8:7). Jesus wasn’t doing away with our court systems or the government’s right to punish criminals. He was exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They weren’t interested in justice (neither was this North Korean council); only in using this woman to trip Jesus up. So Jesus used her to trip them up and show that every one of them deserved punishment from God! He finally looks at her and says, “I do not condemn you. Go. From now on sin no more.” (8:11). Praise be to God that in His court we find abundant mercy! “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).
