The words grace and mercy are not as close in meaning as one might think. Their one commonality is the recipient gets something unmerited or outside of their control. Besides that shared trait, they are very different. From the perspective of the receiver, mercy is receiving forgiveness or leniency when deserving of punishment, while grace is receiving an unearned favor or gift. Is one better than the other? Let’s see.
The punishment aspect of mercy implies the breaking of a law or contract. What if prisoner gets out after they have served their term? This is not mercy; but if a judge gives a convicted person no punishment or lesser penalty, this is mercy.
The prohibitive aspect of the gift in grace is what makes it so great and what distinguishes it from ordinary gifts. The gift received under grace could never be afforded or earned by the effort of the receiver at the time the grace was given or perhaps ever, as is the case with grace from God.
There are many instances of humans granting mercy to other humans, but there are far fewer examples of humans giving true grace to other humans. When people reconcile with someone who hurt them, is this mercy or grace? Assuming no law was broken, what is the punishment for hurting someone? Is it typically breaking off the relationship, or perhaps treating that person differently the rest of their life? In these human cases it doesn’t matter as much. Considerations like whether the offender earned their way back into good standing, or whether the hurt person forgave because they thought they’d be breaking a law of God or punished by God. For example, operating under the law Jesus said was second greatest, “love your neighbor as yourself”, which is found in the Law in Lev 19:18.
Where it is critical to differentiating mercy and grace is when it pertains to God’s relationship to mankind. In the Old Covenant (OC), a list of laws with blessings for obedience and punishments for disobedience, is mercy needed from God? Ideally, no. As long as the Jews obeyed the laws and made the sacrifices when they didn’t obey, no mercy would be required as they acted in accordance to the covenant. You could say that it was merciful of God to give the Jews ways for atonement—and I would agree—but this was nevertheless a part of the covenant. And if they broke a law but didn’t know about it, this, too, would be covered under the covenant at the annual Yom Kippur Festival of the Scapegoat.
However, if one broke a law and did not atone for it, this is where the mercy of God was needed. This was especially true for the tenth commandment, “do not covet.” Since obedience to this law was in the mind of the individual, no one would know if they had committed it. Perhaps this is why Paul uses coveting as his example in Rom 7. Sometime the nation as a whole would sin, as was the case during bad kings. Here the whole nation would fall under God’s mercy.
God is also a fully just judge. Therefore, his mercy is forbearance—a delaying of punishment. See Rom 3, especially verse 25f, “…because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”. In the case of Israel and Judah, they ultimately were exiled, fulfilling the curse of Deut 28:36. In the present case of the unsaved, they will ultimately receive their punishment in the afterlife.
Given the above, one could see how mercy is required under the Old Covenant, but can you see how grace is the way of the New Covenant (NC)? Consider Romans 5:1-2:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
If this were the case, one would expect the word grace to be all but absent in the OC while the word grace would abound in the NC—and this is precisely what is found in the Bible. Note that I’m using the term “covenant” and not “testament”. This is because, although the Gospels are in the New Testament, they largely occur under the OC. If you read my series on the Kingdom or the series on Baptism, you’ll find my claim is the NC began specifically in Acts 2. Therefore, for the purpose of counting occurrences of mercy and grace, let’s separately tally the totals in three categories: 1) the Old Testament, 2) Gospels, and 3) Acts to Revelation. (Note the NIV-WS was used)
- The Old Testament
- Totals: mercy=71, grace=7
- None of the uses of “grace” are about the Jews getting grace from God:
- Psalms 45:2 and Zech 12:10: Prophecy about Jesus
- Prov 1:9, 3:22, 4:9: “garland of grace” figure of speech.
- Prov 22:11 grace comes from a pure heart.
- Isa 26:10 grace shown to the wicked they don’t learn.
- Gospels: mercy=21, grace=4
- This is a similar ratio as the Old Testament.
- The 4 uses of “grace” are in just two places:
- Luke 2:40: Jesus is full of grace.
- John 1:14, 16, 17: Jesus is full of grace, we receive grace upon grace, and all grace comes from him.
- Why aren’t there more uses of the word “grace”? Jesus lived under the OC and had to live a perfect life under the OC. Therefore it was difficult for him to speak directly about the NC until the end of his life and after his death. This is likely why during is life he used parables. The parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15) is the perfect example of the grace that Jesus brought to us in the NC.
- Acts-Rev: mercy=34, grace=110
- 3 times as many uses of “grace”!
- All 110 of the “graces” come from the Greek χάρις (guttural har-ees).
- 13 occur in Romans.
- 2 different Greek words are translated “mercy” but the first one below is used by far the most:
- ἐλεέω – to have mercy or pity on.
- οἰκτιρμός – mercy, compassion (Rom 12:1, Heb 10:28). The other 3 times this word is found in the NT it is translated “compassion”.
- 34 times is still a lot. Why all the references to “mercy”?
- Many refer to the OT/OC:
- 6 in Rom 9 refer to the OT Exo 33:19
- 4 in Rom 11 and Rom 12:1 refer to Israel’s salvation.
- Some refer to the ungodly, like Rom 1:31 refers to the wrath of God against the ungodly.
- Mercy towards a person: Rom 12:8, Gal 6:16.
- Some refer more to the compassion side of the word than the punishment-related side.
- Many refer to the OT/OC:
- It’s not that we don’t need God’s mercy—it’s just that under the NC, God’s grace reigns.
Thus under the Old Covenant (OC), mercy was needed by the Israelites to avoid the curses promised for disobedience. Heaven/eternal life was not a promise of the OC. Deut 28 is a good summary of the blessings and curses of obeying and disobeying the Law. Reading it one will see there are no spiritual blessings or eternal life mentioned.
What happens to the Jews and Gentiles who lived before the NC? It’s difficult to say. A rather obscure passage, 1 Pet 3:19, says:
After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—
This indicates Jesus went to wherever the spirits of the departed were being held and proclaimed something. Some versions say, “went and preached”. Who, if taught the Gospel by Jesus that one needed God’s grace to leave that place and go to Heaven, would choose to remain? The next verse limits the souls to “those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built”. Is that it? Did Jesus appear only to the people who died in the Flood?
It’s a very unusual passage to be sure. One thing is certain: anyone, regardless of when they live, will need God’s grace to enter eternity with him.