Mercy is always costly

Lyndon Bowring, Executive Chairman of CARE, comments on the causes close to the heart of the Christian community

As a boy in Caerphilly Elim Church, I remember my father enthusiastically singing his favourite hymn: “Mercy there was great, and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me; there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.”

Dr RT Kendall is convinced that the first thing we should pray for daily is God’s mercy. He bases this on Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So now in my daily prayers I always begin by asking for mercy, not receiving what I ‘do’ deserve, and follow that by asking for grace, receiving what I ‘don’t’ deserve.

A legal expert once asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus replied with the story of the Good Samaritan who showed mercy and compassion, risking his own safety and spending time and money on a stranger who’d been attacked on the Jericho road. Then Jesus asked, “Which one do you think was a neighbour to the man?”

The lawyer replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

“Go and do likewise,” Jesus told him, which I think is nothing less than an order to every one of us to do the same.

You and I were like that stranger, ‘dead in trespasses and sins’. Jesus, like the Samaritan, came alongside and offered us mercy and grace through his atonement.

As we humbly recognise that we’ve been ‘beaten up’ by the effects of sin and the Fall and Jesus has reached out to help us, we are impelled to live out the love that he shows us, to others. I recently reread ‘Turning the Tide’, my wife Celia’s book that documents CARE’s story right back to its roots in the Nationwide Festival of Light on 25 September 1971. What struck me afresh is CARE’s historic and ongoing commitment not only to speak out for the vulnerable in the corridors of power, but to demonstrate Christ’s love and compassion in practical ways.

These have included CARE’s Homes Programme and Caring Services, remand fostering, providing biblically informed schools’ sex and relationships education, setting up crisis pregnancy centres, and even incubating the amazing Care for the Family!

Today Christians, as individuals, in our churches and through mission organisations are faithfully responding to Jesus’ call to share God’s mercy as ambassadors of his grace and truth in myriad ways.

A ministry of mercy is always costly, so our willingness to carry it out with generosity and joy is an important sign of our surrender to the Lordship of Christ. We do it not to earn God’s approval, but out of gratitude to him and loving concern for others.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.