An Invitation to Mercy's Banqueting Table
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Paul had a clear revelation of the incomparable value of the benefits that Christ purchased for those that believed in Him. It made Paul a fiery enemy of every obstacle and deceit that would rob the Christian of anything that God has for him. “I betrothed you to one husband,” he said, “so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin” (1 Co.11:2) Therefore, he sharply rebuked the Galatians: “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you… Are you so foolish?”
In the last century, there was a man, who also chided with the church, because of its unspiritual tactics and its reliance upon the efforts and abilities of mere men. This man’s name was A. W. Tozer and he, like Paul, was a man, who knew the riches in Christ Jesus and the supreme uniqueness and sovereign majesty of Almighty God.
However, when it came time to speak about God’s incomparable love and mercy, Tozer spoke, with a tenderness that few others possessed and an anointed eloquence, as he laid these attributes before his listeners or readers:
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| A. W. Tozer |
“Could our failure to capture the pure joy of mercy consciously experienced be the result of our unbelief or our ignorance, or both? It was so once in Israel. ‘I bear them record,’ Paul testified of Israel, ‘that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.’ They failed because there was at least one thing they did not know, one thing that would have made the difference. And of Israel in the wilderness the Hebrew writer says, ‘But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’ To receive mercy we must first know that God is merciful. And it is not enough to believe that He once showed mercy to Noah or Abraham or David and will again show mercy in some happy future day. We must believe that God’s mercy is boundless, free and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, available to us now in our present situation.”
“We may plead for mercy for a lifetime in unbelief, and at the end or our days be still no more than sadly hopeful that we shall somewhere, sometime, receive it. This is to starve to death just outside the banquet hall into which we have been warmly invited. Or we may, if we will, lay hold on the mercy of God by faith, enter the hall, and sit down with the bold and avid souls who will not allow diffidence and unbelief to keep them from the feast of fat things prepared for them.”
Arise, my soul, arise;
Shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.
My God is reconciled;
His pardoning voice I hear:
He owns me for His child;
I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And ‘Father, Abba, Father,’ cry.
Charles Wesley
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