Mercy is a central attribute of God’s character, most clearly defined as not giving a person the punishment they justly deserve. It is the act of withholding righteous judgment. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), but in God’s mercy, He spares the believer from this deserved outcome, not my removing justice, but by taking ut upon Himself in Christ (Titus 3:5).

This concept is distinct from grace. While mercy is about withholding a deserved negative punishment, grace is about giving an undeserved positive favour. Grace is God’s unmerited favour, where He freely gives the believer gifts they have not earned and could never earn, such as imputed righteousness, eternal life, and adoption (Eph 2:8-9).

Mercy and grace are two sides of God’s saving work, and both are unearned. Mercy sees the sinner’s miserable state and withholds the just penalty. Grace sees the sinner’s poverty and bestows on them the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph 2:4-7). A simple way to distinguish them is that mercy is deliverance from judgement, while grace is the gift of eternal life.

Both are received through the work of Christ. At the cross, God’s justice against sin was satisfied, allowing Him to extend mercy to believers without compromising His righteousness. Simultaneously, God extends grace by imputing Christ’s righteousness to those same believers as beneficieries who will inherit eternal life (2 Cor 5:21).