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| And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High… |
| —Luke 1:76 |
The gift of God’s Son, Jesus, to occupy human flesh and become fully man while remaining fully God, was an act of God’s tender mercy. You see, we deserved eternal death because we inherited a sin nature from Adam and then added layer upon layer of our own sins. But in His mercy, grace, and love, God provided the perfect substitutionary sacrifice in the person of His one and only Son. This gift of salvation through the shed blood of Jesus was an act of tender mercy.
In his prophetic prayer, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, explains the role God’s mercy plays in this salvation equation through his own son, as recorded in Luke 1:76-79:
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.
The pathway of peace with God was provided by God’s tender mercy. In response, let us more and more become people who display God-breathed tender mercy. Let us intentionally reach out to those God brings across our pathway with mercy, grace, and love. Let us remember that apart from God's tender mercy, we would remain condemned and unforgiven for our sins.
Based on a blog originally posted on Thursday, December 17, 2015
