Devine Mercy

[Sif]

Hello again. I've heard the term "Devine Mercy" from time to time. What is Mercy, from a Christian perspective? Is there a difference between "Mercy" and "Divine Mercy"?

I know several of you suggested excellent reading material on my other posts/questions. Any suggested reading items on this question?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and consider my questions.

 

[Hospes]

From a protestants point of view, I think divine mercy is simply mercy given by God. I believe my Catholic and Anglican brothers may have given much more definition to the phrase.

Mercy is God's goodness toward those in misery and distress. (This definition is from Wayne Grudem's book Systematic Theology.) Mercy is an attribute of God; it comes from his very nature. Unlike you and I, he is merciful because it's part of his fundamental character.

Here's the search results, from a Christian site I trust, for the word mercy.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sif]

Hospes, thank you for the link.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Mercy and grace are synonyms, and so it's basically the same question as what is Divine Grace. The simplest answer is that it's God's grace, God's mercy.

A significant distinction between Roman Catholic teaching and historic Protestant teaching would be that according to Catholicism grace is a created substance which God infuses; the historic Protestant position is that God's grace isn't a substance but is rather a characteristic of God Himself, namely God is gracious; and so God's grace means the disposition of God toward us in and through Christ.

And then, just to make things more complicated, the Orthodox maintain that God's grace is the uncreated energies of God, God Himself present in and through creation by His works (Greek energeia)

-CryptoLutheran

 

[AlexDTX]

Mercy is an expression of His love towards us. But it is also contained in his justice. In other words, the mercy God wants to give all mankind had to have a just compensation for that mercy. That compensation was the price that God paid for us through becoming His Son, Jesus Christ, who took the wrath of God upon Himself.

 

[Sif]

Thank you both, ViaCrucis and AlexDTX, for your replies.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

 

[AlexDTX]

Thank you both, ViaCrucis and AlexDTX, for your replies.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

And a happy and safe holiday for you, too, Sif!

 

[Rhamiel]

there was a polish nun Sister Faustina in the 1930s who had visions of Jesus where He talked a lot about His mercy and His great desire for people to repent of their sins and trust in His mercy

the focus of her message is putting absolute faith in Jesus, total abandonment of self to Him

the imagery associated with this is a picture of Jesus and two rays of light (red and white or red and blue) coming from His heart to symbolize the blood and water the poured from his side when He was stuck with a spear on the Cross, part of this is a reminder of what great price that mercy was purchased at.... but it is also sanitized (sometimes Catholics are criticized for being too "bloody" with too much focus on gory crucifixions, so maybe at the time the people needed something that reminded them of His Passion but was slightly less bloody?)