One Act, Not Two

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.

(2 John 1:3)

Since sin entered the world, the experience of grace has been different for all of us.  Adam and Eve did not deserve grace, but their lack of desert was not yet accompanied by misery.  Now that sin has entered the world, however, everyone who does not deserve God's goodness is also in a miserable plight.  "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23).

Since sin always brings misery, and misery is always experienced by sinners, therefore all of God's acts of grace are also acts of mercy, and all His acts of mercy are also acts of grace.  It never makes sense to say that sometimes God shows us mercy and sometimes He shows us grace.  Whenever He shows one He is showing the other.  The difference is whether the act of goodness is viewed in relation to our sin or in relation to our misery.

In a courtroom you might look at the same act of acquittal from two angles.  From behind the judge you mihgt see his black robe and huge bench and all the papers with convicting evidence spread out before him.  This would make the acquittal look like an amazing act of grace.  Sin and justice call for conviction, not acquittal.  But if you moved around to the front of the bench and saw the tears in the judge's eyes and noticed the utterly miserable plight of the criminal, this would make the acquittal look like an act of mercy.  The act of goodness is one act, not two.  What changes is the angle from which we view it.

-- John Piper