Words are important. It is through the use of words that we communicate with one another. However, to be able to communicate effectively, all parties involved must share a common understanding of the meaning intended by each of the words used in our communication. If I use a word intending to mean one thing, and you hear that word and understand it to mean something totally different, we end up talking in circles, with neither party understanding what the other is trying to communicate.

This often happens when we discuss the scriptures and the spiritual concepts presented in the scriptures. We often have an understanding of the meaning of the words used in scripture that differs completely from what the person that originally wrote that portion of the scriptures, being led by the Holy Spirit, intended those words to mean. When we do this, we develop a theology, based on our misunderstanding of that passage of scripture, that is in total contrast to what the writer of the scripture ever intended.

To avoid this, sometimes tragic mistake, we must take great pains to ensure that our understanding of the intended meaning of the words used in the scriptures is correctly discerned. To do this, it is important, whenever we approach any passage of scripture, to leave all of our preconceptions that we may have picked up, from study bibles, commentaries, and various writers and speakers, at the door. We must come before God prayerfully, with an open mind, prepared to listen as He speaks to us, by His Spirit, through the passage of scripture before us.

When we encounter a word in our English translation of the Bible whose meaning may be unclear, we might consult a concordance to gain more understanding of what meaning was originally intended. The concordance will tell us which word in the original Greek or Hebrew language was translated into the particular English word in question. We will then able to review the various meanings of the word used in the original Greek or Hebrew, and based on the context in which they are used, receive a better understanding of what the writer of the passage originally intended the word to mean.

We may then be led by the Spirit to consider other similar passages in scripture that may enhance our understanding of the meaning intended to be communicated by the use of the word in question. We do this to get a broader understanding of the context within which the word is used. As we do this, we allow the scriptures to interpret the scriptures.

When allowing the scriptures to interpret the scriptures, it is not unusual to find that you come away with a totally different understanding of the subject matter covered in that passage of scripture than you had ever considered before. An even greater blessing is when you begin to realize that this new understanding begins to open your eyes to a lot of other areas of scripture that may have seemed difficult to understand, perhaps to passages of scripture that seemed to contradict each other. Now, however, these, and so many other passages, suddenly all seem to fit together and you rejoice in how God is revealing so much more of Himself and His ways to you.

This is exactly what we want to do right now. We are going to look at some passages of scripture and seek enlightenment from the Lord to enable us to understand the meaning He intended to communicate to us by the use of some very specific words whose meanings have often been confused and interchanged.

We will begin by considering God’s plan to make salvation and the forgiveness of sins available to the entire world and the words He used to describe this plan. We will begin by turning to Romans chapter eleven.

Paul writes to believers in Rome, “As you once disobeyed God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also now may receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that He may have mercy on all” (Romans 11:30-32, HCSB).

Now here is a word that deserves some consideration as to what the writer intended it to mean. What exactly is meant by the Greek word ‘eleos’ that is translated as mercy. God has imprisoned all in disobedience that He might have mercy on all.

Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone that is within one’s power to punish or harm. Paul, writing in Romans 6:23, tells us, “For the wages of sin is death.” Under God’s righteousness, man, by virtue of his sin and rebellion against God and His authority, has incurred a debt that he will never be able to repay except by the forfeiture of his own life.

However, God, because of His mercy and love, has compassion on us and sends His only Son to die in our place, paying our debt in full. God’s mercy is demonstrated, because of His love, by His willingness to release us from an insurmountable debt. This is God’s mercy, His compassion. It is unmerited, yet it is freely available to all who, by faith, will simply receive it by believing in Jesus.

Paul continues to explain in Romans 5:8, “God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still sinners, unable to pay God the huge debt that we had incurred through our disobedience, God had mercy on us. While we were without any merit, He demonstrated His love for us by sending His only Son to pay the full price of our debt. Christ fully paid our debt by freely giving His life to die in our place, in our behalf.

It was within God’s power to require our death as payment for our disobedience, our sin. Yet, by His incredible mercy and love, He had compassion on us, while we were yet sinners, while we were yet totally undeserving, totally helpless. This was a completely unmerited display of God’s love and of God’s mercy.

Paul expresses this very clearly in his letter to the church in Ephesus. “But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were “dead” because of our sins, gave us his own life together with the Anointed One” (Ephesians 2:4-5, TFLV).

Again, Paul writes to Titus reminding him about God’s compassion. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).

What a demonstration of God’s love this was! It was not because of any righteousness on our part. It was totally according to His mercy. This plan of God, to demonstrate His kindness and love toward us while we were helpless and undeserving, was formulated long before the earth was even formed.

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:18-21).

Before the foundation of the earth had even been laid, God knew that the man He would form from the dust of the ground would sin by disobeying His command and rebelling against His authority. He knew that He would need to have a spotless lamb prepared to offer up to redeem man back to Himself. Once redeemed and made holy by the blood of this spotless lamb, Jesus Christ our Lord, man could be reconciled to God, beginning the process of full salvation.

When He created man, God prepared man for this process by forming man in a very special way. God gave man a free will. He gave man the ability to think and to choose who he would obey and consequently, how he would live.

God also gave man another very special gift. God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. Everyone exercises this gift, their measure of faith, to believe in something. Some believe in themselves, in their righteousness, in their strength, intellect, or natural abilities. Some believe in other people. Some believe in superstitions and false gods. Still others have chosen to believe in the one true living God and the One He sent, Jesus Christ our Lord.

God gave each person a free will and a measure of faith. He gave man the ability to think, to consider what is true and what he would choose to believe in by exercising this portion of faith that was allotted to him.

Paul reveals this truth to us in Romans 12:3, “For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.”

Man now had everything he needed to be able to receive God’s wonderful gift of love and mercy that He was about to make freely available to every person in the world. God was simply waiting for just the right moment. “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6, NIV).

All that God requires now is that we, individually, respond to the good news about this gift of mercy and choose to receive it. We receive it by exercising the portion of faith that He has allotted to each one of us. We exercise this portion of faith by choosing to believe in the One He has sent.

When we exercise our portion of faith, we join our faith together with works of obedience in order to receive this free gift. One of these works of obedience is believing.

Jesus tells us in John 6:26-29, “Most certainly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.

“They said therefore to him, ‘What must we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’” Believing is the work that God requires in response to the good news of Jesus dying in our place, paying the full price for our sins and redeeming us back to God.

God, in His righteousness, can require works on our part to receive His free gift of salvation and the forgiveness of sins because even the faith that we must exercise is a gift from Him intended for this very purpose. We receive this free gift of salvation by listening to the good news presented by God through the scriptures and through the testimony of other believers, even through the testimony of creation itself, weighing the evidence presented, and choosing whether we will believe or not believe.

The one that believes is greatly rewarded and benefits richly from all that Christ has done on our behalf. Those that choose not to believe receive no benefit and remain under condemnation.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 

“The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God . . . The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:16-18, 36; NASB).

This passage informs us that God desires that none would perish, but that everyone might have the opportunity to receive eternal life. It also informs us about the way in which He plans on bringing this about. The way He plans to accomplish this is through sending His only Son into the world to take away the sins of the world and thereby reconcile the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).

James writes to us about Abraham saying, “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone” (James 2:22-24, NIV).

What work did Abraham do? He believed! He exercised his God given gift of faith and joined it to his work of believing. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

When we exercise our faith and join it to the work of believing, other works begin to be produced by God’s Spirit working in and through us. One of these works is repentance.

“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31, HCSB).

We are told in Acts 2:36-38 and 40, ‘“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’

“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit . . . With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!’”

This repentance is essential to receiving God’s free gift of mercy. Jesus declared in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” Jesus warned in Luke 13:3 and again in Luke 13:5, “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” Paul announces in Acts 17:30 that God “commands that all people everywhere should repent.”

As our faith is joined together with works of believing and repenting, we find still other works beginning to be produced through God’s drawing us to His Son. Believing in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we find ourselves beginning to confess Jesus as Lord!

Paul explains this process in Romans 10:8-10, “The word of faith which we preach: that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation.”

When we respond to the good news of God’s mercy and love, His unmerited compassion toward the whole world, by exercising our faith, believing in the One He sent, we receive the benefit He intended. We are forgiven and we are made alive with Christ, reconciled to God.

Those that refuse to believe will experience none of the benefits that God has so freely provided in Christ Jesus our Lord. They will remain under judgment and the condemnation of slavery to sin.

Remember Romans 11:32. “God has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that He may have mercy on all.” This is exactly what Jesus spoke of in Luke 4:18-19. When He entered the synagogue, He took the scroll and finding the place where it is written He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

God has imprisoned every person in disobedience. However, God is rich in mercy for by His great love He has provided release to the captives. He has made this freedom available to everyone of us, if only we exercise our faith to believe in the One He has sent.

We, in Christ, are proclaiming this good news. We are proclaiming freedom to all who will listen and believe. This is the good news of God’s unmerited mercy and love!

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth 
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light  -  Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.