194. God Shows Mercy, Uprightness, Purity
2 Samuel 22:26, 27 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure.
The promise contained in this verse is conditional, but the condition has been met through the work of Jesus Christ, and He gives the Holy Spirit to apply the merits of Christ to our souls making us merciful, upright and pure. The mercy, righteousness and purity is the mercy, righteousness and purity of God. He comes to live in us when we repent and believe, and the Spirit helps us grow up into Him, that is, we become what we have already been declared to be, holy and pure, cleansed of all sin. Then the Lord will show Himself to be merciful, show Himself to be upright, and show Himself to be pure.
These are three characteristics of God that humans may share. Some attributes, like eternity (without beginning) and omnipotence (all power), belong to God alone and cannot be shared. But the sharable attributes, like mercy, uprightness, and purity, God does share with us. Because of Christ we are declared to be so, and the indwelling Spirit lives in our spirit to share and grow these attributes within us. In this way, and only in this way, do we sinners become more “like God.” The Temptation of the Serpent to Adam (and us) is to be “like God knowing good and evil,” which means, deciding for us by ourselves what is for our advantage or disadvantage. God did not create us just to know good and evil but also to do the good and avoid the evil, “like God.”
By faith in Christ the image of God is being restored, first instantly, and then gradually as the sanctifying work of the Spirit takes effect. We are saved by grace, through faith, in order that we may be his “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Ephesians 2:10].”
God’s mercy is the motive for us to be merciful. God’s gift of righteousness is the power for us to be upright. God’s purity is the incentive for us to be pure. For this reason we are still alive after being saved: to become what the Lord saved us to be, and to reflect God’s mercy, uprightness, and purity to others. God promises to make us be these things by grace and to mold us into reflecting mirrors by showing more mercy, uprightness and purity.