Bible Verses About Mercy

What does the Bible say about mercy?

When you think of God’s mercy you automatically think about grace. Many people get the two mixed up. Although they are close in meaning they are not the same thing. Grace is God’s unmerited favor and it goes beyond mercy. Mercy is God not giving us the punishment that we deserve for our sins.

As a kid me and my family would always play fight and when someone gets you in a submission we would yell mercy mercy mercy. As humans we all desire mercy, but the question is, should we receive mercy and the answer is no. We have all sinned before a Holy God.

He has to punish us. How would you feel about a judge who has HD video evidence, but still lets serial killers, thieves, and rapists go free without any punishment? We all know that is an evil judge. That judge is more wicked than the criminals that he let go free.

The legal system shows that you have to punish criminals. This responsibility to punish evildoers becomes even greater with a holy God. Out of God’s great mercy, love, and grace He came down in the form of man and lived the perfect life that we couldn’t live. God desires perfection and He became perfection for us. Jesus is God in the flesh and He took upon the wrath of God that we deserve. I deserve to be punished, but yet God crushed His beloved and perfect Son for me. That is mercy.

God grants salvation to those who put their trust in Jesus Christ alone. By faith we believe that Jesus died for our sins and He is the only way to Heaven. Do we deserve that blessing? Of course not. Give our merciful God the glory. He is worthy of all praise. We don’t have to work for our salvation. We obey Him out of love, thankfulness, and honor to Him. As people we want justice. We want the bad guys to get what they deserve, but how about us? We’ve sinned against everything. God had mercy upon us and we are to be merciful to others. Let’s dive into these mercy Bible verses.

Christian quotes about mercy

“Justice is for those who deserve it; mercy is for those who don’t.”  Woodrow Kroll

“A thousand times I’ve failed still your mercy remains. And should I stumble again, I’m caught in your grace.”

“God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.”  Charles Spurgeon

“God just doesn’t throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.” R. C. Sproul

“A man does not get grace till he comes down to the ground, till he sees he needs grace. When a man stoops to the dust and acknowledges that he needs mercy, then it is that the Lord will give him grace.” Dwight L. Moody

“When Jesus died on the cross the mercy of God did not become any greater. It could not become any greater, for it was already infinite. We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No–Jesus died because God is showing mercy. It was the mercy of God that gave us Calvary, not Calvary that gave us mercy. If God had not been merciful there would have been no incarnation, no babe in the manger, no man on a cross and no open tomb.” Aiden Wilson Tozer

“God’s mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has forgiven you.”  Rick Warren

“The Gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.” John Stott

“In our addresses therefore unto God, let us so look upon him as a just God, as well as a merciful; and not either despair of or presume upon his mercy.” Abraham Wright

“God in his infinite mercy has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied, and yet mercy can be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, took upon himself the form of man, and offered unto Divine Justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due to all his people.” Charles Spurgeon

“God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us – as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray.” John Calvin

“There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God to the whole world.” Thomas Merton

“I am an old sinner; and if God had designed mercy for me, he would have called me home to himself before now.” David Brainerd

“Our mind cannot find a comparison too large for expressing the superabundant mercy of the Lord toward his people.” David Dickson

“After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.” Charles Spurgeon

“Mercy is like the rainbow, which God hath set in the clouds; it never shines after it is night. If we refuse mercy here, we shall have justice in eternity.” Jeremy Taylor

“God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.” Charles Spurgeon

“The most generous and merciful in judgment upon the faults of others, are always the most free from faults themselves.” James H. Aughey

“God’s mercy and grace give me hope – for myself, and for our world.” Billy Graham

“Mercy is not something God has, but something God is.” – A.W. Tozer

“The subject then of these chapters may be stated thus, – man’s only righteousness is through the mercy of God in Christ, which being offered by the Gospel is apprehended by faith.”- John Calvin

“God cannot clear the guilty until atonement is made. Mercy is what we need and that is what we receive at the foot of the cross.” Billy Graham

“The difference between mercy and grace? Mercy gave the prodigal son a second chance. Grace gave him a feast.” Max Lucado

“The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair, and just God loves you and me is nothing short of astonishing.” – Francis Chan

God is merciful to us

Mercy is an attribute of God. Those who need the mercy of the Lord will find it in their time of need.

1. Psalm 25:6-7 Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

2. 2 John 1:3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ–the Son of the Father–will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.

3. Deuteronomy 4:31 The LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the promise to your ancestors that he swore he would keep.

4. 2 Samuel 22:26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright.

Saved by God’s mercy

We are saved by His mercy and grace and not by anything we could have done.

5. Titus 3:4-6 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

6. Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.

7. 1 Peter 1:2-3 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (Bible verses about praising God)

8. 1 Timothy 1:16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

God chooses who to have mercy on.

9. Romans 9:15-16 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

The beauty of God’s mercy

These verses mean so much to me. I think about them when I’m struggling with sin. We’ve all had those times when we were struggling with something. It could be thoughts, desires, or habits and it breaks us. It saddens us and we knew that we deserve God’s punishment. We think to ourselves, “strike me down Lord I deserve it. Discipline me Lord because I struggle.” God’s mercy leads to Him pouring out His love on us instead of His punishment. Sometimes He just wants us to understand how much He loves us.

10. Psalm 103:10-12 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

11. Lamentations 3:22 The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.

God’s discipline

Sometimes out of love, God does discipline Christians if they start willfully sinning and straying away in rebellion, but it is never what we deserve.

12. Ezra 9:13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.

Responding to God’s mercy

Never think that it is too late to get right with God or that you have done too much for God to forgive you. God desires for the backslidden to return to Him. 

13. 2 Chronicles 30:9 “For if you return to the LORD, your relatives and your children will be treated mercifully by their captors, and they will be able to return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful. If you return to him, he will not continue to turn his face from you.”

14. Jude 1:22 Be merciful to those who doubt.

Be merciful as your Father is merciful

We have to imitate the mercy of the Lord.

15. Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

16. Micah 6:8 No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

17. Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Show mercy to others

Having no mercy is dangerous. God will judge those who refuse to show mercy and hold a grudge against others. Mercy is something I have struggled with on my walk of faith and maybe you have as well. I remember being mad at people because they said things behind my back, but God reminded me that I’ve done the exact same thing. You get mad at your kids for having to teach them something over and over, but God has had to teach you the same things over 1000 times. The same things that we get angry at people for is the same thing that we have done to others, but we are too prideful to see it. Before God we have done even worse things. We have to show mercy just like God has shown mercy on us.

18. Matthew 18:26-33 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything. The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’

19. James 2:13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

20. Matthew 6:15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Praying for God’s mercy

As believers we have to pray for God’s mercy every day. Sometimes for our situation, sometimes for our sins, and sometimes for the consequences of our sins.

21. Hebrews 4:16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

22. Psalm 123:3-4 Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt.

23. Psalm 31:9-10 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress! My eyes grow dim from suffering. I have lost my strength.  For my life nears its end in pain; my years draw to a close as I groan. My strength fails me because of my sin, and my bones become brittle.

24. Psalm 40:11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD; may your love and faithfulness always protect me.

Receiving God’s mercy

If you are not a Christian, then you don’t have mercy and the wrath of God is upon you.

25. 1 Peter 2:10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Examples of God’s mercy in the Bible

26. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13 And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.”

27. Luke 15:19-20 “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

28. Exodus 16:1-3 “Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. 2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. 3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”

29. Genesis 39:20-21 “So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.”

30. Exodus 34:6-7 New Living Translation 6 The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. 7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.”

How to get saved?

If you are not saved or if you have lived a life contrary to what you professed to be please read how to be saved today.

Reflection

Q1- What have you learned about mercy and what has impacted you the most?

Q2- How has God been merciful to you?

Q3- What is your favorite example of mercy in the Bible?

Q4- Are you showing mercy to others?

Q5- Are you praying for mercy and praising the Lord daily for His mercy?