You don’t have to look far to see the devastating influence of sin. It’s everywhere! Maybe you have already seen it today in the headline of this morning’s newspaper, heard it blaring from the early radio newscast or watched it in High Definition on the television screen or in streaming video on your computer. It’s easy to see the awful devastation of sin all around us. You don’t have to look very far in your Bible for the disastrous consequences of sin either. In Genesis 3 we read about the introduction of sin into the world. In Genesis 4 – 6 we read about so much murder, death and twisted sex that God declares He has had enough of His creation and will destroy it in a flood. Though over 1600 years apparently transpired between the Fall and the Flood only three chapters separate them in the Word of God. Immorality was so bad so quickly that God said, “My Spirit will not remain (or strive) with mankind forever, because they are corrupt.” (6: 3).
These chapters help us see the destructive power of sin in men and women. They also help us see the infinite mercy of God toward sinners. God had created the world and placed humanity in it so He had every right to destroy it all but His mercy chose differently. Mercy chose a delayed judgment. Methuselah lived longer than anyone ever has. He lived 969 years. Why did he live so long? In part, it was the meaning of his name which means “When he dies, judgment.” The Flood of God’s judgment did not come until Methuselah died. God permitted Methuselah to live a long, long life to remind us that The Lord… is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2Pt. 3: 9). Mercy withholds judgment to permit all of us the longest possible opportunity to respond to God’s love.
Mercy chose a declared judgment. Peter called Noah a preacher of righteousness (2Pt. 2: 5). Mercy always insists that men and women are warned of God’s coming judgment. [T]he Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His counsel to His servants the prophets who are in turn compelled to proclaim it to others (Am. 3: 7-8). Noah preached his message of judgment with word and work for 120 years. Every blow of his hammer was an announcement of God’s coming judgment.
Mercy chose a different judgment. No man could put God in the dock for annihilating the universe but He chose to judge sin while letting sinners to continue to live on this planet. While He destroyed all but one family, God permitted humanity a home on the earth because a method was already determined whereby the judgment for all sin could be absorbed – the Cross. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness (1Pt. 2: 24). For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God (1Pt. 3: 18). That’s why Paul could declare centuries later that God in His mercy overlooked the times of ignorance, [but] now commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed (Acts 17: 30-31). Mercy provides an alternative to your judgment and mine. It is the judgment of God on your sin and mine taken for us by Jesus Christ on His Cross.
The next time you see a rainbow in the sky don’t just think about Noah but think about Christ as well and remember mercy chose a different judgment for you and me.