In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite did not stop despite the many biblical commands to help a countryman. But no one expected the Samaritan to stop and give mercy.
Tim Keller says that one of the reasons that Jesus puts this Samaritan in the story is that he, by virtue of his race and religion, has no obligations at all to stop and give aid. No law, no social convention, no religious dictates.
Yet he stops. Why?
In Luke 10v33 Jesus tells us that he was "moved by compassion."
In other words, the Samaritan was moved to do something that the law requires but can not effect. Or as Edmund Clowney has put it, "God requires the love that can not be required."
So what is the solution?
There are people who have a very low view of God's law. In this view, all Jesus did on the cross was to exhibit God's love for us. There was no punishment to be taken or penalty to be paid. There was no "divine wrath" to be appeased. But the classic Christian doctrine is that on the cross Jesus actually saved us by standing in our place and paying our debt to the law of God.
So if the Lord takes his law so seriously that he could not ignore our disobedience to it, that he had to become human, come to earth, and die a terrible death - then we must take the law very seriously too.
The law of God demands equality, justice and mercy. In fact, it is so magnificent, just and demanding that we could never fulfill it.
But Jesus did.
So people who have a strong belief in the doctrine of justification by faith alone will also have a high regard for God's law and justice. They will be passionate about seeing God's justice honored in the world.
Mercy is commanded, but it cannot come as the response to a command. Rather, it is an overflowing of generosity as a response to the mercy of God which we have received.
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