In essence I too believe in absolute 100% Mercy. BUT, it is mercy from our inadequacies, NOT from our inactions.
>>In essence I too believe in absolute 100% Mercy. BUT, it is mercy from our inadequacies, NOT from our inactions.<<
I agree, I think. The problem - no, the GOOD NEWS - is discussed here:
Romans 7:23-25
...but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
>>In essence I too believe in absolute 100% Mercy. BUT, it is mercy from our inadequacies, NOT from our inactions.<<
No, it is forgiveness of sin, including sins committed even after one has accepted Christ as ones personal savior from sin as discussed in Romans 7.
I used this analogy with high school students: Imagine "God" is your rich earthly father. Now imagine you are a muslim. Your father (Allah) tells you to clean up your room. You clean it up because your faith tells you that if you do not obey you will be written out of the will. If you don't clean it up, you assume you are out.
Now imagine you are a Christian. Your Father (God) tells you to clean up your room. You have FREE WILL to choose to disobey, but you know you will not be written out of the will because of your decision. You clean it up, not because of selfish fear of losing your inheritance, but because you love and want to please your father. Yet even that love comes from Him.
One caveat though: If you only SAY you are a Christian, yet never clean your room, you may not be saved. Your unwillingness to clean your room is not what causes you to lose salvation. Rather, it is evidence that you never really had it.
True Christians screw up all the time. They have affairs, lie, cheat, even commit murder. Nobody is perfect. That is why we need Grace. But true Christians lives have also been changed - compared to what they were before they were bought by the blood. And since only God knows from where any of us came, only he and the saved person know if the person is saved.
We are continually being perfected, which clearly implies that there is still work to be done on everyone.