A Bible Divided?

"Arise, my soul, arise;

Shake off thy guilty fears;

The bleeding Sacrifice

In my behalf appears:

Before the throne my Surety stands,

My name is written on His hands.

My God is reconciled;

His pardoning voice I hear:

He owns me for His child;

I can no longer fear:

With confidence I now draw nigh,

And 'Father, Abba, Father,' cry".

-Charles Wesley-

This is beautiful.  And at first glance it would appear to be only talking about a reality that comes to us in the New Testament with the sacrifice of Jesus.  While never saying the word 'mercy', the hymn is all about the deep, incredible and abounding mercies of God.  That we, an imperfect and rebellious people, should ever share the table with the Most High and be called his sons and daughters is truly an amazing and undeserved thing.  These truths are not something that most Christ followers would protest against, but there is something that we mustn't ever mistake.  The mercy of God is not just something that happens to 'appear' in the New Testament as if it had been hibernating throughout the Old Testament.  In fact, mercy and judgement, being one in the nature of God, appear in equal parts throughout the whole Bible.  Even though the Lord doesn't need defending or explaining, it is helpful to see the ways in which this oneness of character is shown throughout the scriptures.  

It is a great, awful, and mysterious thing that God continually tries to reconcile himself to rebellious sons and daughters of his creation.  The fact that the prophets of the Old Testament were sent to us at all shows the mercy of the Lord abounding in it's infinitude.  How many times does he plead with his people to repent and turn back to him in the Old Testament?  To count would miss the point because that is what the whole Bible is about.  The coming of Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the merciful nature of God, but with it also comes ultimate justice.  

John 12:47,48 says this:  "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him.  For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.  There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day".

Jesus is saying here that he doesn't need to point an accusing finger at anybody, as if he were some judge sitting on a bench deciding peoples fates on a whim.  He's saying that his job was to come and speak truth to all that would hear and all who wouldn't.  That's it.  God's mercy is out there for all that decide to take it and live into it.  Jesus didn't come to judge anybody, but that doesn't change the fact that his words are truth and they never change.   

I also think it is important that we realize that God didn't just decide to one day change his nature and send Jesus into the world.  He is perfect in both his justice and his mercy.  They never contradict themselves in his nature; His words are the same yesterday, today, and forever.