Mercy and Grace: What's the Difference?

"When it confers happiness without merit, it is grace; when it bestows happiness against merit, it is mercy."¹ Thus Steven Charnock (1628-1680) described the goodness of God. What a marvelous statement, worth rereading and pondering.

The difference between mercy and grace is often blurred in LDS talks and lessons. Grace is frequently used to mean either grace, or mercy, or both. The scriptures are less ambiguous, though. When the Book of Mormon says "grace," it generally means "grace." When it says, "mercy," it is usually talking about mercy.

Whether we are trying to repent or to improve, knowing the difference between mercy and grace will give additional clarity to verses of scripture in which they are found. A brief discussion of these two characteristics follows.

Mercy

The purpose of mercy is to free someone from a debt or a penalty. When someone does something to hurt you, forgiving them is an act of mercy. When someone has done something to hurt someone else, paying their penalty is an act of mercy. Mercy rescues us from deficit and puts us back at zero.

Mercy cannot be deserved. If we could deserve mercy, it would not be mercy by definition. If one receives mercy, it implies that he rightfully owed some debt to someone, and that person chose to forgive that debt.

The mercy of God is manifest in the forgiveness of sins. When we sin, we incur penalties, which are rightfully owed. We have no right to expect the penalty to be lifted. Because of the atonement, though, we can know that someone else--Jesus--paid the penalty for us, and in doing so is in a position to offer us forgiveness. That forgiveness takes us out of negative territory and puts us back at zero. Forgiveness doesn't make us better; it makes us even.

The Book of Mormon starts with mercy. The first chapter of First Nephi contains this praise from Lehi: "because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!" (1 Nephi 1:14) What does this mean? It means that in our natural state we are all doomed to perish, but if we come unto Christ, his mercy will rescue us.

Mercy is what you and I need to recover from the effects of sin. Jesus extended mercy by paying for our sins. We receive that mercy by repenting and partaking of the sacrament, and by being merciful to others. He forgives us and puts us back on flat ground.

Grace

Grace is different than mercy. It is the bestowal of a gift. Paying someone's tuition is an act of grace. Mentoring is an act of grace. Anytime someone with ability or means freely helps someone else who has less or none, grace has been extended. In eternal terms, the purpose of grace is to grant change and improvement of which we, on our own, are incapable. Grace takes us from zero and begins promoting us.

As with mercy, one cannot "deserve" grace. If you earn something and I give it to you, it is not grace, but payment. By definition we cannot earn grace. We cannot warrant grace any more than we can warrant mercy. We can only hope for it and ask for it with faith. It is given despite our lack of merit.

The grace of God is manifest most importantly in changes to our character that afford us "life more abundantly" and eventually exaltation. When we desire to improve, but find that we are unable to do so, we seek God's help. He is under no initial obligation to help us, but it is in his nature to do so, and so he gives us certain promises to inspire hope and encourage us to strive.

The Book of Mormon ends with grace. Moroni closes the book with this admonition: "by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." (Moroni 10:32) The challenge is to become perfected by appealing to the atonement of Jesus Christ, and to understand and acknowledge that it is by the power of God, not by our own power.

Grace is what we need in order to improve, to change, and to be converted. It sometimes involves the furnace of affliction, but Jesus has already passed through each of our personal furnaces and knows how to make us better.

Mercy and Grace

The difference between mercy and grace explains why both mercy and grace are often mentioned in the same passage of scripture. It is not redundant, nor is it for emphasis. Here is one example:

And behold how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescensions unto the children of men; and because of his greatness, and his grace and mercy, he has promised unto us that our seed shall not utterly be destroyed, according to the flesh, but that he would preserve them; and in future generations they shall become a righteous branch unto the house of Israel. (2 Nephi 9:53)

In this verse we see that mercy will prevent the destruction of the Nephite posterity, and that grace will make them righteous. So it is with us. We require mercy to settle our spiritual debts and grace to increase our spiritual assets.

The ability of Jesus to provide these two benefits, forgiveness and improvement, is the object of our faith. This is his merit, upon which we are are told we must rely upon alone, and which we access through humility.

Mercy: "And now, because ye are compelled to be humble blessed are ye; for a man sometimes, if he is compelled to be humble, seeketh repentance; and now surely, whosoever repenteth shall find mercy; and he that findeth mercy and endureth to the end the same shall be saved." (Alma 32:13)

Grace: "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (Ether 12:27)

When we read scripture humbly looking for hope to obtain forgiveness, mercy is the object of our desire. When we are desperately looking for power to change, it is grace that we seek. That is not to say that they are given separately or that there is an abrupt transition between the two; they go hand in hand. The scriptures, though, use the terms with some precision, and we may benefit in our study by reading them with the same care.

Question: In what ways are you seeking mercy now? In what areas of your life do you need grace? 

(For more on mercy and grace, read After All We Can Do.)

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1. Charnock, Stephen. Existence and Attributes of God. 1993 Baker Books, Grand Rapids. P. 542.