In the King James Version of the Bible, there is 170 uses of the word, “grace.” Of the 170 references, 131 of these references are in the New Testament. This leaves only 39 references of Grace for the Old Testament. That is about 23% percent of the references in the Old Testament.

The word Mercy is used 274 times in the King James Version of the Bible. This is significantly more than grace. Mercy can be found 149 times in Old Testament and 125 times in the New Testament. Here the Old Testament wins out with mention of the concept of mercy.

The Old Testament in many regards appears much more familiar with the term mercy than grace. There is are many possible reasons for this, but I want to suggest on. God, is a God of mercy and grace.

Nonetheless, the sacrifices God allowed to happen so that His wrath was not poured out, was mercy (James 2:13). Ever since I was young, I have heard that mercy is not getting something you deserve.

But then, God gave us something we didn’t deserve. He gave His Son Jesus Christ. Perfectly exemplifying grace as getting something you don’t deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9). This is God’s unmerited favor and the riches of Heaven.

Here is where you see the impact of a dispensation. God deals with humanity differently through different times (Ephesians 3). Where once mercy was God’s main conduit of salvation by faith, grace was greater with the death, burial, and resurrection of His beloved Son.

Grace and mercy.

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