There’s a song that we love to sing at our church called “His Mercy Is More.” Written in 2016 by Matt Papa and Matt Boswell, the lyrics remind me of the height and width and depth and length of the love of Jesus. Take a moment to look up the song. Beautiful, isn’t it?

The authors of that song shared the inspiration for the lyrics. They came from a sermon preached by a famous sinner you might know—John Newton. Newton, a former slave ship captain and the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” once said to his congregation, “Let not [your sin] discourage you. For if God casts out none that come to him, why should you fear? Our sins are many, but his mercies are more.” Beautiful, isn’t it?

But Newton didn’t invent the idea of God’s mercy outnumbering our sin. He was inspired by another notorious sinner, the apostle Paul, who penned, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). Beautiful, isn’t it?

But Paul wasn’t sharing an original thought. He was just summarizing what Jeremiah said through his scribe: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22,23). Beautiful, isn’t it?

Thank God for mercy, passed down through the ages and spoken to us!