God passed by

“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” - Exodus 34v6-7

God graciously gave Moses and the people of Israel and “second chance” when He gave the Ten Commandments a second time. When He did so He passed by Moses and proclaimed some things about Himself. There are two aspects to His self-description.

First He tells about His love and mercy. He is:

• Merciful
• Gracious
• Abundant in goodness
• Abundant in truth
• Forgiving of iniquity, transgression, and sin

These are all wonderful traits of our loving Lord. Praise God that He is all of these things for else wise we would be hopeless and helpless for all eternity. For He also says that He

• Will by no means clear the guilty.

His mercy and grace are balanced with His holiness and righteousness. Those who remain guilty in their sin have no hope. They get what they deserve.

Yet, God gave us hope, His Son. By doing such Hw showed His mercy, grace, goodness, truth, and forgiveness so that no one need die in their guilt. Praise the Lord that Christ took our guilt to the cross with Him and all that anyone must do to have that guilt removed is to accept His gracious gift.