“Mercy is displayed only in and through Christ. God outside of Christ is a consuming fire. It is only in Christ God proclaims His name, ‘a God gracious and merciful.’ (Ex. 34:6)
Christ is the mercy-seat, and throne of grace, at which men obtain mercy and find grace. He is the channel through which it flows, and through whom it, in its effects, is conveyed to the sons of men.
Redemption itself is a glaring instance of the mercy of God. Mercy resolved upon the redemption and salvation of the elect.
Being viewed as fallen in Adam, and as sinners, mercy provided a Redeemer and Saviour of them, and laid their help upon Him.
And mercy called Christ to undertake the work of redemption, and engaged Him in it.
Mercy sent Him in the fulness of time, to visit them, and perform it.
Mercy delivered Him up into the hands of justice and death, in order to obtain it, and it is most illustriously glorified in it.
Mercy and truth have met together, (Psalm 85:10), yea, Christ Himself, in His love and pity, has redeemed His people, (Isa. 63:9).
Complete salvation, and eternal life itself, flow from the mercy of God. He saves, ‘not by works of righteousness, but according to His mercy,’ (Titus 3:5).”
–John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity: Or A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures (vol. 1, London: Tegg & Company, 1767/1839), 1: 125, 127, 128.