The mercy of God is the flipside of His justice. God alone is both perfectly just and yet at the same time perfectly merciful. In fact, it is the justice of God that makes His mercy so much more awesome and astounding. The cross represents the fullest way in which these two seemingly opposite realities are brought into perfect unity. On the cross Jesus died so we could be the recipients of God’s mercy in the only way that would still allow God to act with perfect justice. The overflow of the mercy we received through Christ is that we should reflect God’s mercy to others.