How does Christ's mercy extend to me even though I am a sinner?

How does Christ's mercy extend to me even though I am a sinner? This question has perplexed me my whole life. The born again Christians seem to believe that they are saved by declaring that they believe in Christ - as if something magical happens and they are able to gain Christ's mercy and salvation merely by confessing or saying that 'I believe'. My early training as a Latter-day Saint, taught me that obedience is where it's at and becoming perfect brings salvation (or exaltation).





So, here's what I believe: Each day as I sincerely strive to remember Jesus Christ, striving to keep the commandments, Christ takes up the slack regarding my imperfections. This quest for completeness or wholeness (perfection) may start at 99% Christ and 1% me. But, I grow from grace to grace, line upon line and each weakness (sin) becomes a strength unto me through His grace. I humbly know that I can't do this by myself. All that I can do is change from day to day, month to month and year to year. As miraculous changes in my character occur, I am humbled and acknowledge that the change has happened only through Christ's grace.





Heavenly Father cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. That's why we have a Mediator! We pray to the Father in Jesus' name because we cannot access the Father except through Christ. If we are sincerely striving to follow our savior, we have access to the Father because Jesus is taking up the slack regarding our failings.





All that we can do is put our trust in God, exercise faith and work on being obedient. God, through the Holy Ghost will order and prioritize our progression back to Him. Using a shotgun approach in perfecting my keeping of each commandment all at the same time has never worked for me. It becomes overwhelming. But, changing little by little each day as the Spirit directs is doable and rewarding. It is rewarding because I am blessed each time I make a little progress. This increases my faith. My God has no desire to overwhelm me.





This is what I believe is meant by being justified by the Spirit. As we do this process consistently over time we finally become just men made perfect. I have a sneaky feeling that during the process we are perfect in Christ and as we change and grow, we through His grace become perfected in Christ. We are then ready to be sanctified by the blood of Christ. We receive the Second Comforter.