4. WHY FORGIVE?

WHY FORGIVE?

We can all probably come up with examples of extraordinary forgiveness, the kind that makes us say, “I could never do that!” Every day we hear about some horrible injustice done that forms a rock-hard ball in our heart that rejects the possibility of forgiveness—and those don’t include the personal hurts and injustices that have been done against US!

Sometimes we’d just like to walk away. It’s easier to avoid than to resolve. We kid ourselves into thinking that if we wait long enough, the pain will go away or if we simply try hard not to have anything to do with that other person, then everything will be okay.

The truth is unless we face the pain, acknowledge it and deal with it, rather than going away that pain tends to fester, and the anger, bitterness and frustration grows, often out of proportion to the original crime. The other truth is that if a relationship existed between us and the other person before the offence was committed, that relationship is now damaged and that damage has consequences. If husbands and wives, or parents and children, don’t sort out their conflicts, there are serious consequences. In the church, when two people are at odds and haven’t resolved the situation, there are consequences. The unity of the body is disturbed and the Spirit of God can’t operate as freely as He wants to. Paul urged two women in the Philippian church to get their act together: “I plead with Euodia and I please with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord” (Phil 4:2). And there seems to have been no question about this being “no body else’s business” because Paul goes on to say: “Yes, and I ask you, my true companions, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel...” (vs. 3). This idea fits with what we read in Corinthians about the nature of the community that is the church. We are a body and if two parts, like these two ladies, are at odds, then the rest of the body IS affected.

HOW?

So in answering the “Why Forgive?” question we have to consider the effect a lack of forgiveness has on the body. Among Jesus’s last words to His disciples was that prayer recorded for us in John that the believers be united, that they show love for one another because otherwise no one would want to join them! One the attractions of the early church was the togetherness that characterized the believers, as we find recorded early in the Book of Acts. Love and togetherness don’t happen unless there is a spirit of forgiveness present. So we can’t just walk away and forget it, or avoid the person with whom we are at odds.

Let’s read Colossians 3:12, 13. We are going to “unpack” this verse a bit.

“Therefore,as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

When we see the word “therefore” in the Scriptures, it means that something that has been said before is important to what the writer is saying now. This particular “therefore”goes back to Paul’s explanation of salvation, summarized in Colossians 2:13-14: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sin, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Sound familiar? Then put those two verses together with what we have in 3:12, 13. Because Christ has taken away our sins, “therefore” this is how we should live now, as part of God’s community: We should be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient.

Then we have another phrase that follows: “Bear with each other” that directly connects with compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. The King James version of this verse used the word “forbearing” which means basically to “put up with” something. The words that come before tell us how we should “put up with” each other—with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Then Paul adds that where there is a need to forgive, then forgiveness must be given.

Is “putting up with” something the same as forgiving something?

Eric Wright says in his book, Revolutionary Forgiveness, that “Forbearance is often confused with forgiveness. Sins require forgiveness but inadequacies due to human frailty, even oversights due to carelessness, call for forbearance.” (pg. 131, 132)

Examples would be:
—Unintentional mistakes
—Accidents
—Fancied slights or imagined motives
—Human foibles, such as clumsiness, forgetfulness, carelessness etc.
—Physical infirmities such as hearing loss, poor eyesight, etc.
—Valid differences of opinion
—Cultural differences
—Differences of temperament and emphasis
—Differences in Christian maturity.

What do you think?

Whether it is a question of “putting up with” or a question of sin that needs forgiving, why are we to do either of these, according to these verses?

We have been forgiven for far more than we will ever have to forgive someone else for. As imitators of Christ, we are asked to follow His example understanding that when we look at someone else’s frailties and sins, we are looking in a mirror and the face looking back at us is our own.

Okay, let’s look at the rest of the passages given to us.

Matthew 18:21, 22:
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord. how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’”

Forgiveness is limitless.

Matthew 18:23-35:
“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

In this parable we see a picture of the huge debt we owe to Christ who forgave us more than we could ever need to forgive anyone else.

2 Corinthians 2:5-11:
“If anyone has caused you grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him…If you forgive anyone, I will forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan will not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”

Paul is writing to the Corinthian church to instruct them that the brother who was under church discipline and who has repented, must be forgiven and restored to fellowship.

Matthew 6:14-15:
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

This last statement has implications. We are told that we have unconfessed sin in our lives if we don’t forgive. That state causes a break in the relationship we have with God as well as causing a break in the relationship we have with the person who had hurt us.

NOTES FROM REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESS

Eric Wright shares the following observations from his book on forgiveness.

Matthew 5:23-24:
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Apparently, seeking forgiveness is synonymous with seeking reconciliation.

Since the reconciler needs to lay bare the murkiness of the sin involved, he must come equipped with the ability to discern between sin and human foibles....Nevertheless, these verses in Galatians [6:1-3] do warn us to use great care when the law of Christ calls us to step into a third-party dispute or to restore a fallen Christian. Mature Christians, including church leaders should shoulder the primary responsibility.

William Barclay gave three reasons why judging another can cause so many problems.

1. We never know the whole facts or the whole person. We cannot understand the circumstances or temptations.
2. It is almost impossible for anyone to be strictly impartial in judgement.
3. No one is good enough to judge another. Our own faults and our own inability to resolve them automatically disqualify us as fair critics.

The Bible not only commands us not to judge, but also commands us to discern (1 Corinthians 6:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Ephesians 5:30). Although striking a balance between sinful tolerance and sinful judgement is very difficult it must be done.

Wherever sins or misunderstandings create breaches in human relationships, someone needs to step forward to initiate reconciliation. The Bible gives us a clear mandate for:

1. The innocent person to go to the one who has sinned and offer forgiveness and reconciliation;
2. The one who has sinned to make the first move by seeking forgiveness from those harmed;
3. A third party, a peacemaker, to carefully seek to reconcile those alienated — where both the offender and the one offended stall the process.

Misunderstandings develop when we do not listen, when we interrupt others in the middle of an explanation, when we finish their sentences for them, when we stop listening in a conversation to play our next verbal gambit, when we try to read between the lines. Attentive listeners who control their tongue gain insights that inhibit outbursts of anger.

To love is to listen. Those who listen to others are saying, non-verbally, ‘I think you’re important. I want to hear what you have to say. I want to understand your side of the story.’

Augsburger: Any human understanding of another human is tainted with our own evil. None of us is good enough to be entrusted with complete knowledge of another. That’s impossible to begin with... Where we cannot understand, it is still possible to be understanding...in being understanding we accept the complexity of human motivation, the contradictions in persons that are beyond our explanation.

Samuel Lopez De Victoria, pastor of Miami Grace Church...

I am so sorry that I did not understand your pain. Walking through the fire has opened my eyes.

I am so sorry that I hit you with God talk making you feel unspiritual. I misused God’s sword and hurt you instead of being an agent of release and healing.

I am so sorry that I did not pay the price to enter your world but blindly insisted mine as the only valid one. I have much to learn and appreciate.

I am so sorry that I recklessly assumed you had a bad attitude. I was masking my insecurities.

I am so sorry that I did not extend to you the same mercy and grace God has for me. Amazing grace I have not shared.

Please pray for me and if you find it in your heart to have mercy on me, a poor wretched soul...then I beg of you to please forgive me.

We must not wait until friendships lie in charred ruins at our feet before we pursue reconciliation. Whether we are the cause, the victim or a third party, we cannot afford to look the other way. You! I! Whoever we are, we must take the first step!

Among Christians this is the duty of love, a duty that calls for understanding born of an empathetic awareness of our shared humanity and a commitment to listen patiently to the parties in a dispute.

As we listen we may discover that the sin was no sin at all, but the result of a human foible, a mistake, an accident, a misunderstanding. If so, forbearance...is the salve we need to apply to the damaged relationship.

Individual Christians are called to demonstrate revolutionary grace. Churches must display the same radical grace, but — at times — this has to be balanced by actions of apparent severity. Otherwise the moral testimony of the church will be compromised.

On a personal level we need to show an openness to extend unlimited forgiveness. On a church level, Christ commands us to discipline the unrepentant, with a view to their restoration, by treating them ‘as you would a pagan or a tax collector’ (Matthew 18:17).

This distinction is hard to maintain in our hyperindividualistic societies. Biblical culture knew nothing of the kind of individualism we foster today.

There’s a Biblical concept of protecting, developing, rebuking and rejoicing with one another...If the church believes in repentance, it must provide a caring fellowship in which it is safe to repent.

...that which brings us together in any genuine local church is not only our faith in Jesus Christ but our shared experience of his grace. We are not theologians gathered together to debate weighty issues — although we may do that from time to time. No, we are wounded, forgiven sinners taking the cure. ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ (I John 1:8). When we see the church — our church — as a hospital for sinners, the conceit and self-righteousness that make restoring a fallen brother impossible dissipates. When all the members share this humble realization the church becomes open to hear confession and accept repentance.

A caring fellowship is a fragile flower. When the integrity of that fellowship is compromised by the actions of one member, the body must take action.

Undue delay in forgiving a person who has shown signs of repentance gives the devil an opportunity to insinuate that the church is a harsh, legalistic, unloving place.

...testing the sincerity of a person’s repentance requires the elapse of some time.

A sinner’s confession and repentance are prerequisites to healing and reconciliation but not to forgiveness. Forgiveness must be complete and instantaneous and unconditional.

The Biblical evidence comes down overwhelmingly on the side of lavish forgiveness.

Forgiving a person does not mean we do not confront that person [Luke 17:3].

Notorious or public sins committed by Christians can be done...Churches must withhold forgiveness until there is repentance...(Matthew 18:17). Individuals, however, do not have church authority.

...distinguishing between God’s prerogatives and our may help to clarify issues...judgement, in the sense of condemnation, is not ours to exercise...Only God know the true heart condition of those who appear repentant, or unrepentant. He alone knows the heart of a man. And thus, in a moral sense, we cannot offer a person the forgiveness that is only God’s to give. In the meantime he expects us to forgive ‘seventy times seven’, which seems to me to be an appeal for us to bend over backwards to forgive.

Dr. Archibald Hart has suggested that forgiveness is: ‘Giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.’

...offering this kind of forgiveness does not mean that we are responsible for resurrecting a ruined relationship.

...this kind of ‘human forgiveness’ does not absolve the forgiven person from taking responsibility for his actions.

...offering abundant forgiveness to an unrepentant person may profoundly influence his subsequent attitude.

For a comprehensive study of the subject of forgiveness, I would recommend Eric Wright’s book. It can be purchased from the author at: http://countrywindow.ca/biblical-studies/revolutionary-forgiveness/ .

3. THE MISSING INGREDIENT

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Understanding what God promises to do with the sin of the forgiven sinner, or recognizing how much providing for that forgiveness cost God, makes little difference if we don’t consider the missing part of the equation. And this part of the equation is the one and only piece we can actually contribute to our forgiveness.

The story of this little boy perfectly illustrates the missing ingredient.

The story is told about a little boy who dialed the telephone operator. He couldn’t speak clearly so she didn’t understand what he was trying to say. After he had repeated himself four times, the boy said: “Operators are stupid!” and hung up the phone. Hearing this, his mother got upset. She called the operator and made her son apologize. Later, when his mother wasn’t at home, the boy called the operator again. “Is this the same operator I spoke to before?” “Yes,” she replied. “Well.” said the boy, “I still think operators are stupid!”

There is something not quite genuine to this little boy's apology!

And so it is with knowing how to gain forgiveness. KNOWING all the we know about the subject isn’t enough. We have to do something about what we know. And what we do has to be GENUINE. Keep that word in mind.

First of all, let’s look at the Seven Great Truths about Salvation. These seven truths take some big words and break them down into phrases that we can easily understand.

1. SUBSTITUTION: JESUS DIED IN MY PLACE.
2. JUSTIFICATION: JESUS MADE ME RIGHT WITH GOD.
3. RECONCILIATION: JESUS MADE PEACE WITH GOD POSSIBLE.
4. ADOPTION: JESUS MADE ME PART OF GOD’S FAMILY.
5. REDEMPTION: JESUS PURCHASED MY SALVATION WITH HIS
BLOOD.
6. PROPITIATION: JESUS SATISFIED GOD’S JUSTICE.
7. FORGIVENESS: JESUS SENT MY SINS AWAY FROM ME

Think about your own spiritual journey and what it was that first made you realize that you needed the forgiveness that God was offering through Jesus Christ. All of these seven great truths are important, and like facets in a diamond, all are necessary. But at different times in our lives, different facets become more important to us. When I tell the story of my spiritual journey, I say that at 11 years old I was only a little conscious of sin, but I was very conscious of avoiding hell, so probably truth number 6 was the biggie then: Accepting Christ saved me from the hell that I deserved as a sinner. Today, the aspect of salvation that is the most meaningful to me is probably truth number 4: I am loved by God as a member of His family because of what Christ did for me on the cross. The facet that is most important to you will depend on where you are in your spiritual journey right now. But they are all important—including that first step of genuine repentance.

With that first step, none of these seven great truths about salvation applies. And this isn’t a “ho-hum” moment. Perhaps the greatest danger we face today in our spiritual journeys is our reluctance to talk about genuine repentance. If we talk about repentance we have to talk about sin, and sin is something strangely avoided. We talk about getting our lives on track, turning over a new leaf, becoming more spiritual, etc. etc. I am concerned about this avoidance because I’ve read too many stories of how people came to know Christ that never once mention repentance from sin. And repentance is the foundational step to true faith.

However we package the message of Gospel somewhere in there we have to talk about  “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief” as Paul wrote 1 Timothy 1:15.
So let’s go.

Genuineness is everything when it comes to repentance. It’s easy to mumble the words when we get caught, or if its to our advantage to do so, but to really mean what we say when we repent is the “cut above.”

Read Acts 3:19, 14:15, 26:20



"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..."


"...turn from these worthless things to the living God..."

"...I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

In two of these verses the genuineness of the repentance is characterized by that word “turn.” For repentance to be genuine, there must be a commitment to stop the sinful behaviour. When John the Baptist preached repentance, there was always this aspect of “turning.” In Luke 3:8, he tells his audience: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” If they were really repentant, their commitment to change came as part of the package. This isn’t “fire insurance”— a "get out of hell free" card. This was a changed life. In the last verse Paul repeats this: “...and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.” This isn’t a works theology, this is a “show-me-the-proof” theology. Genuine repentance will be demonstrated by a changed life.

When we come to the next set of verses we add some more valuable ingredients to genuine repentance.

Acts 10:43, 26:18, 20:21.

"All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

"...I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

"I have declared to both Jews and Gentiles that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."

To believe means, in the general sense: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.

In the religious sense, it means:
in a moral or religious reference
1) used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
2) to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
3) mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith

So when that word appears it can have a variety of meanings and we can usually figure out from the context which one is being referred to. In this case Acts 26 and 20 enlighten us when it comes to genuine belief. We are talking about saving faith, the accepting of the means that God has provided for us to be saved, the repentance and trust that what Jesus did on the cross is sufficient to pay for the sins that we have committed.

Even in the Old Testament, and before the moment of salvation, there was a commitment to turning away from evil, i.e. Isaiah 55:6,7:


"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon."

BELIEVING AND REALLY BELIEVING

Many people protest, sayng, "But I believe in God!" James 2:19 reminds us: "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." Believing is much more than head knowledge. A response is needed—and it better be more than a shudder, though that is a good start!

John 1:12: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." The word “believe” is often connected with the name of Jesus. Why? Because the name “Jesus” had a significance in Bible times that is doesn’t have today or in our culture. Matthew 1:21: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” “Jesus” means “the Lord saves.”

John 3:16-18, 5:24: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did  not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eterna leife and will not be condemned; he has passed over from death to life."

The results of saving faith are: no condemnation, no judgment, and the promise of eternal life.

The opposite of saving faith is found for us in John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." You can accept everything about Jesus as an intellectual fact, but not have saving faith. You can believe without REALLY believing and the result will be the judgment of God. Notice the idea in the verses of a "rejection." This rejection is a refusal to believe what God says about our sin and how we can deal with that sin. It is a refusal to accept Christ's offer of salvation through an act of repentance.


One of the best illustrations comes from a simple chair. I can say that I believe that the chair in front of me will hole my weight if I sat down on it, but until I actually sit down on the chair, I cannot claim to have genuine faith in what I have said.

Psalm 32:1-5


"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged by sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'—and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

The whole of this psalm is really beautiful. From verse 6 on we are given some details on what being forgiven means. It tells us about the confidence that a person who is forgiven can have in the God who has done the forgiving. But we are only going to look at the first five verses for our present discussion.

We have here in the psalm an example of the “godly sorrow” that wasn't present in the story of the little boy. This is the same genuine repentance that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 7. This whole chapter is precious but remember these three verses: “yet now I am happy, not because your were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us [note to the shrinks who say that we should lay guilt trips on people!]. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.” (vss 9-11).

A person who is genuinely repentant of their sin will be driven crazy by it until he confesses it and until he deal with it. That goes for any sin—as we find described for us here in Psalm 34 and described in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. David was sick, depressed, weak, because of his sin.

Eric Wright in Revolutionary Forgiveness says:

“David Seamands, a counselor, writes: ‘Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people.’ In prison, Paul knelt before the Father and prayed for the Ephesians: ‘that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ...that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God’ (3:17-19).”

David was unhappy because of his sin. He had to deal with because of the effect it was having on his life. The only solution to his problem was to acknowledge his sin to himself (that’s always a first step) and then to confess it to God.

The result of this acknowledging of sin, its confession to God, and receiving by faith the gift of salvation that Christ offers based on His sacrifice on the cross, was forgiveness, happiness, and the blessed relief of a restored relationship between us and God.

That same forgiveness is available to us today.

2. FORGIVENESS ISN'T CHEAP

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IT'S GOTTA MOVE YOU!

For many of us a discussion about the cross is old hat. We know all about it and can recite the story frontwards, backwards and in our sleep.

I remember hearing about a congregation that was annoyed with their pastor. They wanted him to stop preaching the Gospel every Sunday—they were getting tired of hearing it! The trouble is most of the time the cross is seldom mentioned from our pulpits except when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and then as briefly as possible so that we aren’t late for whatever we have planned for the rest of the day.

Am I being unnecessarily critical? Perhaps.

What I do know is that I know the story frontwards, backwards and I could probably recite it in my sleep. Most of the time, it ceases to move me when I hear it told, or when I think about it myself.

That’s not good. What Christ did to provide for my forgiveness is something that should always move me. As I worked on this study I struggled with how to make it move you. That’s a struggle I might have lost because if it doesn’t move me it will not move anyone I share it with. If it doesn’t move me, I probably won’t bother to share it.

If it doesn’t move you, neither will you share it.

But God is greater than me. He can move me again to understand in a fresh way what forgiving me cost God. He can move you to understand in a fresh way what it cost God to forgive you. I hope He moves all of us, despite me and despite our familiarity with the story.

But the cross and what Christ did there is the heart of forgiveness. Without this there is nothing. John Stott wrote: “...we have much more to receive, but God has no more to give than he has given in Jesus Christ.” (Life In Christ, John Stott, Tyndale House Publishers, 1991, page 20)

THE "S" WORD

Salvation is a recurrent theme throughout the Scriptures. The Bible is a book dedicated to God’s actions in restoring a fatally damaged Creation. That story, the Gospel, is the heart of all the other teachings of God’s Word. Oddly enough, it is not a story that is often repeated by us or even in our churches. The Gospel is spelled forgiveness and forgiveness presupposes that there is something to be forgiven, that there is sin that needs to be dealt with, and that there is repentance that needs to happen. The “S” word is not popular today, and neither is the “R” word. And without those, the forgiveness we receive from God is not possible and the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from sin cannot be applied. Forgiveness is free, but it is not automatic.

2 Corinthians 7:10, 11 gives us the formula. Paul writes:

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets…See what this godly sorrow has produced in you; what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”

Paul had written a previous letter to the church in Corinth in which he had addressed some issues that needed looking after, including immorality in the church and the abuse of the Lord’s Supper. Apparently his letter caused some grief as people recognized the sins they had been guilty of. In the second letter he commended them for their attitude of sorrow and the repentance that accompanied it. Their sorrow had produced in them a heartfelt need to straighten things out with God and to correct the wrongs that had been committed.

This “Godly sorrow” needs to be our constant companion. Not that we go about with long faces and downcast eyes, burdened with the weight of our sins, but that we are sorry for the sins we commit and eager to restore the fellowship between us and God (and others) that those sins have damaged. That sorrow leads us to repentance, to forgiveness and to the restoration of the relationship. That returns to us the joy in our salvation.

David understood the meaning of this sorrow/repentance/forgiveness/restoration cycle after his confrontation with Nathan, the prophet, after David’s sin with Bathsheba. When he repented of his sin of adultery and murder, David rediscovered the joy that he had lost during the time he ignored what he had done to offend God.

He writes in Psalm 51:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (51:1-4, 7-12).

In this psalm is the formula that finds it embodiment in Jesus Christ,

“It is finished” John 19:30. These are the words of Jesus just before He died. In Christ, salvation is complete.

SEVEN TRUTHS ABOUT SALVATION

SUBSTITUTION: Jesus died in my place
JUSTIFICATION: Jesus made me right with God
RECONCILIATION: Jesus made peace with God possible
ADOPTION: Jesus made me part of God’s family
REDEMPTION: Jesus purchased my salvation with His blood
PROPITIATION: Jesus satisfied God’s justice
FORGIVENESS: Jesus sent my sins away from me

There is nothing left for us to do but a “David.”

James Kennedy tells this story: “I remember a story about some people who moved into a new house, and they had a good friend who was a German woodworker, a master craftsman. He was invited to see the house, and as he looked around it he noticed that there was no coffee table in the living room. He never said anything, but after he left he started to work in his workshop, and he worked for two months. He built the most magnificent coffee table imaginable, with the most gorgeous curved legs and all kinds of various designs in it. He put sixteen coats of varnish on the surface until it became a veritable mirror. Finally, he wrapped it in a soft cloth and brought it over to their house, sat it down in the living room, threw off the cloth and said, ‘Voila!’ There it was. ‘Ahhhhhh...beautiful!’ It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful table they had ever seen in their lives. Then the craftsman said, ‘You are my dearest friends, and I present this to you as a gift.’ The man of the house stepped out of the living room and came back in a moment with a piece of coarse sandpaper in his hand. He said to the craftsman, ‘Oh, thank you for your gift. And now I must do my part.’ ‘Don’t touch that!’ the craftsman said. ‘If you touch it, you’ll ruin it. It is already finished. It is complete. It is done!’” (Cross Purposes, D. James Kennedy, Multnomah Publishing, 2007, page 16-17)

REPENTANCE

We are going to talk about the cost of forgiveness as it relates to Christ. Later as we develop the forgiveness theme we will talk about the human cost, but as part of our foundation we need to think about about what it cost God to restore the relationship that we damaged through our rebellion.

First of all, before we turn to all the verses we are going to look at, I want you to go back to the very first record we have of sacrifice in Scripture.

Genesis 4:1-5 describes the first family. Adam and Eve began to have children and we read about how they conducted the first worship services. We have to make a lot of assumptions here because the story by itself doesn’t tell us much but it is safe to assume that they had been instructed by God, or learned from their own painful experience, just what was required for them to approach God. As you read this account, what do you know about the sacrifice that the two brothers made and God’s reaction to those sacrifices?

We soon discover that something had to die, to spill its blood, in order to make the sacrifice acceptable to God. This particular story becomes even more important to us later when we look at other verses from the Scriptures.

Right from the beginning of history, the shedding of blood was a central part of any approach to God. The Lord Himself began the process by killing animals to provide the skins (Genesis 3:21) to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness after their sin. He could have provided in some other way, but in the death and shed blood of the animals He was illustrating what needed to happen to restore the relationship, the fellowship, destroyed by sin.

Isaiah 55:6, 7 summarizes the message of the Gospel prior to the appearance of Jesus. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

We have to call on God. There seems to be a time limit to this calling on God, i.e. while he is to be found. We must forsake the sin committed. We have to turn to the Lord, or repent, so that He will forgive us. Jesus would become that ultimate sacrifice for sin, but these steps need to be taken by us before that “blood” can become the cleansing fountain that removes our sin and restores our fellowship with God.

We look first at the book of Acts to discover more on the steps we need to take. As the early church began to grow and flourish it was important for the new believers to understand the cycle. The emphasis is mine.

In Acts 3:19 we find Peter preaching to the group gathered in the temple for prayer. He said: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”

Later, as Paul and Barnabas traveled through Asia Minor, they encouraged their audience with this message: “…We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”

Paul, as he explains his own journey to the Lord to King Agrippa in Acts 26:20 says this: “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.”

Repentance means a change of direction or heart concerning our sin (Mark 1:15). When we recognize how terrible our offenses against God are, we, like the Corinthians, should experience that “Godly sorrow” and be eager to rectify the problem that has broken the fellowship between us and God. You will notice that in Acts 26, Paul adds that this repentance really does mean a change in direction in that it results in a change of life—leaving the sins behind to pursue a new lifestyle that pleases God.

So repentance and turning back to God is an essential part of our journey of forgiveness. But let’s look at some other factors mentioned in Acts.

When Peter was preaching the Gospel in the house of Cornelius, this was part of his message: “We are witnesses of everything he [Jesus] did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:39-43).

Paul, in his message to Agrippa, explained how God had called him into the ministry of the Gospel to the Gentiles. In recounting the message that he had received from Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul said, “…I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17b, 18).

Again, in Acts 20:21, Paul says, “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”

Often, people mistake what is meant by “believing” and “having faith.” James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe in God, so that, in itself, is not sufficient.

John 1:12 tells us, “Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Added to believing is receiving. Added to believing in God is believing in Jesus. It is possible to believe that God exists, that He is Who He is, and tremble (as James told us in reference to the demons), but not accept neither His forgiveness nor His Lordship. It is possible to believe in God, but not to believe in Jesus, as God and as the Saviour of mankind. It is possible to believe in Who Jesus is and in what He did on our behalf, but not to accept the salvation that He died to provide.

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, the Gospel is presented in a nutshell along with the evidence of the reality of that Gospel in the life of an individual: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he had not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

In the original language in which the Scripture was written, the word, “believe” means:

    I. to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in

        A. of the thing believed

           i. to credit, have confidence

        B. in a moral or religious reference

            i. used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul

            ii. to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith

            iii. mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith

    II. to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity

        A. to be entrusted with a thing


(Strong’s Concordance of the Bible)

Obviously, this “belief” is more than simply the acknowledgement of facts without an application of those facts as an integral part of one’s own personal experience.

John 5:24 says: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In the latter part of the verse we see a positional change in the circumstances of the believer’s life—from death to life. In the passage in John 3:16-22 we see an attitudinal change alongside the positional—evil deeds to good deeds; darkness to light.

The result of not believing is a brutal one. John 3:36 says: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

THE UGLY TRUTH

This issue of “God’s wrath” is difficult for us to imagine. First of all, we are not programmed in this day and age to think of God as “wrathful.” We choose to emphasize His love and compassion, His mercy and grace. And all of these are parts of His nature and we should talk about them, experience them, delight in them. But until we understand what we escaped in coming to Christ and until we understand how God’s wrath relates to the death of Christ, we will never understand just how expensive our salvation actually was.

We can’t avoid the subject of God’s anger and His judgement on sin. There are many Scriptures that describe God’s wrath. We will only look at a few.

Directed to God’s people because of their complaining.
Numbers 11:33—“But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.”

Directed to those in spiritual leadership who were to be held responsible for the desecration of the objects of worship.
Numbers 18:5—“You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again.”

Directed to God’s people because of their worship of idols.
2 Kings 22:17—“Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and not be quenched.”

Directed at Babylon.
Isaiah 13:13—“Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.”

Directed to the house of Israel on the subject of idols.
Jeremiah 10:10—“But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.”

Directed by John the Baptist to the Pharisees.
Matthew 3:7—“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

Directed by Paul to those who don’t believe.
Romans 1:18; 2:5—“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…you are storing up for yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Directed by Paul to the Roman church.
Romans 5:9; 9:22 (cf. Ephesians 2:3)—“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him…What oi God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction.”

Directed by John concerning the end times.
Revelation 6:16, 17—“They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”

This “wrath” is real.

In various parts of the Bible, this wrath is described as something that must be drunk. In fact, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus referred to it as such. He said: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). This imagery, connected to something drunk from a “cup” hooks onto verses such as the following:

Isaiah 51:17
“Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.”

When the mother of James and John begged Jesus to give her sons places of importance in His kingdom, Matthew 20:22 records this statement: “‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said to them, ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’”

Revelation 14:10; 15:7; 16:1; 16:19
…he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath…Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever…Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth’…The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.” This is so terrible that the next verses describe it as being so bad that even creation runs from its path. “Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible” (vss. 20, 21).

We often think the Lord was referring to the pain and suffering of the crucifixion, but in fact that would have been nothing compare with bearing the weight of the wrath of God on His soul, a weight that we deserved because of our sins. We can say it, but it is impossible to conceive of just how terrible the wrath of God is.

We can't imagine how to felt for Christ to carry the sins, past, present and future, of the whole world; to endure God's anger toward all that sin. We can't imagine how God the Father must have felt to punish His own Son in such a terrible way, not for anything He had done, but because of what we had done. This was what Christ accepted on our behalf.


RESOURCES

There are study sheets that you can use as companions to my remarks. If you are interested in those, feel free to email me at lyndalee1@mac.com and ask for the pdf files that are companions to them.

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Everyone needs to give and receive forgiveness. When forgiveness is not extended or embraced, we open ourselves up to a myriad of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical problems. Forgiveness is a subject that cannot be ignored.

INTRODUCTION

What we will look at in this series of studies is a revision of a revision of a revision of a series that I taught in Venezuela.

I was pulled back to this study by something I read in a book on the Trinity. The author made reference to what Genesis says in chapter 1, verse 26: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” Then he related that “image” to community, a perspective I had never considered before. In our first session we will look at forgiveness and its effect on the community which should characterize the church.

RESOURCES

There are study sheets that you can use as companions to my remarks. If you are interested in those, feel free to email me at lyndalee1@mac.com and ask for the pdf files that are companions to what follows.

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FROM THE BEGINNING

Sin didn’t take God by surprise. He who created man not only knew man’s capacity for sin, but allowed him to exercise that capacity. It is possible to force obedience, but it is not possible to force love, and God wanted a relationship of love between Himself and the humans He had created. True love has to be voluntary, and for something to be voluntary there has to be the freedom to choose. Man chose and here we are today.

Have you ever wondered why God is a Trinity? It would be so much simpler if the statement “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” was all we had to consider. But we are confronted in the Scriptures with this seeming contradiction. We have one God, but He is Father. Son and Holy Spirit: three distinct identities, but “so related to one another that one can’t be known without the other” as someone put it. Right from the beginning, in Genesis 1:26, we are introduced to this concept of a Triune God, or a Trinity, and this is followed up in the New Testament in places like John 10:30, 38). I can’t explain why there is a Trinity, but think about this: Right from the beginning, before there was sin that broke the relationship between God and man, and man and his fellow man, God demonstrated relationship within His own nature. He demonstrated in Himself what community in its perfect state looks like.

There is within the Trinity a perfect harmony. Though the roles of God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Spirit, are different from each other, there are no clashes of wills, or of mission, or of personality. There is no misunderstanding, no mistreatment, no manipulation between the three. One never wrongs the others, and one is never wronged by the others. In John 10:30, 38 we are reminded: “I and the Father are one…the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Scott McKnight in A Community Called Atonement writes: “The Father and the Son and the Spirit remain genuine separable identities while at the same time they are so related to one another that one can’t be known without the other. Relationality, in other words, is inherent to who God is.” God demonstrates community within Himself. And genuine community, as we find it in Acts, is the result of atonement and the forgiveness and reconciliation that comes out of atonement. We model the image of God in which we were created when we live out genuine community as we find it in the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It is the restoration to that perfect relationship that has been God’s mission since the fall of man—first of all the restoration of the relationship between man and His God, and then the restoration of man with his fellow man. And that restoration of relationship involves forgiveness, first and foremost.

The title for our first session is FILE DELETED. We need to begin by reviewing how forgiveness relates to us personally. We might think we have this all figured out, but there is a strong connection between what we believe personally about our own forgiveness, and how we live out that forgiveness in community. Without the first, the second is much more difficult.

“What does the word ‘forgiveness’ mean to you?” Let’s talk about that for a few moments.

My online dictionary expresses it this way:
forgive |fərˈgiv|
verb ( past -gave ; past part. -given ) [ trans. ]
stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake :
• (usu. be forgiven) stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for (an offense, flaw, or mistake) : they are not going to pat my head and say all is forgiven | [ intrans. ]
• used in polite expressions as a request to excuse or regard indulgently one's foibles, ignorance, or impoliteness :
cancel (a debt) :

In the Old Testament, the root word “forgive” that is most commonly used (nasa) means: to lift, bear up, carry, take

In the New Testament, the word for ‘forgive’ most commonly used (afemame) means: to send away

The word, charizonmai, is from the root work charis, meaning grace, which often appears in Scripture, carries within it the idea of granting forgiveness and graciously restoring one to another.

 There are others but these will take us where we want to go.

I’ve emphasized certain specific elements of the words that are used in Scripture to describe “forgive” because they connect perfectly with passages of Scripture such as Leviticus 16. The Old Testament is full of pictures showing us what Christ would come to do, many years often the events of the Old Testament, to provide a way for us to be forgiven. This illustration from Leviticus is one of the most fascinating.

In the Old Testament, before Christ came, there was a place where God’s justice was satisfied by a payment made by the sinner. This place was to be treated with respect. This was where atonement, or restitution, was made for sins committed.

Read Leviticus 16.

Several of the meanings of the word forgive have to do with carrying something away or sending something away—perfectly illustrated by the scapegoat (a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, esp. for reasons of expediency) that is sent into the wilderness as described for us in Leviticus.

“Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat” (16:6-10).

The atonement, the price to be paid for sin, had already been paid by the blood of bull and the first goat. The Hebrews weren’t allowed into the holy places (16:17) so they only had the high priest’s word than anything had happened on the inside. However, the scapegoat was an up-close-and-personal picture that atonement had taken place, that forgiveness had been obtained.

“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert” (16:20-22).

The book of Hebrews, particularly chapters 5 through 10, describes how Christ perfectly became all the elements that we find in the Old Testament pictures of atonement. He was the perfect High Priest, the perfect sacrifice. Though the means of atonement has changed from the Old Testament to the New, one thing hasn’t changed. Someone has to pay for sins committed. And the price is a hefty one.

Hebrews 9:22, 28 says, “…the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed by blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness…Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people…” Ephesians 2:13 reminds us: “…now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

A blood sacrifice was still required. That was the price God the Son paid so that we wouldn’t have to. That was the price God paid so that we could be forgiven.

Romans 3:25: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—” The New International Version of the Bible uses the word atonement, the King James Version uses the word propitiation as does the English Standard Version. The Amplified uses a whole bunch of good words and The Message says it this way: “God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.”

I particularly like the two phrases: on the altar of the world and in full view of the public because they remind me of the scapegoat. What is declared in heaven can’t be seen by man, but what is physically demonstrated on earth can’t be denied.

Romans 4:4-8: “Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David speaks the same things when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose transgressions are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Notice the word covered. What does that remind you of from our illustration in Leviticus? Our sin is covered by blood, Christ’s blood spilled when He took our place on the altar to pay for our sins.

Ephesians 1:7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace...”

It’s a short verse but loaded with theology. Remember that one of the New Testament words used for forgiveness carries in it the idea of grace. To forgive is to be gracious and to restore what had been damaged by sin. That will be important when we talk about how forgiveness effects community.

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

What Jesus did on the cross is illustrated by both the goat that was sacrificed on the altar whose blood covered our sin and the scapegoat that illustrated the carrying away of our sin. Notice that this verse says all sin. That’s important to know when we, or someone else, thinks that there is some sin that is so bad it cannot be forgiven. Actually there is one sin that cannot be forgiven and that is the sin of unbelief. It’s called the sin unto death in 1 John 5:16.

So all through the Scripture these theological ideas and words appear, and describe what forgiveness from our sins involves.

But what happens to these sins when Christ forgives us? This is where the idea of the “delete” button comes in.

Let’s read the passages that illustrate what happens when God forgives us.

Psalm 103:12: ...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Micah 7:19: You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Jeremiah 31:34: No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to on another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, declares the Lord, For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

Psalm 51:9: Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity.

Isaiah 44:22: I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

God has a “delete” button.

There is another issue that comes up here. We know that God knows everything. We call this His “omniscience.” He doesn’t, nor can He, forget anything. So how can we say that God “forgets” our sins once they are forgiven? Someone has explained that in this way. God’s “forgetfulness” means that He chooses not to use our sin against us, effectively “forgetting” that they were committed. This becomes important when we look at forgiving others since we tend to use the sins that others have committed against us, AGAINST them, even after we have said that we have forgiven them.

But there is another aspect to this. If God chooses not to use our sin against us once it is forgiven, and pushes the button and deletes the file that contains that list of our sins, why do we search the cyberspace of our minds, retrieve the file, and use our forgiven sins against ourselves? Why can’t we delete the file just like God does and not use its contents against ourselves?

In the sessions that follow we will further explore how this forgiveness is applied personal and then how it is lived out in community.