How do we know that the Bible is complete and unified?
How do we know that the Bible is a unified and complete book in its presentation to us and that it alone contains the written revelation of God for his people?
While the Bible has many human authors through which the text was written, there is one divine author. This is clear by looking at its overall unity. There is not a humanly produced book, wherein multiple authors have contributed over a long span of time, that contains the unity that scripture contains. Not only does the Bible not contradict itself, it also presents a progression of theology that could not have evolved from the imagination of men. Themes and theological concepts are found in their infancy in early Old Testament writings, are developed further in later Old Testament writings, and are found complete within the New Testament—all without contradiction or inconsistency.
More importantly than its unified nature are the many claims that the Bible makes of itself being God’s word. Throughout the scriptures there are commands to “write this down” or “speak this to my people” given by God to his prophets and apostles. The Old Testament itself contains more than 600 instances of “and God said” or “thus says the Lord.” That in itself is an occurrence of about once every 35 verses. The New Testament contains numerous direct quotes from Jesus himself, again being God’s speech recorded by the Apostles. The Bible goes as far as to refer to itself as being the very “breath” of God and thus the revelation of God to his people.
To those who would suggest that there are other texts that necessarily supplement the Bible that also contain God’s word, the Bible contains strong warnings that judgment will come upon those who suggest such things. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians and told them that anyone who proclaimed a gospel not consistent with that of scripture would be accursed. The consistent witness of every prophet and apostle within the history of the Biblical writings is that these words that are recorded in the scriptures contain the very words of God.
Praise Yahweh–All the Nations!
“Praise Yahweh, all ye nations!
Laud him, all ye tribes!
For his chesed is mighty over us,
and the truth of Yahweh is eternal!
Praise Yahweh!
(Psalm 117:1-2)
How greatly our God blesses his people! How wonderful is our God’s faithfulness throughout the generations! How our God has given us so much more—abundantly more—than we need and deserve! And how our God has shown us grace even in disobedience! Oh, beloved, how we should praise the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob who has adopted us as children through his Son, Jesus Christ! But not only should we praise God for his goodness to us, so should the rest of the world! Let not only God’s people praise his glorious name, let all the peoples of the earth praise his name for God has been good to us.
This is a bold statement, and it is one that we often do not think of when we evangelize the nations. We usually speak to them about grace and about the truth of God’s word. We speak to them about Christ and about Him crucified, and we speak about forgiveness. Now all of these things are essential to our witness, but the psalmist presents this as one more thing that is essential—come to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ because God is faithful to his people. And we, of course, are not just talking about any general faithfulness, but we are talking about God’s ds,x, (chesed)—God’s covenantal faithfulness in spite of our covenantal unfaithfulness.
Yet, even if the nations never come to faith, they are to praise God—even laud him—because of God’s faithfulness to us. Why? Because their gods, being of wood, metal, and stone, cannot respond for they are nothing more than the works of craftsmen—how can they respond, for they are deaf and mute! The tribes of the world know nothing about a god being faithful to them—they know nothing of chesed. And as they look to Israel—now toward spiritual Israel—they should rejoice that there is a God in the land who does actually care for his people and who proves himself faithful over and over in spite of his people’s unfaithfulness. It is the principle that it is right to rejoice with your neighbor over your neighbor’s blessings even when you lack. Oh, and let us not forget that for the believer, God’s blessings are meant to be shared as a tool of the gospel.
Oh, beloved, do we really believe these words? Do we really believe that every nation in the world has an obligation to praise God because God has been good to us? Are we bold enough to tell the Muslims and the Hindus, for example, that are persecuting Christians so harshly in many places, that their sin is not simply in their persecution, but their sin is in a failure to worship God. Are we bold enough to tell our unbelieving neighbor, that even though he is not receiving blessings from God, he has an obligation to praise God because God has been good to us. Do not miss the gentile focus of these psalms; they provide an apologetic of God’s grace to his people—a testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness throughout their history—a sign of our great God’s grace to us, a sinful and rebellious people.
Dear friends, oftentimes, when we think about evangelism, we think about going door to door handing out tracts or using the Evangelism Explosion method of witnessing—and these are good tools. Yet, should we not give strong consideration to the evangelism methods that our Lord gives us in scripture? Should we not also give preeminence to those ways which God communicates in his inerrant word? If this is so, let the words of this psalm sink deeply in your heart. The unbelieving nations are called to praise God because God has been good to his people—to us. Do you live your life in such a way that unbelievers see God’s goodness to you? Is your lifestyle such that causes unbelievers to see and desire what you have that they lack? Beloved, this is the evangelism method of the psalmist—live your life glorying in God in such a way that the world is drawn to join you in worship. Yet, I wonder which is harder for most professing Christians in our culture, to pass out tracts or talk along a memorized script, or to truly and genuinely exalt in worship—exalting in such a way that it shapes every second of their life and every activity of their day. Beloved, that will attract people to Christ, but it demands your life. Are you willing to give it?
All glory laud and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.
Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s name comest,
The King and Blessed One.
-Theodulph of Orleans
No One Comes To the Father, But Through Me: John 14:6
“no one comes to the Father if not through me.”
Jesus begins and ends this passage by focusing on himself. Friends, salvation can be found in no other person or path. It cannot be found in philosophy, in science, in achievements, in wealth, in family, in humanism, in Buddha, in Mohammed, or in anyone or anything else. Our world presents many options and paths—some of which even sound convincing—but the only way to the Father is through Jesus. The only hope of a resurrection is found in the one who was resurrected. The only hope of eternal life is in the eternal one who is the life. And the only truth in this world is found in the person of Christ, who has revealed to us the mysteries of God’s redemptive plan.
Jesus Christ is not only the focal point of all of scripture, but he is the point on which all of history revolves about. You might enjoy talking about politics, but politics has no eternal significance. You might enjoy talking about sports, but sports has no eternal significance. You might enjoy talking about literature, but literature has no eternal significance. The only thing that has eternal significance in the history of mankind is Jesus Christ and the work that God had done and is doing through him. That is the bedrock of your faith—I urge you to stand upon it without wavering and without doubting when the winds of trial fill your days. Trust in Him, and Him alone, dear friends, even though the world would tell you otherwise.
No One Comes to the Father: John 14:6
“no one comes to the father”
Do you see how the Trinity is at work in redemptive history? We offended God by our sin and our rejection of his law. Yet, rather than leave us to our deserved fate, God chose to work in our lives to redeem a people for himself. God the Son provided a sacrifice to atone for our sins, bridging the chasm of sin between us and the Father. And God the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart of each member of the elect, and through faith, draws us to God the Son, and through God the Son, we are brought to God the Father. The symmetry of God’s redemptive plan is a beautiful thing to behold.
But what is even more beautiful is the face of a believer when he or she truly realizes that they have been redeemed—not that they have earned redemption, but that they have been redeemed by a work of God himself. In this life, we struggle with a load of burdens and cares, brought on by our fallen state, when Jesus lifts that burden from the shoulders of one who is newly redeemed, oh what a joy does fill their heart. And the joy does not end there, the angels in heaven rejoice in praise to God as well (Luke 15:10).
Friends, take the time to remember your own conversion, the time when you finally realized that you could stand before the Father’s throne not on your own flawed righteousness, but in the righteousness that is Christ’s. Don’t ever forget the joy and the desire to worship that filled your heart on that day. Some of you may not remember a time when you did not embrace Christ as Lord, and the blessings of a lifetime in fellowship with him have richly blessed your soul. This is one of the great mysteries of God’s love—that he would choose to redeem a fallen and sinful race—that he would choose to redeem you and me, and that we might have fellowship with him. I am reminded of the old Bill Gaither hymn:
Shackled by a heavy burden,
Neath a load of guilt and shame—
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.
He touched me, O He touched me,
And O the joy that floods my soul;
Something happened, and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole.
Christian, rejoice and praise God for the fact that Jesus has brought you to the Father.
No One Comes: John 14:6
“no one comes”
I once heard a preacher say that if you are feeling distant or separated from God that it is you that moved, not he. There is a great deal of truth in that statement. Sin is a great divide that separates us, a sinful people, from a Holy God. And the divide was caused by our sin. Yet, praise be to God that a bridge has been provided for us in Jesus Christ!
The debate in Christian circles is not over whether we come, but over what causes us to come. This debate is often called the Calvinistic/Wesleyan or the Calvinistic/Arminian debate, but the roots of the debate go back much further than John Wesley, Jacob Arminius, or John Calvin. The roots of this debate lie with a man named Pelagius and Saint Augustine.
Pelagius denied the doctrine of Original Sin (I guess he never had children). He said that all sin was learned and that we could live a sinless life if we just tried hard enough. Of course, were even one person able to live a perfect life, then there would be no need for the sacrifice of Jesus. Eventually the church pronounced Pelagius and his view heretical, as it denies the need for the atonement.
While Arminius did not deny Original Sin, he did build on Pelagius’ premise that we are capable of coming to faith in Jesus on our own strength, that faith is something we bring to salvation. While Arminius and his followers’ teachings were never well received in their native Netherlands, a young English preacher named John Wesley became enchanted by their teachings.
Ultimately, John Wesley would affirm God’s sovereignty over everything except the human will. He said that God woos us to himself through his “prevenient grace” (grace that goes before), but the ultimate choice was left up to us. In Wesley’s view, Jesus’ death was to atone for the sins of everyone, it was just up unto each individual as to whether they would accept the gift he offers. God regenerates the sinner, but not until the sinner comes to him in faith.
We who are in the Reformed tradition of Calvin and Augustine disagree vehemently with this position. Through sin, death entered into the world (Genesis 3) and we die not only physically, but apart from the spirit, we are dead spiritually (Romans 8:5-8). One who is dead can do nothing to aid his own cause—he is dead, and can only rot and become more corrupted. It is impossible for the spiritually dead to please God in any way (Romans 8:8). Thus faith is not something we are capable of providing; rather, when the Holy Spirit regenerates the believer, He also instills faith into the believer.
Wesley was never comfortable with the ramifications of this theology. For if faith and regeneration were a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, then God must be doing the choosing when it comes to redemption. To this, the Calvinist says a hearty, Amen! The scriptures are filled with references to God’s election of his people. All through history, God chose certain people to bring to himself and others to leave to their sinful ways. If you take the scriptures seriously, you cannot get away from this fact. Christ’s death was fully effective for all of those whose name were written in the Book of Life from before the foundations of the earth (Ephesians 1:3-6). Upon just this issue, Jesus himself says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not ever cast out.” (John 6:37)
Friends, we are surrounded by people who teach that faith is something that you generate from within yourself, and because of that, you can lose your salvation if you don’t stand strong enough in the faith. This is not the teaching of scripture. If God does the working in you, he will do the keeping of you until the very end (Romans 8:28-30). Though we need to work hard to live a life for God’s glory, not backsliding into sin, we can take a great deal of encouragement that it is God himself who will ensure that we finish the race.
Loved ones, take heart. God has called, he has awakened your soul, and he has given you faith so that you might come to his son, Jesus. You have been brought out of the darkness and into the light of Christ, and Christ will not turn away any who his father has given him—no never, will he cast you away.
No One: John 14:6
“no one”
Jesus has moved from making a positive statement of the truth to a negative one. First he says, “Yes, I am the way…” and now he is saying, “No, there is no other way.” In this way, Jesus makes sure that we understand the exclusivity of the Christian faith. There is no room for any compromise or alternate ideas. Jesus is the only way and apart from him, no one comes to the Father—at least in any sense that they would want to encounter the Father.
While our culture, and in turn, many of our churches, has embraced inclusively, this is not the position of Jesus. He was very clear that it was only in him that salvation can be found. There is no sneaking into heaven by any other way. No matter how good or kind a person is, if they are trusting in anything or anyone other than Jesus, they will face eternal condemnation.
Sometimes I wonder just how seriously we take this part of the message. When someone dies, the first thing that we say, is, “well, they are in a better place…” Are they? If they knew Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are in a far better place, but if they did not know Jesus personally—given all of the Biblical descriptions of Hell, it is a far worse place than here. When we have loved ones who are exhibiting no evidence of God in their lives, how often do we refrain from asking about Jesus? How often do we turn our heads, hoping that in the end, everything will work out OK?
Jesus is phrasing this statement in both a positive way and a negative to make in unmistakably clear in our minds that while there are many roads, there is no other road that leads to salvation. Friends, if we understand that no one who has not put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior has any hopes to go to heaven, let us be more serious about sharing the Gospel with those we love and those who are around us. You are never too young or old to do so. There is absolutely no other path to heaven but in Christ, let our hearts yearn to see more souls join us on that path.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: John 14:6
“I am the way and the truth and the life”
Not only is Jesus the true way and the truth within the world, but he is the life. There is no life apart from life in Christ. Though some people may think that they can find life in this world; they look for life in wealth, or wisdom, or achievements, or pleasure, but as Solomon tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes, anything that is done apart from God is vanity—it is like trying to chase the wind.
But Jesus is making an even more profound point. Back in Genesis, Adam and Eve were warned that the penalty for sin would be death. And though, when they ate of the fruit, death entered into the world in a physical sense, it also entered into the world in a spiritual sense. At the moment that Adam and Eve chose to sin, they died in a spiritual sense. The relationship that they had with God was severed and broken, and unbridgeable by anything that we could do. They were dead to sin and just as a corpse is unable to do anything but corrupt, so their souls were unable to do anything but corrupt as well.
Yet, Praise be to God that this is not the end of the story! Right there in Eden, God gave to Adam and Eve a promise of a redeemer, one who would crush the head of Satan and his influence on man forever more. Jesus is that promised one. The Old Testament Saints placed their faith in a promise, but Jesus wanted us to be very clear that in him that promise was fulfilled. God breathed life into the dead spiritual corpses of Adam and Eve on that day, just as he continues to breath life into spiritually dead corpses today—regenerating them and instilling in them a faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the life; he is the way a believer must walk and the truth a believer must trust in, but he is also the life, which allows the believer to believe in the first place. As the Augustus Toplady so eloquently put it: “Nothing in my hand I bring; Only to the Cross I cling.”
Christian, do not take for granted what God has done for you even before you recognized yourself as a believer. Though your heart beat and your flesh felt strong, you were no more than a walking corpse prior to the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration in your life. Your soul was rotten and decayed. But just as God can breath new life into the old bones of Israel (Ezekiel 37), so too was God able to breath new life into your soul and remake it new. This life you have is in Christ, it is the only life that is available—all who deny it are but walking dead. Beloved, trust in Christ with your all, because he is your all.
I am the Way and the Truth: John 14:6
“I am the way and the truth”
Once again, we find Jesus using a definite article before the word truth. Not only is Jesus the only way that leads to life eternal with the Father, but he is the only truth that we have access to in this world. Think about that for a moment. If Jesus is THE truth, then ANYTHING that contradicts or stands in opposition to Jesus must, by definition, be a lie. And since Jesus is the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14), then the Bible, which is the Word of God given to us, must also be THE truth and irrefutable.
In our post-modern culture, where the rules of logic and reason are thrown out of the window and where everything is considered to be relative, a statement like this does not sit well. Yet, it has not sat well with people through the ages. Men would rather hear what pleases them than the truth (2 Timothy 4:3). Philosophers are not interested in the truth; rather they are interested in being novel.
Yet Jesus says that he is the truth and he leaves no room for any competition. Jesus is the truth and if we desire to know the truth about any and all things, we must turn to him and to his word. This means, then, that the Scriptures must be the basis for our understanding of everything else that is. In other words, the Scriptures are the only glasses that we can look through so that we can see the world clearly. If anything seems to contradict scriptures, it must be wrong.
Science will tell us that the world is about 5 billion years old. There certainly seems to be some evidence in nature to support that hypothesis. At the same time, scripture tells us that the world is only 6,000 to 8,000 years old. The scriptures must be right. How are we to understand the scientific evidence? One of two ways: either that the scientists are not interpreting the data properly (though this is probably not the case) or that God created the world to look older than it really is.
Does this mean that God is being dishonest? Not at all, he never claims that the world is billions of years old. What it means is that the scientists are only looking at part of the evidence. There are logical reasons why the world seems as old as it seems, and were scientists to look to the Bible and not just nature, they would understand these things. All of creation is part of God’s general revelation to the world, for it all points to his handiwork. If people choose to ignore that general revelation in search of a naturalistic explanation, how can God be held responsible for their error?
But more important than general revelation is special revelation: The Bible. The Bible is not a systematic encyclopedia which gives us a little bit of information on all things, rather it is an exhaustive work that gives us all the information we need to know about the relationship between God and man. It is the manual that instructs the saved and leads others to the object of salvation, the Truth made flesh, Jesus. Our culture is fond of thinking that there are many truths; yet, there is but one. Jesus died for the sins of all who would put their faith in him as their Lord and Savior. He died in their place, taking their just punishment on his shoulders. And he was raised! And because Jesus was raised, we who have our faith in Jesus have been promised resurrection as well. Friends, this is the truth.
In a world that glorifies “tolerance” as its chief virtue, it is easy to get deceived into thinking that there might be other legitimate faiths. But this is not so. All who are not trusting in Jesus for their salvation will stand in judgment based on their works, and no one can stand before a righteous God on their own merit. Jesus is the only way to salvation, and he is the only truth. Everything else is no truth at all.
I am the Way: John 14:6
“I am the way”
It is important that you read this statement very closely, because many people in our culture do not understand the language that Jesus is using. He says, “I am THE way,” he does not say, “I am A way.” Our culture seems to think that it does not matter whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, “whatever you call God,” they say, “is all the same.” They feel that everyone is going to heaven and what is most important is that we simply all get along here on earth. Because of that, they accuse evangelical Christians of being narrow-minded and pushy with our faith. They see us evangelizing on the street corners, in hospitals, or at disaster scenes and they say we are offending their privacy. They would rather that we leave them alone for a few years on earth than avoid an eternity of damnation.
Yet, what is most interesting about this culture’s position is that it wants to affirm that a group of mutually exclusive religions as being compatible. That is like trying to affirm that a coin is a nickel and a dime at the same time—it just cannot be. Jesus said that he was “THE” way! It is a statement of total exclusion. There are no other ways or paths that can be followed; Jesus is the only option if you want to avoid the fires of judgment.
If we are true to scripture and true to the teaching of Jesus, we can take no other stance than this; there are no other options. You are either trusting in Jesus for salvation or you are not, there are no in-betweens and no grey areas. There may be other roads, but those roads, though easy, only lead to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Jesus is the only way that leads to life.
The thing that we often struggle with is being truthful with other people, especially those closest to us. We fear offending them. Truth, be told, though, these people are those we ought to work the hardest with, for is it not those who we love the most who we ought to desire the most to spend eternity with? Beloved, if these people are truly your friends, they will be the least likely to recoil from you if you share the Gospel with them. If they are willing to walk away from a friendship because you are concerned for their soul, then you should bring into question the caliber of friendship that you had with them in the first place.
Friends, do not be so worry about offending that you quietly participate in the eternal destruction of those you care about. Love them with the truth. Just as an animal cannot be a cow and a dog at the same time, so too, if your goal is heaven, you can look to no other place but Christ.
I Am: John 14:6
“I am”
Not only is Jesus drawing attention to himself when he emphasizes the “I” of this statement, but he is making another connection as well. In Exodus 3:14, when Moses asks the Lord what name shall he give to the Israelites as to who is sending him, the Lord says to tell the Israelites that he is “I AM WHO I AM.” In the next verse, God simply tells Moses to tell the Israelites that “I AM sent me.”
The language of “I AM” is important in our understanding of God, for God simply is. He exists independent of time and space, he is boundless and timeless, and he has always existed and always will exist. Before God created the world, God was and only God was. There is nothing that was created that did not have its origins in God’s work and nothing is outside of God’s divine and sovereign control. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. And by Jesus making the statement, “I, I am…” one of the claims that he is making is that he is the “I AM” of scripture; he is Yahweh having taken on flesh.
Jesus is stating that all of the attributes that we attribute to God belong to him as well. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and to know him is to know the Father (John 14:7-11). Friends, do you see what Jesus is claiming here? He is making an explicit statement of divinity. He is saying that he is God, the one who created all things and preserved a people for himself, and is all-powerful—and he has chosen to take the way of the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. He is not offering an ordinary sacrifice, but a perfect, flawless, and divine sacrifice for the sins of you and me.
Jesus is preexistent and eternal, and he chose to put aside his rightful glory to walk this earth. He chose to endure the abuse and the spite of our race, yet he is God himself. He chose to suffer and die for sins that did not belong to him, but belonged to us, so that we might come to him. Jesus had all of the agony of Hell dumped on his shoulders so that we might not have to face its fires.
Friends, this is the Gospel in a nutshell—to those who put their faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior, he has suffered in their place and given us a promise of redemption instead. What is sad is there are people in this world who would try and make us believe that Jesus was not really God. Friends, there are many examples where Jesus claims his deity, and this is just one. Rest in the promise that the Lord you serve is God and that he loved you enough to pay the penalty for sin on your behalf. I can think of no more blessed a promise than that.
I: John 14:6
“I”
This statement begins with the Greek word “ejgwv” (ego), which means “I.” Though this may not seem significant, it is significant in the Greek language, for in Greek, the verb carries its own subject, in other words, it is redundant to use the actual word for “I” unless you are doing so for emphasis. Literally, this statement begins, “I, I am the way…”
Jesus is drawing attention to himself. Not only is he the only pathway to the father, but he is the focal point of all Christian living. It is his life, not ours, that is of utmost important. The key is not the destination, but the guide that you are following. It was more important for Thomas to understand that he must follow Christ than the destination to which Christ was leading him.
Is that not all of our difficulties? Do we not often get impatient with the journey, wanting to get to the destination more quickly? Are we not a society of shortcuts and impatience? We want everything yesterday and wish to wait for nothing. Yet, Jesus tells us to stop focusing on ourselves and trust him. We become impatient when we fail to trust the guide that is leading us, which in turn causes our eyes to wander. Jesus is not saying to take our eyes off the goal of Heaven—never must we do that, but what he is saying is that we need to trust in him and in his timing.
We can only see the road to heaven clearly when we are looking through the lens of Christ. Jesus begins with “I” because everything for the Christian begins, ends, and revolves around Him. Remember, it is not the human “I” that will guide you to your heavenly goal, but it is the divine “I am” who will bring you safely to your destination.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Intro
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the father if not through me.’”
John 14:6
This is one of the most well known statements that Jesus made, at the same time; we rarely take the time to reflect upon all of the theological implications that are contained within these words. The point of this little study is to take some time to unpackage all that there is contained in these famous words of Jesus.
To set the stage, Jesus has come to Jerusalem at the end of his three-year ministry to celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples. Though the disciples do not yet fully understand what is going to happen, this Passover will be the most important Passover meal of their lives, and indeed, of all of history. What marks this Passover celebration is not so much the slaughtering of the thousands of lambs that are brought into the city, but the slaying of one Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God himself. Jesus is the Passover Lamb for the world, the only perfect and pure sacrifice for our sins.
This last week of Jesus’ life is the most significant portion of the Gospels, and comprises a bit more than 40% of John’s Gospel text. There is a lot that goes on during this week, the triumphal entry, the clearing of the temple, the plotting and betrayal of Judas, the Last Supper held in the upper room, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, and praise God, the resurrection! Though all that Jesus did and taught is very important, this last week of Jesus’ life is vitally important for us to understand.
The passage in John that we will be spending some time with takes place in what we know as the “upper room.” Jesus has washed the disciple’s feet and the Last Supper has been given (although John does not detail it as the other Gospel writers do). Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial have been predicted by Jesus. This must have been a sobering thing to hear.
And it is in this context that Jesus gives some of the most wonderful words of blessing, commission, and assurance to his disciples. It is here where Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them in power and where he gives the analogy of himself as the true vine—a promise steeped in Davidic tradition. It is here where Jesus assures his apostles that while the world will hate them, he has overcome the world. Also, it is here where Jesus offers up what is now known as his “High Priestly Prayer” on behalf of the Apostles and on behalf of all believers who would come after them—on behalf of you and me. It is in this context that Thomas asks Jesus how they might follow him if they don’t know where he is going. And it is in this context that Jesus answers Thomas with this wonderful statement: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the father if not through me.”
The Day of Divine Retribution: Isaiah 61:2b
“And the day of divine retribution of our God.”
(Isaiah 61:2b)
Isn’t it interesting that we find the language of divine retribution—God’s moral judgment against sin, in connection with the language of the “year of the Lord’s favor”? How often we forget to remember that the two go hand in hand. We seem to have entered into an age of the church where many want to dwell only in the goodness and joy of the favor and blessing of the Lord—blessings brought about by the redeeming work of Christ Jesus. Yet, was it not also at the cross that sin was judged in its finality—that the devil’s head was finally crushed and his power broken? Indeed, we must always remember that for the believer, the cross means judgment and eternal life in the presence of Christ, but for the unbeliever, the cross symbolizes eternal condemnation in the fires of Hell. Oh, how important it is to see that one goes hand in hand with the other.
One may protest in that Jesus does not quote this part of the verse, but ends with the language of the Year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:19). Yet, as we have mentioned before, when New Testament writers are quoting from the Old Testament, they are expecting the Old Testament passage to be understood within its original context—a context that speaks of judgment as well as redemption. In addition, Jesus speaks a great deal about the judgment that will come as a result of his own redemptive work (Matthew 13:47-50, for example). Thus, to suggest that Jesus did not have the full context of Isaiah 61:2 in his mind when he read these words cannot be supported.
One other thing that I find particularly interesting in this verse is the contrast of time between the language of the Year of the Lord and the Day of Retribution. Though I am not sure that we can draw a hard and fast principle from this, I do think that we can safely infer that a contrast is being made between a time when judgment is met out with finality and fullness (ultimately in the general resurrection when all men will stand before the throne of God and the books will be opened (Revelation 20:11-15)) and the ongoing and long-enduring nature of the Year of the Lord’s Favor, a time which was initiated at the cross and will be consummated in the new creation with the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-10). Oh, the enduring nature of our Lord’s promise and the finality of His judgment upon sin and unbelief—how they are wed together, and how they are inseparably a part of Christ’s redemptive work! Beloved, do not miss the importance of Jesus’ earthly ministry and of the cross—upon the cross, both judgment and redemption find their meaning—apart from the cross, divine wrath is all we could ever hope to know.
Forgiveness is All about Christ
“And those who you forgive, I also do. And indeed, those which I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anyone, is because of you, in the presence of Christ, in order that we might not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts.”
(2 Corinthians 2:10-11)
“For we are not as many are, selling the Word of God for profit, but rather out of sincerity, as ones from God, in the presence of God, it is in Christ that we speak.”
(2 Corinthians 2:17)
The devil’s desire is to cause dissention and division within the body of Christ. His desire is nothing but one of destruction, waging war against the followers of Christ. One way he does that is by hampering our forgiveness of others. Not only does that hamper our forgiveness from God, but it also allows the roots of the weeds to remain in your heart—and then those ugly weeds will grow back, choking the life from you. One of the easiest ways in which you can defeat the work of Satan in your life is by being broken and willing to forgive—even at great cost.
But we do what we do not because we want to wage war against the devil—he has waged war against us. We do what we do because we are not our own; we belong to Christ. And thus, all that we do must be done in Christ and through Christ. It must be done for his glory and his glory alone. When things are boiled down, nothing else matters. We have been called and commissioned by God as his servants, and it is a mighty task that God has commissioned us to do: making disciples of all nations. Yet this task begins with our right relationship with God through Christ and our relationship with others through Christ. Our Christian witness must be one of both word and deed, forgiving as we have been forgiven. Beloved, recognize that you have been given a sacred task to forgive both small and great for the glory of God. As St. Francis of Assissi, once said, “Preach always, and if necessary, use words.”
Forgiveness is Sacrificial
“And he shall cause all its fat to go up in a smoke offering upon the altar as the fat of the sacrifice of the peace offering, and so the priest shall make atonement for him from his sin, and he will be forgiven.”
(Leviticus 4:26)
“If then the blood of male goats and bulls and ashes of a heifer sprinkled over the ones who are defiled sanctifies the flesh for purification, how much more the blood of Christ, which through the eternal Spirit, offered himself blameless to God, will cleanse our conscience from the dead for serving the living God?”
(Hebrews 9:13-14)
Forgiveness does not come easily, but comes at a great cost. Even unintentional or accidental sins (which the passage from Leviticus is dealing with) are not dismissed without cost. And though the one who is asking the forgiveness may have to pay a cost, ultimately it is the one doing the forgiving that pays the greatest cost. It is dangerous to forgive someone because when you do that, you open yourself up and make yourself vulnerable to being hurt again. Yet, God paid the ultimate cost to offer you and I forgiveness—he sent his son to die on the cross to pay the blood penalty for our sins.
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!
This sacrificial nature of forgiveness is not something that our culture values. People usually end up on one of two extremes. The one who has offended usually wants to take no responsibility for their offense, wanting a “get out of jail free pass” as part of your forgiveness. In contrast, the one who has been harmed usually wants the person to pay, and pay, and pay, whether that be in a huge monetary settlement or by laying a burden of guilt upon the other party. This is not the model that God sets for us. While we were still rebelling in sin, he sent his son to live and to die on a cross to bring atonement. He has promised us that if we repent of our sins, he will forgive us, the price of the sin being already paid by the blood of Christ.
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing!
If our Lord, full of holiness and grace, would choose to sacrifice himself to bring us forgiveness, should we not also model this in our lives? One of the greatest ways that we can demonstrate God’s love and forgiveness is by forgiving others with the same sacrificial willingness that our Lord demonstrated to us. Friends, this life is short and passing away. Though the hurts and injuries caused by others my seem insurmountable now, in the scope of eternity, they are insignificant and will pass away with this life. What better way can you bless someone than by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them through your forgiveness—as much as that forgiveness might cost you to give.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on!
Forgiveness is the Result of Love
“And they refused to obey and they did not remember your wonderful works which you did with them. They hardened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in their rebellion. But you are a God of forgiveness—gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abundant in steadfast love—and you did not forsake them.”
(Nehemiah 9:17)
This passage from Nehemiah is part of a larger prayer that was led by the Levites, proclaiming the covenant faithfulness of God even in the midst of the sin of the people and repenting of their sin as well. This was part of a covenant renewal—recommitting themselves as a nation to the service of God on high. The prayer extols the ds,x, (hesed) of God (translated here as “steadfast love”). God’s ds,x, (hesed) is one of the great themes of the Old Testament and describes his covenant faithfulness and mercy despite the covenant breaking of his people. It is a term that is very closely tied with the New Testament term, ajgavph (agape), which refers to a sacrificial love that loves regardless of whether that love is reciprocated.
Friends, because of God’s great love, you have experienced forgiveness. You who were rebelling against God in your sin, you who were unworthy of anything but eternal condemnation, have experienced this forgiveness when you were born again. How is it then, that you can withhold forgiveness of others? It is because of the great love that God has shown to you that you can forgive others. If you have never experienced the love of God, then it is understandable that you cannot forgive, but you who have experienced the love of God need to demonstrate that love in the way you forgive those who have offended you—even when they are still in rebellion against what is right.
Most English translations of the Bible translate the central section of this verse as: “appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt.” The word that is translated “in Egypt” which I have translated as “in their rebellion” is the word MDy√rImV;b (bemiryam). Literally, this word means “in their rebellion” as I have translated it. “In Egypt,” though, would only vary by one letter, and would look like this: Mˆy∂rVxImV;b (bemitsrayim). The only difference is the presence of the letter c (tsade-which gives the “ts” sound). Given the context of the prayer, which is speaking of Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness wanderings and their complaining—many expressing the desire to return to slavery in Egypt, most translators consider that the missing tsade was just a scribal error when the text was being copied thousands of years ago.
At the same time, the reading of the ancient text should not be ignored. We must never forget that the people’s sin is rebellion against God and sin binds us in spiritual chains. God’s redemption of the people from their physical bondage in Egypt is a picture of what God’s redemption of his people’s bondage to sin would look like as fulfilled in Christ. The way our English Bibles translate this word, then, probably best reflects what these priests were praying, but we should never forget what is being done by God in the larger picture of redemptive history. And that is God’s faithfulness in spite of our great unfaithfulness.
Friends, there will be people who will harm and offend you. There will be people that it will seem like you could never forgive. Yet, I plead with you who have experienced God’s ds,x, (hesed), show that ds,x, (hesed) to others in the way you forgive. One thing that I often hear at funerals is “I wish that I had taken the time to tell this person that I loved them have forgiven them…” Beloved, don’t live with regrets, love and forgive others as God has loved and forgiven you.
Forgiveness is Sincere
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous in order that he might forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
I saw a skit a number of years ago that depicted how many American families interact with one another. In the skit, both the husband and the wife carried a ledger around with them. When one person did something nice for another, it was marked down in the ledger. When something mean or careless was done, it too was marked in the ledger. Debates then ensued between each person about how many plusses or minuses that each had.
Though this seems like a rather silly way to live life, it is the way that many people live. So-and-so did something nice for me so now I am obligated to do something nice for them—even the slate, as it were. And also, so-and-so offended me in this way, so I need to keep track of it lest they offend me again. Then, when the question of forgiveness comes along, it might be offered up front, but if anything bad ever happens again, then the ledger can come out and the “remember when” is uttered.
We have talked about a lot of things that forgiveness is not, one thing that forgiveness is, is sincere. Forgiveness is meant to be acted upon and lived out. If you forgive someone, then there can be no notes kept in the ledger book regarding their sin toward you. It is not held over someone’s head, either, in the hopes of making them feel guilty or that “they owe you” something. Forgiveness does not have a remember when attitude.
This is not to say that scars will not remain even after you have forgiven another person. Sometimes wounds are very deep and need a long time to heal. But the reason that scars remain is not so that you can continue to hold said sin over your offender’s head, but the scars remain to remind you what God has brought you through. The scars also remain as a testimony to the world that God has preserved you through trials and tribulations and perhaps will allow you to minister to others who are facing a similar crisis. There is great power in being able to say that I have faced the same thing you are going through, God has preserved me, and God has enabled me to forgive. That is a powerful testimony.
Friends, I have said this before and I will continue to say this as long as I draw breath. You and I have been forgiven more than we can imagine. Our sin is more heinous to God than a thousand sins that another could do to you. Your sin—my sin—cost God the life of his Son, what more need I say? And beloved, if God could forgive you, then God can enable you to forgive one another as hard as that may seem. Trust Him to do that work in you.
Forgiveness is not Optional
“For if you should forgive people their offenses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you should not forgive people, neither will your father forgive you your offenses.”
(Matthew 6:14-15)
“For if your Hebrew brother or Hebrew [person] is sold to you, he will serve you six years, and in the seventh year you will release him from being with you. And when you send him free from being with you, you shall not send him out with empty hands. You shall surely provide abundantly for him from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat. For Yahweh, your God, has blessed you; you shall give to him. And you shall remember—for you were a slave in the land of Egypt and Yahweh, your God, redeemed you. Because of this, I command this thing of you today.”
(Deuteronomy 15:12-15)
“And you shall make holy the year of the fiftieth year and you will proclaim liberty in the land to all who dwell there. It is to be a jubilee for you. And you will return, each man to his possession and each man to his family. You shall return.”
(Leviticus 25:10)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the sake of which, he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind and to send forgiveness to those who are broken down—to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:18-19)
“And all who believed were with each other, and they held all things in common.”
(Acts 2:44)
One of the things that you find as you study scripture is that there are themes that begin in the Old Testament and are developed to their fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. These themes, as they develop, point more and more to the need of something greater than simply a human fulfillment and are meant to show us our absolute need of Christ to fulfill what we cannot do on our own. This theme of the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee is one of them.
According to ancient Jewish law, God commanded that every seventh year, those who were in debit to you were to be let free and pardoned (see the passage from Deuteronomy (above). This principle was based on two things. First, it represented the principle of the Sabbath being applied to all of life. Not only then were masters to have their servants and slaves rest on the seventh day, but in the seventh year, their slaves were to be freed and sent away with enough wealth that they could start off a new life on good financial footing.
The second principle that this is based on is the principle of God’s release of the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt. Because they had been slaves at one time, and God redeemed them from their oppressors, they were always to remember that and do the same for the slaves in their household. And as they had left Egypt with great possessions, so too, should their slaves leave their households with great possessions. The language of the passage is forceful and stresses the idea that this command of God was not an abstract rule that he was giving them, but they had an obligation to their slaves that flowed out of their very national identity. They are ones who had been redeemed—they then must be redeemers of others.
As an important side note, earlier in this chapter about the Sabbatical year, where God is talking about the forgiveness of personal debits, there is a promise that if the people would be faithful in this, God would bless their land and there would be no poor amongst them. Oftentimes, it was poverty and debit that forced people into slavery. Were this principle enforced, people would not only pay off all of their debits through six years of labor, but they would get a fresh start with new possessions from the master—the wealth would not be hoarded, but distributed amongst the people. There would still be some who were wealthier than others, but no one in the land would be in need.
In a similar vein, the Jews were to celebrate a year of Jubilee every 50th year. Not only were debits forgiven in the Year of Jubilee, but family lands that had been sold to pay debits were to be returned to their rightful families. It was to be a year dedicated to the worship of God and all he did and a year dedicated to restoring family bonds and connections.
The problem with all of this is that the people did not follow through on the command that God had given them to fulfill the Sabbatical year or the Year of Jubilee. To do so would have represented a huge financial loss to those in power financially. Human beings, because of sin, tend to be rather selfish, and the promise of no poor in the land was not an incentive for the wealthy class to relinquish part of their wealth.
As the misery and poverty that resulted from the people’s failure grew, God issued a new promise through the prophet Isaiah. Because the people could not fulfill the year of Jubilee, God would do it for them. Isaiah proclaims that a messiah would come who would proclaim this year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1-3). In Jesus’ first recorded sermon in his hometown (Luke 4:18-19), Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah and states that the prophecy has been fulfilled and it is fulfilled in him.
You see, Christians live in the year of Jubilee, for the ultimate year of Jubilee is in Christ. Many people wonder, when they see the picture of the early church sharing everything (Acts 2:42-47), what is going on here. They oftentimes think of this as some kind of Christian communism. That is not the case at all. There were still those who were more wealthy than others. The people understood that Christ had ushered in the Year of Jubilee in its fullness, and they were celebrating it! As a result, not only did the church grow, but God blessed it so that there was no want or need.
Obviously, this model did not continue—it is a very special picture of a very special time. And it is meant to be a pointer to what living as the church will be like when we enjoy eternity with Christ in the new heavens and earth—free from the effects of sin. At the same time, it is a reminder to us, that we live in the year of Jubilee, and as we have been forgiven our debits by God, we also must forgive the debits of others. Just as it was God’s command that the debits (financial and otherwise) be forgiven between God’s people in the ancient Jewish time, so too, we must forgive the debits of others in the life of the church as well.
Loved ones, we are not the rich men, owning many slaves to release. We are the poor slave, oppressed by sin, and God has proclaimed our release in this year of Jubilee that was inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How is it then, that you who have been forgiven so much can justify holding forgiveness against another—especially against our brothers who, in this year of jubilee, are seeking to return home to the Christian family.
Forgiveness is not a “Get out of Jail Free” Pass
“Let every soul be subject to the authorities that are in power, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist are appointed by God. Thus, those who resist this authority resist what God has decreed. Those who resist will receive judgment. Indeed, the ones who rule are not a terror to those doing good works, but to the evil ones. If you want to not be in fear of the authorities, then do good things and you will have praise from them. For he is a servant of God and there for your good. But, if you do evil, you shall fear! He does not carry the sword in vain. For God’s servant is the avenger of God’s wrath on the ones who do evil. Therefore, the necessity is to be subject, not only because of this wrath, but because of the conscience.”
(Romans 13:1-5)
God institutes laws and governments for the basic purpose of rewarding good and punishing wickedness (see also 1 Peter 2:13-17). As believers, we have an obligation to submit to those governments and laws even when those laws are harsh (note that both Peter and Paul were executed by the governments that they were telling us to submit to). The only time a believer has the authority to go against the laws of the government is if those laws would cause you to sin (for example the account of Daniel and the law forbidding him to pray to God—see Daniel 6).
One of the things that Christians often struggle with is do they hold someone accountable in a legal sense for something that they have offered forgiveness to another for. Or, from the opposite side of the coin, should I still be held legally responsible for my acts if someone forgives me. This is a difficult question and should be made both in prayer and in subjection to the law of the land. There are times when the law would allow you to prosecute someone who has sinned against you, but to do so would be vindictive, and that would be a sin.
Yet, if someone has caused you monetary damage, then it is perfectly valid for a believer to expect the other person to provide reasonable restitution even after forgiving the other person. The Christian has the right to show grace on the offender if he or she is so led, but should not feel guilty about asking the person to repair or replace what has been damaged or taken. Likewise, the believing Christian, who has wronged another Christian, should expect to repay said damages whether or not forgiveness is offered.
But, there are some cases that the law demands legal action be taken. If a severe offense like murder, arson, rape, abuse, etc… is committed, then the law of the land demands that the offender be tried and receive the government’s standard of justice. The Christian should not stand in the way of this. Forgiveness should be offered, but your forgiveness of the offender does not satisfy the demands of the government. When Christians stand in the way of governmental rulings in such matters, they are rebelling against the authorities that God has instituted for his purposes and to do so is to doubt God’s purposes. It would be sin.
Loved ones, when someone wrongs you and you offer forgiveness, you should not feel afraid to expect that damages should be repaid. These damages or costs should not be inflated and should be reasonable. In turn, when you are forgiven for having wronged another, you should expect to repay any losses unless the offended person chooses to show you grace. And lastly, you should not interfere with the exercise of the State’s legal action even after you have forgiven them—the state is doing what God designed the state to do, whether the state is overly benevolent or overly harsh. Let your conscience be at peace and forgive, trusting that God will put all the other pieces of the puzzle in their proper places.
Forgiveness is not Lip Service
“When the brothers of Joseph saw that their father had died, they said, ‘What if Joseph bears a grudge—he will surely return to us all of the evil that we did to him.’ So they sent an instruction to Joseph saying, ‘Your father gave an instruction before he died saying, ‘Thus you will say to Joseph: please lift the transgression of your brothers and their sin as they have done evil to you.’ And now, please lift the transgression from the servants of the God of your father.’ And Joseph wept when this was said to him. His brothers also came and prostrated themselves in his presence and they said, ‘Behold, we are as your slaves.’”
“And Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in God’s place? But you, you planned evil for me; God planned good. For on account of these doings, many people are alive today. So now, do not fear. I will provide for you and your children.’ Thus, he comforted them and spoke to their heart.” (Genesis 50:15-21)
Of all people who would have had the “right” to hold a grudge against those who had harmed him, it would have been Joseph. His brothers were not only jealous of him for the favor that his father showed to him. They abused him and stripped him of the precious robes that his father had given him (remembering for a moment that clothes had an important symbolic function in the Old Testament for they conveyed your position in a family or in the courts—the disrobing of Joseph by his brothers was an act of disowning him from their family). Then, they tossed him into a pit and sold him into slavery rather than killing him. While Joseph ended up in a position of great authority in Egypt, he also spent many years in Egyptian prisons after his encounter with Potiphar’s wife. He had every reason to want revenge against his brothers and after their father died, that is exactly what his brothers feared. Now, the brother whom they had abused was the most powerful man in the land next to Pharaoh. From a worldly perspective, these brothers were right to fear for their lives.
But God’s people don’t live according to a worldly perspective; they live according to the Word of God. And when God forgives, there are no grudges that remain. As David writes in Psalm 103:
As distant as the east is from the west,
He will remove out transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion on sons,
Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.
Because of the fullness of the work of Christ, the forgiveness that is offered in his blood is so full and complete that there are no remnants or blots of that sin left upon our account. Not even the impression of the sin (as a pencil leaves an impression in the paper even after the pencil mark is erased) is left after Christ has washed us clean.
Unfortunately, because of our fallen state, we have trouble letting go even after sin has been forgiven. As I mentioned above, if you only remove the surface part of a weed from the ground, it won’t be long before the weed returns. Holding on to anger over sin when we have offered forgiveness is not God’s way; it is the way of the world and the way of the world’s master, Satan.
What we must understand is that the only reason for holding on to that anger and frustration is so that we might be able to retaliate sometimes down the road. As I was growing up, there was a series of novels by Lloyd Alexander that I used to like to read and a statement was made in one of those novels that has remained with me to this day. When asked about revenge, the older, wiser character responded, “Revenge is not sweet, but is a bitter dish to dine on with little nutrition to add.” Friends, vengeance does not belong to God’s people, but belongs to God alone (Deuteronomy 32:36, Romans 12:19).
God has stated that he will bring vengeance against his enemies and he has also promised that he will order all things in this world—both good and evil—for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). Thus, when you seek your own revenge, what you are saying is that you doubt God’s ability to bring about good from evil deeds and that you doubt God’s capacity to avenge his name. Beloved, this is a very dangerous position to take, because in doing so; you have placed yourself above God in your capacity to right the wrongs of others.
Friends, let Joseph’s model always remind us that God is in control of events around us. He will provide for our needs and in his timing, he will right the wrongs that have been done to us. Don’t fall prey to the temptation to forgive only on the surface and cling to the desire for revenge—for this is not forgiveness at all.
Forgiveness is not Minimizing
“And even now,’ utters the LORD,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and lamentation!
Rend your hearts and not your garments!
Return to the LORD, your God,
For he is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abundant in mercy,
And he grieves over wickedness.”
(Joel 2:12-13)
In addition to condoning sin when we take someone’s repentance lightly, we also minimize both their sin and their repentance. When we simply say, “don’t worry about it,” we convey to the person who is repenting of sin that repentance is not that big a deal. And, indeed, just the opposite is true. True repentance is hard work and requires someone to set aside their pride and humble themselves before another. True repentance also requires a change of lifestyle—a turning away from the sin that was done—and when you minimize the sin this way, you minimize their change of heart and life.
True repentance is not simply saying “I’m sorry” and moving on with life, but true repentance requires a turning around of lifestyle. If we were going to take a church trip from Mississippi to Florida, and we all climbed aboard the church bus with me driving. If we found, after we were on the road for a while, that we had just crossed the Mississippi river into Louisiana, there would be a problem. As the driver of the church bus, it would not do for me to simply say, “Whoops, I’m sorry” and keep on traveling toward Texas on Route 20. I would need to find the next exit and turn the bus around, putting it on the road going East and not West. Repentance is the same way. It takes work and commitment. It expects you to grieve over your sin and seek to change the direction that your life is going. There is a brokenness that takes place as part of repentance that drives you to change. That brokenness is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when you make light of a person’s repentance by minimizing it, you also make light of the Holy Spirit’s work.
Friends, God calls us to himself as broken and humbled sinners with nothing to our account that can be offered. Yet, God does not leave us broken down, but begins rebuilding us that we might stand as a mark of his glory to the world. If God took us as broken down sinners and sought to build us up (indeed, He is still doing that building), then we ought to do the same and seek to build up those who come to us in repentance for things that they have done that have offended us.
Forgiveness does not Condone Sin
“As obedient children, do not conform yourselves to the things you formerly did in your ignorance and lust, but according to your holy call. You should be holy in all your ways, for it is written, ‘you shall be holy, since I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:14-16)
So many times, when people come to us for forgiveness, we simply respond by saying, “that’s ok, don’t worry about it.” But the reality is that if someone has done something that requires repentance, it is not “ok” and they should be concerned about it. The reality is that they have done something to hurt you and for you not to take that seriously is to be dishonest with yourself and with the person who offended. Our response should rather sound something like, “You have hurt me and I have been deeply offended, yet God willingly forgave me my sins toward him, and because of that, I can forgive you of your sins toward me.” When honesty like this is expressed between two people, then the beginnings of reconciliation can take place.
One reason that I think we take sin so casually in our culture is that we take forgiveness casually. We do not realize how harmful our sins are before God because we are not allowed to realize how harmful our sins are before our fellow man. Until we begin to take sin seriously, we will never take the forgiveness that God offers seriously, and we will not take seriously the unimaginable cost that Jesus had to pay on account of our sins.
Friends, forgiveness is not easy, and when you make it easy, you might as well be condoning the sin, because the silent message that is sent is that whatever was done was not such a bad thing to do after all. Take sin seriously and take the repentance of others seriously. Do not condone it, but recognize the sin for what it is—ugly in the eyes of God. At the same time remember that your sins cost God a terrible price, and because God is willing to forgive you, you should be willing to forgive others.
He left his father’s throne above
So free, so infinite his grace!
Humbled himself—so great his love!
And bled for all his chosen race.
Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For O my God, it found out me.
Amazing love! How can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
(Charles Wesley)
Forgiving Iniquity
“Who is a God like you, lifting iniquity and passing over rebellion
Toward the remnant of his possession?
He does not hold his anger forever,
For he is pleased to show mercy.
Let him return; let him greet us with love.
Let him subdue our iniquity,
You shall throw all our sins into the depths of the sea.
You shall give truth to Jacob
And mercy to Abraham
Which you swore to our fathers
From the days of old.”
(Micah 7:18-20)
So why is it that forgiveness is so important for the believer? First of all, it is modeled for us by God. God is perfect and holy; God is truth and truly beautiful. If we are to grow in grace, that means growing like God. And growing like God means learning to forgive as God forgives. From the very point that Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden, there was a promise of redemption. Fallen man has never lived a day where that promise has not been before them. There was no probationary period before forgiveness was extended and no waiting in limbo until God decided what to do about sin. Forgiveness in Christ was offered to Adam and Eve at the fall, that all who would put their faith in him (or for Old Testament Saints—in the promise of the coming Christ) would be saved and be reunited with the Father and have eternal life with him. Thus, in light of all God has done, God expects us to work hard at forgiveness.
And forgiveness takes work. When I was growing up, my parents had a good sized vegetable garden, and as children, my sister and I were expected to help keep it weeded. The problem with weeding a garden is that weeds often have deep and firm roots, and if you don’t get the weed up, root and all, the weed will grow right back practically overnight. It is easy to pull up the top of a weed and make the garden look nice, but it is far harder to get the weed—root and all.
When you fail to forgive someone, the hurt and frustration that you hold onto are very much like the roots of those weeds. They may lie dormant for a time, but they will come back up all over again. I know that there have been times in my own life when I thought that I had removed the anger over a particular situation by the root, but years later, the anger over that situation arises anew and must be killed anew.
Friends, not only will refusing to forgive others destroy your soul in the next life, but it will destroy you in this life as well. Just as weeds sap the nutrients from the soil that good plants need as well as choking those plants out, so too does the anger you hold onto eat at your life and hamper the good works you seek to do before God. Friends, do not hold onto your anger; forgive others that you may be forgiven and forgive others that you may demonstrate the love and mercy of God to the world around you.
Forgiving the Wicked Servant
“After summoning him, his master said to him; ‘Wicked servant! I forgave all of your debit because you begged me, thus is it not necessary that you show mercy on your fellow servant as I also showed mercy to you?’ And angered, his master delivered to the inquisitors until he could pay back all that he was obligated to pay. And in this way your heavenly father will treat you if each of you should not forgive your brother from your heart.”
(Matthew 18:32-35)
If you turn to the Gospel of Matthew and take a peek at the passage that these verses come from, you will see that this is the conclusion of what is often called “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.” As the story goes, there was a master who had a number of servants. Because the servants were not always wise in their dealings, sometimes the master would loan them money. One day the master decided that it was time to bring the accounts up to date. When his accountants presented him with his financial books, he quickly realized that one of his servants had accrued a substantial debit; in fact, it was a debit so great that the master knew that the servant had no hopes of ever being able to pay it off. Thus, he called the servant in to see what he had to say for himself.
When the servant came in, he was horrified at the prospect of having to pay such an astronomical debit and fell on his face, repenting of his evil ways and pleading with the master for mercy and forgiveness. Because the master was a kind and loving master, he not only extended mercy to the man but grace as well. He forgave the man the entire debit so that the servant might know what a good and merciful master he served. The servant understandably went away rejoicing at the master’s gift.
Sadly, bad habits die hard and soon this servant found himself wanting for money again. Then, he remembered that a neighbor owed him respectable, but not overwhelming sum of money. Thus, the servant went to his neighbor and demanded payment. Unfortunately, times had been difficult for his neighbor as well and his neighbor did not have the funds to pay the servant what he owed. The neighbor pleaded with the servant to allow him to pay in smaller installments, but that was not good enough for the servant, and he had his neighbor thrown into debtor’s prison until the neighbor’s family could raise the money to pay his debit.
The master heard about what had transpired, for news travels quickly in any region of the world, and he was enraged by what he had heard. He had shown mercy to the servant in a great way and the servant had been unwilling to show even a small amount of mercy to his neighbor. The passage above relates the master’s fierce rebuke of his servant.
There are a few things about this parable that we should put before us so that we can understand its full impact. The first is that as Jesus tells the story, he refers to the amount of debit that each man had in terms of denarii and talents, and while those measures of money were clearly understandable in Jesus’ day, we have trouble relating to the measure of these debits. A denarius was equal to about a day’s pay for a common laborer during Jesus’ day, thus the money that the neighbor of the unforgiving servant owed was nearly 5 months’ wages (based on a 6 day work week). While not an impossible amount of money to pay off, it was still a sizeable debit—probably about the same level of burden that a new-car payment would be to us today.
A talent on the other hand was equivalent to about 6,000 denarii. In the parable, the servant owed the king 10,000 talents—or 60 million days worth of labor. On a 6-day workweek, that would take nearly 192,308 years to pay off! It would take the entire salaries of 2,000 workers, working for 96 years to pay this debit off! In modern terms, this figure would look something like the national debit. With this before us, now, perhaps, we can start to get a better feel for the ratio of debit that these two men had to their names. To help bring things into perspective even more, the gross national income during the height of Solomon’s reign was 666 talents of gold. Solomon was the richest of the kings of Israel and the debit that this lowly servant owed was 15 times greater.
Friends, Jesus did not tell this parable simply to make us shudder at the amount that this unforgiving servant owed, but he used such great amounts to try and give us a picture of how much we owe to God as a result of our sin—a debit that a hundred, indeed, not even a thousand lifetimes could repay. This debit, Jesus offers to pay for us if we just would put our faith in him. As the hymnist, Elvina Hall once wrote:
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe;
Sin has left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Yet, there is another side to the coin. The punishment for the servant who was forgiven yet refused to forgive was to be thrown into torture. This is no debtor’s prison that the master sends the servant to, but literally, the passage says that the master handed him over to the basanisth/ß(basanistas). This word is used not so much to refer to a jailer, but to refer to a jailer who tortures. Probably the closest thing that we have in our more modern history is the Inquisitors that worked for the Roman Catholic Church not only in Spain but elsewhere in the world. These men went out of their way to devise tortures that would push men and women to the point of death without killing them. This is the general idea that Jesus is conveying. It is not simply that this unforgiving servant will have to sit in jail for all of eternity, but he will experience horrendous torture day in and day out for that time.
If you haven’t made the connection yet, Jesus is painting a picture of what Hell is like. It is a place of never-ending torment and pain. It is a place devoid of mercy. It is the place prepared for the Devil and his minions, yet unbelieving humans will be sentenced to that place as well if they stand unforgiven by God.
Friends, you who have been forgiven so much, how is it that you can refuse to forgive the comparatively small debits that people around you owe. Even the greatest offense that one can inflict upon you is but nothing compared to what you or I owe to God. Believer, you have been forgiven that which you could never hope to pay—demonstrate that same mercy that God has shown you to the world around you.
The Preacher's Study 