FINDING GOD THROUGH HIS FORGIVENESS

FORGIVENESS IN JESUS NAME

When Jesus Christ was crucified, he called out: 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing'. He did not excuse their actions or say that they did not matter, but recognised that they were deceived by their sins. He asked his Father, God, to cancel the moral debt they had incurred by this transgression of God's law. If this sin-murder of God's Son-is the most serious of sins, it is clear that Jesus is announcing a whole new order.

The nature of God's rule in the creation is that he does not charge our sins against us but calls us to believe in his Son for the forgiveness of them. In not holding us accountable for our sins, he has held his Son accountable for them. Christ has joined himself to us in love to this end. Forgiveness is not a forgetting of our sins or a denying of the situation caused by them; rather, it is his breaking into the continuing outworking of the act, bringing it to an end.

Sin deceives the person who commits it; they cannot see what is true. It pollutes the person who does the deed; he or she does not have the moral power of innocence. Sin alienates; a person has established a place of their own over against God and their neighbour.

Sin incurs a debt; what was due to God has not been rendered to him and there is no means to make reparation. It makes the person liable to judgement; the indignation of God is aroused. Sin plays into the hands of Satan; he is the accuser who manipulates people through their guilt to be about his work rather than the work of God.

Sin is primarily against God. That is, if we have offended another human being we have offended their Maker and broken his law. Chiefly, we have not wanted to have God in our thinking. When sin is unacknowledged, it begins to destroy us.

When we see that God has brought sin out into the light-at the Cross-we can recognise it and turn from it to Jesus Christ.

Given the strong power that conscience has over us, can we be sure that our sins are forgiven? Christ has commanded his church to announce the forgiveness of sins in his name. He has offered his blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God has authenticated this man by raising him from the dead and he announces to us the forgiveness of sins. By Christ's offering of his blood, our conscience is cleansed and we are delivered from the accusations of Satan.

God commands that we trust in this man Christ whom God has raised from the dead. In him is the forgiveness of sins-not in us. Through faith in him we may have assurance of forgiveness. If we remain partly trusting in our own merit or reparations, or do not desire to come under his gracious rule, we will lack assurance.

The longing for human oneness and intimacy is enormous. The need for human oneness with God is irreplaceable. The lack of it causes great human distress and disorientation.

Now, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are reconciled to God and-with Jesus Christ-call him Father. We have 'come home' and know God personally. We know he is the God of grace and mercy. Our fear of him is no longer the fear of punishment but of awe-that our Judge is of such a character. God has brought us great joy and pleasure. We also know that, in receiving his gift, we have brought him great pleasure and continue to please him while we respond gratefully to his kindness.

We also have fellowship or partnership with one another. We have peace, or oneness. The sins that kept us from God and from one another, the blood of Christ goes on cleansing, so the fellowship is enduring. In his grace, we are called to forgive one another and be tender hearted to one another.