Forgiven!

Forgiven!

by Grant Thorpe

God has made us to live before him in faith, hope and love. Wherever we do otherwise, we need to be forgiven. We are in debt to God for something not given to him that belongs to him. Many people have feelings of guilt and many things are done to alleviate them, but sin against God means we are actually guilty. If it were only a matter of feelings, we could do something about it ourselves. Actual offences against others and God cannot be processed in isolation from the other party. There is a relationship to be restored.

So, who can forgive sins? That was a question people asked Jesus Christ. He forgave someone, and wanted those who witnessed the act to know that he had power on earth to do it. People at that time knew only God could forgive sin, so who was this man?

Mark 2:5

Later, it became clear that Jesus was the Son of God. He was raised from the dead by his Father to show us that all Jesus had said was true. If Jesus forgave sins, God had forgiven those sins.

Luke 5:21; 7:49

Later on, Jesus again forgave sins. He was dying by crucifixion and said: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.' His power to forgive was not just because of who he was but because of what he was doing. He was a human being, and what he was doing he was doing among us and for us.

Luke 23:34

People who follow Christ do not see themselves primarily as religious people. They know Jesus Christ is Lord in this present world. They believe this because he was raised from the dead. They know their sins are forgiven because Christ died for them and was raised up again. All this is very simple but it goes to the depths of each person and touches every level of community life.

Forgiveness is a powerful action. Anyone who has been forgiven or who forgives another will know this is true. Just on a human level, forgiveness can produce amazing healing of relationships.

Everyone needs forgiveness

Every time someone is wronged, the matter of forgiveness comes up: that is, whether to forgive the wrongdoer or not. Many evil deeds happen every day so the question is always present. Should we forgive each another? If so, why? What difference would it make if I forgave someone? What difference would it make to them, or to me or to the community?

If we do not forgive one another, Jesus said, there is no way we can be forgiven by God. It is important that forgiveness happens among us here and now. This is not just because of the damage we do when we don't forgive, but because, by not forgiving, we are fighting against what God has done and is doing to heal this world. God's forgiveness can cure the wounds we have. By announcing forgiveness, God has revealed how he has purposed to heal the world.

Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35

The well being of the world can only flow from the forgiveness of God. The same could be said of marriages and families and groups of people. The harm we cause one another arises because we are not at peace with him. If we are carrying around with us the burden of ignoring our Creator, we cannot avoid all manner of other acts (and inaction) which do damage to others as well as ourselves. Our humanity is defiled, and, in wronging others, we further incur God's anger because our victims were made in his image.

What if God could cancel our debt, forgive our sin, declare us accepted in his presence, reconcile us to himself? What would that do to our life? What horizons would that open up? What if we had the moral power to forgive our neighbour from our heart? What would that do to the world?

Jesus said to proclaim forgiveness.

In fact, when Jesus rose from the dead, he commanded his followers to go everywhere and, in his name, announce that people should turn to God and receive the forgiveness of sins. This is what they did. Everything in them wanted the forgiveness they had received to be received by others. For them, it was not just a formal declaration but a longing, with God, that those who were estranged from God and from each other would know peace.

Luke 24:47

We got it wrong, but...!

When the good news of Christ was first preached, the particular sin the apostles wanted people to know about was the killing of Jesus. Israel had killed their Messiah because they would not obey his word.

Acts 2:23; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39; 13:28; John 8:37-47

Israel had been on the wrong track. Now, their self satisfaction was blown apart. The apostles did not accuse them of murder because they were worse than anyone else. They were showing that this is what humanity had done-all of us. Jesus had been right all along. He was God's Son and had come to give us new life. God proclaimed all this himself by raising Jesus from the dead.

If anyone does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, they are basically doing what Israel did. But the apostles were not interested in anyone being condemned. They had been sent to announce forgiveness. Jesus was raised from the dead to announce this. The apostles knew killing Christ was a sin for which there was forgiveness because Jesus had prayed that it would be so from his cross.

Luke 23:34. The reason for the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin is because the world does not believe in Christ. It is the spirit of Antichrist to deny Christ (John 16:9; I John 2:22; 4:3).

The apostles were also eager to show that Jesus would be the Judge of the earth. It was right that he had this task because he had been raised from the dead. Who can argue with someone whom God has raised from the dead? Clearly, here was someone God has approved and given responsibility for the rest of us. If he is to judge us, and he is the one we harmed when we sinned, and he has forgiven us, then that settles the matter. Who is there left to accuse us?

Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 8:31-34

Forgiving is something God really wants to do. In pagan religions, it is the worshipper who is anxious to be forgiven. He or she may offer gifts to appease an offended deity. Christ has shown us that God is more eager to declare us forgiven than we are to seek it. He has come to us as the gift of God, to offer himself up, so that we may be forgiven. A person who hears that they are forgiven by God has discovered God. They themselves have been changed by God acting freely, gladly, graciously and sovereignly. No-one 'bent God's arm'. He has given them the gift of changing their mind, and, restored them to true peace by his word.

Our proud spirits may want to keep God at bay, but God commends his love to us through what he has done to bring forgiveness to us.

The way of God's forgiving

The forgiving that God has done is not cheap. It is not toleration or leniency. If God let any evil unattended, he would be voting in its favour and there would be no world worth living in or God worth serving. Here we are dealing with a central problem in all forgiving. Who pays when wrong is done?

For centuries, Israel sought God's forgiveness of their sins by killing lambs and bulls and goats and birds, all according to precise instructions given by God. Worshippers would place their hands on the head of an animal, confess their sins and then kill the beast and give it to God to be burned. Sometimes they would eat part of the animal in God's presence to represent the fellowship that had now been restored. In these ceremonies, God would declare that their sins were forgiven.

These offerings had no validity in themselves but pointed to the fact that when a covenant with God had been broken by sinning, the proper result was death. They also pointed to the hope that God would do something about their sin, provide an offering that would actually remove sin.

The covenant God made with Israel was accompanied by sprinkling of an animal's blood. God anticipated that there would be a breaking of his covenant and provided the means of forgiveness at the outset. Without blood being shed, there would be no forgiveness of sins or atonement made, or reconciliation.

Exod. 24:8; Heb. 9:18-21; Lev. 17:11; Col. 1:20

There had to be a better offering than animals however. Jesus came as 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' This is how Jesus was introduced to Israel by John the Baptist.

John 1:29

Before Jesus died, he celebrated the Jewish Passover feast with his apostles. In this feast, Jews remembered the occasion when God saved his people from Egypt. Every family had taken a lamb and sprinkled its blood on their doors to save them from death. Now, at this Passover meal, Jesus made a covenant with his people which could deal with their covenant breaking and assure them of the forgiveness of sins. He took a cup of wine and said: 'Drink from it, all of you; this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'

Matt. 26:27-28

Not long after this, he was being crucified. God made him to be the offering for our sins. The one God had sent to represent him, did so by representing us. Far from remaining aloof, he took our sins as his own. In our place, he acknowledged that our wrong doing deserved death. In our place, he offered to his Father God what a human being ought to offer God-pure love expressed in obedience. In our place, he suffered the anger of God against those who had broken his covenant. On our behalf, he forged a new humanity where humble service would replace the excesses caused by our false drives and anxious consciences.

Isa. 53:10; Heb. 10:7

God had promised a new covenant to supersede the covenant which his people had broken, a new covenant in which they would be forgiven and would know God. Christ came and showed us that this covenant would be sealed with his own blood. When he died, he did so for the sins of the whole world, so we know we can go everywhere and announce the forgiveness of sins in his name. God's people will come from all nations.

Jer. 31:31-34; Zech. 9:11; Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; I Cor. 11:25; Heb. 10:29; 13:20

It is by this act that the God of all nations now presents his love to us. Jesus is God's Son, his only Son, his beloved Son, his eternal Son, his chosen one sent to reveal his love to us. What Jesus has done, God has done. This was the act of love we needed more than anything else: someone to bear our sin and to carry it away, someone to give us a new life under God's favour and Fatherhood.

Rom. 5:6-8

Because Christ did all this in our place, there is now a new humanity in Christ, a humanity in which sin has been acknowledged and its judgement endured, a humanity that is one with God. When Jesus was raised up, all who rely on him are raised up with him to live to God, forgiven.

II Cor. 5:14-21

God had never been interested in someone dying in our place-if everything finished there. He wanted reconciliation of his enemies, restoration of what was broken. He planned for the whole creation to be brought to perfection and wanted the human race to enjoy with him all that he had in mind when he created the world.

Eph. 2:4-7

The power of God's forgiving

If you find yourself confused by Christ's death on a cross, you are not alone. The cross without the resurrection left the apostles confused. Where did they now stand?

It took the resurrection, the risen Christ himself, to proclaim what he had done on the cross. He particularly summoned the apostle Peter who had denied that he knew Jesus. When the apostles were together, Jesus explained many prophecies that showed it was necessary that he suffer and be raised up again, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name-to all nations.

Luke 24:45-47

If Christ had not been raised from the dead, we would still be caught up in our sins. Forgiveness is usually linked with Christ's death, but it had to be announced to us by Christ himself, raised up from the dead. Forgiveness is not an idea to get into our heads. It is not a feeling to encourage. It is the announcement of the one we treated as an enemy and who has been raised up by God with authority to forgive sins.

I Cor. 15:17; Acts 10:38-43;13:37-39

The resurrection has proclaimed to us that what Jesus has done on our behalf is completed, acceptable to the Father and powerful in its working. He was raised up for our justification. It is not just Jesus who has been shown to be righteous; everyone who trust in Christ is regarded by God as righteous.

Rom. 4:7, 25; Col. 1:13-14; 2:13

His resurrection was the first part of his return to the Father to be our Advocate at the right hand of God. God had removed the evidence of our sinfulness. There is no body! There is no evidence to convict us of the crime-unless we produce that evidence by our refusal to receive his favour.

Acts 2:31-38

Death was the result of our sin but it had no more hold on Jesus, nor any more on us who believe in him. 'Decay' had not set in. Sin had always led to death, but not any more. Sin led to Christ's death and he abolished it. It now has no sting, that is, no condemnation of God's law. We are freed (justified) from all breaches of covenant law.

Acts 13:37; I Cor. 15:55f

In one place where this message was proclaimed, the people begged for it to be spoken about again. In fact, the whole town came out to hear. What could be more significant to us or any community than the forgiveness of sins?

Acts 13:42, 44

Forgiving is a covenant act

One of the reasons we have such trouble forgiving one another is that, of ourselves, we have no moral context in which to do it. It seems to be just 'us' and 'them' and we are not sure what the relationship is between 'us' and 'them' or how it will change if we forgive 'them'. This is settled if we understand forgiving as an act within a covenant. God is bonded to what he has made. He has revealed his covenant relationship to the world, and forgiveness, his, and ours, happens properly inside of that relationship.

Cf. Heb. 9:15; cf. Acts 13:39

Sometimes a wrong done in a community is so gross that the deed becomes an affront to everyone. Some well meaning people in the community say that they forgive these people. Nothing except confusion is achieved by this. The only person who can forgive another is the person offended.

God's forgiveness is forgiveness for our breaking covenant. When someone murders, steals, commits adultery, lies or covets, or when anyone does not love the God who made them or rely on his goodness, God's covenant with the creation has been broken by that person. The very fabric of society is threatened by breaking of God's covenant.

Isa. 24:5

Remarkably, God has not seen our breaking of covenant as the end of his covenant responsibility for us. He has remained bonded to us, pained by our distain, jealous for our love, angry with our abuse of his property. But, instead of pointing the finger at us, making us pay for the trouble we caused, he assumed the shame and moral consequences of the broken covenant himself.

God sent his Son, in a manner of speaking, to 'collect the rent', and he was killed. But this Son had been sent, willingly, to take the place of the unfaithful covenant partner. All that should happen to a faithless creature happened to him.

In Christ's coming, something else wonderful has happened. He is the beginning of a new people who, with him, is God's faithful covenant partner. In Jesus Christ, all who believe in him, and love him, are regarded, with him, as God's faithful covenant people. Jesus made a new covenant or remade the one we had broken. This is what Jesus had in mind when he said 'This is my blood of the new covenant.'

Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:2; Rev. 17:14

God forgave us in order to restore us to covenant faithfulness. This then spills over into our relationships with one another. If one sins against another, the offended party is to seek reconciliation. Forgiving in this world is difficult if we have no understanding of whose law has been broken or what has been done to uphold righteousness. However, within God's covenant, there are means available, not to get one's rights so much as to gain one's brother or sister.

Matt. 18:15-20

So, Christ's death is the sign that God is still bonded to this world in covenant. He is being faithful to his world and he will have a faithful humanity sharing with him in bringing the world to its goal. When God raised Jesus up from the dead, he showed that our breaking of the covenant has not had the last word. After all that has happened, he is still our God and we are still his people.

Acts 2:38-40

It is God who has said we are to love one another. He has an unshakeable plan to have the whole earth full of the knowledge of his glory, a world in which none will hurt or destroy another. God can enable us to be as he is, but his enabling comes by way of forgiveness. From the beginning, he showed us that we would find God and ourselves, not by being good but by discovering his forgiveness, discovering him, and so reflecting his nature. If God forgives sin, we can forgive within his forgiving. The whole matter of love is rediscovered through forgiveness and so God's law and his purpose are fulfilled.

Isa. 11:1-9; Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 7:47

What about repentance?

Repentance is important, not because it is a condition of forgiveness but because it, also, is a gift. No-one could be forgiven for doing something they thought was good, or excusable, or something they planned to do again. That would be moral nonsense. Jesus said he came to make an end of our sins. When he died on the cross, he did not just bear our punishment; he bore our sins. He bore them so they could be brought to an end. When he forgave someone, he had saved them from their sin. He could say to them: 'Go and sin no more'.

Rom. 6:1-2; John 5:14

Repentance is a change of mind. It is a change of mind about God, about ourselves, about what we have done, and especially, about Jesus Christ. Before, we may have thought he was no-one important. But all that has changed. We now believe he is the Son of God. We believe he rose from the dead. We believe he has power to forgive sins.

How could such a change come about? Christ has not come to bring us some ideas to make us think, or some opportunities to inspire us into action. He has come as the moral Lord of the universe and with a new life to live in him. He has come to turn us around, from ourselves to him, from our idols to God. He has come as God, the offended party, to do something with our sins and to say that we are forgiven. That is, he does not just provide the means of forgiveness but he brings it to us.

Acts 5:31

Experience of forgiveness

What happens when someone is forgiven? The best way to discover this is, of course, to be forgiven, but it will be good to talk about this as well because it is part of the revelation God has made to encourage us to be forgiven and to live in forgiveness.Israel's King David tells us what happened to him when he would not confess his sins. He deceived himself and others, he groaned and lost his strength. Then, when he confessed his sin and was forgiven by God, his deceit was gone, he knew God's blessing and steadfast love and was confident of God's deliverance from all his troubles.

Psalm 32

Forgiveness works a remarkable moral change in a person. God told his people that he would forgive their sins, give them a new heart and restore their fortunes. Then, he said, they would loathe themselves for what they had done. This would not be the self-loathing caused by remorse but the disgust that they could be so bad to one who was, still, so good to them. Forgiveness means that parties who were separated are now united. The one who has been forgiven is eager to bring pleasure to the one who forgave them.

Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 20:43; 36:31

Forgiveness is actually the remission of a debt, in this case, an unpayable debt to God. However, all that we owed to the Father because of a life spent ungratefully and selfishly, is paid in full. All the restitution owed because we had profaned what belonged to him is made good. Christ offered himself to God, in our place, as a pleasing offering. There is nothing outstanding, nothing to arouse God's anger or bring about his withdrawal from us. All of the misdeeds belonging to us have been reckoned to Christ and they are no longer reckoned to us. All of the moral dignity Christ has in the presence of his Father is given to us. This gives to us what Christ has in his own right: boldness to come to God, and freedom to come in love to our fellow creatures.

Eph. 1:3-6; 5:1; II Cor. 5:19-21

A forgiven person has a clear conscience. We usually say that a person has a clear conscience because they have done nothing wrong. In our case, we cannot persuade God that we have done no wrong, but we can receive the offering of Christ in our place. We can be thankful that all our misdeeds have been brought out into the open when Christ died. This offering for sin has been accepted by God. If God's 'conscience' is satisfied, ours has nothing to fear. There is no need for anyone to go on making 'offerings for sin', and certainly not to appease the anger of God.

Heb. 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22

Our conscience is fundamental to what we really are and yet it is so readily our enemy! But Christ has come to free the conscience from its weight of misdeeds. All that is necessary for a sinful person coming into God's presence has been done by Jesus Christ. We do not stand alone. We stand with our Advocate-one who takes our place. In him, with Christ as Lord of our conscience, we have a steady freedom from shame and guilt.

Forgiveness is described as a redemption or freedom, that is, being lifted out of slavery. This means that the person who is forgiven is free of God's judgements and the fear of death, free of the necessity of self justifying excuses and actions, freed from the defilements that had entrapped them, free to love because fear has been removed. The past has no more hold on such a person. Elsewhere it is described as coming alive.

Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 2:13; Heb. 9:15

Jesus met a woman who was forgiven. He knew she was forgiven because of the love she showed to him. Everyone has been structured for love. It is the most natural activity for a human being. When the fear of God's judgement has gone, when we are declared right by God, when normal relations with God have been recovered, love flows readily enough. It is not too much to say that God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Luke 7:47; Rom. 5:5

There is really no such thing as partial forgiveness. God has not come to us with a score of grievances to be settled one by one. He is our Father and it is the relationship he wishes to recover, not his losses. In Christ, he proclaims to us that every sin is accounted for, no sin is remembered, or ever shall be. In Christ, that is, abiding in Christ and not seeking a life outside of him, there is no constant remembering of sins, just a constant remembering of his mercy and confidence to live in his will.

Heb. 8:10-12; 10:2-3, 10, 14-18

If God forgives our sins, there is no tension in our relationship with God. He and we have the same view of everything: the same view of him and his Son Christ, the same view of ourselves and our sin, the same view of our new status as children, the same confident hope for the future.

Forgiveness is one of the happiest things that could happen to anybody. Often, it is not clear how much our lives have been tied up in guilt until we are forgiven. Things that were chores before are now easy. People who were difficult to endure are now friends. Worship which had to be 'worked up' is now more a matter of standing in what God has 'brought down' to us.

Ongoing forgiveness

The Bible story makes it clear that the forgiveness of God is an enduring gift. Sins once forgiven are forgiven forever. That means that the past is accounted for. What of the future? Actions that God has forgiven ought never to be repeated, but if they are, we still have an Advocate with the Father. Christ is our Advocate for life and not just for 'emergencies'. We can be secure in the knowledge that if we sin in the future, there is for that sin also, One who will answer for us.

Psa. 103:12; Jer. 31:34; I John 2:1-2

In fact, every Christian discovers that their life is more caught up in sin than ever they had realised. If they thought that they would rarely if every sin after becoming a Christian, they could tip over into despair. Paul said : 'I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.' Although he had to acknowledge such an inconsistency in his person, he could still say 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.'

Rom. 7:21-25; 8:1

A person who goes on sinning as though such a thing were nothing shows that they are not walking in God's forgiveness at all. They are warned of fearful judgement. Such warnings are not given to make the anxious person despair but to warn the complacent person to beware.

Heb. 10:26-31

Forgiveness in the church

Christian love requires that forgiveness flow freely. The dynamics of being forgiven by God create in us the impetus to forgive readily. A person can be broken in spirit if the protest against their sin is maintained for too long.

Eph. 4:32; II Cor. 2:7

If one member wishes to gain another who has sinned against them, it is right that they go to the person to make their grievance known so that fellowship may be restored.

Matt. 18:15-17

Forgiveness in society

Some may be fearful that forgiveness between peoples will prevent people taking moral responsibility for things that have happened. Others may suspect that a forgiving world is a world of 'warm fuzzies' in which difficult issues can be avoided. However, if forgiveness is proclaimed in Jesus name, there has been and will be no avoiding of anything. What he has done has been done in the light which exposes everything for what it is. He has brought the world's sin into God's light and has let the light of God deal with it as it deserved.

Forgiveness from God does not mean that there will be no human consequences. David received the forgiveness of God for his murder and adultery but had to live with the consequences of his action for the rest of his life. But he lived the rest of his life under the forgiveness of God and with all the dignity of one who was loved and justified by God.

II Sam. 12:9-14; Psa. 51:1-13

So . .?

What exactly would a person have to do to be forgiven by God? This can be answered simply. 'Believe in Jesus Christ!'

Acts 2:38; 5:31; 13:38

Many years before Christ, Abraham believed in God and this was reckoned to him as righteousness. God did not impute his sins to him. Our problem all along has been that we believed in ourselves more than in God. Now, with our own track record exposed, let us look to God and his Son.

Rom. 4:3-8

Put all your confidence in him. Don't put any confidence in yourself. It is unnecessary. There is enough humanity, enough future, enough righteousness, enough sorrow for the past, enough dignity in him for us all. Let your righteousness be simply this that you trust in the Son of God. This is peace. This is God's path into the future and into a world in which righteousness will cover the earth.

� 2000 Grant Thorpe