I WAS GOING TO
SUBTITLE THIS:
GOD’S GREATEST PROBLEM:
PASTOR KENNETH BENT
BUT THAT DIDN’T COME
ACROSS QUITE THE WAY I IMAGINED!!!!
THE REASON I SAID
“GOD’S GREATEST PROBLEM” IS BECAUSE FOR GOD TO FORGIVE US, HE HAD TO FULLY
MAINTAIN HIS HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HIS INDIGNATION AGAINST SIN, AND AT
THE SAME TIME BE JUST, PROVIDING A JUST WAY TO ALLOW HIS NATURE OF GRACE AND
FOREBEARING AND FORGIVING TO BRING FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION TO ALL MANKIND.
HOW COULD HE BE BOTH
JUST AND JUSTIFIER?
THE ANSWER OF COURSE,
IS THAT IN CHRIST, GOD RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF. HE HIMSELF, IN CHRIST, BORE THE CURSE OF SIN
FOR US ON THE CROSS. GOD HIMSELF GAVE HIMSELF TO SAVE US FROM HIMSELF.
PERFECTLY BALANCING
HIS HOLINESS AND HIS LOVE IN CHRIST ON THE CROSS.
NOW ON THE BASIS OF
THE SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS AND HIS DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION,
BY FAITH, WE APPROPRIATE GOD’S FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION.
IT IS ON THE SAME
BASIS THAT WE ARE ABLE TO FORGIVE OTHERS, AS EPHESIANS 4:32SAYS:
BE KIND TO ONE
ANOTHER, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, EVEN AS GOD IN CHRIST ALSO HAS
FORGIVEN YOU.
Key Scripture: 1 John 1:9
Important Points:
1. Forgiveness
absolves a person from the penalties, not the responsibilities, of the past.
2. There is a
difference between asking to be forgiven and asking to be excused.
Forgive me is not “excuse me.”
3. Forgiveness is the
offender’s right and the offended’s command because it was paid for by the
blood.
4. There is a
difference between forgiveness and restoration.
Restoration is always in mind in
concert with forgiveness.
“Yes, I forgive you, son, for breaking the
window with your baseball, but now let’s talk about how you are going to earn
the money to pay for its restoration.”
Luke 19:1-10 – Zacheus, forgiven, seeks to
restore…evidence of true heart change.
Old Testament: for items like Stolen oxen, or
borrowed items lost or destroyed, restitution must be made.
Galatians 6:1,2 – “restore” in the spirit of
meekness/humility.
5. Whoever confesses
and forsakes their sin will have mercy.
True repentance and forgiveness is not
the same as saying;
“I’m sorry if I made you feel bad.”
Scriptural Discussion:
Matthew 18:21,22
21 Then Peter
came up and said to him, “Lord, how often ywill my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? zAs many as seven
times?”22 Jesus said
to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22, ESV)
When Peter asked Jesus
how often should he forgive his brother who sins against him, Jesus responded
with an overwhelming number: 70 times 7, that is to say, every time.
Forgiveness is then in the following verses in a story is
characterized as a forgiving of a “Debt”
Luke 6:37
37 ij“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you
will not be condemned; jforgive, and you will be forgiven; (Luke 6:37, ESV)
In fact, a promise is
connected to us forgiving others of their trespasses against us. Jesus said if
we forgive others we will be forgiven also. This is the basic principle of
sowing and reaping and treating others like we want to be treated ourselves. The
grace of God is sufficient so that we might access His storehouse and forgive
others in Christ.
Forgiveness is both a
right and responsibility. Each offender has a right to be forgiven because
forgiveness is based upon the blood of Jesus. The offender has a right to be
forgiven while the one who is offended has a responsibility to forgive.
Forgiveness is not based on what the person does or does not do, rather
forgiveness is based on what Jesus did.
1 John 1:9
9 uIf we confess our sins, he is vfaithful and just to forgive us our sins and rto cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, ESV)
1 John 2:1
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that
you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ywe have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 zHe is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only but aalso for the sins of the
whole world.
Proverbs 28:13
Commentary:
SOME THINGS NEED TO BE
KEPT IN THE FOREFRONT OF OUR THINKING:
IF I DO NOT ESTEEM
GOD’S HOLINESS, THEN I CHEAPEN HIS GRACE AND FORGIVENESS.
IF I DO NOT THINK OF
MY SIN AS EGREGIOUS TO GOD AND OTHERS, THEN I FAIL TO SEE MY NEED TO BE
FORGIVEN OR TO FORGIVE OTHERS.
THE DIALOGUE IN 1 JOHN
CHAPTER 1 IS REALLY INSTRUCTIVE HERE:
Man says about sin:
(using the repeating phrase: “if we say”)
Verse 6 –I deny that
sin breaks fellowship… I have fellowship, but walk in darkness – then I deny
the effects of sin in hurting my fellowship with God
Verse 8 –I deny that
sin exists in my nature. then I deny the reality of the existence of sin, and I
am self deceived, and therefore have no sense of guilt or obligation to God or
others.
Verse 10 – I deny that
sin shows itself in my conduct – therefore I can justify anything I do.
When a person is born
again they become a new creation in Christ and as such gain access to a
storehouse of God’s grace. This storehouse is filled with every good and
precious promise, all paid for by the blood of Jesus. At the point of
salvation, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins, old things pass away
and all things become new. We are forgiven the eternal debt of sin and are
given and open door into God’s grace of continued forgiveness.
Without question the
grace of God is sufficient to cover every failure and the sins which do so
often beset the saint. The grace of forgiveness comes when we recognize our sin
before God, confess our sin to God, and forsake that sin. This grace is available
and abundant when accessed by a true heart of repentance. More than simply
saying, “excuse me” we must mean “forgive me” with solemn contrition because
each request makes its demand on the blood of Christ. For without the blood
there can be no forgiveness.
Not only can we access
the forgiveness we need for our sin but we also can access the grace of
forgiveness which we need to pardon others. Just as Jesus said, “forgive and
you will be forgiven.” Forgiveness is a right while restoration is a responsibility.
Forgiveness does not relieve one of the responsibilities for their past.
However, forgiveness does absolve and fully pardon from the penalties of the
past. Forgiveness is the responsibility of the one who was offended while
restoration often costs the offender.
TO
RE-EMPHASIZE:
REAL
FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS IS TO ABSORB THE COST OF THEIR SIN.
JESUS
TALKED ABOUT “DEBT” AS DESCRIBING THE NATURE OF SIN.
“FORGIVE US
OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.” MATTHEW 6:12
TIM KELLER:
FORGIVENESS MEANS GIVING UP THE RIGHT TO SEEK REPAYMENT FROM THE ONE WHO HARMED
YOU.
THIS IS A
VOLUNTARY SUFFERING ON OUR PART.
YES WE
SHOULD “CONFRONT AND RECONCILE”
MARK 11 /
LUKE 17:5
IT TAKES
FAITH – IN THIS CONTEXT, THEY SAID “LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH!!!”
EPHESIANS
5:1,2
CONTINUALLY
STRIVE (BE IS PRESENT IMPERATIVE) TO BE KIND, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING (ALSO A
PRESENT TENSE PARTICIPLE)
BAKER
ILLUSTRATED COMMENTARY ON Ephesians 5:
“It is
uncomfortably threatening both to forgive without guarantee of a favorable
response and to give up personal anxieties without assurance of provision.”
TO
BE TRULY FORGIVING OF OTHERS, I MUST:
1)
NOT
USE IT AGAINST THEM.
2)
NOT
TALK TO OTHERS ABOUT IT.
3)
NOT
DWELL ON IT PERSONALLY.
EXTRA
STUFF:
. . . you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this.
In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.
But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness.
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury.
But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it?
Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (New York: Harper Collins, 2001; Originally published 1949), 181-183
(emphasis and paragraphs mine)
