The Weapon Of Forgiveness Series

Paul Aurandt tells this story of General Thomas Jackson who was the

right arm of General Lee. The Confederate soldiers were so impressed with

his bravery in battle as he stood out in front that they called him Stonewall

Jackson. His first brigade was the most devastating war machine the South

had in the Civil War. The Union Army dreaded any encounter with his

troops.

In May of 1863 he pulled off a victory near Chancellorville, Virginia that

made it into the textbooks. He divided his troops, and then divided them

again, and made a surprise attack. The Union Army had never seen such a

strategy, and they were defeated. But as Stonewall returned to his own camp

his own men hearing him come through the woods opened fire. He was hit

three times and died a few days later, and this ended the unbeatable war

machine of the South.

So often good men die at the hands of their own troops. Our own recent

history as a nation reveals how often our own soldiers perish because of

friendly fire. Warfare is complicated, and it is hard to avoid mistakes. The

same thing is true in spiritual warfare where the forces of light fighting the

forces of darkness often shoot out the lights of their fellow soldiers. When a

soldier of light comes under attack by the enemy and falls wounded on the

battlefield of life because of being enticed into sin, the rest of the troops often

leave them to be captured by enemy forces. This was not the strategy of

General Paul. Every Christian soldier was precious to Paul, and he

established a tradition in spiritual warfare that has become a tradition for

American soldiers. That tradition is that you pay the cost and suffer great

risk to rescue your own.

The wounded soldier may have been stupid to do what he did. He may

have been disobeying orders even, and deserved to be left bleeding and dying

alone for his folly, but the effort is to be made to rescue him and not leave him

to the enemy. So Paul says to the Corinthians that the Christian man who has

been so sinful in your midst, and who has brought grief to us all by his

immoral behavior, is to be rescued from the clutches of Satan and restored to

fellowship. The man he is referring to is the man who was sleeping with his

step-mother, and bringing shame on the whole church, for even the pagans

round about them did not condone such immorality.

The church listened to Paul and put this man out of the church, and they

shunned him, but now Paul says to them that the goal is not to get rid of him

and let the enemy have him. The goal of punishment is to get him to repent so

that he can be forgiven and restored to the ranks of the soldiers of light. The

bottom line Paul says is not to let Satan outwit us, but to outwit him, and the

key weapon of spiritual warfare to achieve this goal is the weapon of

forgiveness. This is a weapon that comes from the arsenal of heaven, and

from the very heart of God. If God was not a God of forgiveness there would

be no spiritual warfare, for all men would be captives of Satan with no hope

of escape. But God is a God of forgiveness. Here are just a few texts that

focus on this fact:

"Thou are to God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful. (Neh. 9:17)

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin.

(Psa. 85:2)

Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive...(Psa. 86:5)

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities...(Psa. 103:3)

I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer.

31:34)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

These do not exhaust the subject, for the forgiveness of God is

inexhaustible. God knows how to use this weapon perfectly. He is the expert

in forgiveness, but for us it is not automatic. We need a lot of practice before

we can wield this weapon well and be affective in rescuing the fallen from the

clutches of the enemy. Dr. Neil T. Anderson is the leading authority today in

dealing with helping Christians and churches get released from the bondage

of sin and ignorance. In his many books he makes it clear that there is no

escape from bondage without forgiveness. The truth will set you free, and the

truth in forgiveness is the key to getting out of almost every kind of bondage

that Satan has in his bag of tricks.