Amazing Grace
January 31, 2010
Eight people entered a glass enclosed biosphere in September 1991, in Tucson, Arizona. Four men and 4 women volunteered for a 2 year experiment of isolation. All were scientists and had undergone intense psychological evaluations. Yet, within months, the scientists split into two groups of four; eventually one group would not speak to the other.1 Eight people lived in a self-contained environment split by an invisible wall of anger and unforgiveness.
Frank Reed is an American who was held hostage in Lebanon. He said after a minor dispute he didn’t speak to one of his fellow prisoners for months. What makes this story all the more remarkable is that during most of his imprisonment, that fellow prisoner and he were chained together.2
Can you imagine what it’s like living with someone who won’t talk to you. Even to be chained to someone? In her book, The Liar’s Club, Mary Karr wrote about an uncle in Texas who sawed his home in two and moved one-half of the house to another part of the property so that he would not have to speak to his wife. They lived on the same land, but didn’t speak for over 40 years. The reason this all began was over how much money she spent on sugar.3
These are all examples of anger. But, ultimately they’re also stories of people who could not forgive. It seems we almost enjoy holding grudges against other people, people we love and live with. Why do we find it so difficult to forgive? Even to ask someone for forgiveness can be so difficult. After all, saying, ‘I am sorry’ is not all that easy, is it? Even when you know you were wrong.
Forgiveness doesn’t seem to be natural. Revenge and retaliation feel better than forgiving. So how do we go about forgiving one another? Should we even become friends with people who have hurt us? And what does it mean if I think I have forgiven someone, but later, I feel anger at them, have I really forgiven them?
Over the next two to three weeks, I will answer these questions and more.
Can someone who causes physical, emotional and spiritual pain; all in one violent act, be forgiven? Can the parent who abuses their child, really be forgiven? These are difficult questions, and the answers are even harder, because many times we don’t want to forgive these monsters. Our intense anger wants them to suffer and rot. Jesus describes hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And we think that’s too good for them.
We end up thinking our unforgiveness will help promote their suffering. But in reality, the one who suffers from unforgiveness is the one who has been wounded. When we cannot forgive, we continue to suffer. We really don’t want to suffer, we just can’t release the anger and memory. Furthermore, we think if we forgive that person, we need to talk to them, and maybe even reconcile with them, and ultimately, we fear they might invade our lives again.
The process of forgiving another means you’re becoming more Christ-like; and this is not always an easy process. Usually it’s painful, and forgiveness can be painful because we don’t always want to extend it.
Remember Peter’s question to Jesus? “How many times must I forgive my brother, seven times?” Peter thought he was being pretty good, better than the rest of the people. He could forgive someone even up to 7 times. But Jesus tells him you must forgive 70 times 7 times. In other words, you must always be willing to forgive.
I don’t think that’s the answer Peter wanted to hear from Jesus. It’s not really the answer we want to hear, either, is it? Most often we like to offer forgiveness only when it suits our purposes and needs. We don’t want forgiveness to be difficult, we want it to taste like our favorite dessert, ice cream or cake or whatever you really enjoy . . . but we all know forgiveness for some of us, maybe most of us . . . tastes more like our most disgusting food . . . for me, it’s raw celery.
If we want to forgive others, it is imperative we understand what it means to be forgiven by God. What holds so many of us back in our relationship with God is the fact that we don’t know what this means or feels like. God looks at you with the tenderest of eyes and tells you, “I forgive you and I love you.”
So, at this point, we’re going to jump onto the Systematic Theology bandwagon. That may sound daunting, but hopefully by the time we’re done you’ll have a better understanding of what it means when God says “You are forgiven.” If we don’t know what it’s like to be forgiven by God, even if we don’t understand what is behind God’s process, we will struggle even more than we already do with forgiving those who sin against us and hurt us.
The main term we will talk about is JUSTIFICATION. The first time I heard of the word justification, I was told to remember it this way, shorten the word to justified, and make it into a sentence saying ‘God looks at me just-if-ied never sinned. Part of it is correct, but it leaves us very short from knowing what real forgiveness from God is like. So, let’s get a working definition. Justification is . . .
. . . an instantaneous legal act of God, in which He 1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and 2) God declares us to be righteous in His sight.
There is nothing we can do to be justified by God. It is all a work on God’s part because of our belief in Jesus as our Christ, our Lord and Savior.
The word JUSTIFY means “to declare someone righteous.” Which is contained in the first part of the definition.
Let me explain this a little further . . .
God is specifically declaring that we are just in His sight. This means God declares that we have no penalty to pay for our sinfulness; which includes past, present and future sins. This occurs at the time you believe in Jesus. It’s all part of the conversion experience . . . God tells us through Paul in Romans 8:1, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Those are great words of comfort from Paul. This means those who believe in Jesus no longer have a penalty to pay for their sinfulness. This means we are not subject to any charge of guilt or condemnation, again.
Remember the words from David in Psalm 103:12 ~ As far as the east is from the west, so far does God remove our transgressions from us. What a great thought, isn’t it? How far is the east from the west? They never meet. You can just keep going in circles around the globe. This is symbolic of God’s forgiveness - when He forgives us, He removes that stain of sin from us.
Ultimately we see God declaring those who proclaim faith in Jesus as righteous in His sight. I know this may be getting beyond what you really wanted to know, and maybe you just want me to tell you how to forgive others, but without understanding the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, we will find it difficult to extend that same amazing grace to others.
When we speak about God declaring us righteous, it means God is imputing Christ’s righteousness to us. This is so important for us to recognize and understand. You see, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, and because of this, God thinks Christ’s righteousness belongs to us. It is not our own righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness which is freely given to us, which frees us from the penalty we deserve. Consider these words from Paul from 2 Corinthians 5:21 ~ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Do you see what Paul is saying? Jesus had no sin, yet God made Him to be a person, like you and I, yet God, so that through Him we could become the righteousness of God.
This is also why in Philippians 3:9, Paul wrote, his goal was to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
Paul adds in Romans 3, 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Folks, take a deep breath here . . . because this is really at the heart of the Gospel, the good news message of Jesus Christ. God declares us to be righteous, not on the basis of our holiness or hoped for righteousness, but only on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness.
So, when Jesus was on the cross, He was paying the price, the penalty for our sinfulness, past, present and future. By dying on the cross, as the one and only perfect man / God . . . God now takes this work of Christ and imputes it upon us, that is, God now views us as righteous because of the amazing work of Christ on the cross.
20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law. – Romans 3:20. It is only because of our faith in Jesus Christ that God can and will offer us the great and free gift of His unmerited love, which is grace and forgiveness.
I can point out many more scriptures about this, simply put, read Romans 3-10 and you will realize Paul uses the word justification or justified 19 times. So, let me close our theology lesson with this
The promise of forgiveness is repeated in Jeremiah 31:34, “I will forgive their sins, and remember their sin no more.” In Hebrews 10:17, God says, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” In 1 John 1:9, John writes, “If we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In fact Easter is about God loving us so much that He sent His Son, to be a sacrifice on the cross, so that we would not have to suffer the penalty for our sins. The opportunity for forgiveness became more real than ever before. And even while on the cross, Jesus made the ultimate statement, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
We are the ones whom God sent Jesus for. He came to live and die for us. That is the supreme act of God’s grace and forgiveness. Forgiveness is very real, and is available to everyone. Once we have experienced that type of forgiveness, and really believe it, we will more readily grant forgiveness to others.
