**I preached this sermon, based upon concepts from John MacArthur's book "The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness", originally in 1999. Since then, I have preached it a few times and have modified it to fit in a devotional format. Over the next few weeks, we will discuss the topic of forgiveness, and how that when we forgive we are the most like Jesus Himself.--JH
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32
Vengence is in style today, forgiveness is not. We can see this in our society, with lawsuits running rampant for the stupidest of things. We can see this in the media today, with talk shows like Jerry Springer and the like, and in movies like "Dirty Harry" where Clint Eastwood tells a perp at gunpoint, "Go ahead. Make my day." We see that the world is drunk on wrath, and this is evidenced in road rage, drive by shootings, crimes of vengence and shootings among teens.
Generally, there are two main issues that are addressed in Christian counseling. The first group is one that struggles with guilt, that cannot forgive themselves and the second group is replete with those that have a sinful propensity to blame others and withhold forgiveness for wrongs done. There are also those that fall into both of these categories in varying degrees.
Both of these categories point to people that are miserable; the only true way out is thru a better understanding of what the Word of God teaches about forgiveness. If you doubt that the Word of God can solve these problems, then you put a limit on God, casting doubt on the power of God and his word.
How We Picture God Can Affect Our View Of Forgiveness
* Do you picture God as a being that is watching and waiting for you to drop the hammer on you?
* Do you envision God as a being that is just waiting for you to make a mistake so that He can squash you like a bug?
* Do you picture God as being unmerciful and unforgiving?
* Do you picture God as being ultimately neutral and forgiving, and that He looks the other way when we sin and that we have nothing to fear from God at all?
All of these views are not just wrong, they are dangerously wrong when we look at the issue of forgiveness. This week, we will look at the basis of all forgiveness and how often we ignore this and, quite honestly, make hypocrites of ourselves in the process.
* Self Centered Views Of Forgiveness
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32:4 (NKJV)
How we look at forgiveness can often be self centered. On one hand, don't we all expect to be forgiven and consider it highly virtuous when forgiveness is extended to us, but when we are the person injured by an offense we cry "It's not fair to forgive! He's got to pay for what he did to me!" Forgiveness, mercy and justice are three of the highest of virtues. How do we bring them all together? How do we reconcile them to each other?
How can God forgive us as wretched sinners? God can do that, that's what God does, you may say. He's God, and God can do what He pleases, you may say. He could forgive all sins, and none would go to Hell. But, when we think in these terms, we hold God to an unbiblical standard. Scripture does not contradict scripture, and God will not contradict Himself. God is a God of love, but also that God is a God of perfect justice. To look the other way would violate this perfect justice.
* First, The Bad News
God will punish each and every sin that occurs on planet Earth:
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7)...
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet (Nahum 1:3).
God describes the relationship with Him and sinners as one of enemy to enemy:
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom 5:10).
God hates sin, and all who sin are His enemies:
God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps 7:11)
He hates those who do iniquity:
The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; you hate all workers of iniquity (Ps 5:5).
Now you may be thinking, "Well, I just sin a little. I'm basically a good guy, and maybe I've told a white lie here and said a swear word there and had some bad thoughts from time to time, but surely not enough to send me to Hell." However, a single sin makes us a criminal in God's system of justice, and there is only one penalty for both the murderer and batterer, the shoplifter and the armed robber, the man with impure thoughts and the rapist.
James tells us that minor sins are the same as breaking every commandment:
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10).
All it takes is one sin--a crime in God's system--to condemn.
He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. Prov 17:15
* God Is Perfectly Righteous, Holy and Flawless
Because of His perfect righteousness, His sense of justice is also perfect. He would sin, if he were to violate His perfect justice, something God would never do. In the above scripture, God calls those who condone sin an abomination! Abomination sins are worse than others; abomination means "foul smelling and repulsive to a holy God." He could never, ever just let sin go.
*How Does One Ever Get Saved?
Scripture tells us, in the book of Romans, that God does justify the ungodly--
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness...(Rom 4:5)
And he covers their sins--
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (verse 7)
And he refuses to take their sins into account:
"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." (verse 8).
Confused? Perhaps you are saying "Now wait a minute. You just said that God punishes sins and he would be an abomination unto Himself if he were to do just that. But now we see that God will also cover sin and refuse to take it into account...I'm confused." God has not A plan, but the PLAN!
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor 5:18-21 (NKJV)
* Making Your Peace With God
How can God make the sinner just, cover his sins and refuse to take those sins into account without violating His attribute of justice? It is through the ministry of reconciliation, as we see in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 above.
The word or a form of the word "reconcile" is used 5 times in this passage. What is the meaning of reconcile? We think of it being an accounting term, referring to reconciling or balancing your checkbook, the accounting books, and so on. The Greek word for reconcile means "to change, to exchange, as coins for others of equivalent value...to reconcile (those who are at variance) b) to return to favor with, to be reconciled to one c) to receive one into favor." Spiros Zodiates defines it as such:"Jesus taking over your sin debt and paying it". God sets aside His wrath because, as we see in verse 21: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
God is the author of all reconciliation; He is responsible for the whole process. We can contribute absolutely nothing to this process because of our sin:
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6, NASB)
Also the Bible also says And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). Dead is dead, unable to respond. The act of eternal forgiveness starts with God, because the offense of our sin is so repulsive to Him that our deeds do not count.
We can't get ourselves cleaned up for Him so that He will accept us, as we could not possibly meet His demand for a purity that equals His own. Perfectly righteous. Perfectly just. Perfect in every way. If we think that we can make ourselves presentable to Him on our own, we slap God in the face. John Bunyan once said "the best prayer ever prayed had enough sin in it to damn the whole world.".
We grossly underestimate the bondage of sin in our lives when we are not saved. Which brings us to a point that you need to think about: it's not our hostility toward God that keeps us from Him, it's His wrath toward us! Hard to accept? If you look over the text from 2 Cor 5 again you will see that it is God that makes move toward reconciliation, not us. God is the author and finisher of reconciliation. God has always been the seeker of reconciliation. We can see this in the Garden of Eden, as God sought them out. We can see it in the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and in many other places too. God is, by nature, a Savior.
Look again at 2 Cor 5:19: that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. There is a means of reconciliation; God provides the means for reconciliation.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach...Col 1:21-22 (NASB)
God provides the means. But, as we saw earlier, God also can't just look the other way. He provides the means--For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21), yet God must mete out His divine wrath--this happened on the cross. What does the cross have to do with forgiveness? With the forgiveness that I give? EVERYTHING.
There are three key terms that describe what Jesus did on the cross so that we could be forgiven: substitution, propitiation and imputation. In short, Jesus took our place in being punished by God on the cross, that would be substitution. God's wrath because of our sin was whipped on Jesus through both the physical and the spiritual as the absence of that fellowship, that one-on-one relationship that the Godhead had enjoyed for all of eternity, a fellowship that was ripped apart. He willingly took this punishment, this separation from God the Father, us so that we would not be separated from Him for all of eternity.
Jesus is also our propitiation, an adequate sacrifice for our sin. The requirement for us to get into heaven is sinlessness.Only Jesus has had that quality. We were lost sinners until our sin was transferred to Jesus, the only spotless, stainless man to ever walk the earth. God gave Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. And in suffering and dying on the cross, satisfying the righteous wrath of God against us and landing on Jesus, our sins were imputed (swapped) to Jesus and in turn He gave us His perfect righteousness in the legal sight of God the Father, the Judge.
At the cross, God's love and justice meet head on. On one side we see the love that God has for us, that Jesus hung on the cross giving Himself for us. On the other hand, the full fury of the wrath of God that should have been for you and me was put on Jesus Christ His Son. Justice was satisfied. All of the pain that you and I should have endured forever was spent by God on the cross that day. The separation that Jesus suffered we will never have to face. ALL SO THAT WE COULD BE FORGIVEN.
Folks, God takes forgiveness seriously. So serious that the Son of God died to satisfy the requirements of punshiment of sin. Look to the cross, and the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made, and the fact that it every claim that Jesus made, all of it was validated when Jesus arose on the third day.
Now give this some serious thought. Since Jesus forgave us of all sin on the cross, each and every sin, and will never hold those sins against us in judgment resulting in a forever death sentance in Hell, how can we have the audacity to withhold forgiveness from those that wrong us? Are we not the world's biggest hypocrites in doing such?
Your feelings are hurt and can't forgive?
You pride was hurt, and can't forgive?
Someone made fun of you, and can't forgive?
You were used by someone, and can't forgive?
You think that it's awful how Joe was so mean to Jim, and can't forgive?
If so, my friend, you are putting yourself on a pedestal about Jesus Christ--He died for your sin, the ultimate act of mercy, love and forgiveness. No matter what the sin, our exercising of forgiveness is mandatory to God.
Take a moment today, and ask God to reveal to you those people that you hold a grudge against or will not associate with. Ask God to forgive you so that you will be in right fellowship with Him, but also ask God to give you the words and the strength to forgive those that have wronged you. It's what Jesus would do.
