Forgiveness Is Free
Matt. 9:6-7 “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"--then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." 7 And he arose and departed to his house”
Forgiveness signifies the remission of the punishment due to sinful conduct, the deliverance of the sinner from the penalty, Divinely, and therefore righteously, imposed; secondly, it involves the complete removal of the cause of offense; such remission is based upon the sacrifice of Christ.
Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, a well known secular humanist and novelist, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."
Imagine if you had no one to forgive you.
What if every spiteful, hateful thing you had ever said, thought, or practiced remained on your head forever. Everything you ever said in anger that injured another. Every act that betrayed a friendship. Every single sin.
There are, of course, rules and guidelines that God has put before us. He does not want us to ignore these rules. His intentions are for us to follow them exactly as laid out. He has moral and ethical guidelines. Jesus gave us many examples through His own life on how to operate in ours. It is when we fail to follow these rules and guidelines that we are said to sin.
When someone is locked up in a prison, there are many, many rules to follow while they are there. If you should ignore any of those rules, I can promise you that there will be a punishment of some sort to follow. Let me assure you also, that if the offender asked the jailer to please forgive him and just forget the punishment, the jailer might fall over laughing. When we are dealing with our fellow men, most of our iniquities are rarely forgiven.
People who carry the burden of unforgiveness eventually start to show signs of the toll it takes. Unforgiveness keeps us from our families. It destroys marriages. It destroys friendships. Healing and restoration can not start until forgiveness is granted.
But once it is, then we are brought back into broken relationships.
The problem we face though, is there are rules we have broken and only we know about them. There are thoughts we have that no one else hears about. Unacceptable actions that are done when no one sees us.
Where do we go for forgiveness then? How can we free ourselves of the guilt we feel?
There’s a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.
1 Jn. 1:9 “9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
Just like Pacos’ father, God desires to forgive us. And just like Paco, many of us have run off. Many people carry so much guilt that they believe there is no way to return home to God. Some of us carry such a heavy load. Our lives are affected in a terrible way. Feeling lost with no hope for forgiveness, we live for today. Live fast, live hard and die young. And why not? After all, there is no way God can forgive someone like you.
2 Chronicles 7: 14 “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin…”
God loves all of us. And if you have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for you, then you are indeed called by His name. Gods offer here is for all who are His. He has a track record of compassion. All through the Bible we see God as He compassionately and with great love and patience gives His children chance after chance to return to Him. I particularly appreciate the story of David. The man whom God said was a man after His own heart. Let me share this story with you:
2 Sam. 11: “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."
6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 So when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"
11 And Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing."
12 Then David said to Uriah, "Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die."
How many here this morning have committed adultery and then arranged for your lovers spouse to be killed? Probably no one. But even here God shows mercy and compassion. But the key to Gods forgiveness is Davids repentance. When we bear guilt in our lives, we are not much different from King David. To be released from that guilt, do as David did. Go to God. Admit the sin in your life. Ask for forgiveness. Repent and sin no more.
Then, let it go. I tell you that once God Himself has forgiven you, you are forgiven indeed. Remember our definition in the beginning: forgiveness signifies the remission of the punishment due to sinful conduct, the deliverance of the sinner from the penalty, Divinely, and therefore righteously, imposed; secondly, it involves the complete removal of the cause of offense; such remission is based upon the sacrifice of Christ.
Although you have committed a grievous sin, once God has forgiven, the punishment is removed, and your court record before God will be erased. There will remain no lingering memory of your failing for God to call back up.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."*
I have found that one of the hardest things for people to do is to forgive themselves. They will say that they believe that God has forgiven them, but when we talk later, I find that they are still struggling with the same old problem.
How many would argue with the courts of men if the judge forgave you and set you free? Would you go back two weeks later and asked to be tried again? If you owed a credit card company a lot of money, and they forgave your debt, would you call them later and say you felt you should still pay? Why then do we insist on carrying the guilt that God has set us free from?
Psa 86: 5 “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You”
God is ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all who call upon Him. Call. And when you have given it to God. Let go.
Prayer
