CROSSROADS #3/5
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
CROSSROAD OF FORGIVENESS
March 28, 2004
Text: 1 John 1:5-2:2
If we consider crossroads of our lives to be moments of intersection
between God and us, then we recognize that each of these crossroad
moments requires a decision. Each unique encounter typically happens at a
moment when we must choose between following God or following the world.
Certainly one of the most significant issues that we deal with in our
spiritual walk is forgiveness. It is my observation that we meet the
crossroad of forgiveness most often in our spiritual path and daily walk.
In fact, I don't think that I am going overboard in saying that there are
daily opportunities for us to seek forgiveness and to offer forgiveness.
Lessons on forgiveness encompasses the whole range of Scripture from
start to finish. Almost as soon as Adam and Eve were banished from the
Garden, a sacrificial system of atonement was established. By the time of
Cain and Abel, animal sacrifices were offered as a way of obtaining
forgiveness from God. And in the book of the Revelation of John, 22:17,
Jesus is the Lamb of God who says, "Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him
come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of
life." From the Alpha to the Omega of Scripture, the priests, prophets,
kings, apostles, and disciples of God speak about God's forgiveness.
What does this mean to us and to the world? How does this whole system of
forgiveness work? I cannot pretend to have all of the answers available,
nor all of the time in which to pursue this important topic, but I do
hope to provide a window through which we can look and catch a glimpse of
God's thoughts on this vital topic from His word.
At many points in our lives, we would like to become a new person; to
change a series of events which led us into a particular predicament.
Fitness centers predict that we will become a new person if we will lose
weight and tone up our muscles. The Armed Forces advertise that they are
a great place to start new training and careers. There are many ways to
feel like a new person. Some will graduate from school to achieve that
status. Becoming parents is another way. Retiring from the working world
can also make us feel like new persons. We continually strive to be new
and better persons.
This is one way in which we can deal with the concept of forgiveness.
Forgiveness from God allows us to be a new person - a new creation.
Without His forgiveness, we would be trapped in our old, sinful ways.
There would be no way out; we would be perpetually condemned and
eternally separated from the Creator.
The text in 1 John makes a distinction between darkness and light. In
verse 5, the testimony given to us is that "God is light." This is to say
that God reveals Himself to us, and that His self-revelation is of one
who is holy, righteous, and pure. His desire is for us to join Him in His
light. He offers us a relationship with Him which is based upon His
revealed light. Fellowship with God is the highest ideal to which we can
strive. But, we find a perfect fellowship with God blocked by the
darkness of sin. Our personal sin which breaks the relationship that we
would otherwise have with our Lord. This fellowship-breaking sin occurs
both externally and internally.
Externally, we are constantly and consistently bombarded by satan and his
legions. Satan doesn't mind too much our doing of good works, because he
can always find ways to twist and bend them for his own desires. Satan
doesn't mind too much our desire to become educated, for he can always
slip in doubts about God in the innocent guise of scholarship. Satan
doesn't mind too much our perception of God as holy, because he can use
this gulf of difference between God and us to create debilitating
depression and insanity. Oh, yes, satan is a clever one.
Internally, we are continuously faced with pride and denial. It is hard
for any of us to admit that we are guilty of a wrongful act. Usually, we
would rather deny that we are sinners and find excuses for justifying
sin. It is physically and psychologically difficult to admit guilt. We
discover that it is much easier to place blame on others than it is to
accept for ourselves the guilt of wrongdoing. "Well, if you hadn't left
the keys in your car, I wouldn't have stolen it!" Isn't that ridiculous?
Yes, it is. But that is how we try to deal with out own guilt.
That's exactly what we do with God! "Well, God, if you had not allowed me
to meet this girl, I wouldn't be getting a divorce today." Or, "If You
would just let me see a miracle, I could believe in You." Or, "God, if
you just hadn't placed that temptation in front of me, I would not have
sinned." People from all walks of life make these same types of
rationalizations every day and somehow hope that by denying sin they can
justify themselves before God.
Such an attitude is, of course, a delusion. Look again at verse 8. "If we
claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us." The first step in finding forgiveness is facing our need for
forgiveness. Deep in the soul of every person is the thirst to be
forgiven - the desire to have a right relationship with God. We want to
walk in the light with God, but we cannot unless we recognize our total
and complete dependence upon Him to bring about our salvation. We cannot
pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in this matter.
When we can recognize this truth and can claim it for ourselves, then we
begin to move into the light which neither satan nor our sinful selves
can endure; then we begin to "put on the whole armor of God" and
withstand temptations inside and out; then we begin to experience the
intimate, personal relationship with God which He all along intended. "If
we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word
has no place in our lives." But, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness." And at this point, we will begin to experience the
fellowship-restoring miracle of forgiveness. Forgiveness from God is a
miracle because God meets the sinful and unworthy person with full
forgiveness. God's forgiveness is in no way a half-measure or partial
portion. It is a full and complete pardon from the burden of sin and
unworthiness which we are forced to face.
"If we confess our sins," God is "faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins." The great truth of the gospel is that while we are required to
acknowledge our sins, we are not condemned to bear them. This peace of
mind and soul is possible only when we confess our sins and allow God to
set us free. Opposite the attitude that flippantly denies the reality of
sin or tries to ignore it or repress it, the gospel declares simply,
"confess."
That God is "faithful" means that God's character is unchangingly
self-consistent. The unalterable structure of the universe is of justice
and forgiveness. God never acts in contradiction to Himself, and in all
experiences we may depend upon Him to be unalterably just and forgiving
toward us. Because God is faithful, He can thus be the object of our
faith.
That God is "just and will forgive" means that God's mercy is the
function of His righteousness and not the other way around. John's
thought here is crucial. God forgives because His moral goodness cannot
tolerate sin; not that God is morally good because He forgives sin. This
distinction is not academic and is part of the miracle of forgiveness.
God does not conveniently blot out sin; instead, He recognizes sin and
deals with it redemptively as an expression of His faithful love,
righteousness, and mercy.
In this strange and unexpected miracle of divine love, God restores us to
Him completely. He "purifies us from all unrighteousness." In the book A
Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Ron Lee Davis retells a true story
of a priest in the Philippines, a much-loved man of God who carried the
burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had
repented but still had no peace; no sense of God's forgiveness. In his
parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who claimed to have visions
in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, however, was
skeptical. To test her, he said, "The next time you speak with Christ, I
want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in
seminary." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked, "Well,
did Christ visit you in your dreams?" "Yes, he did," she replied. "And
did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?" "Yes." "Well, what did
he say?" "He said, 'I don't remember.'" The miracle of forgiveness is
that God's love reaches out to us, forgives us completely, and restores
us to full fellowship with Him.
We cannot ignore the impact which God's forgiveness has upon our lives.
Since God forgives, we, too, must forgive. In fact, we are released to
forgive! How dare we hold a grudge against our brothers and sisters in
light of verse 2:2, "Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,
and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
On one of the occasions when our Lord talked about forgiveness, he told a
story known to us as the parable of the unjust steward, which is found in
Matthew 18. In this parable, one of the king's servants is forgiven a
debt of millions of dollars. Imagine the relief: instead of debtors'
prison, he was free without paying a cent! We would think that such
forgiveness would have had a positive effect on this servant's character
and attitude. But what do we see him do? He turns right around, demands
payment from a fellow servant, and then has him thrown into prison after
being unable to pay!
The central teaching of this parable is that divine and human forgiveness
go hand in hand. The unforgiving servant is punished because he, a
forgiven person, refused to forgive his brother: "You wicked servant! I
forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had
mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" And the unjust
servant was cast into prison. The parable ends: "This is how my heavenly
Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your
heart."
Consider the impact the teaching of the Lords Prayer in Matthew 6:12 is
supposed to have upon us. Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our
debtors, followed by this teaching in verses 14 and 15, For if you
forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will
not forgive your sins. This can sound frightening, cant it?
We are told that as the Titanic was going down, children and women were
given first space on the lifeboats. During this crisis, social status did
not matter, for everyone was equal; they were all going down. Men from
first class cabins allowed others from lower class cabins to climb into
the lifeboats ahead of them.
Isnt this what Christ taught throughout his ministry? All of us are
going down with the ship, except that, through the cross, we are offered
space in the lifeboat. This makes me very equal to a lot of other people
- everyone else, in fact - and my God-called purpose is to try to get
more people into the lifeboat, not chase them away. Displaying
forgiveness as God has forgiven is one way to reach down into the water
and pull others onboard.
Forgiving others is not an option in the Christian faith. It is a command
-an imperative. It is a mark of humility, servanthood, and obedience; all
of which are marks of Christ, himself. And what servant is greater than
his master?
In the final analysis, though, we may tend to be much like the unjust
steward. We expect God to forgive us, but we go on treating our debtors
as before. Like the older brother from the parable known as the prodigal
son, we stand back and pout because our father welcomes home his wayward
son and throws a big party at his return. We find it difficult to
forgive.
But we must work at it. Erwin W. Lutzer, author of How to Say No to a
Stubborn Habit, tells us that
many Christians believe that they cant
forgive until they feel like it! They think that if they forgive when
they dont feel like it, they are hypocritical. You know that you cannot
switch your emotions on and off. You cannot develop the right feelings on
your own. But God is not mocking you when he tells you to forgive; you
can choose to do so, whether or not you feel like it.
The crossroad of forgiveness: God chooses to restore us into His
fellowship. And His divine forgiveness leads directly to human
forgiveness. Which way do we look when we face this crossroad? Jesus
Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but
also for the sins of the whole world. The concept of forgiveness, the
miracle of forgiveness, and the impact of forgiveness can all be ours
when we open our hearts to God and yield our lives to Him. Seeker, accept
Gods full forgiveness by confessing your sins before Him and believing
in the salvation that comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Christian, grow closer and stronger in your spiritual walk by
yielding all of your life to Christ, even those matters where forgiving
the sins of another seems so difficult. We are to be like God in our
daily walk with Him, and His nature is forgiving.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit http://www.juno.com to sign up today!