Quote from Forum Archives on October 2, 2002, 11:42 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

PARTICULARITIES OF CHRISTIANITY #2/3
THE WAY TO GOD
September 29, 2002

Text: Matthew 18:21-35

I began last week with a preaching series intended to point out the
particularities of Christianity. That is, what sets the Christian faith
apart from the other world religions? What makes it unique? The
motivation behind this series comes primarily from the response of some
Christian organizations and leadership to the violence of the past year
directed toward both free nations and the Christian faith. Since
responsibility of the lion’s share of the violence around the world has
been claimed by Islamic groups, many religious leaders of Christian
denominations and organizations have rushed to demonstrate their
solidarity with so-called “moderate” and peaceful practitioners of Islam.

The points where I diverge from such attempts at solidarity are not those
that promote trying to live at peace with one another in spite of our
vast religious differences. I am all for trying to live in peace, and I
think that we in America have done a relatively good job of that in our
more than 225 years of national existence. Not perfect by any stretch of
the imagination, but we can certainly show a much better track record
than most of the world’s national histories.

The points where I diverge quickly from those trying to demonstrate
solidarity with the Islamic religion, or any other non-Christian
religion, are those points that diminish the particular doctrines of
faith that set us apart as Christians, and the attempts some leaders are
making to tell us that we can all worship together in services of
interfaith gathering.

Last week, I addressed the unique nature of Jesus the Christ. No other
major world religion of which I am aware today addresses its particular
founder or founders as the direct involvement of God as fully human and
fully divine. No other major world religion of which I am aware today
addresses the need of its followers to come directly to God through the
sacrificial love of God Himself. Islam certainly contains no such
provisions. Their founding prophet, Mohammed, certainly has no divine
attributes. Islam, like all other non-Christian religions, has as its
foundation for salvation works of righteousness that must be practiced
and adhered to by its followers in accordance with the instructions of
their human leadership.

In distinction to the accomplishments of works, or tasks, as the entry
point to salvation, the Christian faith makes it plain that none of us
can come to God on our own accord. There is nothing that we can do to
make our sinfulness acceptable to God. There is nothing we can do to rid
us of our sinfulness. There is nothing we can do to even know God. It is
exactly the other way around: we can know God only because He has
undertaken to know us and to allow us to know Him. This is a core truth
of the New Testament. Turn with me to 1 John 4:10, where the relationship
between God’s work and our work is laid out plainly enough. “This is
love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins.” The conclusive application of this to
our lives is laid out in the very next verse, “Dear friends, since God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Along with the many such verses concerning forgiveness and divine love,
this is a peculiarity of the Christian faith. This constitutes a
fundamental belief from which we are to neither deviate nor compromise.
Yet, we do compromise it whenever we indicate that Islam or any other
religion is equivalent to Christianity. Other religions typically consist
of some lessons on forgiveness and mercy toward others, but none of them
contain forgiveness from the Christ as the entry point into salvation and
the faith. Consequently, none of them can address forgiveness on the
human level as completely as does the Christian faith.

This is why, I think, that Islam and other such religions remain as
popular as they do. Those who are looking for ways to fulfill their
spiritual longings through works righteousness can do so through these
systems because they are man-made systems; therefore, their requirements
are attainable through human effort. The truth from God, revealed in and
through Jesus the Christ is another matter, however. It is not attainable
through human effort. This is, I think, why it is so difficult for us
accomplish the command of Jesus to live lives of forgiveness.

Who here can honestly say that he or she has no difficulty whatsoever
with Jesus’ parable from Matthew 18:21-35? Who here can honestly say that
he or she has forgiven hie or her brother who has “sinned against me”
seventy-seven, or seventy times seven, times? Who here can honestly say
that he or she has shown the all-encompassing forgiveness to our fellow
servants that God has shown us? I cannot honestly make those claims, and
this makes the passage all the more troubling for me, because Jesus tells
the story in such a way that God’s treatment toward me is conditional
upon my treatment toward my fellow servants. Yet, in spite of its
troubling tone, this is God’s way to us and, therefore, our way to God.
Jesus begins this parable, “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like…”

Our very salvation is hinged upon forgiveness. It is not earned through
charitable giving or daily obligatory prayers or specified fasting or
pilgrimages to holy sites. It comes only through God’s willing nature to
forgive us through the sacrifice of Jesus. And Jesus goes on to tell us
that it is effective only as we, in turn, are willing to forgive our
brothers and sisters. Such is the uniqueness of the Christian faith.

It is through forgiveness that we enter directly into the mystery of
God’s grace. Writes Marjorie J. Thompson in an article entitled “Moving
Toward Forgiveness,” “If we insist on remaining bound to someone in
resentment, heaven will not force us to change our minds. If we remain
unwilling to forgive those who wound us, how can God set us free from the
knot of a twisted relationship? God wants more than anything to free us.
That is why ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth’ (John 1:14-15, RSV) - to give us a way out of our impenetrable
morass of sin. But if we refuse to pass the gift of grace along to those
in our debt, we prevent the grace of God’s forgiveness from entering our
own lives fully. Then what is bound on earth remains bound in heaven, not
by God’s design but our own. From this it seems clear that the one
condition set for our receiving God’s forgiveness is that we also forgive
one another. This condition is implied in the wording of the Lord’s
Prayer: ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’ It
would also appear to be the import of the parable of the unforgiving
servant in Matthew 18:23-35. Again, it is not that God, in ornery
fashion, is bent on punishing our hard hearts. It is simply that an
unforgiving heart of itself blocks the mystery of divine grace. It cannot
freely receive what God freely gives. Our openness to God and our
openness to one another are thus intrinsically linked.” (Marjorie J.
Thompson, “Moving Toward Forgiveness,” Weavings, vol. VII, no. 2,
March/April, 1992, p. 23)

As I have already mentioned, God’s truth is not attainable through human
effort. This is why this parable is so difficult for us. It should be
difficult because we cannot do it! Left to only our own efforts, we
cannot accomplish it. What does it take, then? The power of God given
through the forgiving spirit of Jesus. This is what it means, in part, to
mature in the faith. It takes a process on the path of allowing God to
abide in us more and more in order for us to practice Biblical
forgiveness toward another who has sinned against us. This is the path
toward spiritual maturity and the way to God.

In the early centuries of the Christian Church, traditions developed in
which men and women desiring to come closer to God by removing themselves
from the secular traps of their societies and living in communities in
the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. The writings and stories
of the lives of such Christians have become known in Christianity as
“desert traditions.” One such desert tradition illustrating this Biblical
theme of forgiveness is told: “A brother at Scetis committed a fault. A
council was called to which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go
to it. Then the priest sent someone to say to him, ‘Come, for everyone is
waiting for you.’ So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it
with water and carried it with him. The others came out to meet him,
‘What is this, Father?’ The old man said to them, ‘My sins run out behind
me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of
another.’ When they heard that they said no more to the brother but
forgave him.” (Benedicta Ward, tr., The Desert Christian: Sayings of the
Desert Fathers, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1975, p. 139).

The way to God has been made clear because God has made His way to us. He
has made His way known to us. Who here would not have agreed with Jesus
that the forgiven servant deserved to be punished for not showing
forgiveness in turn? Yet, when we recognize the story as an illustration
of the kingdom of heaven, we grow immediately uncomfortable. We know,
don’t we, what part we all too frequently play in this story. Yet, it
does not have to be this way. What is it that God is asking us to do
here? To treat others in the same way that He has treated us. How has God
treated us? Has He not forgiven our debt - our sin - as we fell on our
knees and begged Him? How, then, should we treat another? “The servant’s
master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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