Thought for the week of February 25… Forgiveness.
Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord”. An interesting study in the Psalms this week. “Through the Psalmist’s laments, thanksgivings, praises, and cries for justice and deliverance, we can hear the echoes of Christ’s prayer for the salvation of the world” (Sabbath’s lesson).
The lesson quotes various Psalm texts to show how they apply to Christ. We have heard some of them (maybe many of them) before. So many Biblical scholars have scoured the Old Testament for any such references. Either referring to the actual words Christ spoke, the actual Old Testament texts Christ quoted, or any reference that seems to allude to Christ in any way. I applaud their efforts. After all, on the road to Emmaus Christ Himself, “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). But did Jesus use isolated texts to show the two on the road the truth of who He was? Or did He use the whole Old Testament? Meaning, did He use the entire thrust of the Old Testament to show them how His life was an active demonstration of the God of the Old Testament? I think that is more what He did. Isolated texts can be interpreted in various ways. But the very life of Christ demonstrated Yahweh of the Old Testament. I think He drew their attention to various scriptures to show them the heart of the Old Testament God… showing them the identical heart He Himself had towards all others.
For example, I think He may have used Psalm 51 to show them David’s understanding of God. Or maybe Hosea. Who runs after the harlot-wife and brings her back home. And then pens God’s lament in Hosea 11 how Israel has left Him, but He will not cast-off Israel. He may have shown how He is the shepherd of Psalm 23. And the God of Malachi who begs His children to repent and turn. I think Christ did not use isolated texts but showed how the whole Old Testament testifies of Himself. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (john 5:39). The “Scriptures” being the Old Testament.
Another comment I wish to make on the lesson is the idea that “God’s everlasting love forgives people’s sins when people repent” (Tuesday’s lesson). Is this true? Does God need you to repent before He forgives? Did Christ need anyone to repent as He forgave His tormentors from the cross? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34), which means, “I have forgiven them already” even though they did not ask or repent. The Father and the Son are both forgiveness personified. And always will be. I am somewhat repulsed by the idea that God's forgiveness is not active until we repent. Man's action (or lack thereof) is not the prime mover that motivates God to forgive. God's forgiveness is the prime mover that motivates us to repent.
Here is a quote from Mark Findley from our Fall 2013 quarterly:
“It is true, we cannot receive the blessings of forgiveness until we confess our sins. This does not mean that our confession creates forgiveness in God’s heart. Forgiveness was in His heart all the time. Confession, instead, enables us to receive it (1 John 1:9). Confession is vitally important, not because it changes God’s attitude toward us but because it changes our attitude toward Him. When we yield to the Holy Spirit’s convicting power to repent and confess our sin, we are changed”.
What a great understanding! So often we say or think that God-the-Father needed God-the-Son to be crucified in order to look on us with favor and grant us forgiveness. This is not so! This quote shows us the dynamics of our Father’s love and forgiveness. And the dynamics of our individual choices, too.
EGW states another choice that is in our control. In Christ’s Object Lessons page 251:
“We are not forgiven because we forgive, but as we forgive. The ground of all forgiveness is found in the unmerited love of God, but by our attitude toward others we show whether we have made that love our own. Wherefore Christ says, "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matthew 7:2”.
If we are unforgiving to others, God’s forgiveness cannot reach us. We have not made His love our own by our choosing Him and by reciprocating that Divine choice. The dove of forgiveness finds no place in our hearts to rest its feet. God’s forgiveness is not real to us. So here are the two lynch-pins of forgiveness. Both found in our attitude and choice. And both lynch-pins have their foundation in the unchangeable nature of God’s forgiveness. The first lynch-pin is found in our confession. The second is found in our willingness to forgive others. Again, both are grounded in God’s eternal forgiveness. Because the lost are not lost because they are unforgiven, but because they want none of God’s forgiveness. In the end, the lost will perish... fully loved and forgiven… but they will still perish. For the death at the end is not death at the hands of their loving, forgiving father. It’s because they adamantly maintain that “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). And they are sadly left as they desire… alone with themselves to reap the natural consequences of their own selfish, illogical, rebellious and sinful thinking. And when the full revelation of the passionate fiery love and forgiveness of the Father floods from within the New Jerusalem out across the whole earth, that fiery love and forgiveness will invigorate the righteous even as it consumes sin and all who identify themselves with it.
The prodigal son was forgiven by his father even before he walked away from his father’s home. But the father’s forgiveness meant nothing to the son until… he saw the depths of his depravity and came home… and confessed. An example of confession as the path to realizing in yourself the forgiveness that already exists in the Father’s heart. Christ’s parable of the man who was forgiven 10,000 talents but refused to forgive the man who owed him 100 denarii, is an example of how the Father’s forgiveness can only be realized in your own heart as you extend the same forgiveness to others. A hard heart is impervious to the forgiveness God so freely offers.
Forgiveness, like love, is not a mere proclamation. It is life. It is not something in a vacuum or some legal arrangement. It is a passionate interchange between our Heavenly Lover and the one He loves (you). His forgiveness/ love is the objective gospel, offered to you, offered to all. Your confession/ reciprocal response is the subjective gospel offered back to God, and in-turn, offered to all in our sphere. A wonderful, glorious dance of love from Father to child, from child to Father and from child to child. The heavenly music is playing. Do you hear it? Then let us join the dance!
With brotherly love,
Jim