Forgiveness and the Christian

[Jemidon2004]

This is a re post of the thread in prayer requests. Most often we ask ourselves: How many times should you forgive someone that has wronged you? Once? Twice? Even three times? NO…Scripture tells us to forgive 70 times 7 times…in other words unlimited forgiveness must be one of the strongest characteristics of the True disciple of Christ.

Consider this for a moment. We are sinners…Scripture says this plainly in Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God”


Also consider…it was God who was the first to forgive man for the sins that had been committed against Him. So God’s used to the business of forgiving us. Why? It is simply because He loves us SO much. He’ll forgive you every time you ask…but there’s one stipulation, if this can even be called a stipulation: The person asking for forgiveness from the Almighty has to ask with a sincere and repentant heart. The word repents means to “turn away from”. When you seek forgiveness with a repentant heart…He is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness (Sin) as 1 John 1:9 puts it.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

It’s hard sometimes for us to forgive someone simply because it is our human nature to hold grudges. Pure and simple, if someone wrongs us…it’s our nature to get even or get revenge for the act that has been committed, but the true disciple of Christ will not retaliate, but will be like Christ and follow His example for forgiving others. Paul points this out in one statement found in 2 Corinthians 2: 10 and 11

“To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”.  

Scripture also tells us not to let the sun go down on our anger (hold grudges against something or someone) lest we sin and let satan get a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26,27)

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
   27: Neither give place to the devil.

Also, God will forgive us (as true Christians) no matter how big the sin that you have committed against him is. For the unbeliever, God will forgive them should they earnestly seek Him with a sincere and repentant heart…otherwise His justice will prevail and they will still be no better off than they were in the first place, but God shows us in Colossians 3:13 that those who earnestly seek His forgiveness will receive this: “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened (made alive) together with Him, having forgiven you all of your sins; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross”. It states that we’ll be made alive i.e. given eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Now onto the other part…Scripture tells us in James 2:10 this:

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”

Basically…if you have sinned once, you’ve broken all of God’s commandments…according to God.  According to God, the verdict is already guilty, but our pardon is in Jesus Christ and our pardon is given by the propriation and justification as stated in Romans 3:23-25 which says:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
   24: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
   25: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,through the forbearance of God;

,and is received by confession of sin (Romans 10:9&10) which says:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

and the reconciliation of our souls as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:18, 19:

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Keep in mind that it's through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone  that we are enabled to truely forgive.
To Be continued:

Joshua

[Jemidon2004]

The result of this is the redemption of our souls, the complete forgiveness of sin and the creation of a new creature in Christ is stated in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things become new.

 and Ezekiel 36:26,27,31:

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart aout of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them…Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doing that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Our redemption is found in Christ and Christ alone as Ephesians 1:7 states it:

Ephesians 1:7 states this: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”

A good example of this grace and forgiveness is found in John 21:15-17:

“So when they had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord; thous knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of John, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thous knoewst that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

In this text we see the re-instatement of Peter. Peter, after he had denied Christ 3 times…hid himself away and went back to living his life of fishing, but Jesus wasn’t done with Him. To Peter, he was about as low as he could go. I’m pretty sure he was experiencing some major depression. I mean after denying your Savior not once but 3 times…man! Yet, Jesus still forgives Peter as we see when Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him. Of course Peter answers with “Yes, I love you”, but doesn’t really catch on to what Jesus is asking until the third time. It shows us that Peter still didn’t realize what Jesus was saying until he became upset at the apparent lack of faith that Jesus was showing to him by asking him the same question 3 times as John records in verse 18. See this was Jesus’ way of re-instating peter and showing to Peter that Jesus forgave him for what he had done. Jesus was showing mercy to Peter. Forgiveness originates from faith, employs mercy, and lifts up the redeemed. God is forgiveness! It originates with God and ends up coming back to God. It is all a merciful cycle…but it is intended to teach us our lesson well the first time by the process of humility and sacrifice. He is the focal point of the Christian walk! The whole of Scripture points to God, His Son, and Salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
 It is through Christ and only Christ we receive forgiveness. Also, we have Christ’s example and His Holy Spirit living within us that enables us to forgive us not once, twice or three times as spoken of earlier, but always. In other words with God we are enabled to forgive someone of their trespasses against us! God provides us with this because He knew that if we couldn’t forgive ourselves first of the sin that we had committed against Him, how on earth were we to forgive our fellow man? It is by God we are able to come to the realization that we need forgiveness first, and then we need to forgive others. The cycle is this. Man sins…he continues in his sin until the Holy Spirit pricks his heart…then man comes to the realization (given from God by the illumination of His Word) that he is a sinner…he then seeks sincere forgiveness from God…then he once he is able to say that he has been saved by the Almighty, he can begin to forgive others which was impossible before he was saved. It’s easy to say “I forgive you.” And not really mean it. “It’s even harder to say to your enemy or someone who has wronged you “I love you and I forgive you” and mean it with a sincere heart. Yet God provided the Holy Spirit to aid in that. Point being…you can’t begin to forgive someone unless you yourself have been forgiven! Therefore in order to fully forgive someone, you, yourself, have to be forgiven by God first, then the job of forgiving your fellow man begins. This is achieved by study of God’s Word and application of His Word to our day-to-day lives!

Continued...

Joshua

[Jemidon2004]

Another example comes from Luke 23:39-42

“And one of the malefactors wich were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest in to thy kingdom.

Here we see the thief on the Cross who is forgiven for what he’s done. This person wasn’t the holiest of all people, nor did he not deserve his punishment. He was up there for a crime he had committed, but the person next to him, The Christ, wasn’t. Christ was innocent and had not committed any crime and we see that in verse 40: “But the other answered and rebuked him saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss”
There you have it…from the mouth of a thief…we see that Jesus was not guilty, yet He stayed on the Cross on purpose. In the very next verse of Luke 23:42, the thief says these words: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” What magnificent words of faith. This thief was repentant and he evidenced his faith in Jesus by asking Him to remember him when Jesus entered into His kingdom. Jesus answered his meager faith by first forgiving the thief for what he had done, then saying “Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” This thief…this scoundrel…met the Creator on a cross and placed his faith in the only One who could save him from eternal damnation. His sins were forgiven because he’d placed his faith in the One who was to bear that sin. Once again the forgivness of sins lies only with Christ…there is no other way. Jesus says it Himself in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the father but through me.” In order to reach heaven one must be forgiven of the trespasses that he has committed against God. If not…then the verdict stands at guilty. The gift has been given…the choice is there to accept it and receive the pardon…or reject it. The Lamb of God has paid the price in full. He asks nothing more than for you to receive Him as Lord and Master. The Ultimate Sacrifice has been made…ours can never compare to it…but choosing Him will mean the difference between eternal life and eternal damnation.


How very true. we need to first be forgiven before we ourselves can even hope to forgive someone elase. We must experience forgiveness before we share it with someone else. The same principle is evident in reconciliation. reconciliation with God is made through salvation, so it would be safe to say that reconciliation is, in fact, God's message to man. He's saying "Hey!!! I sent my Son to die for your sins, Accept Him and the gift i'm giving you, and be reconciled to me. I miss you and I love you."

For those who may be questioning what it means to be saved...being forgiven by Jesus Christ, is the best thing that can happen. Trust me. I hpe this post has blessed you asmuch as it did me when i preached it. God Bless

Joshua