The God of Forgiveness

One of the things I have noticed over the last few years is the spiritual insecurity of so many Christians. One of the ways this insecurity is manifested is in the area of forgiveness. This seems to be an area of faith where many people are struggling and where a great deal of insecurity resides. Again, in a time when the thrust of most preaching and church life is "all about you" and how God loves you and accepts you for who you are, you would think that people would not be wrestling with this. But when the teaching, preaching, and small group discussion fails to address the basic foundations of our faith because they don't think doctrine is relevant to the lives of the people, how would the people, the flock, have any basis from which to understand forgiveness, much less be able to know they are forgiven? When I was teaching in Dallas in the mid eighties the Minister of Education told me that I was teaching too much doctrine and that I needed to have more application lessons. My response to him was, "Bill, they can not apply what they do not know." This attitude that the ME had has only become more prevalent over the ensuing years. In addition to this, if you teach or preach on forgiveness you must deal with the sin that needs to be forgiven and many churches won't do that because it might make the people feel bad about themselves or offend them.

To get a handle on forgiveness you first must understand the nature and character of God and then understand what He has done so that we can be forgiven. So the rest of this post will be about the nature and character of God as it relates to forgiveness.

The best place to start is with Exodus 33:17-34:7. This section of Scripture relates the story of Moses asking God to show me your glory. I find God's response to this prayer request intriguing as He tells Moses I will make all my goodness pass before you and proclaim My name, the name of the Lord before you. So we see that God's glory is inextricably linked with His goodness and His name. His goodness is His glory and His name is representative of His glory. So God reveals that He is good and in the revelation of His goodness His glory shines forth and is displayed. As God passes by Moses and reveals Himself and His goodness listen to what He says, "The Lord, The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished..." So we see here that forgiveness comes forth from the goodness of God, and is as much a part of His goodness as His compassion, His grace, His longsuffering, His lovingkindness, and His truth. God forgives because God is good, and His forgiveness of our sins is an extension of His goodness to us. Since His glory is displayed through His goodness, He is glorified in the forgiving of our sins. This alone is reason enough to fall on our knees as grateful beneficiaries of His goodness, which He has chosen not to withhold from us. Being forgiven is the result of the Lord lavishly bestowing His goodness upon us.

Psalm 130:4 states, "But there is forgiveness with You, that you may be feared." Here we see that His forgiveness is one of the pillars for our holy awe and reverence for the Lord. Understanding His forgiveness, experiencing His forgiveness, reveling in the fact that we are forgiven and that God has not dealt with us according to our sins, but according to His goodness and compassion as He is ever mindful that we are but dust, should bring forth in us an unmatched reverence and a heart that bows low in worship. God magnanimously bestows forgiveness upon His people and in the magnitude of His forgiveness He is glorified and exalted; and we see His worthiness of our reverence and stand in awe of His goodness because deep in our soul we know the depth of our own sin and see that for which we have been forgiven, that which no one knows but us and God.

In Nehemiah 9:17 we see that He is a God of forgiveness and in Psalm 86:5 we see that He is good, ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness for all who call upon Him. What does this mean for us? We can see that since He is a God of forgiveness that forgiveness flows from Him to us. He does not have to be coerced into forgiving us, and it is not something that He must struggle to do or something that He begrudgingly doles out like a scrooge at Christmas. In fact, it is just the opposite as we see that He is ready to forgive, He is poised to forgive, He longs to forgive so that we can be brought into right relationship with Him, and thereby enjoy sweet fellowship and communion with Him. These verses, along with I John 1:9, show us that we do not have to go to great lengths, do great penance, or go through great machinations to be forgiven, but we simply call upon Him and confess to Him our sin and it is forgiven; and we are made clean before Him, not just for that sin, but from all our unrighteousness. This, my friends, is goodness, great goodness, goodness worthy of abundant praise and worship out of a heart that has experienced gladness, true gladness, through forgiveness and cleansing.

Yes, forgiveness is ours because it flows from God to us and He is ready and waiting to forgive, not because of us, but because of His goodness. He forgives us on the basis of who He is and what He has done so that we can be forgiven. Have you asked for the forgiveness of God....so that you can come to Him and be saved, so that you can fellowship with Him, so that you can be cleansed and find rest and comfort for your soul? If not, ask Him today, confess to Him today, and in His goodness He will not refuse.

O Lord, how truly good You are, good beyond the scope of our ability to comprehend and good beyond our ability to measure. May praise and honor be heaped upon You and Your name be exalted this day because of Your goodness and forgiveness. Thank you for Your forgiveness, its availability, and its abundance. You are good and You do good. Great is the Lord and blessed be Your name. Amen.

Forgiveness for the Sake of His Name

Our sins have been forgiven for the sake of His name (I Jn 2:12). We must therefore forgive others for the sake of His name (Mt 5:43-45).

Christ, Our Great High Priest

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood,

He Himself likewise also partook of the same...

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren 

in all things, so that He might become a merciful

and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God...

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who

has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God...

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize

with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted 

in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 2:14, 17; 4:14-15

The beauty of Jesus Christ being our high priest before God, is that He came down and took our flesh upon Himself, and in so doing was tempted in every way, just as we are tempted.  From that perspective He operates as our intercessor before God because He can fully identify and sympathize with the yearnings and temptations of the flesh.  Now, of course, He did not succumb to the temptations, but He was tempted none the less.  So when He intercedes with God for us, when He pleads our cause before God, He does so from a position of familiarity and understanding of just what it is like to be in a body of flesh.  He intercedes with insight gained from living amongst us, and sharing our human condition.

Yes, He is our Savior, but once He becomes our Savior, He then assumes the role of our Advocate before God (I John 2:1), and what a role that is.  We know from Scripture that Satan is our adversary, and part of what he does as our adversary is accuse us (Christians) night and day before God (Revelation 12:10), and he certainly has enough ammunition to use against us as none of us is without sin (Ecclesiates 7:20, I John 1:8-10, James 1:21, 3:2, Romans 7:17-21); but for every accusation we have an Advocate (I John 2:1) who intercedes vigorously for us based on His death for our sin, His paying the penalty for that sin, His blood being shed for that sin; and that His death is the propitiation (satisfaction of the holy wrath and satisfaction of the justice of God) against that sin (Jeremiah 50:34, Micah 7:9).  His sacrifice and its accompanying propitiation is not just an adequate defense, but is an overwhelming defense, an impenetrable defense against all the accusations of the enemy.  

As our high priest, Christ knows and cares.  As our high priest, Christ is capable and qualified. As our high priest, Christ is indefeatable.  So don't let the guilt of your sin keep you from coming to God; and once you have come to Him, don't let the accusations and incrimination of the enemy weigh you down because Christ has vigorously pleaded your case and defended you, and therefore there is no longer any condemnation from God upon you (Romans 8:1).  

Praise be to God for His wondrous salvation and all of its benefits to men.

The Other Prodigal...Luke 15:11-32

I think most are familiar with the story of the prodigal son, how he took his portion from his father and spent it foolishly on satisfying his own pleasures.  He wound up in a far country, far from his father, destitute and feeding swine, when he finally came to his senses and came home in repentance and faith; and upon arriving was greeted joyously by his father.

This great story is a powerful illustration of the love, forgiveness, and joyous acceptance of our heavenly Father for those who will come to Him, and perfectly illustrates what Christ was saying in Luke 15:7 (...there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance); which is why the story included two brothers.

The older brother, is the other prodigal.  He was religious and self-righteous, but a prodigal none the less.  Spiritually, he was in a far country and he was just as far away from the father as his younger brother, even though he physically remained near the father.  Even though he served the father he was just as dead and just as lost as the younger brother.  The difference is that the younger brother saw his moral bankruptcy and his unworthiness to come before his father, while the older brother saw himself as righteous and deserving because of his service, the performance of his duty.

The father's response to the older brother when the older brother confronted him about his deserving a party because of all the years he had served him is telling.  The father's response was, "Son, you have always been with me, and all that I have is yours."  What the father is telling the older is this, "All that I have is yours, you have but to ask to receive, but you have not."  You see, self-righteous and religious people never see the need to ask God for eternal life, never see the need for repentance, never see the need to ask for forgiveness or salvation,  because they think they have earned it on their own. Their self-righteousness has blinded them to their spiritual bankruptcy, and has led them to believe their spiritual coffers are full because of their own merits.

The tragedy in this story is that the older brother was so near, yet so far away.  Near enough to ask, but too far away to see his need.  So, yes, there is another prodigal in this story.  The prodigal who never left home, but was always far away.  This problem was not just for the religious Jews of the day, but is a problem for the religious in every age.  How about you, my friends, are you depending on your own merits, your religious service, or your religious performance?  Or are you depending on the merits of Christ, His performance, and His righteousness as your substitute before God?  Have you come to God in repentance, and faith in the person of Christ and His finished work on the cross as your only plea before Him?  Come to Him today, as the prodigal in this story...admit your unworthiness, and your moral bankruptcy.  Do as the prodigal did and throw yourself upon the mercy and compassion of the Father.  For if you do, He will run to greet you, as He is ready to forgive and will joyously receive you.

Repentance, Confession, and Forgiveness

I John 1:9 gives us a tremendous and really marvelous promise, and it is that when we confess our sins, our heavenly Father is willing and able to forgive our sins, and in that forgiveness comes a cleansing from all unrighteousness. 

However, the catch here is our confessing our sins.  For to be able to really and truly confess our sins, we must also be willing to repent of our sins.  True confession is always accompanied by appropriate repentance.  And for us to truly repent of our sins we must be willing and wanting to turn away from that sin, to forsake that sin, and to put ourselves as far away as possible from that sin. 

Confession without true repentance is merely saying to God, "Oops, I messed up, please clean up my mess while I go about making it again."  Confession without true repentance is wanting to have the consequences of our sin done away with, without wanting to do away with the sin itself. 

True confession is seeing your sin, thinking about your sin, and talking about your sin the same way God would.  It is having the mind of God concerning your sin, and saying the same thing about it that God would.  In fact, until we truly see our sin as God sees it, we will never have victory over it. 

The promise of forgiveness and cleansing in I John 1:9 is true, as is every promise of God.  Let us not make light of this promise, but let us come to our God in reverence, awe, and true repentance to receive the blessing of being clean before Him.  For in our salvation we have been made clean, all we must do now is wash what is dirty through repentance and confession.

Real Righteousness

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves 

that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:

"Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee

 and the other a tax collector.  the Pharisee took his stand and

 was praying like this: 'God, I thank You that I'm not like other

people--greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax

collector.  I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get.'

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise

his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest saying, 'God, turn

Your wrath from me--a sinner!'  I tell you, this one went down

to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone

who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles

himself will be exalted.

Luke 18:9-14

The startling contrast between the prayers of the Pharisee and the publican furnishes an indication of Christ's standards of value, as applied to the most important realm of men's lives--their approach to God.  For some men God can do nothing. Their attitude of heart toward Him, their self-sufficiency and self-complacency, ward off the beneficent intentions of His grace.  Their bodies may posture in His house, but their spirits

are an immeasurable distance from Him; and the only result of their miscalled worship is in the continued hardening and deadening of their moral sense.  As in nature the action of some streams tends to turn living objects into stone, so does the stream of unfelt and mechanical and self-seeking praying petrify the soul of its offerer.

How simple as to form and direct as to request is the prayer of the publican.  Standing "afar off" in the conciousness of the sin which separated him from God, he realized that the was yet alone with Him.  "God...mercy...me" are the notes of his heart's cry.  But he has already come to know that the span of mercy bridges the sin-gulf, and is confident that even such a one as he is may safely venture across.  On its further side the Father awaits him with a welcome which is unmixed with any reproach.  Over that scene a veil is drawn, and the sacred intimacy is unrecorded.  But from its strengthening assurance the man goes down to his house to declare what God has done for him.  He has learned by an experience which nothing can modify, that sin confessed is sin covered, and that life humbled is life exalted, and this is sufficient inspiration for the long moral conflict that is yet before him.  Such prayer is the one gateway to the life victorious and beautiful, alike for him and for us.  It demands our stooping, but it ensures our salvation.

J. Stuart Holden

The Holy Gospels Opened

Pgs 103-104