...from the desk of Rande Wayne Smith D.Min., Th.M., M.Div.

The Apostles’ Creed - 11

… THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

Luke 11:2-4
Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:

‘Father:
   May your holy name be honored;
   may your Kingdom come.
   Give us day by day the food we need.
   Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.’”

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion to His glory and our edification.  Amen.

This morning we’re going to talk about how to make a wrong right. Actually, how God makes a wrong right. And then how He commands us to make wrongs right in our lives. We’re looking at the forgiveness of sins.

Now forgiveness is an often used, but a totally misunderstood term in Scripture. And let’s be honest, it’s a concept that’s easier to talk about than to act on.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.”

John’s talking about the fact that we can be assured of forgiveness of sin if we acknowledge that sin to God. And I want to talk about what that means, but let me first say, so there is no misunderstanding; this is by no means giving us permission to sin as much as we want.

John says, “I am writing this to you … so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf – Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.

“If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure that we know him. If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us.” So this morning we’re going to take the forgiveness test. Now I want all of you to do well in this test, so let me give you some study notes.

First let’s look at the forgiveness formula. It goes like this … sin + confession + repentance = eternal forgiveness.

I heard a story about a Sunday School teacher who had just finished a lesson on Christian behavior and forgiveness. She asked Billy, “Now Billy, when we talk about forgiveness, what must we do before we can expect to be forgiven of our sins?” Billy thought for a moment and then responded, “Well, first we’ve got to sin.”

That’s true … but Scripture says that’s not a problem for us. “Everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence.” And so just to confirm that, please turn to the person beside you and tell them your worst sin this past week. … Scared you didn’t I?

But that’s the next thing I want to talk about … confession. We start with the sin, but then we need to add confession. Forgiveness is not granted automatically to the world via the cross. God has prerequisites. First comes confession. When “we confess our sins to God … he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.”

Listen to David’s confession in the 51st Psalm. “Wash away all my evil and make me clean from my sin!

I recognize my faults; I am always conscious of my sins. I have sinned against you – only against you - and done what you consider evil. So you are right in judging me; you are justified in condemning me.”

That’s what our confessions need to be about. Not some general thing but pointed and direct. It’s not minimizing the guilt, or depriving God the right to judge. “I recognize my faults; I am always conscious of my sins.”

But confession is more than just verbal acknowledgement. There also must be repentance. And repentance means a 180 degree turn. It means a change of attitude, a change of behavior. “(We) must repent of (our) sins and turn to God and do the things that would show (we have) repented.”

David goes on. “You do not want sacrifices, or I would offer them; you are not pleased with burnt offerings. My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God; you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.”

Now there are 2 types of confession. The first kind is motivated primarily by the fear of punishment. This confession takes place when we’ve been caught doing something wrong. (I’d like to say that this kind usually deals with kids, but I suspect we adults are pretty good with this one too.) We’re not really sorry for what we’ve done … we’re sorry that we got caught; that other people see this sin in us.

The second confession comes when we’re deeply repentant. This is David’s type. It’s a genuine sorrow for having offended God. Our sins affect a lot of people, but above all, our sins hurt God. … “I have sinned against you – only against you – and done what you consider evil.”

So, if we confess our sin, and truly repent … the result will be forgiveness. But let me warn you, the worst thing we can do is to take this procedure nonchalantly; just take it for granted. “I can do whatever I want, and God, as my loving Heavenly Father, will forgive me.” That’s a distorted view; almost arrogant. It’s a presumption that believes the forgiveness of God is our due; it’s what we deserve. That view makes grace cheap. It makes it worthless.

So, what type of forgiveness are we talking about then? Let me clear up a common misunderstanding of forgiveness. The question is sometimes asked, “If Jesus has died for me, and I have received the full forgiveness of my sins, past, present, and future, doesn’t that mean that I don’t have to confess them anymore?”

Let me explain this. When a person comes to faith, (like Brian shared his story last week), when a person comes to faith, they recognize their sins, and make a contrite confession. And at that point they are saved by grace. And their standing before God is one of being completely forgiven: of past, present, and future sins.

I’ve told the story before, but it’s so good I’m going to tell it again. A woman visits her Pastor. She told him that when she prays she sees Jesus in a vision. “He appears to me as real as you standing right here. And He speaks to me.” The Pastor was a little skeptical, so he decided to put her to a test. He wanted her to ask Jesus a question. “When Jesus appears to you again, ask Him to tell you the horrible sin that I committed while I was in Seminary. Then tell me what He said.” A few days later the woman returned. “Did you have another vision of Jesus?” the Pastor asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you ask Him my question?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what did He say?”

“He said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

That’s what it’s all about. When we’re forgiven … He’s forgotten our past, present, and future sins. However, we’re all in an ongoing relationship with God, and sin blocks intimacy anytime it gets into a relationship. In any relationship, when sin has damaged it, there needs to be confession and repentance, for reconciliation to take place.

I believe that confession is commanded, not so much, because God needs it in order to forgive, but because we need it in order to heal, and be changed. Confession is not an accounting procedure … it’s a healing process.

So, are you ready to take the forgiveness test? • Do you honestly realize that you’re a sinner? • Do you recognize that Jesus wants to be your Savior? • Are you willing to confess your sins to Him? • Will you live in a daily relationship with the Lord? If you have answered in the affirmative to those questions, you have passed the test. But, you can’t stop there. After we take the forgiveness test, we need to follow the forgiveness procedure. In other words, once you’re forgiven, there is something that God expects of you.

I don’t know about you, by hardly a day goes by that I don’t praise Him for forgiving my sins. That’s something that I’ll never take for granted. My sin is always before me, and the fact that I know that it’s forgiven, never ceases to amaze me.

However, let’s be honest, it’s much easier for us to accept God’s forgiveness of our sins, than it is for us to forgive other people’s sins against us.

Let’s look at a story that Jesus told. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? 7 times?’”

Peter’s talking about multiple, repeated forgiveness. You know, it’s often easier to forgive a one-time offense than it is to forgive someone over and over again. Every one of us has an irritating source in our lives … a person, who’s like a piece of sandpaper, and just keeps rubbing us. And that’s the kind of individual that Peter’s talking about. How many times must I forgive this person when he/she keeps on pushing my buttons? He/she keeps on making my life miserable.

I love the little poem …

To dwell above with those we love, Ah, that will be eternal glory. To dwell below with those we know … Well, that’s another story.

More than likely Peter is thinking about a specific person and sin. But regardless, Peter’s being extremely generous when he asks, “How many times do I have to forgive? 7 times?” He’s expecting Jesus to say, “Wow! Peter! You’re a super Christian! That’s fantastic! I wish everybody was as good as you.” You see, Jewish Law only required that you forgive somebody 3 times. And Peter is saying, “I’ll double that and spot you one.”

But Jesus turns the tables on him, and Peter’s taken back to hear the Lord say, “No, not 7 times, but 70 times 7.” In other words, there’s no limit to when we should stop forgiving. Plus, Jesus is pointing out that if we’re keeping score, it’s really not forgiveness in the first place, because we’re waiting for that 8th time! (Pow!) What if God kept score with us? That wouldn’t be grace.

So let me summarize the rest of the story where Jesus is explaining why we must learn to forgive. There was a man who was hopelessly in debt to the king. The king had called in all of his accounts. And this man, who had been really bad with his money, owed millions of dollars. He had major debt.

In those days, bankruptcy was really simple. There was no attorney … Peter Francis Geraci. There was no chapter 11. The king would take your wife and kids and sell them into slavery, and put you in prison … simple, done, over with.

So the man begs. “Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!” (Apparently he was hoping that a kind uncle would give him the needed millions of dollars.) “Just give me a few more days.” But even if he could repay a $1,000 a day, it would take years to cancel the debt. There’s no way that he’s ever going to get rid of it.

So Jesus teaches us 3 things in this story in how to follow the forgiveness procedure.

#1 … I need to learn to forgive because God has forgiven me. “The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.” No strings attached … free gift. Jesus is using the king to describe the grace we discussed earlier. Can you imagine how this man must have felt when that millions of dollars debt was lifted? Relief … joy … excitement … freedom … gratitude. “Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’”

Picture the scene. Here’s a man who has just had his debt of millions of dollars cancelled. And he goes to an acquaintance demanding a couple of bucks. And because that guy couldn’t repay those few dollars he had him thrown into jail.

Now the tragedy is that many of us, as grace filled, forgiven followers of Jesus, live just this way. We readily accept all of God’s grace for us, but we refuse to extend any grace to the person who has hurt us.

If you have received God’s forgiveness … if you are a beneficiary of His grace … then you’ve been set apart as someone who is in Christ. And here’s what that means …

“You are like light for the whole world.”

“You are like salt for the whole human race.”

You are “a child of God.”

You are God’s friend.

You will share Christ’s blessings and glory.

“You are God’s Temple and … God’s Spirit lives in you.”

“You are Christ’s body.” You are “a new being.”

You are a saint.

You are the result of God’s good work.

You are a member of the family of God.

You are “holy, pure, and faultless.”

You are one of God’s “living stones.”

You are a citizen of heaven.

That’s who you are … if you’ve been forgiven. And this man in Matthew 18 doesn’t get it. Because when you truly believe that you’re forgiven … then you will forgive others.

Notice his harshness. He grabs the man and chokes him. Roman law actually allowed you to choke someone if they owed you money. And then he had him thrown in jail … because of a few bucks.

Whenever you find someone who’s harsh, judgmental, unbending, unforgiving, critical, negative, ungracious when they discover that others have fallen into sin, you can count on one thing … there’s some unresolved guilt going on somewhere. A judgmental, negative person who puts other people down, who is unforgiving to others, it’s because they’re carrying some unresolved guilt.

How many of you have heard of Corrie ten Boom? She was a remarkable woman who lived in Holland during WWII. Corrie, along with her father and sister, Betsie, helped Jews during the Nazi occupation. Her story was told in the book and movie, “The Hiding Place.” They were eventually caught and sent to Ravensbruck, one of the worst of the Nazi Concentration Camps, where Corrie’s father and sister died. Through a clerical error, Corrie was released just days before her own scheduled execution.

During the next 20 years she traveled the globe testifying to God’s love in the midst of the most horrible conditions we can’t even imagine. I want to pick up her story as she talks about one of the meetings she spoke at.

“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

“He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’ His hand was thrust out to shake mine. “And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? ‘Lord Jesus,’ I prayed, ‘forgive me and help me to forgive him.’

“I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. ‘Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.’

“As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

When we follow Christ’s program to forgive … He does empower. He does supply the strength, the energy, the peace that we need. It’s a commandment. “Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort. Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ.”

The key to forgiveness is to recognize how much God forgives you/me everyday. And when I feel forgiven, I’m going to be forgiving.

The second thing we learn from this passage is that I need to learn to forgive because resentment makes me miserable. Resentment is torture on earth.

“When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything.” The king said, “if you’re going to be this way, unforgiving, then I’m going to be unforgiving.” So he sent him to jail. And jail in those days was a torture chamber. It robbed a person of their joy.

Is there a bitter memory that is robbing you of happiness? What hurt are you still holding on to?

Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Last Supper, and he had an enemy. And he painted that enemies’ face on his caricature of Judas. But then Leonardo couldn’t finish the rest of the painting; he couldn’t paint the face of Jesus. So he prayed about it, and he realized that he needed to forgive his enemy. And when he did, and changed the face of Judas, he was able to finish the Last Supper by painting the face of Jesus.

Is there something that’s holding you back from the face of Christ? Is there some unforgiven sin that needs to be dealt with? Is there someone that you’re not willing to extend forgiveness to? Scripture is perfectly clear.

Third, I need to learn to forgive because I’ll need forgiveness in the future.

“And Jesus concluded, ‘That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’”

I remember someone coming to me once and saying, “I’ll never forgive that person.” My response, “well, I hope you never sin.” Think of the Lord’s Prayer that we prayed just a few moments ago.
“Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.”

This story that Jesus told teaches us that forgiveness is a way of life. And it’s the only way that you will ever have joy or peace. You’re imperfect … and so am I. We have to live in a constant state of forgiveness.

You may wonder, is forgiveness fair? No, it’s not fair. But, do you know what? Jesus forgiving us our sins … is that fair?

Let me tell you what forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not minimizing the seriousness of the offense. There’s a difference between forgiveness and acceptance.

And forgiveness doesn’t mean instant restoration of trust. Forgiveness is instant. But trust must be rebuilt over a period of time. And if someone has betrayed you … you don’t instantly trust them again. Scripture says that you are obligated to forgive them … but you’re not obligated to instantly trust them. Forgiveness means that you’re going to let go of the hurt, but the other person will have to do some things to rebuild the trust. Forgiveness is your responsibility.

Finally, forgiveness is not resuming a relationship without some changes. You need 3 things if the relationship is going to be restored. You need genuine repentance … restitution when necessary … and the rebuilding of trust.

But your forgiveness is not based on their response … whether they ask for it or not, whether they accept it or not, or even whether they acknowledge it or not. You forgive because God has forgiven you. So, now it’s up to you. What are you being called and convicted to do this morning? Are there some forgiveness action steps that you need to take?

Once again, the forgiveness test: