Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 16; forgiveness; John 15:18.

Title: Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 16; forgiveness; John 15:18.

 

Forgiveness:

 

Like a legal pardon, forgiveness is a personal pardon in which an individual is never penalized for their sin by the thoughts, words, or actions of the victim or anyone associated with the victim or a witness of the infraction.

 

Naturally, arrogance has no ability to forgive.

 

The one forgiving is demanded by honor, integrity, and loyalty to doctrine to forget whatever was done and never to recall it to mind.

 

A small segment of the Christian population, if they are Christians at all, claim to not need forgiveness by denying any post-salvation sinning. This is the pinnacle of arrogance and clearly stated as impossible and false in the Scripture.

 

1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin [no OSN], we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 

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

 

1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned [no post-salvation sinning], we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

 

To deny postsalvation sinning is to deny reality in postsalvation experience.

 

Before we can broach the realm of forgiving others we must know that we are forgiven by God. Guilt and insecurity breed unforgiveness of others.

 

John 19:30

When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.

 

EPH 1:7

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,

 

COL 1:14

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

 

1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

 

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

NEH 9:17

"And they refused to listen,

And did not remember Thy wondrous deeds which Thou hadst performed among them;

So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But Thou art a God of forgiveness,

Gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness;

And Thou didst not forsake them.

 

Ps 130:3-4

If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with Thee,

That Thou mayest be feared.

 

DAN 9:9

To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;

 

The reason for God’s ability to forgive is redemption.

Matt 26:27-28

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

 

Redemption occurs first and then forgiveness.

 

Atonement (expiation): Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of the world as a substitute for us.

 

Redemption: Every member of the human race was purchased from the slave market of sin.

 

Propitiation: The work of Christ on the cross completely satisfied the justice of God for the entire human race. All Justice was executed. The redemption solution must be taken by means of faith.

 

Reconciliation: The barrier between the depravity of man and the Righteousness of God was torn down so that whoever may believe in Christ for eternal life.

 

The clear understanding of atonement, redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation demands that we forgive anyone who may sin against us.

 

COL 3:13

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

 

EPH 4:32

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

 

Yet there is no escaping the fact that sin causes pain, disruption, evil, division, factions, and all around trouble in ourselves as well as in others.

 

James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

 

 Even Plato had the wisdom to observe the warfare which rages in the human soul in his Dialogue, Phaedo FEE-doe.  We interrupt an exchange that finds Socrates saying to Simmias:

 

“Have we not found a path of thought which seems to bring us to the conclusion that while we are in the body, and while the soul is infected with the evils of the body, our desire will not be satisfied? and our desire is of the truth.  Whence come wars, and fightings, and factions? whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? 

 

… be reason of all these impediments we have no time to give to philosophy; and, last and worst of all, even if we are at leisure and betake ourselves to some speculation, the body is always breaking in upon us, causing turmoil and confusion in our enquiries, and so amazing us that we are prevented from seeing the truth.

 

James agrees and continues his analysis by identifying the culprit as the inciting agent of the sinful nature, the lust pattern:

 

James 4:2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

 

Normal emotion is responsive to doctrine and submits to its authority.

 

Abnormal emotions that are associated with the sinful nature react to man and circumstances from the motivation of the lust pattern and arrogance and result in vengeance and holding a grudge with regard to man and fear and cowardice with regard to circumstances.

 

[slides: AB normal and monster]

 

This results in weakness and in fear. Fear lashes out while courage is the ability to think with doctrine while under pressure.

 

It takes courage to think with grace and doctrine, and to reject the emotional reaction of the sin nature.

 

Matt 7:1 "Do not judge lest you be judged.

 

Matt 7:2 "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

 

Matt 7:3 "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log [large beam] that is in your own eye?

 

Matt 7:4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?

 

The world system gives hearty approval to judging the minor inconsistencies in a believer’s life while ignoring the glaring and enormous inconsistencies in their own.

 

Matt 7:5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.