(Part 1 of
2)
“For if you forgive men when they sin
against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew
6:14-15
Unforgiven Christians!
How is that possible? Isn’t it through forgiveness and repentance that we are
reconciled to God and become Christians? So how can a person that claims to be
a Christian not be forgiven? The answer
is…by choice! We can choose to sabotage our own forgiveness by choosing not to
extend to others what has been so graciously extended towards us.
Forgiveness
is at the core of the gospel message. Without it there is no salvation. Our
sins have demanded a debt to be paid. That debt is death:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”
Romans
6:23
It is a debt
that we cannot pay! In the Old Testament when someone would sin, they would
bring a sin offering, a pure, spotless animal sacrifice. The priest would offer
the animal on the altar and the sins of that individual would be covered by the
innocent blood of their sacrifice. The sin, however, was simply covered not
removed. In order to redeem mankind from the debt of death that was owed,
innocent blood had to be shed. Hebrews 9:22 declares that “without the shedding
of blood there is no forgiveness.” So God sent His Son, pure and spotless,
without sin to be our sacrifice:
“In him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
Ephesians
1:7
Forgiveness
was extended towards us not because we deserved it, but because we needed it. Mankind was in quite a predicament. Our sins
demanded death, and the One person who had it in His power to save us, is
precisely the person we had sinned against. Our forgiveness lay in the lap of the person
we offended. Yet, Romans 5:8 declares:
“But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us.”
God knew
that without His willingness to forgive there would be no reconciliation. Mankind would be eternally separated from
Him. So He “chose” to forgive our offenses:
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will
remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews
8:12
God’s
forgiveness is a gesture of His divine mercy, a gesture that we as believers
readily receive, but often refuse to model. We have lost sight that God’s
forgiveness was not something merely shown to us, but to be shown through us!
Pastor Scott
Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment