February 22, 2002

FORGIVE US OUR SINS, Part I

"And forgive us our sins. For we we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us" (Luke 11:4, NKJV).

"Jesus teaches that we can receive forgiveness from God only as we forgive others. It is the love of God that draws us to Him, and that love cannot touch our hearts without creating love for our brethren.

"After completing the Lord's Prayer, Jesus added: 'If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses' (Matthew 6:14, 15). He who is unforgiving cuts off the very channel through which alone he can receive mercy from God. We should not think that unless those who have injured us confess the wrong we are justified in withholding from them our forgiveness. It is their part, no doubt, to humble their hearts by repentance and confession; but we are to have a spirit of compassion toward those who have trespassed against us, whether or not they confess their faults. However sorely they may have wounded us, we are not to cherish our grievances and sympathize with ourselves over our injuries; but as we hope to be pardoned for our offenses against God we are to pardon all who have done evil to us.

"But forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God gives the promise that He 'will abundantly pardon,' He adds, as if the meaning of that promise exceeded all that we could comprehend: 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts' (Isaiah 55:7-9). God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love than transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me' (Psalm 51:10. And again he says, 'As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us' (Psalm 103:12).

"God in Christ gave Himself for our sins. He suffered the cruel death of the cross, bore for us the burden of guilt, 'the just for the unjust,' that He might reveal to us His love and draw us to Himself. And He says, 'be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you' (Ephesians 4:32, RV).--Thoughts From The Mount Of Blessing, pp., 113, 114.