Forgiveness in No Other Name

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a co-worker who is Muslim. We were talking about matters of religion and the fact that we both recognize that we are bad people, or at least that we do bad things. She as well as I both recognize that we are in need of forgiveness. The problem is that her belief system does not provide a basis for a holy, righteous, and just God to forgive without compromising his character.

As I was thinking more about the nature of forgiveness and Christ as the exclusive basis for our forgiveness before God, I was reminding of Ephesians 4:32,

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

“Just as” – those words are strong and yet seem so vague. We are to forgive others “just as” God has forgiven us in Christ, but “just” how has God forgiven us in Christ? It is a question we every Christian must endeavor to answer, if they are to be able to forgive others in like manner. So if you will join me in considering the following ways in which God has forgiven us in Christ:

1. He forgave those who had offended Him. This may go without saying, but the very fact that forgiveness is need points to an offense. That we have in some way offended and wronged God, that we have sinned against Him.
2. He forgave in kindness not retribution. His forgiveness was done is such a way that we need not bear the retribution for the wrong that we have done to whom, rather He Himself has choose to bear the retribution do for the very offenses that were committed against Him. Even more He has done us good in giving us forgiveness. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (2Pet. 3:18)
3. He forgave in a way of tenderheartedness and sympathy. The securing of our forgiveness before God was secured in a way of compassion and piety. For Christ knowing from times past the depravity of man’s hearts and the desperate state of His peoples condition, set to deliver them from their helpless condition. Yet Christ compassion and sympathy for His people is not merely cognitive, but experiential as well, in that He partook of the same nature and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. As a man he endured those temptations and trials of heart which are common to all men. Yet as the Son of God, he endured them all to their fullest extent and yet was without sin. Thus their is no degree of temptation or trial with which the Lord Christ is not acquainted and has not overcome. Thus the author of Hebrews tells us, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 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. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (4:14-16, emphasis added)
4. He forgave them completely and finally. In saying that He forgave them completely, I mean that He forgave their sins once for all. He has already satisfied all the demands of justice regarding both that obedience or righteousness required by the law and that wrath or penalty that our disobedience to the law requires. In saying that He forgave them finally, I mean that the death He died and the life He lived shall always and ever more be the believers also by means of their union with Him. All whom God in Christ forgave, he forgave forever more and He shall remember their sins no more.

Yet there is no other person who has provided the grounds for forgiveness and at the same time upheld the requirements of divine justice. And who so so in such a way of love and grace, that He would bear their iniquities so that He might forgive them. That He would become under wrath of God, so that God might turn His wrath from them and grant them forgiveness.

So might find it odd that I would right so much about Christ’s life and death at time of year when many will remember His birth. But is that not another testimony to His kindness and tenderheartedness in forgiving us, that He who gives to each of us breath and life and being would stoop down and become a man. Furthermore, that he he would enter into His creation in a way of humility being born in stable to a poor Jewish peasant. That He would be a king who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life – to die – as a ransom for many. So that God might in Him forgive us.

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

“But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,” (Ephesians 4:20-21)

I have been thinking a lot about the nature of reality an how we attempt to make sense of the world. And the more I have considered the meaning of everything in life, the more convinced I have become that their must be one singular purpose that serves as the fountain from which everything else must flow. But what is that source that provides the basis for making sense of life. Ephesians 4 points us the Son of God as the source of all knowledge – all truth – upon which our lives must be founded.

I should first point to the failings of worldly philosophical systems or other religious systems, namely that they provide no basis for truth. Even in Ephesians 4:17-19, those who do not have Christ are seen as being “in the futility of their minds”, “darkened in their understanding”, “ignorant”, and living in “lusts of deceit. Why are they like this? Simple they have forsaken God who is the standard against all knowledge and truth were to be measured. He alone provides a basis for knowing anything. He is self-sufficient, so so His actions and thoughts are not dependent upon His creation. I do not have to be concerned about some else discovering something that God will need to learn from them. God is not taught by us, but we are to be taught by Him. He is eternal and unchanging, so truth has not and can not change, but will be the same yesterday today and forever. Therefore, I can rest assured that if it was right to tell the truth today it will be right to tell the truth tomorrow.

Yet here in Ephesians 4:21, we see that truth is does not reside in God as some simple abstract idea, but in the person of Jesus Christ. There can be know true knowledge of God, let alone any true understanding of life, without Jesus Christ. So if someone desires to know the truth, what must they do? They must run to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) Let me point out two quick observations that point to Christ’s sole position as the mediator of knowledge of the Father to those who are children of God.

1. All Truth is in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus is not simply a man, but God clothed in human flesh, He is the standard against which all knowledge must be measured. Who His is, what He says, and what He does is not simply a reflect what truth is, but defines it. Thus every speculation of man must be tested against Jesus Christ for its validity. And when our assertions of “truth” conflict with His, it becomes abundantly clear that our so called “truths” are really lies.
2. Christ is the Sole Dispenser of Truth. Not only is He the source and definer of truth, but He alone is the dispenser of if. Thus we read that these Christians “have heard Him and have been taught in Him”. As the apostle Paul else where describes Christ a shepherd who calls his sheep and they follow Him, here Paul tells us that those who have heard the truth were not simply hear about Jesus but they “heard Him”. When Paul had appealed for them to reconciled to God, that had received not as a mans testimony, but has Christ Himself appealing through Paul for them to be reconciled. Thus those who refuse to listen to Christ – refuse to listen to truth. They may seek their “truth” or their “wisdom” from other sources, but they are only learning falsehood and folly.

So let us look to expose the folly that remains in our hearts, because of the ignorance that is in us by running to Christ to shed the light of truth in lives and teach us how to walk in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.