If
You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is
forgiveness with You, That You may be feared (Psalm 130:3-4)
We all, from time to time, think
that because we hold a certain belief, others who belong to our
social/economic/political/religious group(s), whatever that may be, think the
same way we do. To some degree this is true; it's safe to assume that if you
belong to a stamp collecting society, the members all, to one degree or
another, have an affinity for philately. On the other hand, we as individuals
often project our personal beliefs onto the group. My theory is, most people
don't study these things and whatever way they "feel" about the issue
in question, they associate with their group. The formula goes like this: I'm a
Lutheran. I think all people are basically good (because it seems mean,
negative, and unfair to believe what the Bible teaches about original sin).
Therefore Lutherans believe people are basically good. This is demonstrated by
the recent Lifeway survey which shows that a large percentage of American
Evangelicals hold heretical beliefs[1] (Lindgren 2016).
This phenomenon can also be seen
among Christians because of the unrestricted posting of internet memes. Every
day I see people who are confessing Christians, who belong to and regularly
attend church, posting memes that would make the toenails of orthodox
theologians curl in fright and disgust. The most recent gem to convulse my
brain was a meme with the following phrase superimposed over a background of
floating clouds, or majestic mountains, or whatever, no doubt meant to be
“inspirational” (whatever that means):
I
forgive people but that doesn't mean I accept their behavior or trust them. I
forgive them for me, so I can let go and move on with my life.
While this may seem to make good common
sense, and even be seen by some as inspirational at first blush, this meme’s notion
of forgiveness is, in reality, anything but actual forgiveness. This meme could
be summed up as "Forgive, but don't forget." This sentiment may
resonate with our sinful human nature, but it bears no relation to actual
forgiveness, and Christians should not apply this nugget of worldly wisdom to
their lives.
If
You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is
forgiveness with You, That You may be feared…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have
become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through
Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (Psalm
130:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20).
First, we Christians confess in the
Apostles Creed that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. What does that mean?
We believe that through Christ, God the Father has pardoned and forgiven sinful
mankind. That's all there is to it, really. He keeps no record of our sins, as
the psalmist tells us. In Christ we have been reconciled to God, and our sins
are wiped off the books. With God there is no "forgiving, but not
forgetting."
Scripture tells us that God hates
sin and that it must be atoned for[2].
So, how can he simply declare sinners to be righteous? Well, it isn't simple.
It took God the Son, second person of the Trinity, to come down to earth, take
on human flesh, keep God's law perfectly, and bear our sin and it’s punishment in
our place by dying on the cross to make the atonement. Jesus, the sinless one,
became sin for us so that we could become righteous[3].
So, to God, all our sins have been
paid for through the death of Christ. They are gone. They are forgotten. There
is no record of them for God to consult and hold over our heads, as we sinful
men do when we "forgive" our fellows. Moreover, having been baptized
into Christ, we are joined to him in his death and in his resurrection. That
means that his death is ours, and his life, the life that the Son of God won
for us on the cross, is ours also[4].
How do we get this forgiveness of
God? Must we complete some series of tasks? That might be logical to the human
mind, and we certainly tend to operate that way with our neighbors on a daily
basis. That would, however, be us working to atone for our own sins and would
defeat the purpose of what Christ came into the world to do. No, God offers us
his forgiveness as a gift through the Gospel. Through the means of Word and
Sacrament Christ comes to us and works faith in us, according to his own timing
and will. That faith, worked in us by the Holy Spirit, through his means, takes
hold of the forgiveness Christ won for us.
This teaching on forgiveness is the
most important teaching of Christianity. It is what distinguishes Christianity
from every other false religion. Salvation is completely the gift and work of
God. It doesn't depend on me in any way, which is a relief, since there is no
merit or worthiness in me. This scriptural teaching is of immense comfort to
the penitent sinner, and much more satisfying than any fleeting feeling of
self-righteousness we get from announcing to the world via Facebook that our
philosophy is to "forgive, but not forget" the sins of our neighbor.
In
this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your
kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do
not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. “For 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 6:8-15).
Second, we are commanded by Christ
to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us." In this petition of the Lord's Prayer we are literally told
to forgive others the way that God forgives us. If we do not, it is perhaps a
sign that we do not really believe that God has forgiven us as he has promised.
This is a thing we cannot do perfectly and, when we sin by failing at it, we
should repent...and ask for forgiveness! In the Small Catechism, Luther
explains the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer like this:
We
pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or
deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which
we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to
us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.
So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us (Concordia
Publishing House 1991) .
Stated another way, when we forgive
others, it shows that we truly believe that God forgives us.
We have briefly described how God
acts toward us; let's consider how we act toward him. We sin again and again,
we repent of our sins, and God forgives us for Christ's sake. There is no
mention of God not trusting us, or not forgetting our sins. In fact, scripture
tells us precisely the opposite. Our sins are wiped away for good. This is the
standard we are to have when forgiving those who trespass against us.
Then
Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you,
up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22).
How many times shall I forgive my
brother who sins against me? Not seven times, but seventy times seven. So…490
times? Jesus isn't giving his disciples a mathematical formula to figure out
the exact number of times they should forgive someone before giving them the
proverbial boot. He's telling them to endure repeated injury and continue to
offer them forgiveness, just as God has done for them. Imagine how terrified
and uncertain we would be if God adopted the philosophy of "Forgive, but
don't forget" toward us sinners. When we put ourselves in that scenario,
we get some idea of what actual forgiveness is, and why "forgive, but
don't forget" is counterfeit wisdom.
“You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good
to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise
on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For
if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do
more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be
perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48).
It is logical to the mind of man
that we should love those who love us and hate those who hate us. Christians,
aware of the fact that we have a corrupt and sinful nature, should be wary of
those things that "just feel right," like asserting the
self-righteous attitude of "forgiving, but not forgetting." Because
of his great love for us, God the Father sent Christ, his Only-Begotten Son,
into the world to bear our sin and be our savior. Jesus, God in human flesh,
demonstrated for us the very thing he teaches by his willingness to be put to
death on the cross as the propitiation for the sins of the world. You see, we
did no good thing which attracted us to Jesus and compelled him to save us. He
loved us, his enemies, while we were still his enemies[5].
This is the attitude we are to have when dealing with our neighbors. Because
Christ has been victorious over sin, death, and the devil, and forgives us our
trespasses, we can love our neighbor and forgive them that trespass against us.
Works Cited
Concordia Publishing House. Luther's Small
Catechism. Translated by Concordia Publishing House. Saint Louis,
Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1991.
Lindgren, Caleb. "Evangelicals' Favorite Heresies
Revisited by Researchers." Christianity Today. September 28, 2016.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september-web-only/evangelicals-favorite-heresies-state-of-theology-ligonier.html
(accessed October 17, 2016).
[1]
Reprising their ground-breaking study from two years ago, LifeWay
Research and Ligonier Ministries released an update today on the state of
American theology in 2016. Researchers surveyed 3,000 adults to measure their
agreement with a set of 47 statements about Christian theology—everything from
the divinity of Christ to the nature of salvation to the importance of regular
church attendance (Lindgren 2016) .
[2]
Psalm 5:4; 92:15; Hebrews 9:22
[3] 2
Corinthians 5:21
[4]
Romans 6:1-11
[5]
Romans 5:6-11
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