Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.41 – November 1995
Believing In Forgiveness
Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Day 21, Q & A 56
Dear fellow sinners, fellow saints.
Every Sunday millions of people all over the world recite the Apostles’ Creed. Every Sunday millions of us say, I believe in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. But do we know what we are saying? Do we know what forgiveness of sins means? Do you realise what a stupendous and miraculous thing forgiveness is?
Let me tell you that many who say that they believe in the forgiveness of sins, don’t actually believe it. They do not understand what it is about. They do not accept the concept of forgiveness, nor the offer of forgiveness. Many church-goers don’t know what it means to be forgiven.
The Lord Jesus knew that this would be so. And He warns us about it on a number of occasions. There is, for instance, the parable of the man whose huge debt was cancelled by the king. But when that same man met a friend who was unable to repay his small loan, he dragged his debtor to court and had him thrown into prison. Jesus said that when the king heard this he withdrew his offer of forgiveness to this unforgiving man and had him thrown into prison till he would pay the last cent of his debt.
The man, said Jesus, who shows no mercy will be shown no mercy. Or in the words of Matthew 6, “if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Our Lord very clearly implies that when we accept and experience the forgiveness of our sins, we will in turn be compassionate and merciful to those who wrong and hurt us.
Conversely if we do not forgive others it means that we have not really accepted and appreciated, and learned from, the mercy of God towards us. And because this is so, because accepting forgiveness will lead to granting forgiveness, I want to deal with the subject a bit more broadly than is done in Lord’s Day 21, in Question and Answer 56.
The Catechism limits itself to divine forgiveness. I want to talk about human forgiveness as well, because our Lord shows that God forgiving us our sins, and we forgiving each other’s sins, are matters which belong very closely together.
So I draw your attention to three points about forgiveness of sins:
1. God forgives sins because of what Jesus has done.
2. We have to accept forgiveness.
3. We are called to practice forgiveness.
First then, the Scriptures call us to believe that God forgives sins. This is the basis of all true forgiveness. Now this forgiveness is an astonishing concept. In fact it is a miracle of divine love and mercy. It is therefore not surprising that the natural heart and mind of sinful men and women, finds forgiveness impossible to grasp. The natural man understands judgment, punishment, retaliation, anger, rejection. All this is part of our daily experience. When we are hurt, we want to strike back. When we have done wrong, we expect a hiding. And, in a sense, the Bible teaches that this is the way it ought to be. Evil – sin – is wrong. It has to be rejected. It has to be eliminated. It deserves to be punished.
But now the Gospel comes with what looks like a completely different teaching. The same God who judges and punishes the wicked, offers forgiveness to the wicked. The Gospel teaches that God has gone to extraordinary lengths to provide forgiveness. God sent His Son to purchase pardon and life for guilty sinners. Jesus gave His life a ransom for many.
I think the Catechism sums up very well what it means for believers, “I believe that God, because of Christ’s atonement, will never hold against me any of my sins nor my sinful nature which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, in His grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.”
The motive for God’s forgiveness is His love for the perishing sinner who is His creature. In His love, God gave us His Son. The basis for God’s forgiveness is the atoning death of Christ. This means that Jesus did something to counter our sins. Jesus accepted responsibility for our sins, He took our sins upon Himself, and He experienced God’s wrath, God’s holy judgment and punishment of our evil.
For Christ, who took our sins upon Himself, there was no pardon – there was judgment and rejection. And because Christ suffered God’s holy anger against our sins – because Christ endured the hatred and hurtfulness of sin for us – God pardons us. God can assure us of His everlasting love for us and acceptance of us.
The Catechism mentions two sides of divine forgiveness:
- God puts away the memory of our sins. He will not hold them against the sinner whom He forgives for Christ’s sake. This means that God pardons. God cancels the debt. He forgives the offence.
- God grants us the righteousness of Christ. God reckons – God credits to our account – the perfect goodness of Christ.
O wonderful, wonderful gift! The perfect righteousness of Christ. That is the righteousness that is acceptable to God. Christ’s righteousness is perfect obedience, perfect love. And therefore it means perfect fellowship with God. Righteousness means perfect peace, unspoilt by sin.
This brings me to the second point, which is that we must accept the forgiveness of our sins from God if we are to benefit from this gracious provision of mercy. Here we come to a tremendous difficulty. The difficulty of the pride of the human heart. The difficulty of accepting help which we really can’t do without, but which we are too proud to accept.
Let me be very plain. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the natural man to admit his sins. And there are many natural men and women in the church. It is very, very difficult to accept that the only righteousness which will stand up before God is the righteousness of Christ. And it is difficult to admit that the only way we can get that righteousness is as a gift.
There are many, oh so many of us, who are all out to produce our own righteousness. We are doing our best to be good. We are sacrificing time, pleasure and money to prove that we are worthy of God’s acceptance and blessing. We look at our own efforts far more than at the sacrifice and prayers of Christ. We rejoice more in our own achievements than in the achievements of Christ. And when we find that we are not so good after all – that in fact we fail again and again – we panic. We ask ourselves, “Am I a Christian or not. Do I love God or don’t I love God.”
We are trying to be good, but we discover we can’t be as good as we want to be. Once we come to see that, we may actually despair of ourselves. We may wonder whether God can possibly accept us. And so we should! Because it is an utter waste of time and effort to try and establish or prove our own righteousness, our own goodness, our own deserving of God’s approval. We shall never be good enough to deserve God’s approval and acceptance.
Instead we should be rejoicing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We should rejoice in the goodness of Jesus. We should rejoice in Christ’s right to God’s approval and acceptance. For that is the righteousness and right which God freely gives to those who confess their sins and rely only on the mercy of God.
Oh, that is hard. To throw yourself completely on the mercy of God. To admit that you have nothing to offer, nothing to bargain with. It is hard to face the truth that all you can hope for is to hear God in His mercy say, “Your sins are forgiven – you are pardoned!” But, oh when a sinner hears that Word! What a relief to the soul. I can bathe in the light and freedom of God’s mercy,
God’s ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts higher than our thoughts. Yes, we sometimes have difficulty believing in forgiveness because we find it so impossible to forgive others. We say we forgive, but we can’t forget. The memory flares up at any little irritation.
It is true, we can’t forgive, we won’t forgive, until we confess our own sins, our total dependence on the forgetfulness of God. We can’t forgive and we won’t accept forgiveness till the Holy Spirit convinces us of the truth of the promise, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). That’s the order: confession, forgiveness, cleansing (renewal).
Let me draw your attention to something which can easily be overlooked. It is this: What we believe about the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, etc, is something that is the result of what the Holy Spirit teaches us about the person and work of the Saviour Jesus Christ.
There is a church, there is the communion of saints, there is forgiveness of sins, only because of what Jesus, the Christ, has done for the people God has given Him. There is a forgiven body of people because of the sacrifice and the prayers of the Lamb of God who is also the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
So it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we experience divine forgiveness. It is when we confess our sins and rely on Christ’s righteousness alone for our peace with God, that we know, we are forgiven. God tells us so. And when by faith in Jesus I accept and enjoy God’s mercy towards myself, I can become forgiving towards those who have wronged’ me.
Look at it this way: if God is willing to forgive them as He is willing to forgive us for Christ’s sake, WHO ARE WE THAT WE SHOULD REFUSE TO FORGIVE.
Of course, justice must be done. But do you realise that justice has been done, on the Cross? Jesus did not suffer for nothing, did He? He did not die only for your sins. He died also for the sins of your faltering neighbour. Christ’s atonement is the basis for both divine and human forgiveness.
Forgiveness, an amazing concept. So amazing that I have heard people say, it’s too easy. Or, is that not a denial of my responsibility. You see, we want to earn something, we want to deserve it. And forgiveness is a gift; part of the wonderful benefits which God provides us in the Saviour Jesus.
Let us rejoice then, by faith in Jesus.
Let us believe the forgiveness of sins.
Let us live in the light of God’s mercy.
And in that light, let us be merciful.
In the words of the apostle, “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you have against each other. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you” (Col 3:12-13).
Amen.