An Impossible Debt

 To get saved, we need to be forgiven of an impossible debt to God that only He can pay (Christ's sacrifice, being God, was perfect and infinite value); we must declare spiritual bankruptcy in God's court.  We do not have a chance to meet God's demands and it's good that Jesus paid it in full by declaring: "It is finished [Tetelestai]." Which in interpretation, means and implies "Paid in Full." Once you have remitted a bill, you forget it! Same with God, once we are forgiven at salvation, God keeps no record of wrong and doesn't count our sins against us. (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19; Psalm 32:2).  We no longer are debtors to God after our salvation because God no longer can count our sins against us or there would be double jeopardy and God is just and cannot allow His justice to  be perverted. 

We owe an outstanding debt to God and man to love and this the summation of our ethic: loving God and our neighbor. We even owe a moral debt or obligation to society in general!  We forgive others then as Christ has forgiven us! We return the favor and be examples of forgiveness without any malice or vengeance for trespasses against us. Our forgiveness is not conditional because that would not be grace. 

Just like Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer that we should forgive others their debts or sins as God forgives us. This is not legalism or adding to the grace of God: Jesus plus this or that. The statement is highly troubling and some think that if they haven't forgiven someone, they are lost.  But we want to forgive out of gratitude and the operative word is "as" meaning we will do it. That is not the same as saying "if we forgive others."  All our sins are forgiven upon salvation and we need only confess them to regain fellowship, not salvation.  The woman forgiven of adultery loved Jesus so much that Jesus was prompted to say that he who is forgiven much, loves much!  

God's grace is not only necessary for  salvation, but sufficient. We forgive others out of love and a change of heart  because God has transformed us from the inside out to be new creatures in Christ eager to do good and love others. Whenever we partake of the Lord's Supper, we are to examine ourselves to see if anyone holds something against us or we have sinned against a brother, even offending them or making them to fall. 

God's mercy means that God doesn't treat us as we deserve and punish us, and His grace means He give us what we do not deserve as a blessing. We must never come to God seeking "justice," for if we got that, we would certainly be condemned. Some wish God were only "fair" to them and don't realize that would not be living by grace and we would forfeit the grace of God. If we deserved salvation, it would be justice, not mercy. The cost of unforgiveness is damnation!  It does cost to be saved, but more not to be!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Will God Forgive Me?

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for..." Isaiah 40:1-2 

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." Rev. 3:19

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after  that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jer. 31:33-34 

 So many people think they have committed the unforgiveable sin or that they have gone to far and there is no hope for their souls that it is necessary to make a study on God's mercy. Truly, we cannot limit the mercy of God any more than we can put God in a box. It wasn't long ago that the Roman Catholic Church taught that if you committed suicide you automatically went to hell because you couldn't repent, but has since reversed itself saying this is limiting God and God decides who is forgiven, not us. 

Actually, the only unforgiveable sin is "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit," as delineated in Matt. 12:31ff. In Jesus's day, the Pharisees went so far that they attributed the works Christ had done by the finger of God to the devil himself. They didn't just think it but proclaimed it verbally and impenitently to overthrow the ministry of Christ. That is a pretty hard sin to do in this day and age even though it is theoretically possible.  

The point is that the person never repents and God sees this heart that we don't. Only God can judge that one has done this sin.  No matter what sin you have committed, you can be forgiven if you repent!  Israel had done every evil in the book but God didn't throw the book at them but told them even then He would not utterly cast them out and would forgive them (cf. Lev. 26:44). If you think you cannot be forgiven, you are already showing remorse and cannot be unredeemable or have gone too far; those people don't care and are impenitent. 

We must realize that even Christians do not get away with sin though God does not punish them per se. He chastises and disciplines or even prunes them that they may learn their lesson. In faithfulness, He has afflicted us that we may gain a heart of wisdom and for our own good (Psalm 119:67,71). They rod and staff of God is meant to comfort us. It is good to be taught by God. Some need to learn the hard way, the school of hard knocks. Guilt complexes are of Satan, but conviction of sin is the job of the Holy Spirit and God performs an open and shut case and doesn't just give us a vague feeling of shame or guilt--Satan does!  We all have a God-given conscience to listen to, but it can be wrong if not enlightened by the Word. 

When God forgives us, He deletes the file on us and keeps no permanent file or record (Isaiah 38:17); He blots them out for His own sake (Isaiah 43:25). He has swept them away like a cloud (Isaiah 44:22). He also casts them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).  What God does is throw them into the sea and puts up a sign: no fishing!  God can utterly forget and delete memories!  If we confess the same sin over and over, we are dredging up old sins and God says, "What sin?" We cannot be forgiven too many times and even if it's the same sin. Do you want new sins?  We may have an easily besetting sin that overcomes us and we need special intercession or confession. Remember, "Sin is crouching at the door and wants to destroy you and you must not let it." Gen. 4:7 

He only forgives those with faith in Jesus and have repented of their sins. True repentance is without regret. (2 Cor. 7:10).   That means being sorry enough to stop them. If there is no remorse, there can be no forgiveness. The Christian may sin, but he doesn’t desire to and wants to live a holy life and has made the decision to follow Christ. The point of conversion is that God changes a person from the inside out and makes them a new person willing to do God’s will.

God forbid that we should take advantage of grace and go on sinning once forgiven. That would be a sin of presumption. No believer is without sin but is at the same time justified before God and a sinner saved by grace, not his conduct. God doesn’t hold our sins against us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19; Psalm 32:2). But only Christians have power to overcome sin and it has no dominion over us. (Romans 6:14). 

In sum, when the believer sins, God doesn't hold it against them (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19) but disciplines them that they may grow spiritually and in maturity and faith.  "O what joy for those whose record has been cleared of guilt...." (Psalm 32:2).   Confession is not a matter of getting saved again, but of restoration to fellowship with the Father, the Son, and other believers as 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."   Soli Deo Gloria! 

God's Wrath Versus Man's

"Will you be angry with us forever?"  (Psalm 85:5, NIV).
"Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure"  (Lam. 5:21-22, NIV).
"Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt [restrain]"  (Psalm 76:10, ESV).
"Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"  (Psalm 77:9, ESV).

"God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day" (Psalm 7:11, NIV). It's a good thing He "has not appointed us to wrath" (cf. 1 Thess. 5:9).   In the KJV it says "God is angry with the wicked every day."  Yes, God is not only a God of mercy but of justice and its consequence, wrath at the evil that must be judged, because God is holy.  The fortunate thing is that He is not angry at us, but that wrath was diverted at the cross.  We can also know that God's delights to show mercy and doesn't stay angry forever (cf. Micah 7:18). Also:  "For His anger is but for a moment..." (Psalm 30:5, NASB). And God tempers His wrath with mercy (cf. Heb. 3:2). 

We are warned in Romans 11:22 to "behold the goodness and severity of God" and realize that God means business!  When He chastises us, it isn't because He's angry at us, but about us, and we must suffer from our sins, not for them.  Man's anger doesn't achieve the righteousness of God and we are admonished to cease from anger and forsake wrath in Scripture.  The unbeliever suffers because "the wrath of God abides on him."  We are delivered from the wrath to come, according to 1 Thess. 1:10.  Proverbs advise: We are to avoid a man of quick temper, lest we learn his ways, and yet we are to fear God, for "His wrath is quickly kindled" (cf. Psalm 2:12).

One word of encouragement is that "the Lord is slow to anger" and "His patience means our salvation!"  Don't ask God to judge someone hastily, because He had so much patience with you.  God will someday mete out His justice and meet its demands, and we will no longer suffer indirectly from His wrath, which glorifies Him, even from the wrath of man (cf. Psalm 76:10)--"Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise and the survivors of your wrath are restrained"  (Psalm 76:10, NIV).  Soli Deo Gloria!

He Has Not Given Me Over To Death

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him..." (Job 13:15, NKJV).

Not to be morbid, but the understanding of what is on the "other side" must begin early in life and one must be realistic even with children to teach biblical mindset and preparation.  Jesus Himself was the ultimate realist and He mentioned the grave and beyond, even hell more than heaven.   Being prepared for the hereafter is not a matter of making a will and paying or preparing for one's final expenses via life insurance.  Some people actually spend less time preparing for death than their annual vacation--this ought not to be so!  

We all need to be assured of our salvation and know that God won't take us till we are ready in His timing if we are in His will.  As Epictetus said, "I cannot escape death, but I can escape the fear of it."  We should be confident in our Lord (i.e., that we've made our peace with God) that we would say with Robert Louis Stevenson, that, even if we woke up in hell we'd still believe in Him.

David thanked the Lord that, though he had been chastened severely, he had not been given over to death (cf. Psalm 118:18).  There is a "sin which leads unto death," however, and John said not to pray for such a one (cf. 1 John 5:16).   Even Christians can go too far and be removed by divine discipline of the Lord, that is why they, too, must live in the fear of the Lord and behold both the goodness and severity of the Lord per Romans 11:22.

However, the death of believers is precious in the sight of God (cf. Psalm 116:15) and we ought to look forward to dying as a promotion, not an end, but a new beginning of a higher and different way of living to the full, the way we were meant to live.  Death is not a wall, but a door and D. L. Moody is quoted as saying, "This is my triumph, this is my coronation day!  It is glorious!"  Even Alfred, Lord Tennyson said, in his poem In Memoriam: "God's finger touched him, and he slept."  Death is a promotion and Paul said that "to live is Christ, but to die is gain" in Phil. 1:21.

We are only glad that God hasn't given us over to death as chastisement, but as our promotion to glory, for "we should live every day as if it were our last day" (Matthew Henry quote).  David went to be with the Lord in His timing:  "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep..." (Acts 13:36, NKJV).  In other words, when he had done what God had meant for him to do and God was done with him, God took him.  God knows when we are ready, we don't, that's why suicide isn't the answer.  God isn't in the business of taking lives prematurely:   (Ezek. 18:32 (NASB):  "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies...").  However, the day of death is better than the day of birth in God's eyes (cf. Eccl. 7:1).  David said that with the Lord, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15, ESV).  It is indeed better for the soul "to go to the house of mourning than the house of mirth" (cf. Eccl. 7:2), by the same token.

When you are confident of your coming promotion you are brave and live like David, when he told Jonathan:  "There is but a step between me and death (cf. 1 Sam. 20:3).  David lived his life on the edge and to the full!  We only want to live a long life if we are pleasing to the Lord and doing His will; otherwise, what's the use?   Is there a great reward in pursuing your own will?  We are happiest as believers only when we've learned to serve and not to live selfishly and for our own good, but for the good of others.  

David was glad God hadn't given him over to death because he then knew that he still had an opportunity to fulfill God's will; David was a man after God's own heart because he did all God's will. We should all hope and pray to go on to be with the Lord in His timing, for He makes all things beautiful in His time--i.e., we don't want to go before our time as Scripture would say.

In sum, let me quote an anecdote about Saint Francis of Assisi:  "If you had one hour left to live, what would you do?"  His answer, said while tilling his garden, was:  "I would finish this row!"  That's being prepared to die without unfinished business, unlike what God said to Hezekiah to "get his house in order" (cf. Isaiah 38:1), for he was about to die and not recover.   Soli Deo Gloria!