Forgiveness
July 31, 2024
Pastor Gordon Cook
Matthew 6:9-13: Pray then like this, “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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
To continue this theme of forgiveness I want to turn to another portion of Scripture in Luke's gospel. In Matthew you have that prayer where you have our Lord telling us to come and ask for forgiveness and to forgive others. In Luke chapter 23 there is a focus upon Christ himself. Here he is on the cross, and I did mention this this past Sunday, but I think it's a very significant point in our Lord's life. It helps us to understand this matter of forgiveness. Luke 23:32, “Two others who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”
I think it's accurate to say that right from the beginning and right to the back end of our Lord's life, the devil was always seeking to get Jesus to sin and to transgress God's holy law. He got the first Adam to sin against God, Genesis chapter 2, and he's always seeking to have Christ sin, hoping that he would fall like the first Adam. He is called the last Adam, or the second man. And remember, no sooner is he baptized and the Spirit drives him into the wilderness to go on a battlefield to take on the devil. There he is tempted with three temptations. I've thought of them this way: the bread temptation, the temple temptation, and the kingdom temptation.
But the devil never quits. And throughout his life and right towards the back end of his life he's still on the prowl, seeking again to find Jesus at his most vulnerable moments. So when he's on the cross you can believe that the devil is firing his fiery darts and lobbing his grenades. But Jesus never sins, and we needed a sinless Savior.
Think about this, on the cross, up to the cross he's been brutalized by the Roman soldiers, tortured by the crucifixion, someone likened it to a hundred deaths. It was just magnified pain. It was purposely instituted by the Romans to magnify and maximize pain. But there he is on the cross, not only suffering physically, but they’re name calling him, they're mocking him those six hours. And then he still maintains his purity, his sinlessness. How do we know that? No angry words, no bitter words, the most gracious, loving words. What are they?
He prays for his enemy, he intercedes and prays for the salvation of his enemies. He wants them to be forgiven, and the only way they can be forgiven is if they repent of their sin. This is a conditional forgiveness here, it's not the unilateral. Some speak of a unilateral element to our forgiveness. But this is what you could call a forgiveness that has to be transactional. Jesus wants them to be saved. And the verb tense here is in the imperfect tense. It means he kept on saying, “Forgive them, forgive them, forgive them.” That shows us his heart disposition, doesn't it? This was not a momentary thing, but a heart disposition of love.
Last Sunday we talked about forgiveness. We are to model Jesus, which means we must always love our enemies. That's really the unconditional element when it comes to forgiveness. But there should always be what has been called this vertical element to our forgiveness. That doesn't mean that we must always forgive our enemies, I don't think Jesus is doing that on the cross. He's asking God to forgive them. He's loving them. And like Jesus, we should always have a heart of love. One that desires forgiveness of our enemies, or even our best of friends. There should always be a vertical commitment to forgive.
Which means there's no justification for bitterness towards our enemies. Dr. Paul Tripp picks up this concept of forgiveness with the whole subject of marriage. He describes it a little differently, he talks about a judicial forgiveness. This is the one that we have to have in relationship to God. He puts it this way, “This is trusting the offense to God who alone is able to judge.” Then there's what he calls the second element of forgiveness, horizontal or relational. There's this transaction that takes place between the two parties. But here's where we often get ourselves into trouble, we harbor bitterness. We can harbor bitterness towards even our wives or our friends, there's a reluctance to forgive or even a refusal to forgive. No Christian should say this, and I've heard some say this, “I can’t forgive or I won't forgive.” No Christian should ever say that, we should always be willing and eager to forgive 70 times 7. Yes, it's costly, forgiveness is not easy, but we should pray that God would have us have that disposition Brethren, loving our enemies and always willing and eager for them to be reconciled to God, even when they're pounding nails into his hands and feet. Think about that, brutalized, slandered, ridiculed, Jesus still had a heart disposition to forgive.
Going back to the Lord's Prayer, the forgiven forgive. It's something we should always pray for, “God help me to forgive as I've been forgiven.” And you could pile on adverbs here, couldn't you. How have you been forgiven? I mentioned some of them Sunday: graciously, immediately, completely, fully, kindly, mercifully, lovingly, we have been forgiven. So we should ask God to help us to be like him, and to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Pastor Gordon Cook
Matthew 6:9-13: Pray then like this, “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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
To continue this theme of forgiveness I want to turn to another portion of Scripture in Luke's gospel. In Matthew you have that prayer where you have our Lord telling us to come and ask for forgiveness and to forgive others. In Luke chapter 23 there is a focus upon Christ himself. Here he is on the cross, and I did mention this this past Sunday, but I think it's a very significant point in our Lord's life. It helps us to understand this matter of forgiveness. Luke 23:32, “Two others who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”
I think it's accurate to say that right from the beginning and right to the back end of our Lord's life, the devil was always seeking to get Jesus to sin and to transgress God's holy law. He got the first Adam to sin against God, Genesis chapter 2, and he's always seeking to have Christ sin, hoping that he would fall like the first Adam. He is called the last Adam, or the second man. And remember, no sooner is he baptized and the Spirit drives him into the wilderness to go on a battlefield to take on the devil. There he is tempted with three temptations. I've thought of them this way: the bread temptation, the temple temptation, and the kingdom temptation.
But the devil never quits. And throughout his life and right towards the back end of his life he's still on the prowl, seeking again to find Jesus at his most vulnerable moments. So when he's on the cross you can believe that the devil is firing his fiery darts and lobbing his grenades. But Jesus never sins, and we needed a sinless Savior.
Think about this, on the cross, up to the cross he's been brutalized by the Roman soldiers, tortured by the crucifixion, someone likened it to a hundred deaths. It was just magnified pain. It was purposely instituted by the Romans to magnify and maximize pain. But there he is on the cross, not only suffering physically, but they’re name calling him, they're mocking him those six hours. And then he still maintains his purity, his sinlessness. How do we know that? No angry words, no bitter words, the most gracious, loving words. What are they?
He prays for his enemy, he intercedes and prays for the salvation of his enemies. He wants them to be forgiven, and the only way they can be forgiven is if they repent of their sin. This is a conditional forgiveness here, it's not the unilateral. Some speak of a unilateral element to our forgiveness. But this is what you could call a forgiveness that has to be transactional. Jesus wants them to be saved. And the verb tense here is in the imperfect tense. It means he kept on saying, “Forgive them, forgive them, forgive them.” That shows us his heart disposition, doesn't it? This was not a momentary thing, but a heart disposition of love.
Last Sunday we talked about forgiveness. We are to model Jesus, which means we must always love our enemies. That's really the unconditional element when it comes to forgiveness. But there should always be what has been called this vertical element to our forgiveness. That doesn't mean that we must always forgive our enemies, I don't think Jesus is doing that on the cross. He's asking God to forgive them. He's loving them. And like Jesus, we should always have a heart of love. One that desires forgiveness of our enemies, or even our best of friends. There should always be a vertical commitment to forgive.
Which means there's no justification for bitterness towards our enemies. Dr. Paul Tripp picks up this concept of forgiveness with the whole subject of marriage. He describes it a little differently, he talks about a judicial forgiveness. This is the one that we have to have in relationship to God. He puts it this way, “This is trusting the offense to God who alone is able to judge.” Then there's what he calls the second element of forgiveness, horizontal or relational. There's this transaction that takes place between the two parties. But here's where we often get ourselves into trouble, we harbor bitterness. We can harbor bitterness towards even our wives or our friends, there's a reluctance to forgive or even a refusal to forgive. No Christian should say this, and I've heard some say this, “I can’t forgive or I won't forgive.” No Christian should ever say that, we should always be willing and eager to forgive 70 times 7. Yes, it's costly, forgiveness is not easy, but we should pray that God would have us have that disposition Brethren, loving our enemies and always willing and eager for them to be reconciled to God, even when they're pounding nails into his hands and feet. Think about that, brutalized, slandered, ridiculed, Jesus still had a heart disposition to forgive.
Going back to the Lord's Prayer, the forgiven forgive. It's something we should always pray for, “God help me to forgive as I've been forgiven.” And you could pile on adverbs here, couldn't you. How have you been forgiven? I mentioned some of them Sunday: graciously, immediately, completely, fully, kindly, mercifully, lovingly, we have been forgiven. So we should ask God to help us to be like him, and to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Posted in Pastor Devotional