Category Archives: Forgiveness

Don’t Miss This!

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Sadly, many churches have missed the most important point in the message of Jesus.  Which is to say they missed the whole thing.  They talk about Jesus and the Bible but have never understood what Paul called “the Word of God in it’s fullness.”  It’s the key.  It changes the News into Good News. You don’t want to miss it!

God foretold the coming of Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection, but He held one part back, hidden, until Jesus had come.  Paul called it a “mystery.”

“…the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” (Colossians 1:26)

Without grasping this “mystery,” nothing about the message of Jesus “works.”  Jesus’ atoning sacrifice and God’s forgiveness would be useless.  The idea of being “holy and without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22 – See: No Halfway Measure) would be a farce.  Except for this amazing truth:

“… God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27b)

The “fullness” of the Gospel, the “mystery” held back until Jesus had appeared, is this:  When a person trusts and surrenders to Jesus Christ, Jesus begins to live eternally in his or her soul, by means of His Holy Spirit.  Jesus said,

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20)

“Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [literally, dwell within him]“ (John 14:23)

Receiving the Spirit and life of Jesus is how the believer crosses over from death to eternal life.

““I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

This eternal life in us is the reason for our “hope of glory,” literally, for our confidence in the successful eternal outcome of following Jesus.  Trying to follow Him without His Spirit would be like trying to use GPS without a satellite connection.  Or a blender without electricity.  It would be impossible, without His life in us, to commune with God and grow in His ways.  We would be reduced to trying to follow a list of religious rules and failing.  But the Good News is this: if we truly trust Him, Jesus lives in us, empowering us and transforming us.

Don’t miss this!

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Say What?

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He knew English from textbooks when he got here as an exchange student, but his first exposure to how English was actually spoken was in my college fraternity house.  It was startling but not surprising, therefore, when he was invited to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and asked for someone to pass him the @#$%*^ potatoes.  After a moment of shocked silence, the friend’s mother said, “Well, you heard him, pass the @#$%*^ potatoes!”

If you don’t know the slang expressions and idioms, you can easily get the wrong idea.  Why do we say, “What’s up?”  Here is some potential confusion from Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

” Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” (Colossians 1:24, NIV)

Huh?  Christ didn’t quite suffer enough?  Paul had to help Him out?  No. Jesus did everything necessary to completely and permanently pay for all the sins of anyone who is willing to accept His gift.  He has prepaid for you to receive complete forgiveness forever.  So why did Paul say there was something lacking in His suffering?  He used a common idiom to say, “I’m glad to do whatever is necessary to help the church, even if it means I will suffer for it like Jesus did.”

Jesus delegated the work of spreading His good news to His followers, who had discovered personally how wonderful it is.  He knew the assignment would come with suffering.  For whatever reason, people frequently get angry when you tell them about Jesus.  Go figure.  That’s why Jesus prayed for His followers, saying:

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4 – His atoning sacrifice was complete.)

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” (John 17:14 – They would suffer)

“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18 – Nevertheless, the plan is for them to tell people about Jesus)

Paul understood these realities, and that followers of Jesus would be witnesses to Him.  His attitude was, “Whatever it takes, I’m glad to do it.”  But it wasn’t that Paul was a masochist.  It was how amazing the message was, and how cool it was to see people catch on.   There is something about Jesus that most people have missed, something mind-blowing!  Knowing that, whatever it takes, even suffering, was worth it.  But what is that nugget?  What part of the message made it so worthwhile?

Stay tuned; we’ll get to that next time.

 

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

When the If Isn’t Iffy

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When you fly standby, they tell you, “If we can find you a seat, we will call your name.”  When they call your name, you ask, “Did I get on?”  And they tell you, “If we called your name, you have a seat on this flight.”  Those two “if’s” mean different things.  The first “if” is iffy.  The second one is not.  The first “if” means “maybe, maybe not.” The second “if” means “since.”   Like when someone says, “If the sun comes up tomorrow… ”  It means, “of course this is certain to happen.”

Why the grammar lesson?  Because maybe you get freaked out when you see the word, “if,” in the Bible.  We’ve been talking about how wonderful it is to be reconciled and be transformed from an enemy of God into someone who is considered by God to be absolutely innocent (See: No Halfway Measure).  But the next line says “if,” and it sounds like there’s a catch.  It says, these wonderful things are yours:

“…if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:23a)

Sounds like those you don’t get to keep the the wonderful things “if” you screw up and wander away from the faith.  But that’s not the right “if.” This “if” means “since you will certainly” continue in your faith.  This “if” isn’t “iffy.”

How do we know?  Well, the folks that read this in Greek could tell just by looking at it, because “if” is spelled differently if it’s iffy.  But without knowing Greek, we know because the next word is “established.”  Established means permanently anchored on a strong foundation.  It’s not something you have to do for yourself everyday.  It is something that has been done for you, once, in the past and is your secure condition forever.

If you get accepted for standby and board, you don’t have to worry about doing anything else to make it to your destination.  (That is, assuming the plane makes it, for the purpose of this illustration…)  People on airliners don’t have to be careful so they won’t fall out.  “If” they are on, they are going to get there.  Same thing for the reconciled.  Once you trust Jesus and are reconciled, you are established, firm and will not be moved from your confidence in the promises of eternity.  You may wonder from time to time, when (if I can club the airliner illustration to death) you encounter some nasty turbulence in life.  But you will discover, in the process, that what Jesus has done for you, He did permanently in you.

That’s why they call it “Good News.”  Because the “if” isn’t “iffy.”

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

No Halfway Measure

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A convicted terrorist from Guantanamo Prison is pardoned, released and then rehabilitated so completely, he qualifies to be a federal judge.  You didn’t hear about that?  Good.  I don’t think that has been suggested…  yet.  But something more astonishing is what happens to someone who is reconciled by the blood of Jesus (See: Reconciled).  Paul didn’t want anyone to miss the full measure of what that means, so he said:

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—” (Colossians 1:21-22)

When God reconciles us, He changes us from His enemies to ones who are free from accusation!  From evil behavior to holy!  That’s quite a jump, from one extreme of the moral spectrum to the far, opposite end.  Hard to fully comprehend because we can’t manage anything like it on our human plane.

Perhaps you are thinking, “Well, I’m a bit alienated from God – I’m not perfect by any means – but I wouldn’t consider myself to be an enemy.”  But God sees no middle ground.  If you are not for Him, you are against Him.   He does not grade on a curve.  Same thing between evil and holy: no shades of gray in the middle.  That’s not to say there’s no moral difference between you and a terrorist.  God assigns these radical judgments “in His sight.”  See that, at the end of the quote above?

God takes an enemy, reconciles him or her through the sacrifice of Jesus, “to present“  that person to Himself completely holy, unable to be justly accused of anything.  God sees the reconciled according to what that person will become. It does not say this transformation happens immediately, but that this is the ultimate purpose and what will be accomplished.  Perhaps you have put your trust in Christ, accepted this gift and still recognize a few things in your life for which you could be accused.  Yeah, me too, except with me it’s more than a few.  But understand this and hang on to it:  Because God sees no middle ground, He takes no halfway measures.  He will do everything necessary to bring you to the finish line, faultless in His sight.  He will not leave you, halfway.  Paul says, in another letter, he is

“… confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

No halfway measures.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

Reconciled

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When you are in the doghouse, there’s no use pretending.  A busted love relationship brings down everything else.  You may not be sure what went wrong (especially if you are a guy!), but there’s no denying that the tension needs fixing.  Papering over conflict with smiles and nice talk doesn’t work.  Caving in, going along to get along is worse.  Both attempts are temporary at best and lead to sullen, resentment.  But when someone initiates real repair by doing whatever is necessary to truly reconcile the broken relationship, the results can be exhilarating.

It was God Who took the initiative to repair our broken relationship with Him.  Paul described it like this:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him (Jesus – See: Seeing the Invisible),  and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. –  (Colossians 1:19-20 – with my comment)

Carefully note that it was God Who took the initiative.  And, He did not give in and say, “Let’s just pretend everything is OK now.”  He did everything necessary to truly repair the break.  The sobering, necessary cost was the blood payment for our sin.

Notice also that His act reconciled “all things” to Himself, not the other way around.  When you reconcile your bank statement, in almost every case it is your figures that must be adjusted to match the bank’s record; you change to reconcile to the bank.  God did not lower Himself to adjust to our sinfulness, but reached down through Jesus to lift us up to Himself.

The end result is peace.  Peace is not pretending to get along, it is the absolute, settled, restoration of the way things between us were always meant to be.  Peace wipes out all tension.  God, through Jesus, made this peace.  He took the initiative and He accomplished it.

You know, because you have been there, when your partner makes the first move to reconcile your relationship, it requires a certain humility to receive that act of love.  But if you are willing, you exchange brittle tension for peace and joy.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ … God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation…We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20 – excerpts)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

An Old Tool

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Old tools fascinate me.  Looking at the areas worn bare from use, I  try to imagine who used it, what he was making.  Sometimes I’m more curious to know what it was used for.  Tool magazines frequently post pictures, asking, does anyone know what this is?

Words are tools. As they are used less, they get left in the toolbox. In time, people may not understand how they were used. Like the word, redemption.  In biblical times, it was not uncommon for someone to sell himself into slavery, to cover a debt.  Someone else, usually a close family member, could pay the slave’s owner a fee to purchase his (or her) freedom. He purchased redemption.  The former slave was now free.

Imagine how that felt, waking, the next morning to suddenly remember that everything that happens next is now a choice, not a command.  More profound for someone born into slavery, who had never known freedom. Such a person might not have realized he had been in bondage, nor the full implications of now being free.

When Jesus taught about how He could redeem us, some asked Him:

…“We … have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
     Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.   So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  –  (John 8:33 excerpt-36)

Perhaps the word, redemption, has suffered disuse because most of us, like Jesus’ listeners, don’t truly understand our condition of slavery.  But even those who were born into slavery can be redeemed, set free, and given a full and permanent place in God’s family.  If The Son sets us free, which He freely does for all who will trust Him, we have redemption, we are free indeed. 

Freed slaves eventually get it; they notice.  They rub their formerly bound wrists, look around in astonishment and gulp in fresh draughts of freedom.  Life is more than better, it begins!  Which is why Paul was so excited to say:

” …  For He (God, through Jesus) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.“
–  (Colossians 1:13-14)

Sometimes, when I learn how an old tool was used, I discover it works better than anything more recently made.  The word, redemption, is one of those.

There’s More

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“But wait, there’s more!” Those words, made famous by infomercial hucksters, were given full measure by Ty Pennington on Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.  After walking each flabbergasted, tearful family through their newly built super-home, he’d say, “But wait, there’s more…” and then surprise them with another lavish gift, perhaps a fully paid off mortgage. 

The lavishness of the generosity, the “but wait, there’s more” attitude, is what made that show. It would have been enough if they had fixed their house and cleaned it up. But instead, anything they could imagine and accomplish to bless the family was piled on, with joy and enthusiasm. “But wait, there’s more…!”

That’s the feeling Paul must have had as he told his friends why he was so excited and happy for them as new believers. They had become recipients of the lavish, “but wait there’s more,” generosity of God. Look at his short list:

“… giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” –  Colossians (1:12-14)

Imagine the excitement experienced by each Extreme Makeover family when they first heard they qualified for an extreme makeover. God qualifies the new believer for full rights as an heir in His Kingdom. I once visited a mansion of an heir to a breakfast cereal fortune. Impressive, but not even close to the riches awaiting those who share in the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. It’s a wealth that cannot be measured with money.

Paul calls it the Kingdom of Light, and says, God has “rescued us from the dominion of darkness.” Ever met a meth addict? Most are pretty vivid examples of how the promise of fun quickly turns into dominion by very dark forces. Many worldly pleasures and treasures take control of us in a similar, if more subtle, way. But God rescues us, redeems us, forgives us and welcomes us home into the Kingdom of His Son.

Some of the most enthusiastic, happy people I know have been rescued from a very dark place and brought into His light. But they haven’t seen anything yet. To say it another way, “But wait, there’s more…“

The Real God

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God is vindictive and cruel in the Old Testament but loving and kind in the New Testament. That is what My friend told me.  He said, because God is so different in the two testaments, it is obvious to him that the Bible can’t be trusted.  Is he right?  See what you think.  Here is a quote from the Old:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;” (Psalm 103:8-13)

So, how did my friend get such a wrong idea?  The key is in the last line.  God has fatherly compassion toward those who “fear” Him.  That word does not mean those who cower in fright, but rather, those who respect or revere God so thoroughly that they are eager to respond to what he says.  If you had occasion to meet your favorite celebrity (actor, author, athlete – whatever) and he or she asked you to do something with them, how eager would you be to to say, “yes?”  Like that, only much, much more because God is much, much more.  Those who respond with awe and eagerness to God discover His love, His forgiveness, His goodness.

There was a math teacher in my high school whose reputation among the students was either, “really mean and vindictive, a nasty disciplinarian” or, “an amazing and gracious guy who would do anything to help you learn.”  Guess what?  Turns out he was the same guy.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

You are Invited

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You have been invited by God.  Doesn’t matter what family or faith you have come from.  Makes no difference what trouble you have fallen into, or how unworthy you feel.  You are invited, which means you cannot buy a ticket or use any good works to bribe your way in.  God says, “Y’all come!”

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. …Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live….” (Isaiah 55:1 & 3a)

Jesus renewed that invitation:

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37-38)

Notice the lack of fine print.  “All you” are invited.  “Whoever is thirsty” is on the guest list.  Jesus does not say, if you are good enough, or, if you were born into the right family or faith.  He does not discriminate between liberal and conservative, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, or any racial lines.  He says,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

The invitation is for way more than rest:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

And, you are invited.  We humans use a four-letter word to exclude one another, the word “them.”  God and Jesus use a four-letter word to include us all, the word “come.”

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Powerfully Gentle

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“He could pick a scab off a baby’s bottom with that thing!”  The guy was talking about a skilled heavy equipment operator on the highway crew where I was working for the summer.  It really was impressive to watch how he controlled the massive power of that giant machine with precision and such a light touch.  In his hands, that great power was gentle.

That sounds like an oxymoron to say powerfully gentle.  We tend to think, powerfully destructive.  The most powerful thing humans have created was anything but gentle.  It was the Tsar Bomba, a nuclear bomb, tested by the Russians in 1961.  It’s power was 1500 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.  Anything but gentle.

How much power does God have?  The sun puts out 1800 million times more energy than the Tsar Bomba – every second!  How many other suns are there? Scientists say around 400 billion, billion others.  That’s not a typo.  400 billion, billion suns, millions of times more powerful than the Tsar Bomba.  And that’s just in the observable part of the universe…   The Creator of all that has power surpassing the sum of all of them.  And yet, God controls His power with amazing delicacy, gentleness and precision.

“See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” (Isaiah 40:10-11)

That’s a description of God’s unlimited power, unleashed with tenderness.  For sure, God has the power to lay waste to whole nations.  He could smash you flat with His fist.  But when we open our hearts to Him, His power is shown to us with gentleness.  If you let Him, God can pick the scabs off your heart with amazing precision and tenderness.

PS:  Check out this sermon from Charles Spurgeon, published in 1916: (Click Here)

 

Quotes:  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.