Course Professor: Attorney/Pastor Brian DeCook
Session 2: New Testament Perspectives on Forgiveness━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Introduction
Welcome to session two of the CLI mini course on forgiveness. In this session, we examine New Testament perspectives on forgiveness. Scholar Gary Shogren says that forgiveness is not simply the remission of penalties in the New Testament, but what is remitted is sin, not just the penalties. He goes on to write, "The ministry of Jesus brings unprecedented forgiveness of sins.
He pardons sins as a part of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. Far from denying the Old Testament demand for blood sacrifice for forgiveness, the New Testament authors consistently point to Christ as the ultimate sacrifice and the fulfillment of the Mosaic system. In this session, we're going to examine these aspects of forgiveness in the New Testament. First, that forgiveness is initiated by God, by the Father.
Then that Jesus Christ is the acceptable sacrifice. That our forgiveness was accomplished when we were God's enemies. Then we'll examine that God's forgiveness is available to everyone, but it's not universal. Then we'll look at reconciliation and restoration in a relationship of peace with God, that Jesus Christ has established those things for us, and we'll look at we don't just receive remission of sins.
Our sins aren't just covered, but we're also given a new nature through Jesus Christ and the presence of His Holy Spirit in us. And then finally, we'll examine Christ's command and the Word of God that tells us that our forgiveness is conditioned on the recipient of that forgiveness, forgiving others.
Forgiveness Is Initiated by God the Father
In John 3:16–17, we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The Father sent Jesus Christ into this earth that we might be born again, that we might receive His forgiveness and everlasting life. In Titus 3:4–6, we read, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
What a powerful passage! That we receive this forgiveness from the Father not because of any righteous works that we have done. We can't earn the forgiveness that the Father provides to us through Jesus Christ, but it was according to His grace and His mercy that He saved us and sent Jesus Christ to be that ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus Christ Is the Acceptable Sacrifice
In Hebrews 9:11–15, we read, but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption, for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God, and for this reason He is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. This is our Lord and Savior, the acceptable sin offering, the acceptable whole burnt offering, the acceptable peace and fellowship offering, that He is the sacrifice that is without blemish that pleased the Father, not just to cover our sins, but to remove our sins and to give us a new nature. He laid down his perfect life on behalf of our sinful lives, not just that we might be forgiven, but that we might receive a new nature, his life, living in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 10:1–4, we read more about Jesus being this acceptable sacrifice, for the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect, for then would they not have ceased to be offered?
For the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Jesus' sacrifice for us is effective.
It doesn't just cover our sins. It doesn't require that another sacrifice be made year upon year or every time that we sin. His sacrifice is sufficient. No more sacrifice needs to be offered for the sin of man.
Jesus Christ has paid that price, an acceptable sacrifice to the Father. In Hebrews 10:12, 14–18, we read, "But this man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us. For after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. The writer of Hebrews here references the promise and the prophecy that we read in the last session, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Christ Died for Us While We Were God's Enemies
The efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the payment for our sins, was satisfied and was made for us when we were still enemies of God, when we were still living in sin. In Romans 5:6–11, we read: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation, our reconciliation, including our forgiveness of all of our sins, past, present, and future, was accomplished on the initiative of the Father. He sent Jesus Christ to this earth not because we had earned it or deserved to be forgiven for our sins, but because of His great love for us.
He initiated the path to peace with humankind.
Forgiveness Is Available to All, but It Is Not Universal
This path to peace, the forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ, is available to all, but it is not universal. In John 3:17–19, we read, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And in John 3:36 we read, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." God's grace, God's mercy, God's love, and God's forgiveness is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, and that He was sent to this earth, and that He came to this earth as a man and lived and died and was crucified and he was buried and that he rose from the dead and all those who believe on his name will receive forgiveness of their sins and receive life everlasting his life through the power of the Holy Spirit coming to live within the believer,
Reconciliation and Restoration with God
This coming and laying down his life and rising from the dead brings reconciliation in the relationship between God and humankind, and by that we mean a balancing of the books. Everything is wiped clean, our sins are forgiven, and we are justified, treated by the Father just as if we had never sinned. He remembers our sin no more, and we have peace with Him. And not only do we have reconciliation, not only are our sins wiped away, but our relationship is restored.
The Father begins the process through Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit of transforming us to restore us back to the image of Jesus Christ, that image that Adam and Eve were created in in the Garden of Eden, when the Lord created them, and He said that this is good, very good, and that they were created to reflect the image of God. Sin has marred that image, and the image of God in us is barely recognizable, but when we're born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, a work of transformation, the process of sanctification begins, and we are transformed day by day into the image of Jesus Christ, to that restored relationship that's available to us only because of God's grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, and the first step in that process is to have our sins forgiven, and to receive the life of Jesus Christ in us. In 2 Corinthians 5:18–19, we read, "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. How powerful is this that we've been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, our relationship restored with Him, and then He gives us a ministry of reconciliation, that just as God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses, it says, forgiving their sins, and He's committed to us those who have received that reconciliation. He's committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Forgiveness Brings a New Nature
That's amazing, because we're not just forgiven; we receive a new nature through this forgiveness that's available to us through Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. The power of God's forgiveness and the new life He brings to us through Jesus Christ when we receive His forgiveness. In Galatians 2:20, the apostle Paul wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, and in Colossians 2:13–14 we read, "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Wow.
Part of that process of having our sins forgiven is receiving that new nature, that life that was in Jesus Christ that same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ when He walked this earth lives in you and every other born again child of God. It's amazing.
Those Who Are Forgiven Must Forgive Others
Now this forgiveness that God offers us in the New Testament through Jesus Christ, by His grace and mercy and love, is conditioned on one thing. In Matthew 6:14–15, Jesus said, "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. So part of the transaction of having our sins forgiven, of receiving the life of Jesus Christ, is that we'll treat others the same way we've been treated by our heavenly Father. There's an expectation that the Father has of His children that, as He has forgiven them, they will in turn forgive others. In Colossians 3:12–13, we read: Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another.
If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. And in Matthew 18:21–22, the apostle Peter came to Christ and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him up to seven times?
And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. The Lord expects his followers to be forgiving people, people of forgiveness. He said in Luke 17:3–4, "Take heed to yourselves, or pay attention.
If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, confront him, and if he repents, if he changes direction, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day saying to you, "I repent, you shall forgive him. And in Matthew 18:35, after sharing the parable of the wicked servant, and how the wicked servant refused to forgive his fellow servant after he was forgiven a huge debt that he owed his master.
His master had him thrown into prison until he would pay the debt. And Jesus turned to his disciples and he said, "So my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.
Conclusion and Invitation
Scholar Barry Smith writes in the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: the eschatological Old Testament promises of forgiveness and spiritual transformation have become realities through the acceptance, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ. And I agree with Mr. Smith. Praise the Lord for the forgiveness that's available to us through Jesus Christ.
If you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. As I mentioned earlier, all that's required is to believe on His name, that He came to this earth as a man, as the only begotten Son of God, and that He lived a perfect life, a sinless life, and He laid down that life. That He died, and He was buried, and he rose from the dead. You can receive that remission of sins, that forgiveness that we've talked about in this session.
So, if you've never done that, I encourage you do it right now. And all it takes is a simple prayer: Lord, here I am. I believe in you, and I believe in what I've heard: that you came, that you died, that you were buried, and that you rose again, to forgive that I might have forgiveness of sin and new life, and receive it with thanksgiving for the glory of Jesus Christ. Thank you for watching this session.
We'll see you next time.