Forgive To Be Forgiven?

At the risk of sounding critical, it remains a sad reality that the Bible Society chose to combine the Old and New Testaments into one single book. This single decision has caused widespread confusion within the ranks of believers throughout the world. Many of the writings in the Bible before the cross portray God to be a harsh, cruel being, set on destroying and punishing people if they dared to disobey the set of moral standards represented by the 10 Commandments and the other laws.

On the contrary, after the cross we see Paul and the other apostles preach a message of unconditional love, grace and mercy to all who place their faith in Christ. In fact, the way that God relates to believers under the New Covenant is so vastly different from the way He treated Israel under the law (remember this was a result of their own doing), that it can’t be even remotely compared. The rules of the race have changed, and trying to run according to the old rules while competing in a new race will only cause confusion, condemnation and fear. We’ll look at one of these changed rules, namely how God has changed the way He forgives people and what that implies for us.

Without a proper understanding of the context of His words, some of Jesus’ statements (before the cross) may seem contrary to what Paul the apostle preached (after the cross). Let’s look at an example:

Jesus said the following: [Matt 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors] and in another place [Mark 11:25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses”]. This implies that God’s willingness and ability to forgive us is directly related to our ability to forgive others, which means that if we refuse to forgive others, God won’t forgive us either. And of course we know that nobody can go to heaven without having their sins forgiven... Take a moment and think about this scenario: It entails that if there is even a single bit of unforgiveness in our hearts, even if it’s unintentional, it can condemn us to hell.

On the contrary, Paul made the following statements: [Eph 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you] and also [Col 3:13 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]. The apostle John also added his voice to this chorus, saying: [1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake].

Before the cross (even when Jesus walked the earth), the house of Israel lived under a different set of rules than what we now have. This was called the Old Covenant and it mainly stated that God’s faithfulness and His blessings were dependent on Israel’s ability to obey all the rules. If they failed (to forgive, to obey, to sacrifice, etc.) they would not be forgiven either and be punished for their transgressions. Jesus also lived under this Covenant, which in essence consisted of the laws that were given to Moses and the Israelites. [Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law]. Jesus knew He still had to follow this old set of rules so that He could later offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for all transgressions and free mankind from its demands: [Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes]. But while He was alive (before the cross) He still had to obey the old rules.

Our sins did not pass through the cross. Under the New Covenant God considers those who believe in Him as spotless and blameless in His sight. [Heb 10:16 “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,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more”].

[Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses]. In the dictionary the word “all” pretty much means what it says: ALL. God has forgiven us all our trespasses, which means all past, present and future sins. Now most preachers don’t have a problem with our past and even our present sins being forgiven, but they have a big problem with someone saying that all our future sins have been forgiven as well, because this implies we’ve been given a licence to sin. However if the Holy Spirit lives inside a person, such a person will not want to indulge in the works of the flesh but strive to live a life worthy of the calling they’ve been given!

Under the New Covenant we don’t need to forgive others in order to receive our own forgiveness anymore, as we’ve just seen. This however does not make it right to walk in unforgiveness. In the ancient times of the Romans, when a person was murdered, the dead body would literally be tied to the murderer’s back with ropes and left to rot. The decomposing flesh would then begin infecting the flesh of the living person and the murderer would die a horrible death within a few days. When we carry around offence in our hearts, it does not affect to a great degree the person who has offended us. It does however eat away at us like a cancer, and that’s why we need to forgive: It’s for our own good.

Our last example shows that God took it even a step further: The only difference between a believer and a non-believer is that the believer has placed his faith in God’s forgiveness, in other words he’s chosen to accept God’s free gift of grace. The unbeliever also stands forgiven, but he has not accepted it yet. We have to accept a gift before it becomes our own.

[2 Cor 5:19 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].

There are two distinct groups in this verse, namely “them” and “us”. God through His Son has already reconciled the world (“them”) to Himself, which means He’s already done everything from His side that mankind will ever need to be saved. All that’s left is for believers (“us”) to get the good news out to “them” so that when they hear it, they will believe it, accept God’s forgiveness and be saved.

There is no limit that can be placed on the completeness of God’s forgiveness. Each and every dark little secret, from the smallest right up to the most hideous act of violence or depravity has already been covered by Jesus’ blood. Let’s start acting as though we believe we’ve been forgiven!



Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe