Tag Archives: forgiveness

HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS

Bible Study, ,

HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ (Eph. 1: 7-10).

Let’s step back for a moment. Did Jesus die to forgive our sins? Yes! Did Jesus die so that we can go to heaven? For the moment, let’s say, “Yes”. But the story is much bigger than being about us. God’s plan is all-encompassing. It includes the entire universe, not just humans.

Before He created the first man, God said, “Let us make man in our image.” Although the “image” of God includes those attributes that we share with Him, attributes such as love, self-consciousness and free will, being created in His image includes much more than these. God wanted a species that could have fellowship with Him and be one with Him, just as the members of the Godhead are one in their love, their mutual submission and their purpose for creation.

Adam and Eve enjoyed oneness with God until they fell for the devil’s deception and declared independence from Him. Their rebellion incurred a huge, unpayable debt which alienated them from Him, making fellowship and unity impossible. They had become His enemies. Had they even wanted to be reconciled to Him, they could not because of the barrier of unpaid debt that stood between Him and them.

But God’s plan was already in place before He formed the first man. Adam’s rebellion did not catch the all-knowing God unawares. Just as He chose us in Christ “before the creation of the world”, so also His Son was “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (Rev. 13: 8).” 

From God’s perspective, the forgiveness of sins was not the be-all and end-all of salvation. It was a part of His plan to restore all things to their perfection and purpose when He created the universe. The sin of the human race stood in the way of completing what He had begun. There was only one way to remove it – a man who was without sin had to pay the price for the whole human race.

God revealed the enormity of His mercy by sending His own Son, in the likeness of man, to die as a substitute for humanity. Jesus came into a polluted and corrupt world, and lived among people who were contaminated by sin. He refused to act independently of the Father despite the devil’s vicious campaign to get Him to declare independence from God. He submitted to the Father up to the moment of His death, committing His spirit to the Father with His final breath.

God was satisfied with Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death. He raised Him from the dead because there was nothing to hold Him in the grave. Jesus paid the debt; He unmasked and defeated the devil, proving once for all that He, not Satan, is Lord. The barrier of sin between God and man was finally demolished. There was nothing left to stand in the way of God’s purpose to bring everything in heaven and on earth together in unity under the authority and power of His Son.

God revealed to the world and to the devil who had tried to usurp Jesus’ position and authority as Lord that, through His Son, His plan was back on track.

All those who believe the truth that Jesus is Lord, receive the benefits of His death and resurrection – the forgiveness of sins and reinstatement as God’s sons and daughters in His family. God gives them the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead – whom He called, “the Spirit of adoption” or “the Spirit of sonship” (Rom. 8: 14-16).

That’s what it’s all about, dear readers. God’s original plan was to have a family of sons and daughters, created in the image of His Son, who are one with Him and who live together in obedience to Him and in harmony with one another. For what purpose? To put His glory on display for Satan and his rebel hoards to see, once for all, that God is love.

Satan challenged the love of God in the Garden of Eden. Adam fell for his deception. He chose to believe the devil’s lie and not trust the Father’s love. Jesus, the perfect image of the Father with a face, came in person to put the record straight by His sinless life and sacrificial death in obedience to the Father.

You can believe Him now, dear reader. God IS love. He did it all to reveal just how great His love really is!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3: 1a).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

 

 

FORGIVENESS – A TRUE STORY  

Testimonies, , ,

The scene is a Truth and Reconciliation courtroom in South Africa. 

 A frail black woman rises slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, Mr van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman’s son and her husband some years before. He had come to the woman’s home, taken her son, shot him at point blank range and then set the young man’s body on fire while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later, van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then almost two years after her husband’s disappearance, van der Broek came to her house to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured petrol over his body and set him aflame were,” Father,  forgive them…”

Now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr van der Broek. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks “So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?”

“I want three things,” begins the old woman calmly but confidently. “I want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.”

She pauses, and then continues. “My husband and son were my only family, I want secondly, therefore, for Mr van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to our township to spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining in me.”

“And finally,” she says, “ I want a third thing. This is also the wish of my husband. I would like someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom. I wish to take Mr van der Broek in my arms and embrace him, to let him know that he is truly forgiven.” As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. As he does, those in the courtroom, family, friends, neighbours – all victims of decades of oppression and injustice – begin to sing, softly but assuredly, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

THE BLOOD THAT SPEAKS

Christian Life, ,

Does blood speak?

Apparently, it does. When God questioned Cain about his brother’s whereabouts, Cain rudely replied, “I don’t know…Am I my brother’s guardian?”

But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Gen. 4:10)

Did Cain really think that God did not know what he had done? What about the rivers of blood that cry out for vengeance from the ground since that day? Every drop of blood that has ever been shed through violence is calling for justice. Every unborn baby ripped out of its mother’s womb is crying for vengeance. God listens; God hears; God will repay.

However, there is blood, poured out on the ground at the foot of a rough torture stake that speaks another message. Unlike all other blood that was taken by force, the blood of Jesus was given freely as a love gift to all mankind. Yes, men did put Him to death. They drove nails through His hands and feet. One man thrust a sword into His side, spilling the last drops of His life-giving blood on the ground. Yet He declared, “No one takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.”

This blood is also speaking. What does it say?

You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24 – NLT).

When Jesus had risen from the dead, He took His precious blood, staining the earth beneath the cross and offered it on the Mercy Seat in the heavenly tabernacle. This was His offering to the Father to pay the debt of sin no one else can pay. With His blood, He sealed the New Covenant with the Father so that all who believe in Him are forgiven, reconciled and reinstated as God’s beloved children.

With His own blood – not the blood of goats and calves – He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time, and secured our redemption forever (Heb. 9:12 – NLT).

Abel’s blood and every drop of blood shed since then, cries out for vengeance except the blood of Jesus. His blood speaks of mercy.

What a God we serve! No other god has ever given what God gave in mercy to rescue those who spit in His face. We are privileged to wear the robe of righteousness bought with Jesus’ blood, which give us access to the Father.

 

MOLLY AND ME – FORGIVENESS

Christian Life, ,

Forgiveness – O how much Molly needs my forgiveness!

Take yesterday, for example. During our walk up the sidewalk on the main road, I noticed that she was walking unusually slowly. I checked her harness and found that her right front leg had slipped out of its place. I loosened the harness to correct it and like a flash of lightning, she was out of it and running!

Calling her meant nothing! She was free…and she ran! I was terrified that she would run into the road where the cars were whizzing past. Fortunately, her attention was on the hadidas (large birds) that were foraging nearby.

My only hope was to return home on a quiet side street, knowing that she would follow me. She criss-crossed the street many times while I prayed! She did something her heart had long desired to do – attacked a huge dog on the outside of the gate!

We finally reached home without incident and she happily followed me into the safety of our front garden.

Did she ever need my forgiveness!

Molly reminds me of King David. Despite being a man after God’s own heart, he slipped out of his “harness” one spring morning and ran free. While he should have been leading his troops into battle, he was lounging around on the rooftop of his palace, spying on a beautiful woman who was taking a bath. We know the story.

The law demanded stoning to death for both parties but, instead, God forgave him although he could not escape the consequences of his wilful behaviour. For the rest of his life, David had to endure conflict and rebellion in his family, among his troops and even his subjects. The seeds of division had been sown and history tells the unhappy story of the people of God.

Hopefully, Molly’s little escapade won’t have such far-reaching effects! However, for her and for me the lesson is the same. Like our Father in heaven, I must forgive because “she didn’t know what she was doing”. She was not aware of the terrible anguish she put me through because of the danger she was in.

Forgiveness flows from a heart of compassion. I can never forgive if I feel outraged by the offense she did to me, but my love and compassion for my beloved little pet sets me free from selfishness  to forgive her, again and again.

God’s forgiveness flows from the compassion for His lost family that moved Him to provide Jesus, the substitute who paid our debt so that we can be forgiven and restored to His favour, again and again.

Such love calls us, no, compels us to respond by believing in the name of the one who said, “Whoever believes in me will never perish, but will have eternal life.”

 

The Power Of The Cross – The Forgiveness Of Sins

Gospel, , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

. . . In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1: 14)

This topic should have been at the beginning of our series, but I have left it to last because it sums up everything we experience through the power of the cross.

Do you know what it is like to be forgiven? Really forgiven? All the weight of your guilt removed; the torment of your conscience because of what you have done gone; the flashbacks and the regret of what you said or did, stilled.

Four men brought their paralysed friend to Jesus but they could not get him near Him. The house was jam-packed with people, and not one of them was willing to make way for him. They were too eager to hear Jesus to give him a place. What were they to do? There was only one answer. If they could not get him into the house through the door, they’d let him down through the roof! Then the people would have to make a place for him if they didn’t want him on their heads!

Fortunately they had access to the roof via the outside staircase. They lugged their heavy burden up the stairs, dug a hole in the roof big enough to get him through and slowly lowered him down on his sleeping mat until he lay at Jesus’ feet. What would Jesus do?

The man obviously needed healing. Would He heal him and send him on his way? Perhaps Jesus gazed at him for a moment, saw the pain in his eyes, perhaps the pain of memories he could not escape. Why was he in that condition in the first place? Did he believe that it was punishment for sin? Was there something he had done years before that still tormented him? Did he remember all the times he had disregarded the ceremonial law, failed to do his duty to God and his fellow Jews? And now he was powerless to make it right.

The first words that fell from Jesus’ lips were, surprisingly, not, ”Be healed,” but, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark. 2: 5b) Did you get that? First of all, Jesus called him “son”. What did that mean? Yes, he had sinned, but that did not cancel his relationship with His Father as His son. Not even sin could destroy that relationship. His guilt had long destroyed fellowship with God – in fact he was born in sin, but God’s forgiveness through Jesus would take care of that.

Jesus knew what he needed most of all, even before the healing of his body. He needed the healing of his heart and Jesus gave it to him unconditionally. Forgiven! Imagine that! No more regret. No more tormented dreams. Just peace. Peace. Peace!

The ever-present Pharisees were up in arms. They knew that there was no forgiveness without sacrifice. What right had Jesus to forgive sins? Did He think He was God? Where was the sacrifice? Little did they know that they would be partly responsible for making the sacrifice – not of an animal on the altar in the temple court but of the man they had come to hate because of His goodness, on the altar of a Roman cross.

You see, the death of Jesus was much more than just an event in history. It was the very heart of history – the pivot around which the whole of human history turned. Every animal that was sacrificed on the Jewish altar of God, in the tabernacle or in the temple, pointed backwards to what had already taken place in eternity, and forwards to what would happen at a moment in history.

Could Jesus forgive his sin? In spite of the religious leaders’ objections, yes, because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God planned it before man sinned, and the effects of the one event in history covered all sin for all time. Those who sinned before the cross were invited to put their trust in a lamb because the Lamb of God would be manifested on earth to reveal what He had already done in heaven.

Forgiveness! Yes, Jesus had the authority and the power to forgive sins because He bore our sin in His body on the tree. He was the sacrificial lamb and the scapegoat who took away our sin, removed our guilt and set us free to follow Him.

This is the power of the cross!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?