We are fantastic at getting things the wrong way around. Every one of us should have a PhD in Reversology. It’s backwards to think that a few pills can cure us of a lifetime of abusing our bodies. And it’s backwards to spend more money than we can earn. But we do these kinds of things all the time, don’t we? What really concerns me though, is getting it backwards when it comes to forgiveness. It seems that we have a hard time forgiving ourselves when we should, and not forgiving ourselves when we shouldn’t.
We’ll treat the first one first. God has forgiven us in Christ, but it seems that we are still catching up to that. Every sin was laid on Him. Here are a few verses:
“…And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1st John 2:2
“…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1st John 1:7
This is the first thing to get straight. If God has forgiven you, don’t keep holding it against yourself. We have a hard time forgiving ourselves for the awful things we’ve done. That’s ok. It’s not our job. Allow the forgiveness of God, to over-ride your guilt. He does not hold your sins against you, so why should you? His blood cannot fail. The Lord Jesus Christ already shed it – once for all. It covers everything, past, present, and future. It’s enough. Trust it. Trust Him. When you can’t forgive yourself, cast that care on the Lord. The cross is all the proof you need that you are forever pardoned, exonerated, cleared of all charges, and free of all judgment. The amazing thing is, we have more than just a clean slate.
God now looks at you and sees His Son. He sees a righteous person when He looks at you. You are IN Christ. You are not only forgiven, but you are justified. You may have heard an old definition for that word, and it’s this: Just-As-If-I-Never-Sinned. That’s what justified means. And it’s not just that God does some imagining. It’s not pretend when God says we are justified. It’s true that we are “declared” righteous, but it’s also just as true that we have “become” righteous. As born-again, new creations in Christ, we have a brand-spanking, shiny new life, free from sin, and fit enough to have the very Spirit of God live inside us. We are forgiven and justified – all because Jesus took our place on the cross. How dare we not forgive ourselves.
Now for the second: We often forgive ourselves when we should not. Here is another way of putting how we’ve gotten it backwards: We don’t forgive the things we do (even though God does), but we do forgive the way we are (when God does not). We excuse our inclinations and propensities, saying “I just have a bad temper” or “I’m a perfectionist” or even “I can’t help it!” We think we can forgive ourselves because it’s not our fault, even though forgiveness is ONLY for when it is! It’s like we are forgiving ourselves for being human. That makes no sense. Applying forgiveness to the way we are is the wrong place to do it. That’s why God doesn’t do it either.
God does not forgive our hell-bent tendencies to sin. He forgives the sputterings and rumblings that come out of the sin-machines that we are, but has a much better plan for our sin-natures: Judgment. Here is how it is said in Romans 8:3 “by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh”. Sin was condemned to death. Far from being forgiven, Sin was judged and executed on the cross with Christ. Remember, “he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” Christ died, AS Sin, so that means that Sin was terminated when Jesus gave up the ghost. It has been judged already, once and for all. Sin isn’t available for comment. It can’t come to the phone right now. It’s indisposed at the moment – and for all time.
These two things need to be firmly embedded in our hearts. One: Forgiveness for sins is inexhaustible, and Two: Judgment on Sin is irreversible. We must live forgiven lives, so that we will be more forgiving people. We must also live a judged life, so that we will have God’s heart when it comes to sin. It grieves Him terribly. It should grieve us as well. God did not sweep it under the carpet, so we must not overlook it either. The more we exercise our faith in Christ, the more we will become sensitized to sin. I love the progression seen in the life of Paul. As a younger man he called himself, “The Least of the Apostles.” As he got older, he called himself, “The Least of All Saints.” Then, in his old age, writing to Timothy, he called himself, “The Chief of Sinners.” Let’s not either excuse sin, or forgive the nature of Sin itself. Jesus condemned sin. Don’t set it free.
Once again, living a forgiven life means that you will be a more forgiving person. When you realize that the blood of Jesus has covered that time when you said what you did to your spouse, or when you lied to your employer - or employee, or that thing you did when you thought no one was looking, or just today when you… It covers it all! Being loved like that should wake us up and have us chomping at the bit to forgive others. We should be pardoning-powerhouses, forgiving people left and right, setting new records in the process. Grace should ooze from us – or come flying out like we are giant bubble-blowing wands that make the kids run with glee over the backyard chasing those shiny effervescent spheres of happiness. I’m getting a little carried away, but I think you get the point. We should be mercilessly forgiving.
And living a judged life? That’s right. You can thank God every day that you have been delivered from sin because Christ’s death included you. You can thank him and praise him because he wasn’t willing to leave you in the shoe-sucking quagmire of sin. You run barefoot now. You are free. Judgment freed you. The condemnation of sin cut the cords between that nature and your new life in Christ. Praise the Lord, I’m dead! We can all say that. The very judgment of God is a mercy.
There’s a part of us that needs to bask in the forgiveness of Christ, and there’s another part of us that needs to languish in the condemnation of the cross. Let’s keep those two things straight. Allow your sins to be forgiven, but don’t forgive your sin-nature. Now, I’m not saying that we are spiritually schizophrenic. We are not spiritual Siamese-twins. But just as you know you have different physical parts, remember that you have different spiritual parts. The Lord wants us to treat each part correctly. Born-again You – that goes to the forgiveness department. Sin-Nature – that goes to the judgment department. Our minds should be mail-rooms from where we send God’s Word to the right offices. We get into trouble when we don’t show up for work: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2nd Timothy 2:15
The more you read the Bible, the more you will see how God is all about making divisions. He spent the six days of Creation separating day from night, sky from sea, land from ocean, plants from animals, and animals from man. He had the Jews circumcised to separate them from the Gentiles. Then he put tongues of fire on the heads of all those who received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, to differentiate them as well. God’s Word requires us to draw lines in the sand, cutting a swath between flesh and spirit, heaven and earth, faith and unbelief, death and life. We need to divide God’s Word appropriately. In the verse above, Paul uses carpentry as an illustration. He literally says, “cutting straight the word of truth.” Don’t stick it all into the shredder. Cut it into the pieces God has laid out. Then, keep it in the right piles.
“Unforgivable.” It’s the name of the pile that your sin-nature went into. It’s the pile your old life went – on a hill called Gehenna, where Christ was thrown out for you. On a tree shaped into a cross where the fire of sin was put out. It’s that place where you went from being dead-IN-sin to being dead-TO-sin. It can be an offensive and insulting place, but it’s a place where new life grows. A great Vine is growing on that cross, and you and I are branches. But we will only grow and produce fruit, if we have that “Unforgivable” pile in plain view.
And keep that other pile in sight too. The one called “forgiven”. It’s more of a hole than a pile, though. No matter how much I keep shoveling, it never seems to get any higher. Now that I think of it, I don’t ever remember hearing it hit the bottom. Shoveling? It’s called confession. Don’t wait – go to your Heavenly Father and tell him all about it. Yes, he knows already, but then he’ll know that you know he knows – you know? It will give you a fresh appreciation for the cross every time. And that love displayed by Christ will be all the motivation you’ll need to rest in Him and have his life lived through you. Then you’ll start your own pile of things to forgive. It can be bottomless too.