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Love and Forgiveness

by Jon von Ernst
8/27/2023 / Bible Studies

God’s love is unconditional. There is nothing that we need to do to earn it. John 3:16-17 says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

Romans 5:8 tells us: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God did not wait for us to get our act together. He did not wait until we got ourselves all cleaned up. While we were still sinners, God sent His only Son to die for us.

Clearly, God’s love is unconditional, but His forgiveness is not. There are certain requirements that must be met before God will forgive our sins. Jesus fulfilled most of these requirements, but we must fulfill the others.

The first requirement for the forgiveness of sins is that there must be a shedding of blood. Hebrews 9:22 says: “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” This shedding of blood must be by a sacrifice that is without spot, unblemished.

This is why it was so important that Jesus lived a sinless life while on this earth. Only the blood of a sinless sacrifice would avail to satisfy the requirements of God’s holy law. Hebrews 4:15 referring to Jesus says: “One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Before being crucified, Jesus told His disciples that by His death His blood would be shed for the forgiveness of sins. In Matthew 26:27-28 when Jesus “had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.’”

Jesus, through His death on the cross, fully satisfied this requirement for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, as a sinless sacrifice, fully satisfied God’s requirement. Now the holy God had a basis upon which He could freely forgive sins. However, for any person’s sins to be forgiven, there was still one requirement that must be satisfied.

Through His death on the cross, Jesus paid the full price for our redemption. However, for that redemption to be credited to our account, it is required that we enter, as a willing party, into that transaction. For us to be able to enter into this transaction and receive the forgiveness of sins for which Jesus died, we need to identify ourselves with Him.

Leviticus 4:27-31 says: “Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty, if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has committed. He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slay the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. The priest shall take some of its blood . . . Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.”

Notice that the first requirement for forgiveness of sins is met by a sacrifice without defect being offered and its blood being shed. The second requirement is met by the sinner laying his hand on the head of the offering. By doing this, he is repenting, by admitting he has sinned, and is identifying himself with the offering that is being sacrificed in his place for his sins.

Romans 6:23 proclaims, “the wages of sin is death.” It is required by God’s holy law that anyone who sins must die. 2 Chronicles 25:4 says, “every man shall die for his own sin” (WEB). Since, as Romans 3:23 states, “all have sinned,” then it is required that all must die. However, through the offering of a sacrifice without defect on our behalf, the sacrifice dies in our place, its blood is shed, and upon repentance, our sins are forgiven.

In light of this second requirement of identification with the sacrifice as our sin bearer, what must we do to have our sins forgiven by virtue of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us by shedding His blood in His death on the cross? We must identify with Jesus by admitting that we have sinned, and by accepting Him as God’s sacrifice for our sins. We do this by changing our minds, about our behavior and about who Jesus is.

In Acts 2:36-38, Peter was proclaiming the good news to the people in Jerusalem saying, “‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

When we repent, we change our mind. We allow ourselves to be persuaded to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of all. By believing, we are laying our hand on Him and testifying that He died in our place and that we are placing our trust in the sacrifice that He made on our behalf. We identify with Jesus, confessing Him as Lord, and accepting His death for our sins. By believing and confessing, we identify with Jesus, testifying that He died in our place, and our sins are forgiven.

When we repent and believe, turning to Jesus we are transferred from darkness to light. Paul says in Acts 26:18 that Jesus sent him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” God’s condition for our receiving His forgiveness is that we turn back to Him, that we turn from darkness to light.

God sent Jeremiah to warn His people about the disaster that He was going to bring upon them, in the hopes that, when they hear about it, “every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jeremiah 36:3). This changing the mind about God and how we are living, and turning back to God, is a basic requirement for us to receive forgiveness of sins. I John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This process is critically important to understand for our own salvation and for the edification or building up of the body of Christ, the church. Paul writes in Colossians 3:13, “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” To deal properly with our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the matter of forgiveness, it is necessary that we understand how the Lord has forgiven us. We are expected to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way.

In Matthew 18:26-35, Jesus tells us a parable of a king and his servant. The servant owed a very large debt that he could not pay and begged for mercy and the king forgave his debt. The servant then went out and found a fellow servant that owed him a small debt and demanded payment. The fellow servant begged for mercy, but the servant would not listen and had him thrown into prison.

The other servants complained to the king. “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Notice that the servant begged the king for mercy and was forgiven. The fellow servant begged the servant for mercy and was refused. This correlates to us repenting and receiving forgiveness from God, and then being unwilling to forgive someone that has repented of sinning against us.

Luke 17:3-4 warns: "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

The principle is clear. To receive forgiveness, it is necessary that we repent, that we change our mind and think differently about what we have done and whether our behavior has been in accord with God’s ways. If we have sinned and we realize the error of our way and change our mind about how we should live and act, and repent, God will forgive us. In the same way, if a brother or sister sins against us, and we rebuke them, and they see the error of their way and repent, then we must forgive them.

Matthew 6:14-15 says: "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Our responsibility is clear. We must forgive others just as the Lord has forgiven us. When our brother repents, we must forgive him.

There are some, who claim to be Christians, who believe you must forgive anyone for anything they do to you, whether or not they repent. However, we must not cheapen forgiveness. That would be the same as saying that because Jesus died for the sins of the world, everyone’s sins are forgiven. We know from the Scriptures above that this is not true. Only those that have repented and believed in Jesus have forgiveness of sins.

Paul demonstrates the importance of not forgiving someone that has not seen the error of their way and has not repented. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, Paul instructs the believers concerning an unrepentant sinful brother. He writes: “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” He says in verse five that we are to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

The idea of not even associating with a so-called believer that is living in sin is intended to bring about in that person a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. The sinning brother will thereby be encouraged to examine his behavior anew, and then, seeing the error of his way, he will be brought to godly sorrow and repentance.

The desire is that through this difficult and unpleasant way of dealing with a sinful brother, two things will be accomplished. One is that the brother will be restored to the Lord and to fellowship with all believers as soon as he repents.

The second and even more important purpose is to preserve the purity of the assembly. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?” And in verse thirteen he says, “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves” (WEB).

By failing to understand the basic principles of forgiveness, we jeopardize the eventual well-being of the sinning brother, and we compromise the purity of the assembly and the testimony of the Lord. Also, when we choose to do things according to our own understanding and not according to God’s way and God’s word, we are in rebellion and are jeopardizing our own relationship with the Lord and with His people.

However, when we are dealing with those outside of the church, with unbelievers, forgiveness has a whole different purpose. When an unbeliever sins against us we need to forgive them. Forgiving an unbeliever provides a testimony to them of God’s unconditional love for all people. That testimony may be used by God to reach that unbeliever and eventually bring them to turn back to God.

Perhaps even more important is the effect it has on ourselves if we forgive the sinning unbeliever, regardless of whether they repent. This will protect our heart from becoming bitter (Hebrews 12:14-15). In order to prevent bitterness toward others, toward God, or even toward ourselves, and truly be able to forgive the sinning unbeliever from our heart, we must have a clear vision of God’s sovereignty. We need to be convinced that God is in control, that things don’t just happen.

When bad things happen, we need to understand that they would not have been able to happen unless God commanded or permitted them to happen. In Genesis 45, Joseph’s brothers, who had thrown him into a pit and sold him into slavery years earlier, had returned to Egypt because of the famine to buy food. They did not know that the one they had to deal with to buy the food was their brother Joseph.

In Genesis 45:7, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and says, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” Joseph understood that no matter how bad the situation seemed that he found himself in, whether in a pit or in a prison, God was still in control and nothing could happen to him that God did not permit or cause.

In Job 1:6-2:7, we see that Satan had to get permission from God before he could do anything to afflict Job. Even after getting permission from God to afflict Job, Satan was specifically limited by God as to how far he could go in his affliction of Job.

If we are totally convinced that God is in control, that He is a good God, and that He wants only the best for us, then we can accept whatever happens in our lives as from His hand. With this attitude we will be able to forgive the people used by God to affect our lives.

We simply need to humble ourselves before the Lord and submit to Him and to His way. We need an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking, and we need a heart to humbly and joyfully obey the Lord. When we do this, the Lord will be exalted.

The only way to healing and restoration is through humility, repentance, and forgiveness. This humbling is something that we each must choose to do. We must not wait for God to humble us. 1 Peter 5:6 exhorts: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care upon Him, because He cares about you.”

God allows trials and arranges circumstances to bring us to an end of our own strength, and to bring us to maturity in Christ. However, the decision to humble ourselves under His mighty hand must be our own. It must be our response to God working in our lives, believing that He loves us and desires the best for us.

With this attitude, we can joyfully submit to Him in the midst of any trial, forgiving, and not becoming bitter (James 1:2-4).

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light - Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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