WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT FORGIVENESS MATTERS

Sermon Summary (4/5/20) “What We Believe About Forgiveness Matters” (Lk 23:32-34; Ro 5:7-8)

What you believe about forgiveness matters. When I started thinking about this topic, I couldn’t get a Gaither’s tune out of my head: “Shackled by a heavy burden,’neath a load of guilt and pain.  Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and I am no longer the same.”  And I listened to the radio program, “Unshackled,” for years.  Stories of sin, forgiveness, redemption, and new beginnings.  But they always start with forgiveness.

What do you believe about forgiveness? Does it matter to you? Do you understand that it is free, yet is beyond price? Another hymn: “O Love divine, what hast thou done! The immortal God hath died for me.” For me.  For me.  Paul tells us in Romans, “⁷ Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:7-8)

We miss the mark.  We need forgiveness.  But “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”  We are in a series on the Apostle’s Creed; this week, The forgiveness of sins. 

And today is Palm Sunday.  This week is the week of forgiveness.  Holy Week.  Jesus enters Jerusalem on the way to the cross for the forgiveness of sins.  On Thursday night he gathers with his disciples for the traditional Passover meal.  But his year it is different.  He takes the bread, breaks it, blesses it and says, “This is my body, broken for you.”  After supper he takes the cup, “This is my blood of the New Covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  The forgiveness of sins.

On Friday, he goes to the cross.  From Luke: When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:33-34)

The very basis of our forgiveness is the forgiveness of Jesus.  Let me ask you, what did those who crucified Jesus do to merit forgiveness? Those who convicted him? Those scourged him?  Those who drove the nails? Those you mocked him?  What did they do to merit forgiveness?  The answer is absolutely nothing.  So, for us to judge others, to withhold forgiveness from others, know that Jesus has already forgiven them.

The source of our forgiveness is the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ. In turn, God calls us to forgive others: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  It is so important to our relationships with one another that we forgive one another, that God makes it conditional.  In the verses following the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6:14-15) 

Forgiveness and forgiving others are essential to our wellbeing, to our relationships with one another and with God.

And do you know what? God did not wait for our perfection to forgive us.  He did not even wait for us to be good.  “Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proved his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:7-8)

Tim Keller tells us that there are three things we must learn to be in relationship with others: To forgive, to ask for forgiveness, and to receive forgiveness.  In Colossians 3:13 Paul says, “Bear with one another and if any has a complaint against another, forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”  Must forgive.  We have no choice.

Then we must learn to ask, we must learn to receive forgiveness.  The hardest person to forgive may be ourselves, and if we don’t do that, we will never learn to receive forgiveness.  We must learn to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, to receive forgiveness.

What we believe about forgiveness matters.  It’s Palm Sunday, and Jesus in on the way to the cross to forgive us our sins.  “And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Amen.