The joy of being forgiven
AMERICAN psychiatrist
Karl Menninger once remarked that if he could convince the patients
in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 per
cent of them could walk out the next day! Sadly, the psychiatric
hospitals are still filled with people whose hearts and souls
are tormented by guilt.
People plagued with guilt are not only found in hospitals; they
are found everywhere, even in church. In the liturgy of the Lord's
Table, following the confession of sins, the pastor pronounces
the words, "In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven",
which the people repeat to the pastor. These precious, life-giving
words echo the words of the One who alone can forgive our sins
- When Jesus met the paralytic man whose legs were tied by invisible
ropes of guilt, He healed him and declared "Take heart, son;
your sins are forgiven." (Mt 9:2).
But why is it that even after hearing these words, there are multitudes
of guilty people still immobilised in their spiritual journeys,
unable to move towards true life and its joy? To understand this,
we need to reflect further on the underlying purpose of God's
forgiveness.
God forgives
us so that we can be reconciled with Him. Because of our sins,
we have been alienated from God, but our merciful and gracious
God has opened the door for us to be reconciled with Him. This
reconciliation is achieved when divine forgiveness meets with
human repentance. When the risen Christ met His fearful disciples,
He "opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures".
Then He told them, "The Christ will suffer and rise from
the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins
will be preached in His name to all nations." (Lk. 24:45-47).
Christ died on the cross to declare that all are forgiven. And
yet, not all are reconciled with God. Why? Because while all have
been forgiven, not all have repented. For true reconciliation
between God and human beings to take place, divine forgiveness
is like a life-giving seed that must fall into the soil of human
repentance. Then the fruits of reconciliation will burst forth
with joyous vigour.
For this to happen, we must deal with at least two obstacles.
The first is pride. The problem is not that God has not forgiven
us, for His love reaches out to the worst of sinners. The problem
is that people have not repented. And this is often due to pride.
To repent, one must acknowledge one's true condition. To do that,
one needs humility, which is made available to us by God's grace.
Whether we use it by faith will determine whether or not we truly
repent.
It is clear that even in church there are people who find it difficult
to humbly accept God's forgiveness. Instead they are busy trying
to show through their good works that they are not that bad after
all. Pride blinds them from realising or accepting that "all
our righteous acts are like filthy rags". (Is. 64:6). They
live frenzied lives, performing a religion that is rooted in pride
rather than humility. In reality they have failed to repent, and
therefore have not experienced God's forgiveness and the reconciliation
with Him that follows.
As pastoral theologian David Augsburger has wisely noted, "Since
nothing we intend is ever faultless, and nothing we attempt ever
without error, and nothing we achieve without some measure of
finitude and fallibility we call humanness, we are saved by forgiveness."
The second obstacle is a self-centred, non-relational view of
forgiveness. It is a common mistake to think that our sins are
forgiven by God simply to make us look good again. We might be
like the man in court who hears the judge declare that he is not
guilty. He heaves a sigh of relief, lifts his head high and walks
away feeling vindicated.
When God forgives us, it is not quite like this. It is more like
the story of the prodigal son told by Jesus (Lk 15: 11-32). The
wayward son comes to his senses and decides to return to his father's
house. He rehearses what he would tell his father - "Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy
to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men."
When he reaches his waiting father, he blurts out what he had
carefully rehearsed on the road of repentance. But his father
did not allow him to complete his speech, especially the part
about being a hired man. Perhaps the son thought that his repentance
would make him look a little better in his father's eyes - enough
to hire him as one of the servants.
But the father demonstrated what God does each time someone turns
to Him with repentance. God's forgiveness has to do not so much
with making us look good, but to bring us to a deep loving relationship
with Him.
When we crawl up to God's throne with repentance, we will find
Him waiting for us, having already forgiven us. When we appear
bankrupt before the divine judge in our torn rags, smelling with
the stench of sin, covered in the shameful grime of fully exposed
inner corruptedness, and drooling helplessly with the foolishness
of sin, God declares that our sins are forgiven. Then the unimaginable
happens. Instead of giving us a lecture or mocking us, the Judge
rises up from His throne, comes to us and embraces us. As He does
so, we realise that in embracing us, He has been hurt … His
blood washes us clean. We discover that forgiveness, as Mark Twain
wrote, "is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that
has crushed it".
More than self-focused relief that we have been forgiven, we discover
the joy of being reconciled, of finding the depths of a profound
love that invites us to an eternal relationship. We break free
from our self-imposed prison and find ourselves in a feast.
On May 24, 1748, John Wesley found this joy. He wrote: "I
felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ …
and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins,
even mine ... " Wesley discovered the freedom of being forgiven
and the joy of being reconciled with God. How about you?
QUOTE:
NOT ALL HAVE REPENTED
'Christ died on the cross to declare that all are forgiven. And yet, not all are reconciled with God. Why? Because while all have been forgiven, not all have repented.'