What Does Forgiveness Look Like?

As We Forgive Our Debtors

And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.] For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Our Greatest Risk: Losing Heaven

The greatest risk we face as a church in these days is not that we may lose an organ, or that we may lose money, or that we may lose members, or that we may lose staff, or that we may lose reputation. The greatest risk is that we may lose heaven. Because one way to lose heaven is to hold fast to an unforgiving spirit and so prove that we have never been indwelt by the Spirit of Christ.

The Lord's Prayer

Jesus said (in Matthew 6:9, 12), "Pray like this: 'Our Father who art in heaven . . . forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.'" Then in verses 14–15 he explains why he taught us to pray this way: "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

If we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, we will not be forgiven by God. If we continue on in that way, then we will not go to heaven, because heaven is the dwelling place of forgiven people.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Then in Matthew 18 Jesus told a parable to illustrate this point. Peter asks the question in verse 21, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" And Jesus answers, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

And then he tells the parable about the king who forgave his servant a million dollar debt. The servant went out from the king and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a relatively small amount, refused his desperate pleas for mercy, and had him thrown in prison. When the king heard about it, he called for the servant and said (in vv. 32–35),

"You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as 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. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.

The point of Matthew 6:15 and 18:35 is that if we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, we will be handed over to the tormentors. We will lose heaven, and gain hell.

The reason is not because we can earn heaven or merit heaven by forgiving others, but because holding fast to an unforgiving spirit proves that we do not trust Christ. If we trust him, we will not spurn his way of life. If we trust him, we will not be able to take forgiveness from his hand for our million dollar debt and withhold it from our ten dollar debtor.

Paul's Teaching

Paul said in Ephesians 4:32, "Forgive each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." In other words God's forgiveness is underneath ours and creates it and supports it. So that if we don't give it to others—if we go on in an unforgiving spirit—what we show is that God is not there in our lives. We are not trusting him. And not trusting him will keep us out of heaven. And cause us to be handed over to the tormentors.

The Risk We Face and a Plan for the Coming Weeks

So the greatest risk we face as a church in these days is the risk of losing heaven. Because whichever way we look right now at Bethlehem, we are faced with the question of forgiveness. Is there forgiveness for Dean and Leah? Is there forgiveness for the staff and elders? Is there forgiveness for organ opponents and for organ supporters? Is there forgiveness for dozens of husbands and wives that have been more honest and vulnerable with each other these days than ever in their lives?

As I have thought about these things, what I have felt led to preach on for the next three Sundays is this: Today I want to try to answer the question what forgiveness looks like. How can you know when you are doing it? What does it include and what doesn't it?

Then next Sunday—Palm Sunday—as Jesus moves into Jerusalem toward the cross, I want to talk about where we get the power to forgive. What is it like to be forgiven by God through Christ? How does that release forgiveness in us?

And then on Easter Sunday I want to take that great resurrection teaching from 1 Corinthians 15:17 that if Christ has not been raised from the dead, we are still in our sins; but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the great unshakable vindication of our forgiveness from God.

I ask you to pray for me and all who will participate in worship these Sundays.

What Is Forgiveness?

Today the question is: what is forgiveness? What does it look like? What isn't it? We have heard from Jesus that it is essential. It is not icing on the cake of Christianity. If we don't experience it and offer it to others, we will perish in our sin. So it is tremendously important to know what this is that is so essential to our eternal life.

Let me begin with a definition of forgiveness that we owe to each other. It comes from Thomas Watson about 300 years ago. He is commenting on the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we for give our debtors," and asks,

Question: When do we forgive others?

Answer: When we strive against all thoughts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them. (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 581)

I think this is a very biblical definition of forgiveness. Each of its parts comes from a passage of Scripture.

Resist thoughts of revenge: Romans 12:19, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."

Don't seek to do them mischief: 1 Thessalonians 5:15, "See that no one repays another with evil for evil.

Wish well to them: Luke 6:28, "Bless those who curse you."

Grieve at their calamities: Proverbs 24:17, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles."

Pray for them: Matthew 5:44, "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."

Seek reconciliation with them: Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men."

Be always willing to come to their relief: Exodus 23:4, "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him."

Here is forgiveness: when you feel that someone is your enemy or when you simply feel that you or someone you care about has been wronged, forgiveness means,

resisting revenge,

not returning evil for evil,

wishing them well,

grieving at their calamities,

praying for their welfare,

seeking reconciliation so far as it depends on you,

and coming to their aid in distress.

All these point to a forgiving heart. And the heart is all important Jesus said in Matthew 18:35—"unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

What Forgiveness Is Not

But now notice what is not there in this definition. Notice what forgiveness is not.

1. Not the Absence of Anger at Sin

Forgiveness is not the absence of anger at sin. It is not feeling good about what was bad.

I was on the phone yesterday with a pastor from out of state who told me about a woman in his church who, he noticed after he came to the church, never came to communion. He probed and found that 15 years earlier she had been separated from her husband because he repeatedly beat her and sexually abused their children. She said that every time she came to communion she would remember what he had done and feel so angry at what it cost her children that she felt unworthy to take communion. This was over a decade later.

My friend said to her, You are not expected to feel good about what happened. Anger against sin and its horrible consequences is fitting up to a point. But you don't need to hold on to that in a vindictive way that desires harm for your husband. You can hand it over to him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23) again and again, and pray for the transformation of your husband. Forgiveness is not feeling good about horrible things. And he encouraged her to forgive him in this way, if she hadn't, and to take communion as she handed her anger over to God and prayed for her husband.

2. Not the Absence of Serious Consequences for Sin

Forgiveness is not the absence of serious consequences for sin.

In other words, sending a person to jail does not mean you are unforgiving to him. My pastor friend has been part of putting two of his members in prison for sexual misconduct. Can you imagine the stresses on that congregation as they come to terms with what forgiveness is!

More Help from Watson

Thomas Watson was helpful to me again on this point. He asks,

Question: Is God angry with his pardoned ones?

Answer: Though a child of God, after pardon, may incur his fatherly displeasure, yet his judicial wrath is removed. Though he may lay on the rod, yet he has taken away the curse. Correction may befall the saints, but not destruction. (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 556)

This gives us a pointer to how we may at times have to discipline a child in the home, or a leader in the church, or a criminal in society. We may prescribe painful consequences in each case, and not have an unforgiving spirit.

The biblical evidence for this is found in numerous places.

Hebrews

One example, in the book of Hebrews. On the one hand the book teaches that all Christians are forgiven for their sins; but on the other hand it teaches that our heavenly Father disciplines us, sometimes severely. In Hebrews 8:12 it says, "I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." Then in Hebrews 12:6, 10 it says,

Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives . . . [Our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

So our sins are forgiven and forgotten in the sense that they no longer bring down the wrath of a judge, but not in the sense that they no longer bring down the painful spanking of a Father.

David

Another example is found in the life of king David, the man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). He committed adultery and killed Uriah. Nathan the prophet came with stinging words to him in 2 Samuel 12:9,

Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

David is broken by this indictment and says (in verse 13), "I have sinned against the Lord." To which Nathan responds on behalf of God, "The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die." But even though God had forgiven him—his sin is taken away—Nathan says (in verse 14), "However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die." In fact Nathan says that the consequences of the sin will be even greater. Verses 10–13:

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife . . . Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.

Numbers 14

A third example is found in Numbers 14 where Joshua and Caleb tell the people of Israel that they can indeed go up and possess the promised land. The people are angry and want to stone them and go back to Egypt. God intervenes and says to Moses that he is about to wipe out the people and make him a nation greater and mightier than they (v. 12). But Moses pleads with God (in v. 19) for their forgiveness. "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

So the Lord responds (in v. 20), "I have pardoned them according to your word." But this does not mean that there are no painful consequences for their disobedience. In verse 21–23 God says,

As I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers.

They were forgiven but the consequence of their sin was that they would not see the promised land.

Psalm 99:8

Psalm 99:8 takes all these examples and sums them up like this: "O Lord our God, Thou didst answer them; Thou wast a forgiving God to them, and yet an avenger of their evil deeds."

So forgiveness is not the absence of serious consequences for sin.

3. Forgiveness of an Unrepentant Person?

One last observation remains: forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn't look the same as forgiveness of a repentant person.

In fact I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3–4, "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." So there's a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.

But even when a person does not repent (cf. Matthew 18:17), we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us and do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27).

The difference is that when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and confession and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do him good; but we cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy.

Thomas Watson said something very jolting:

We are not bound to trust an enemy; but we are bound to forgive him. (Body of Divinity, p. 581)

You can actually look someone in the face and say: I forgive you, but I don't trust you. That is what the woman whose husband abused her children had to say.

But O how crucial is the heart here. What would make that an unforgiving thing to say is if you were thinking this: What's more, I don't care about ever trusting you again; and I won't accept any of your efforts to try to establish trust again; in fact, I hope nobody ever trusts you again, and I don't care if your life is totally ruined. That is not a forgiving spirit. And our souls would be in danger.

The risk is high at Bethlehem right now. We all have people we need to forgive. We need very much to see Jesus and feel what it means to be forgiven our ten million dollar debt. I pray that the Lord will reveal that to us this week, and especially next Sunday.

Getting Right with God and Each Other

21 You have heard that the ancients were told, "You shall not commit murder" and "Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court." 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, "Raca," shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, "You fool," shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent.

Matthew 5:21–26 is clearly one unit. It is the first of six units that begin "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you . . . " These six units are Jesus' explanation of the Christian righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. Verse 20, which leads into these six units, says, "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Then comes our text.

The reason for choosing this text this morning has to do with where we are in the Master Planning Process at Bethlehem.

We believe that God has given us a powerful and biblical Mission Statement and Vision for Bethlehem for the next several years. We exist "to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples." We have six fresh initiatives to pursue, clusters of values to live by and a prayer goal of 2000 by 2000 to pour out our lives for. As we prayed and sought the Lord about how to move forward in these things, one of the great challenges we saw was the debt on this building. It seemed to us that, rather than spreading ourselves thin over a dozen different smaller one-time financial goals, we would do better to focus on freeing up about $300,000 a year that we currently pay on this mortgage.

That's what next Sunday is designed for: bringing pledges to the Lord so that when October rolls around, we will each (as God leads us) give a one-time gift to eliminate entirely the $1.1 million debt on this building. But the task force for resources realized from the outset that debt removal is not the greatest thing. Debt is not the biggest obstacle we face. And in the mind of God it is not the biggest issue at Bethlehem. It is a big issue. It may be the biggest financial issue. But it is not the biggest issue in this church or any church.

Something More Important Than Financial Gifts

That's why this Sunday and this text come before next Sunday and the gifts we will pledge to free the future from debt and for this mission. This text is about something that is prior to pledges and gifts. Something bigger in the mind of God than financial gifts. Something deeper and more important than what happens next Sunday financially. That's why we focus this morning on verses 23 and 24.

If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Now notice immediately that verse 23 begins with "If therefore . . . " The word "therefore" impels us to look back. Let me put in a sentence about what I think Jesus has just said. He has said, "Despising your brother imperils your soul." Despising a person through acts like murder, despising a person through attitudes like anger, despising a person through words like "Raca" or "Fool"—they all imperil your soul.

"Therefore . . . " verses 23 and 24 follow. And they are utterly relevant to what we are about as a church in the next week. If contempt for a brother or sister (= fellow human being) imperils your soul—if it threatens to cut you off from God forever, as verse 22 says (by referring to hell), then you can't just come happily on your way to worship next Sunday with your Freeing the Future pledge, if something like that is in your heart.

Since despising a brother brings us into peril with God, it is unlikely that God would receive the offering of your worship while you despise your brother in your heart.

"If Your Brother Has Something Against You"

But that is not quite what Jesus says, in verses 23–24, is it? He says,

If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember [not that you despise your brother, but] that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

In verses 21–22 he has focused on the contempt we may feel for a brother and how we may despise him with anger or words like "fool" and "Raca" (= imbecile, or dolt, or the like). But when he makes the transition to how this relates to worship and giving, he shifts the focus slightly—away from our subjective feelings of anger or contempt or despising onto the relationship that has been wrecked by our contempt.

So, very practically and specifically, what this means is that this week there are two things to pray about for next Sunday, not just one. We are all praying, "Lord, how much should I pledge toward Freeing the Future from debt at Bethlehem? What is my part in the $1.1 million challenge?" But there is something more important to be praying about. That is what Jesus presses on us here. We must also be praying, "Lord, is there someone, as I get ready to take my pledge to the altar (as it were), who has something against me?" For if there is, Jesus says we are to take steps to be reconciled before we bring the pledge.

Now this raises some tough questions for us. Let's put ourselves to the test. Are we really only committed to the exciting goal of debt elimination? Or are we more committed to the effort of enmity elimination?

Am I Responsible for Someone's Grudge Against Me?

Here is a key question: When coming to give, are we responsible for all the grudges and anger and enmity that people may feel against us?

This question is utterly urgent for all of us, but especially for those in prominent, public positions where strong viewpoints are expressed as part of one's calling—positions like President of the United States, or Speaker of the House, or Governor of Minnesota, or network news commentator or host of a radio show like Focus on the Family or preacher in a local church. In every one of these roles, the moment one opens his mouth someone disagrees. And if the issue is hot enough, that disagreement can be felt as anger and alienation. At any given moment, for example, the President of the United States has millions of people calling him a hero and millions calling him a jerk. That was true of Abraham Lincoln and it will be true of every president that ever serves. And it is true of every other public role. So, are all these people responsible, before they worship, to contact every person who has something against them? That would be impossible, it seems.

But it's not our inability to see how it would work that raises the question. It's the context. Go back 14 verses to verse 9. There Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Yes, and that is what this text is about too. Be a peacemaker before you worship. Be reconciled with those who have something against you, before you bring your Freeing the Future pledge next Sunday.

But then notice what comes next in Matthew 5:10–12:

10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness [not sin, but righteousness], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely [not truly], on account of Me. 12 Rejoice, and be glad [that is, don't let your conscience be troubled as if you were guilty of their hostility], for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Now this is remarkable. What Jesus says is that sometimes people will hold something against you when they shouldn't—insulting you, persecuting you, saying all kinds of evil against you falsely. What do you do in such circumstances? Do you stop worshiping as long as someone feels like this about you?

If so, Jesus would never have been able to worship in the latter years of his life. He was constantly opposed. They sought to trip him up in his speech. They tried to kill him. They tried to shame him. Was he responsible for this? Not only that, he said that the same would be true for his disciples. In Matthew 24:9 he said, "You will be hated by all nations on account of my name." In other words, "If you are faithful to me, somebody will always have something against you."

"So Far as It Depends on You"

So what does Jesus mean in Matthew 5:23–24? I think he means, "If you remember in this week that someone has something against you because you have wronged them, then as much as it depends on you, try to be reconciled." Humble yourself. Reach out.

You can hear two qualifications of Jesus' words that I see in the context.

We are only responsible for what others hold against us when it is owing to real sin or blundering on our part.

We are responsible to pursue reconciliation, but live with the pain if it does not succeed. In other words, we are not responsible to make reconciliation happen.

Paul says in Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." So far as it depends on you. Jesus took every step required of a human being to make matters right with his enemies (he never sinned), and still they had things against him and were not reconciled to him.

There are numerous other questions raised by this text. But let me close this morning with the pressing question about what we shall do with this word from the Lord this week.

Reconciliation Is Harder Than Donation

The acceptability of our pledges next Sunday morning hangs in part on whether we will obey this text this week. To be willing to pledge $20,000 next Sunday, but be unwilling to make a hard phone call to a person you have wronged would not be pleasing to the Lord.

So there are three questions all of us should ask ourselves in a spirit of prayer and openness to the Lord:

If someone has something against me, is it owing to something I should not have done or should not have said? Is it owing to something I should have done or should have said, but didn't? In other words, have I wronged someone?

If I am to blame, have I taken sufficient steps to be reconciled?

If not, am I willing to humble myself and make the contact before I make my pledge next Sunday?

Do you know why God will be pleased if we all do that this week? Because human reconciliation is much harder than financial donation. So if God gives us the grace to do the harder thing, he will get more glory next Sunday when we come with a clear conscience to do the easier thing.

Forgive Just as God in Christ Also Has Forgiven You

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Last week I talked about what forgiveness is—what it looks like and what it's not. I quoted Thomas Watson's definition which included

resisting revenge,

not returning evil for evil,

wishing them well,

grieving at their calamities,

praying for their welfare,

seeking reconciliation so far as it depends on you,

and coming to their aid in distress.

How Do We Truly Forgive? Gospel-Flying

This week I'm asking, how can we do that? What gives us the freedom and the ability and the incentive and the power to forgive those who sin against us? Some of you have been wronged so deeply and hurt so badly that forgiving would be as great a miracle as flying.

But recall the little poem of John Bunyan:

Run, John, run, the law commands

But gives us neither feet nor hands,

Far better news the gospel brings:

It bids us fly and gives us wings.

Two wings, six feathers.

And that includes the "flying" of forgiveness. So I want God to show us our gospel wings this morning. Forgiving is a flying you can do in the power of the gospel. In fact six feathers are enough for this flight—three on one side and three on the other make two strong wings for gospel-flying—or gospel forgiving.

Two Wings, Six Feathers

I find all six feathers in these three verses (Ephesians 4:32–5:2),

There are two wings in this text for gospel-flying—just like a bird has two wings. Each wing has three feathers. All six feathers are things God the Father and God the Son have done for us without our help. They are all works of his sovereign grace. I am talking to Christian believers now. If you are not one yet, I hope you will listen and be drawn in. What I am describing here about gospel-flying (forgiving) is yours freely if you will lay down the weights of unbelief and trust Christ.

There are two wings. One wing with its three feathers is what Christ did for us before we even existed. And the other wing with its three feathers is what God did for us in our own lifetime. So if you are drawing the sermon today, you need to draw a bird with two big wings each having three feathers, and then write on each feather one of the things God has done so that we can fly with forgiveness to each other.

Wing #1: What God Did for Us Before We Existed

The first feather in this wing is this:

1. God Loved Us with a Special Saving Love

Ephesians 5:1, "Be imitators of God, as beloved children." And verse 2: "Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you."

The first feather in the wing of gospel-flying—gospel forgiving—is the unspeakable reality of being loved by God. But to feel the force of this, you need to know that this is not merely the general love that God has for all the world—the love that gives life and breath and food and rain and protection and family and job and many evidences of his truth and power and greatness. It is an amazing thing to be loved like that, and should cause us to turn to him in gratitude.

But if that is all you know of the love of God, your gospel wings will be weak. This text speaks of love like a Father has for a child and love that moves Christ to take our place in death. Now that is something more than the general love of God for the world. That is a saving love—a love that goes beyond the offer of the gospel and actually undertakes to save us effectively, infallibly. It does what needs to be done to get us forgiven and saved.

Here is the evidence for this: in Ephesians 1:4–5 Paul says that this love of God chose us for adoption as children of God.

[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 he predestined us to adoption as sons.

So God has loved you with a love that is precious beyond words because it is a love that he gave you before you were born and that moved him to predestine you to be a child of God in holiness.

So the first feather in the wing of gospel forgiving is the feather of God's special saving love—call it covenant love. It is not mere general love. It is love that fixed personally, particularly on you as an individual and chose you and pursued you and brought you to himself, because he means to have you. If you get gripped by being loved like that, you might only need one feather to fly.

The second feather is

2. Christ Gave Himself for Us as a Sacrifice

Ephesians 5:2b, "[Christ] gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God."

According to Ephesians 2:3 we were all by nature children of wrath. We all deserve to perish and be punished in hell for the sins of our thoughts and imaginations and attitudes and tongues and hands and whole bodies. But the covenant love of God for us moved him not only to choose us but to give his Son as a sacrifice in our place: "Christ gave himself up for us"—that is, in our place, so that we don't have to perish. "He became a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13).

To feel the full force of this and to make the feather really strong for flying, we need to realize again that this is not merely a general thing Christ did the same for everybody. Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." In other words Christ's giving himself up to die as a substitute for the church is part of a covenant love that he has for his bride.

In love he chose you to be his bride and in love he lays down his life for you. You, individually, particularly, were in view as the goal of his loving and his dying.

Chuck Colson told the story (at the 1994 Ligonier Conference in Dallas, Texas) of a prison camp where 20 men came in from digging and lined their shovels up on the wall as they always did for the counting. When they were counted, the officer found only 19. He demanded that the one who didn't bring his shovel step forward. None did. Then he threatened that if no one stepped forward, he would choose ten men at random and shoot them. A young man of about 19 stepped forward and was immediately taken a few paces away and shot as an example to the others.

But then as they were dismissing, the shovels were counted again and there were 20 after all. The officer had miscounted.

The difference between what that boy did for his friends and what Jesus did for you is that Jesus knew which ten men he was dying for and he knew that we were all unworthy. But he did it anyway, because he had a very special covenant love for you that is far above human love.

The first feather is that you have been loved with a special saving love. And the second feather is that Christ gave himself as a sacrifice to take your place so that you will never perish.

The third feather for gospel-flying (forgiving) is

3. God Was Satisfied with Christ's Sacrifice

Ephesians 5:2b, "[Christ] gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

When Paul calls the death of Jesus for us a "fragrant aroma" to God he means that God was satisfied with what Christ did. He did not look down and say, "You can't do that. You can't die for others. Every person has to bear their own guilt. Don't be so foolish to think you can take the curse and condemnation of another." On the contrary, the Father looked down and (with tears in his eyes, I think) took tremendous pleasure in the honor that the Son gave to the Father in obeying his commission—the Father had sent him (John 3:16).

So Christ did not die in vain. God received his offering. It satisfied the Father's justice. It removed God's wrath and judgment.

Be ye glad, O be ye glad!

Every debt that you ever had,

Has been paid up in full by the blood of the Lamb,

Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad.

Words and Music by Michael Kelly Blanchard

1980 Paragon Music Corp.

(ASCAP)/Gotz Music (ASCAP) ICS. ARR. UBP.

Of The Benson Company, Inc., Nashville, TN.

God was satisfied with the blood of Christ. That's the third feather in the first wing of gospel-flying and forgiveness.

That's the wing of God's work before you were born:

God loved you with special saving love;

Christ gave himself for you as a sacrifice; and

God was satisfied with Christ's sacrifice. Your debt is paid.

Wing #2: What God Did for Us During Our Lifetime

The other wing for gospel-flying has three feathers in it also.

1. God Put Us in a Saving Relationship with Christ

God put you into a saving relationship with Christ, so that you are united to Christ like a vine is united to the branch.

Ephesians 4:32b, "Forgive each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

We are "in Christ." That means we are in a relationship with Christ—we are united to Christ—in a way that makes us acceptable to God because he is acceptable to God. How did we get into this relationship? 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "By [God's] doing you are in Christ Jesus." God awakened faith in our hearts and put us into a saving relationship with Jesus (cf. Ephesians 2:10, 13; Romans 16:17).

If he hadn't done that, all his other work (loving us, giving his Son to die for us, being satisfied with the Son's sacrifice) would have been in vain. But he did it. He is doing it all. His love will not be frustrated in pursuing you for himself. His personal, individual, particular love is moving him all the way. Nothing will stop him from saving you.

So the first feather in wing #2 for gospel-flying is God's putting you into a relationship with Christ like a vine in a branch.

2. God Adopted Us and Made Us Rightful Children

The second feather for gospel-forgiving is that God adopted you into his family and made you a rightful child of God.

Ephesians 5:1, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children."

In other words realize that when God united you to Christ, you became with Christ a child of God. And heir. This is what God had been aiming at all along. Ephesians 1:5 says that "God predestined us unto adoption."

Some parents have children accidentally. And if they are cruel and heartless parents, they might even tell their children they didn't want them. But God has no unwanted children. They are all planned—from eternity, with great expectation and joy. They are all pursued. Christ's death is like an unspeakably high payment through heaven's Micah Fund.1

The second wing of gospel-flying in wing #2 is the truth that you are loved not just in some random, general, impersonal way, but as a child of God that he sought out and adopted at great cost.

3. God Forgave Us for Our Sins

Finally the third feather in wing #2 for gospel-flying (forgiving) is that God forgave you for your sins.

Ephesians 4:32, "And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

Review

Before you were born (wing #1):

God has loved you with a special, personal, saving love from all eternity.

His Son gave his life for you to take the place of your judgment.

God was satisfied by the substitute and sacrifice of the Son. The debt was paid.

Then after you were born (wing #2):

God brought you to faith and put you in a saving relationship with Christ.

God adopted you into his family as a child of his own.

And God forgave all your sins and there is no condemnation.

These are the wings John Bunyan had in mind:

Run, John, run, the law commands

But gives us neither feet nor hands,

Far better news the gospel brings:

It bids us fly and gives us wings.

It bids us forgive—and give us gospel wings. If you believe in your heart that God has done all of this for you and in you, you will fly. You will forgive.

Closing Remarks from Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon tells how his heart was set on wing by the pardon of God:

My life was full of sorrow and wretchedness, believing that I was lost. But, oh, the blessed gospel of the God of grace came to me, and with it a sovereign word, "Deliver him!" And I who was but a minute before as wretched as a soul could be, could have danced for the very merriment of heart. And as the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God.2

But years later he added this:

To be forgiven is such sweetness that honey is tasteless in comparison with it. But yet there is one thing sweeter still, and that is to forgive. As it is more blessed to give than to receive, so to forgive rises a stage higher in experience than to be forgiven.3

It rises higher because it is gospel-flying. Spread your wings with me in these days at Bethlehem and let's fly together.

1 The Micah Fund is an adoption ministry at Bethlehem that helps covers the cost of adopting minority infants who might otherwise have been sacrificed in abortion.

2 Volume 15, p. 156, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

3 Volume 31, pp. 287f., Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

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By John Piper

What Does Forgiveness Look Like?

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