A “Mis” View of Forgiveness

I recently heard a sermon about forgiveness that dealt specifically with how Christians should be forgiving others. My purpose is not to belittle the preacher or the sermon but rather to shed light on a common error made often by preachers and teachers of the word. I believe when it comes to forgiveness the problem is that as believers in the church we have heard so many sermons on forgiveness that have all said the same thing that we generally just believe that the message given must be a biblical one, but it is not!

The common theme throughout these messages is very simple, forgive everyone all the time for everything they have ever done to you. Religious leaders like Billy Graham have even gone on television urging us to throw out a blanket forgiveness on political figures who have stumbled. They say this is the Christian thing to do, but when forgiveness is studied in the bible a very different picture is produced one that doesn’t jive with the forgive everyone all the time theory.

My first realization of the error of this thinking came in a pastoral counseling class. My professor was urging us to counsel people in our church to forgive everyone all the time, that it would bring them healing and allow them to get past certain sins that others may have committed against them. This certainly is a good and necessary goal but let’s look at forgiveness in the bible and get a clear biblical understanding of what forgiveness is.

First let’s look at the way forgiveness operates with God. God calls all men to repentance, saved and unsaved. He grants forgiveness to anyone that asks for it. But there is a key distinction to be made…He only grants forgiveness to people that ask. Secondly, God only grants forgiveness to people that have truly repentant hearts (Mark 1:4). We can see these things clearly in scripture because it is the way to salvation, which is really a way to gain forgiveness (Luke 1:77; Luke 24:47) for all of our sin. God does not freely give forgiveness to everyone all the time for everything they have done, otherwise every human ever would be saved!

So our first conclusion must be: if God only gives forgiveness to those that ask this must also be true for believers. If you examine the major passages on forgiveness in the bible you will see this same theme emerge. The passage most often used to support the blanket forgiveness theory comes from Matthew 18:21-35. Notice that in Jesus’ parable both servants who wanted forgiveness asked for it. The offense of the first servant was that when another servant asked him for forgiveness he did not grant it even though when he asked for forgiveness it was granted to him. It is clear that biblical forgiveness is only granted when one asks for it, this is the way it works with God, and believers. So what do you tell those hurting from the past sins that others have committed against them? How are they supposed to put that in the past?

If whoever has sinned against them has asked for forgiveness then they should grant it. But there is another principle at work here that I believe is what teachers and preachers are referring to when the call on people to forgive all the time. It comes from Romans 12:18-21. The principle has three facets. First, believers should strive for peace with all men. That means we do everything in our power to reconcile with others, but we can only do our part, if they do not ask for forgiveness or grant it if we have sinned there is nothing we can do.

Second, we have to release our felt need for vengeance. Holding onto past sin comes from the sinful idea that we didn’t deserve to be treated a certain way, or that we now want to pay them back for what they did to us. God says, “vengeance is mine.” Therefore we must release that felt right for vengeance and leave it in the Lord’s hands. The final idea is that we should show kindness to our enemies and in that way overcome the evil they have done to us with good. This does not mean we have to forgive them (unless they ask for it), but rather we must show kindness and love to them.

A “Mis” View of God_Part 2

this is a continuation from the post “A ‘Mis’ View of God_Part 1“:

There is a distinction however that must be made. You might ask, “what about believers that go to jail because of their sin? Or a believer who looses their marriage because of the sin of infidelity? Isn’t that God’s judgment upon that sin in their lives?” There are two answers to this question. One is stated rather obviously in scripture and the other is found in scripture when we look at many examples of people who believed in God and still sinned and what played out in their lives.

First, this question mirrors the thinking found by the Jewish people during the time that Jesus walked on the earth. The concept is: any bad things that happen to us are a direct result of sin in our lives. John 9:34 shows this thinking, when a blind man is healed by Jesus they refuse to believe his story because they say he was, “born in utter sin.” In other words he, or his parents must have been in deep sin for him to be born blind.

This thinking that bad always comes from sin is also modeled in Job by his three friends who all say variation of this same theme. However, this is not biblical. In John 9:2-3 the disciples ask what sin had been committed for this man to be born blind, and Jesus explains that it wasn’t because of any sin, but rather for the glory of God. Answer one is that sometimes bad things happen not because of sin, but rather for God’s glory.

Secondly, the question above describes a certain circumstance of sin and consequence. If I steal something and I’m caught I will have to face the consequences of that action. However, consequences should not be construed as judgment from God. For instance if a teen becomes pregnant out of wedlock but then repents of her sin it is wiped away and forgotten by God but the fact of life is that baby will still come. All the hardship and difficult times of taking care of a baby cannot be stopped ,these are the consequences of her sin and they are never removed. But they should not be looked at as judgment for sin!

Consequences and judgments…two very different things. Judgment is direct punishment from God upon sin and the only judgment described in the bible for sin is eternity in Hell. Consequences are more like an effect of sin. Just as every action has a reaction every sin has a consequence and these should not be thought of as judgment but rather like a natural law of the universe. I can’t jump of a building (action) without landing harshly at the bottom, which could result in my death (reaction or consequence).

So my conclusion is this: as believers who’s sin has been washed away we will never face the judgment of our sin (eternity in hell). But we will face the consequences of our sin just as every human does. The love of God is huge, its big, and it wipes away all judgment. God accepts you and me without recourse, without hesitation, no matter how many times we mess up. As Christians God views us as the perfection of Jesus Christ and He makes us into that perfection in a practical way each day! That’s something to celebrate and rejoice in. That’s something to build into your identity and to meditate on.

A “Mis” View of God_Part 1

For most of my Christian life I had a very wrong view of God. I’d love to blame it on my church, or my education and say that the way they taught the bible to me led me to hold this terrible view of God…but in reality the blame falls square on my own shoulders. I believed the way I did because (I thought) this view aligned with my own experience of Who God was.

I look at God like a sort of heavenly cop, He was up there always watching, just waiting for me to mess up so He could “whack” me. Don’t think that I’m trying to make light of the situation because this is truly what I believed about God. I had heard many times before about the chastening of God and how He never allows sin to go unpunished, and so as much as I respected God and His holiness I was afraid of Him…much like the children of Israel were afraid of the God who dwelt at the top of mount Sinai.

It wasn’t until my Jr. year of college that God finally changed my view of Him when I had to do a study on the love of God. At the time it seemed like one of those studies you do but you know you’ll never learn anything. However as I studied God’s love reviewing in passage after passage something started to whisper to me in the back of my mind. God’s love seemed so very unconditional, so much of a blanket acceptance of who I was. It seemed so final, and so finished.

By the time I had completed the study I realized how wrong about God I had been. A Christian is someone who has accepted the free gift of Christ’s death in place of our own. Christians have accepted His blood as an offering to God for our sin, Jesus has redeemed us from sin making us dead to it (Romans 6). What I finally understood was the reality of what this means.

God will never hold me accountable for the sin that I have committed in the past, present, or future.There is no judgment for believers, there is no weighing of our actions and meting out of judgment upon the heaps of sin we have committed in our life-times. While this thinking may fly in the face of what most people believe, understand, or even teach in their churches it is what the bible teaches!

The great white throne judgment is for unbelievers only, and this is the only judgment in the bible that deals with the judgment of sin. What I had to come to understand is that when God looks at me, He no longer sees Tyler Collins the selfish and evil sinner who has often profaned His grace and mercy, but rather He sees the pure righteousness of Jesus Christ. He sees the radiance of Christ’s perfection shining from my soul, not the foul black of sin that used to be there!

The Angelic Host

The Angelic Host is a group drama designed to be fun and energetic. The premise is that the angel Gabriel has come from heaven to shake up the lives of two girls who are obsessed with fashion, boys, and makeup. The other character in the story is a girl named Margaret. She is the broken unbeliever who’s mom recently left without a word and who’s dad is an alcoholic.

This drama isn’t too series, but it has a series message about how we as believer’s have been charged by God to share His love and compassion with those around us. This drama is perfect for a youth meeting or series on the love of God and sharing that love with the world. The beauty of this piece is that it can easily be done by anyone because the parts do not require any real major acting skill making it a perfect first choice for a drama group that’s just starting or a Jr. High drama team.

The conclusion is strong and calls the audience to specific action regarding showing God’s love to others. Here is the conclusion:

“Everyday there are people all around us who are hurting and terrorized by the effects of sin. They are lost and alone, separated from their creator and surrounded in darkness. But God loves them, and He has chosen to show that love through YOU! 1 John 4:12 says, “if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love has been brought to full expression through us!” God longs to comfort the hurting and the broken, and He wants to use you, and you and you to do it. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” The challenge for you today is simple, but not easy. God’s called you to give out the love and compassion that He has so freely given to you. So right now think of one person, maybe an unsaved friend or family member, maybe a co-worker or someone new at your church. Maybe a kid in school you have never talked to before or just your next-door neighbor. Please bow your heads and close your eyes with me for a moment. If you would like to accept this challenge today and say, “I will find a way to show God’s love to that person this week.” Please raise your hand now. Thank you. Let’s Pray”

You can Download this Drama HERE.

Steve Viars: Anemic Churches…Untrained Pastors

Steve Viars pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Indiana tells this story that explains so vividly how the church has lost the purpose and vitality of the bible. Pastors are trained to preach and teach but at the end of the day Christian seminaries and colleges don’t teach students how to apply the bible to their lives and the lives of those they minister to. Here is what Steve says: [this quote is taken from the NANC Track 1 audio series, Lesson two: What Makes Biblical Counseling Biblical?]

Listen to the Audio Version Here:

“I’m …sure that in many of our churches that we [haven't] done a good job of mining the truth from the word of God in a way that presents the practical answers to everyday life in ways that people can really get their hands on them and change and grow biblically. In fact I’m not sure that many believers in Jesus Christ have a well honed doctrine of growth themselves even people who are in leadership…

…If that’s true, if many people in ministry leadership do not have a well honed biblical doctrine of how to change and grow, if they’ve not worked that through themselves then what does that mean for the kind of things they are teaching to their people?

…we have a whole generation of people, their heads are stuffed with bible facts but they don’t know what to do with them. People are not changing and growing and applying the truth to every day life…who’s fault is that?

…the problem lies in part in colleges and seminaries in the way the bible is treated, the way the bible is taught…many times …the bible is viewed as a book of problems. And class after class is solving all the problems in the bible…then you appear before a board of professors at your oral exam, and what did they ask you about?

…what you hear is problem, problem, problem, problem. Yiky, yiky yakity…if that’s what it’s all about…what do you think a pastor is going to be like after he’s been in that situation for a long time? The answer is…he starts preaching and its all about all the problems of the bible…we have a whole generation of people who’s heads are absolutely stuffed with bible facts but they’ve not been taught in a way that…encouraged them to change and grow and so they walk out after the benediction is proclaimed unchanged week after week after week…

…Let me tell you how I got involved in counseling. I was a bible college graduate…then I was in my second year of seminary…some of my friends came to me and said, “hey there’s a church not too far from here…that has a counseling training program based on the bible…”

Let me tell you about my first training session…in the evenings you sat in on a live counseling session. I had never sat in on a counseling session in my life! The first session…[the two being counseled] were an older couple [who] said they had been saved…but their presenting problem on that particular day was they had had a fight that week. And it got so bad that the man went out to the garage, found a little baby food jar filled with gasoline and hid behind a box. When his wife came out to look for him he jumped out from the behind the box and splashed the gasoline in her face.

…you say how did you respond to that? …on the outside I was quiet, but on the inside…I actually chuckled, not at them. That was a sad situation…but there was someone in the room I was chuckling at…it was me. Because I kept having this recurring thought; now Steve what would happen right now…what would happen if this counselor…said, “Steve would you take over for me?” …Four years of bible college, two years of seminary and I’m telling you…I would not have had a ghost of an idea of what to do. I could have parsed some Greek verbs for them…

But as far as knowing how to take the truth of the scripture, the sword of the Spirit out of its sheath and effectively minister it in the hearts and minds of troubled people I did not have a ghost of an idea.” – Steve Viars.

Emphasis mine.

A Face in the Crowd: A monologue dealing with Cutting

I wrote this drama for my sister to perform. She wanted to deal with a real issue that teen girls often face today and after some brainstorming we decided to try something about cutting. I researched the issue for about a month before I started writing.

Here is the intro:
“I’m just the face in the crowd. Who I am is really not important. I could be anyone you know, your daughter, your best friend, a girl in your youth group, or even a girl in this room. This is the story of how I allowed Satan destroyed my life and more importantly how God resurrected it from nothing. I praise Him for what He has done and I’m here today to share my story with you, so just maybe you can avoid the path I took and turn to God before sin costs you everything. James 1:14 & 15 says “But each one is tempted when he is drawn and enticed away by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

The foundation of her life begins to crumble when her long time boyfriend breaks their relationship off after going to college. She isn’t able to handle the emotions and pain that go along with the rejection which eventually leads to cutting. The second half of the drama chronicles her relationship with “Julie” a recent graduate who counsels her from the word of God showing her selfishness and how she had turned away from God.

You can download the drama here for free as long as you acknowledge authorship. Download HERE.