Foundation of Forgiveness

The Colonel doesn't do the whole "forgive and forget" thing well.

When you mistreat, mislead, or disrespect him and his, the Colonel's first inclination is to retaliate.  Said retaliation usually isn't in like kind -- the Colonel most often just shuts the offender out of his life.

If the Colonel was a religion -- his detractors would be excommunicated.  

No effort wasted on revenge -- the Colonel ain't got time for that.

Unless you mess, physically, with his family -- then it's game on.  No brag; just fact.

The Colonel ain't the least bit proud of any of the above.  It doesn't jive in any way, shape, or form with his professed followership of the teachings of Jesus.  He recognizes that his unforgiveness is, in fact, an affront to God. 

The Colonel remains in constant state of seeking forgiveness.  Here's what he's learning:

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, and for what to pray, He built his model prayer on the foundation of God's supremacy as the Creator of the Universe and our only salvation.  God's kingdom is supreme.  God's will is supreme.  God's law is inviolable -- disobedience is not without consequence.   God is the exclusive provider of our every material and spiritual need.

The concept of forgiveness is the logical edifice built on the foundation of God's supremacy, sovereignty, and provision.  Jesus taught His disciples, and us by extension, to pray for God's forgiveness.  But, how can a most holy and perfect God -- unable to even accept sin in His presence -- forgive our sin?

The simple answer -- the Colonel is a simple man, after all -- is that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross made Him our substitute.  Jesus -- the universe's ultimate expression of love -- stands between us and the wrath of God.  

"But," you ask, "how can God love us and yet have wrath toward us?"

The simplest answer is: God loves our souls and hates our sin. 

Matthew Henry, the great early 18th Century author of Bible commentary, had this to say regarding our debts to God and His forgiveness of them:

"Our sins are our debts; there is a debt of duty, which, as creatures, we owe to our Creator; we do not pray to be discharged from that, but upon the non-payment of that there arises a debt of punishment; in default of obedience to the will of God, we become obnoxious to the wrath of God; and for not observing the precept of the law, we stand obliged to the penalty."

In other words, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "All have fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and the consequence of falling short (commiting sin) is death (see Romans 6: 23). 

Matthew Henry's use of the word "obnoxious" in his commentary is instructive and useful to our discussion.  In Henry's day -- the early 1700's -- the term "obnoxious" carried the connotation of censure or judgement.  Today, we use the word most often in reference to olfactory unpleasantness or social immaturity -- a far less impactful use than Henry intended.  To be obnoxious to God, in Henry's meaning, was to be in complete contradiction to God's will and deserving complete, unpardonable condemnation.

Our sin is in direct opposition to the will of God.  The Colonel once asked a respected Christian mentor for some scripture references on finding God's will.  He answered with "Read Exodus 20."  

The Colonel has since used prayerful consideration of God's Ten Commandments as the basis for seeking His will.  If one is truly seeking God's will -- asking for divine guidance in decision-making -- His original commandments regarding the life-conduct of His people is the first place to start.  Examining your choices through the lens of His commandments almost always makes the right choice -- the one that will please God -- clear.

Now, don't start getting the idea that the Colonel always consults God in his decision-making, or even that when he does, he makes the right choice.  Too often the Colonel makes the mistake of presenting God with his Choice A and Choice B and asking God to approve one or the other.  That ain't how seeking God's will works.

There, then, is the divine reason for Jesus telling His disciples that when they pray they should begin by recognizing God's supremacy and sovereignty.  Seeking His will in our lives, and His forgiveness for not following His will as we live, flows as naturally from God's supremacy and sovereignty as water from a greater height.

Forgiveness from God comes only when we recognize His supremacy and sovereignty, recognize that everything we need both materially and spiritually comes from Him, and seek only His will.  God is, indeed, love.  He showed His great love for us when, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."   

That's the bottom line of forgiveness.  God sent His son, who had been with Him from before the beginning of time (See John 1: 1 - 3), as the sacrificial substitute to atone for our sins -- to pay the price of death our sins demand from a perfect God.  You can't express forgiveness any better than that.

Jesus didn't end the forgiveness section of His model prayer there, however.  He took one more, final, step -- the step that sums up His ministry.  Jesus told His disciples to pray for the supernatural strength to forgive others.

For the longest time the Colonel misread the forgiveness section of Jesus' model prayer as asking God to forgive us in the same manner we forgive others.  Frankly, if that were the case, there would be no forgiveness.  Unfortunately, the imprecision of the English translations of Greek, Latin, and Aramaic, can cause us to focus on the word "as" in the line "...forgive us, as we forgive others."   It doesn't take any more than an Ole Miss grad to see that the original language we translate "as" wasn't meant as a qualifier, or a condition of God's forgiveness.  It's more of a conjunction -- a phrase connector.  Praying "as we forgive others" is not asking for equal measure.  It is in, if nothing else, remembrance of Jesus' focus on others.

Others...

Can't get to forgiveness without that focus.