Second Quarter
2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"The Forgiven"
Insights
to Lesson 4: How Jesus Forgave
April
19-25, 2003
(Produced
by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
We
should be grateful to God that He has led us to study this great theme of
forgiveness in our Sabbath School Lessons this quarter! And what a
theme we have to consider this week - "How Jesus Forgave"!
This week's facet of forgiveness could easily fill an entire
quarter's study, but let us probe the question and gain some insights
together for this week.
The
passage for study in Luke 5 gives us an excellent illustration of God's
forgiveness in the catching of the fish. Peter and the others had
"toiled all night and caught nothing." So it is with every
man's effort to establish his own righteousness. No matter how long we
work or how hard we try, it is all an entire failure. But when Jesus
spoke the word to Peter, "Let down your nets for a catch," he
responded with the words, "at your word I will let down the
net." What makes all the difference in the world is the word of
God. Jesus did not just tell Peter to let down the net. He said,
"Let down your nets for a catch." That word ensured
that there would be a catch, and indeed there was an astonishing,
superabundant catch. So it is with the word of God's
forgiveness. The word that declares a man righteous has the power to
make the man righteous—just as righteous as the declaration.
The
Sabbath School Quarterly does an excellent job connecting the healing
ministry of Jesus with His work of forgiving sin. We wish to
emphasize two points about this connection:
-
The passage in
Mark 2:1-11 and others like it demonstrate that the power by which
Christ healed was the same power by which He forgives sin, namely by the
power of His word. The power in the redemption of mankind is the
power of the word of God, nothing short of the very power which brought
the world into existence out of nothing. The power of the word of
God creates righteousness in a person's life where there is naturally no
righteousness at all.
-
Jesus' healing
ministry not only pointed people to Him as the Source of forgiveness of
sin, but it served to illustrate what forgiveness does to a person.
One
of the 1888 messengers, E. J. Waggoner, brought this truth out so very
clearly in his book Christ and His Righteousness (thought by most to
be the material that he presented at the actual Minneapolis General
Conference session in 1888). Waggoner commented on Zechariah
3:1-4, bringing out this tremendous insight into God's forgiveness. I
will quote the text first, and then follow with Waggoner's comment.
Zechariah
3:1-4
-
And he showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and
Satan standing at His right hand to resist Him.
-
And the Lord
said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of the
fire?
-
Now Joshua was
clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel.
-
And He
answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away
the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with
change of raiment.
"Notice
in the above account that the taking away of the filthy garments is the
same as causing the iniquity to pass from the person. And so we find that
when Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not
furnish a cloak for sin but takes the sin away. And this shows that the
forgiveness of sins is something more than a mere form, something more
than a mere entry in the books of record in heaven, to the effect that the
sin has been canceled. The forgiveness of sins is a reality; it is
something tangible, something that vitally affects the individual. It
actually clears him from guilt, and if he is cleared from guilt, is
justified, made righteous, he has certainly undergone a radical change. He
is, indeed, another person. For he obtained this righteousness for the
remission of sins, in Christ. It was obtained only by putting on Christ.
But 'if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' 2 Corinthians 5:17.
And so the full and free forgiveness of sins carries with it that
wonderful and miraculous change known as the new birth; for a man cannot
become a new creature except by a new birth. This is the same as having a
new, or a clean, heart.
"The
new heart is a heart that loves righteousness and hates sin. It is a heart
of willingness to be led into the paths of righteousness. It is such a
heart as the Lord wished Israel to have when he said, 'O that there were
such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their
children forever!' Deuteronomy 5:29. In short, it is a heart free from the
love of sin as well as from the guilt of sin. But what makes a man
sincerely desire the forgiveness of his sins? It is simply his hatred of
them, and his desire for righteousness, which hatred and desire have been
enkindled by the Holy Spirit." (From E.J. Waggoner, Christ
and His Righteousness, chapter: The Lord Our Righteousness.)
In
her work Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, Ellen White
shows her agreement with the 1888 idea of forgiveness in the following
quotation:
"But
forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God gives the
promise that He 'will abundantly pardon,' He adds, as if the meaning of
that promise exceeded all that we could comprehend: 'My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.' Isaiah 55:7-9. God's forgiveness is
not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It
is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It
is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the
true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, 'Create in me a clean
heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.' Psalm 51:10. And again
he says, 'As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our
transgressions from us.' Psalm 103:12." (pg. 114).
Thus
we see that Ellen White and Waggoner harmonize with the Scriptural idea of
forgiveness, that it is not only a judicial act by which God sets men
free from the condemnation of the law, but that it is also the experience
of being set free from sin in the character. This revolutionary
concept of forgiveness explains why Christ's prayer, "Father, forgive
them. …" for those who crucified Him in Luke 23:34 (indeed, these
words apply to the world) was on the one hand fulfilled, but on the other
hand dependent upon the individual's response. In a judicial sense,
"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). In this sense God
did in fact "forgive them" according to the prayer of
Christ. But "God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by
which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness
for sin, but reclaiming from sin." (See above quotations.)
In this sense forgiveness is said to be freely offered to all, and not all
are forgiven in this sense. Those who appreciate from the heart the
verdict of acquittal (the judicial forgiveness) that God has given to the
whole world in Christ are the ones that will experience the "outflow of
redeeming love that transforms the heart." (See above quotation
from Ellen White.)
Christ's words to
the woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-11), "Neither do I condemn you;
go and sin no more," are an excellent example of the two aspects of
forgiveness. "Neither do I condemn you" refers to the
judicial aspect, since condemnation is a judicial term. To refuse to condemn
in this setting is to forgive. "Go and sin no more" refers to the
experiential aspect of forgiveness, toward which the words of Jesus would
propel her. It appears that this woman was empowered, through a heart
appreciation of what it cost Jesus to forgive her, to finally leave her life
of sin. May God help us also to do the same by the same means!
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