Yesterday on The Morning Meditation, we looked at the most quoted verse in the Bible…John 3:16! We looked at the words in this verse and we thought about A Sixfold Aspect of God’s Love.
Today on The Morning Mediation:
GOD’S FORGIVENESS
Luke 7:41-43
“There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.”
Forgiveness is one of the most common words in the Bible. It is found in its different forms 98 times. The word forgiveness translates, “aphiemi,” and means, “to send away, it is used of a husband divorcing his wife, to depart from one and leave him to himself so that all mutual claims are abandoned.”
While God hates divorce, it does furnish a good illustration. When one is divorced, a party is put away and the husband or wife ceases to be able to use the bond of marriage formally held. It is no more than a memory. There is no moral obligations that can be used to bring it back up.
When one is forgiven, he is set free from any legal obligations to the sin or sins for which he has been forgiven. This is illustrated in our text above.
THE FREEDOM OF FORGIVENESS
This is brought out in the words, “he frankly forgave the both.” These words translate, “charizomai,” and means, “to show one’s self gracious, kind, benevolent, to grant forgiveness, to pardon.” It means to give freely. This word comes from the root word from which we get the word grace and joy. The word joy and rejoice comes from this word. Our text illustrates the meaning of this word. The creditor frankly forgave them both. The word joy is integrated in this meaning. If you had a creditor to whom you were deeply in debt, and you didn’t know how you could ever pay the debt. If he said, “I am writing this off. You owe me nothing.” Would that make you happy? I think so. Another meaning incarnates itself into the word forgiveness. It is forgiveness by grace. It is not merited. You did nothing to obtain it. You no longer owe the creditor. It was his ability, mercy, and grace that provoked him to do this kind deed. He gets all the glory for this act of mercy. And we get the joy of forgiveness.
This is the way God’s grace comes to us. We owe Him. We are His creation. We breath His air. We walk on His earth. We enjoy the life He breathed into us. We did nothing meritorious to obtain or sustain this life. Forgiveness came from Him to us in such a fashion, and so quickly, we hardly realized it was happening. We discovered we did not have to beg. We realized that we received the gift of forgiveness without any strings attached.
Many Christians struggle with the grace of forgiveness. It is hard for us to believe that God would so freely and completely forgive us of all the wrongs we have done. After we are saved, we keep waiting for God to come and say, “I have forgiven you. You must now keep my commandments to keep what I have given you.” We are almost disappointed that He does not do this. The world we live in is selfish and demanding. We get nothing for nothing. I have people call me on the phone and say, “You have just been selected to get this special gift. You are a winner.” I have learned to say, “I don’t want a gift. Give it to someone else.” Then I hang up. When this world offers you a gift, just remember this. When you take the gift. Look carefully. They have their hand in your pocket where you keep your billfold.
Because this is true, we have problems taking the grace of forgiveness. When we really mess up, as most of us do, we go to the Lord in prayer, then back off and wait for God to strike us down with some bad illness or financial set back. We just have problems with the words, “and he frankly forgave them both.
