Mark 11:25 “Whenever
you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your
Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Back to this little Bible
study in the Gospel of Mark, we come to the issue of “forgiveness”. Noah
Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines the word “forgiveness as: 1. The act of forgiving; the pardon of an
offender, by which he is considered and treated as not guilty. The
forgiveness of enemies is a Christian duty. 2. The pardon or remission of an offense or crime; as the forgiveness of
sin or of injuries. 3. Disposition to
pardon; willingness to forgive.
This lesson states that, in
our culture, we often hear about God’s “unconditional love” for humanity, but
the notion of God’s unconditional love is frequently misunderstood. Love is an
attribute of God and the Lord does love sinners unconditionally in that nothing
in ourselves moves Him to love us. We do not meet a condition that makes us
lovable; in fact, He loves us when we are most unlovable. That is Paul’s point
in Ephesians
2: 1-5 and Romans 5:6–8: God loved us to such an extent that Christ died
for us when we were set against Him in our sin and had nothing to commend us to
Him. Still, God’s saving love is not wholly unconditional. It is conditional in
one important respect: God cannot show love and mercy to sinners at the expense
of His holy justice.
In our hearts, we would view
with contempt a court judge who is overly lenient with convicted offenders. Sin
must be condemned and justice must be preserved. So it is with God. Habakkuk
1:13 says, “You are of
purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.” Romans 6:23 tells us, “the wages
of sin is death” (meaning that we earn it by our sinful thoughts, words and
actions). Ezekiel 18:20 clarifies that, “the soul that sins,
it shall die.” Holy, just and righteous God must punish sin. Sin has
already been judged and all who commit sin are found guilty already. Hell is
the default. But God is loving and merciful and desire to forgive us. God in
His infinite wisdom devised a solution. Jesus Christ is God’s answer to the
predicament.
John 3:16-18 “For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did
not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but
he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Our Creator’s extension of
His saving love that results in our redemption is conditioned on atonement. Plain
and simple, No belief, no atonement and no atonement, no salvation.
Let’s continue this message on
God’s conditions in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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