New Testament Forgiveness - 1
“If we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, we will not be forgiven by God. If we continue on in that way, then we will not go to heaven, because heaven is the dwelling place of forgiven people.”
Popular Minister
In examining New Testament forgiveness, it is necessary to predicate any preaching with the caveat that the Word must be rightly divided. This statement was made by a prominent preacher/theologian and I pulled it from his website yesterday. If we believed and acted on his statement, our salvation and our final destiny would not rest on the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ, but on the vagaries of our everday life. Indeed, this statement appears to conflict with Romans 10:9 which says that if anyone believes that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and confesses him as “Lord,” he shall be saved. It also appears to conflict with Jesus’s own statement that a man must be born-again (or from above) in John 3:36. It begs the question that if a man is born-again, does he miss heaven because he held a grudge against someone?
The Word instructs us that it must be “handled aright” (RV) or “rightly divided.” (KJV). Many times we misconstrue the Word and that leads to statements like this. For example, in Romans 3:10, the Word says,
“as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (RV)
Many preachers have used that verse to describe all of mankind, heathen and Christian alike. Consequently, many Christians have left their churches believing that they continue to stand condemned before God. But that doctrinal stance, as applied to Christians, flatly contradicts 1 John 1:9 which says,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (RV)
If the Christian may be cleansed from all unrighteousness, how is the Romans verse to be construed? It falls to rightly dividing the Word.
I can give another example. In Luke 11:1, the disciples approached Jesus and asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus, in turn, gave them what we today call the “Lord’s Prayer.” Preachers today all over the world instruct their congregations to pray the Lord’s Prayer. In fact, some years ago Larry Lea preached the idea that the Lord’s Prayer wasn’t actually supposed to be recited verbatim, but was really an outline for us, New Testament believers, to use in our prayer life. Later in Jesus’s ministry, however, He told these very same disciples of a new era of prayer. In John 16:24, He said,
“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.” (RV)
If the disciples were to continue to pray in the manner of the Lord’s Prayer, which, by the way is founded upon Old Testament scriptures, why did He change it up? Why would He say to them that up to that period of time they hadn’t asked anything in prayer in His name, but now they were supposed to? Again, it falls to rightly dividing the Word.
The popular minister quoted above has taken Jesus’s statement found just after the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” and has applied it to New Testament believers. He has made the mistake that at the time that Jesus spoke these words He was speaking to Jews who were under the Law. Under the Law, men were only forgiven sins when they had forgiven sins. We, as New Testament believers, have a “better” covenant and our rules for exercising forgiveness are vastly different from those who lived under the Law. It would have been unjust for Jesus to require his disciples, living under the Law, to exercise New Testament forgiveness.
In future posts, I will explore the doctrinal bases and mechanics of New Testament forgiveness. It is one of the most wonderful spiritual exercises that we can employ in our Christian walk.