Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Can we not ask God to forgive another? | John | Aixen7z4 | 150963 | ||
When I sin against my brother or sister, I am at the same time sinning against God. Thus David, having done some considerable wickedness to Bathsheba and Uriah said, “Against you, you only, have I sinned (Psalm 51). And Jesus said to Saul, as he was persecuting the church, “Why are you persecuting me?” Saul asked, "Who are you?" The Lord replied, "I'm Jesus, the one you're persecuting. Think of that. When I think that someone has offended me, it is useful to think that they have actually offended God. God is the one who says, “Love one another” and when we break that rule, we are offending God. God sometimes says that I am the apple of his eye. Did you hear that? I am the apple of his eye. So when you stab me, you are poking God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8). God sometimes says, “Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm“ Psalm 105). It sounds like a warning to me. And we have to cross God to get to our brother. All in all, then, I am not so sure the two things are entirely separate. In fact, it seems there only limited circumstances where we can sin against God without having harmed a person. A person can sin against his own body (1 Corinthians 6) and there are sins directly against God (It seems good not to mention them). But most sins involve harm to other people. When we hurt people, and especially our brethren, we are at the same time, and in the process, and in many ways, offending God. It seems to me that we are not able to forgive someone who has not repented. God also cannot forgive someone who has not repented. By definition, forgiveness implies repentance. But also, when we have forgiven someone, we must realize that, although they must seek it themselves, they also need forgiveness from God. |
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2 | Can we not ask God to forgive another? | John | DocTrinsograce | 150979 | ||
Dear Dr. Aixen, Some people have taught that God's forgiveness of my sin is contingent on my forgiveness of others. Although at first blush this seems to be what Jesus is teaching in places like Matthew 7, I think we get the cart before the horse. Outside of God's power I am unable to forgive. Furthermore, anyone who really understands what they have been forgiven by God -- and really ONLY such people -- can understand just how miniscule are the offenses of others toward themselves. Even Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung's sins against humanity cannot exceed in severity my own sin against a holy God. Therefore, it is but a small thing to forgive another man when he sins against me. In Him, Doc "A crime is more or less heinous, according as we are under greater or less obligations to the contrary.... So the faultiness of one being hating another, is in proportion to his obligation to love him.... And therefore if there be any being that we are under infinite obligations to love, and honour, and obey, the contrary to wards him must be infinitely faulty Our obligation to love, honour, and obey any being, is in proportion to his loveliness, honourableness, and authority; for that is the very meaning of the words. When we say anyone is very lovely, it is the same as to say, that he is one very much to be loved.... So that sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving infinite punishment." --Jonathan Edwards |
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3 | Can we not ask God to forgive another? | John | Aixen7z4 | 150985 | ||
Doc: I hate to say it this way, but I think you are perfectly correct. Your analysis is borne out by the order of events in the story of the king and the two servants in Matthew 18. The question is: “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellowservant, even as I had pity on you?” (Verse 33). As to the Jonathan Edwards quote, what can we say? It is a sad fact of human nature that we hate those we are supposed to love more than we would a stranger. Men kill their wives, etc. But a person who is saved should stop and think. Since God has forgiven me all my wickedness, all my stupidity, all my ignorance, and the mistake I made in resisting him, then I should be willing to forgive anyone anything. God has commanded us to love one another, as brethren, and we should be wary of any sign in us that we would do the opposite. We should be wary of any tendency to withhold forgiveness, because that causes our brother to suffer. One difficulty, as I see it still, is that we want the other person to change (1 John 5:16). We want to see him repent and change direction, so that any future offence is an anomalous mistake and not deliberate annoying act. We really want that, I think, for ourselves and for him. The mistake we make is in thinking that in rejecting him we are purifying the church or ourselves. God’s desire is always restoration (Compare 1 Corinthians 5 with 2 Corinthians 2). I am thinking of the havoc wrought by an unforgiving spirit, but we should not get into that. I should not in any way diminish or becloud the point you have made, that we should appreciate how much God has forgiven us and be willing to forgive our brother. |
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4 | Can we not ask God to forgive another? | John | DocTrinsograce | 150996 | ||
Dear Dr. Aixen, You wrote, "I hate to say it this way, but I think you are perfectly correct." Is it really that painful to agree with me? ;-) Your post made me think of another passage: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8) In addition, I thought about Jonah. He wanted God to show less mercy to Nineveh than God had shown Israel! Some time ago I realized that every time I got angry at the world, at how foolish they are, at how they shake their fist at God, or even commit sin in defiant ways... every time I would say to the Lord, "Why don't you do something, Lord?" In essence, I was being like Jonah. I was asking that God would be less merciful with others than He has been with me! Thus, I found a lack of forgiveness in my heart that I had to give up to the Lord. It is interesting to realize that vengeance is not a sin. If it were, God wouldn't do it! What is a sin is for a man to do it... vengeance belongs to the Lord. More than that we are commanded not to do it... We simply couldn't do it in holiness! In Him, Doc |
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