Results 1 - 3 of 3
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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 | 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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2 | 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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3 | 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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