Subject: Can we not ask God to forgive another? |
Bible Note: 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 |