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NASB | Matthew 6:15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 6:15 "But if you do not forgive others [nurturing your hurt and anger with the result that it interferes with your relationship with God], then your Father will not forgive your trespasses. |
Subject: Does this apply to Christians? |
Bible Note: Dear Nolan, Thanks for your response, brother. I appreciate your clarification on your position. And, Nolan, my comments about "some on this forum" were not aimed specifically at you. 1 John 1:9 comes up quite often in the queue, as I'm sure you know, and the 'keeping short accounts' is usually the reponse. Please permit me to clarify my view of repentance. I do believe in repentance, brother, but I think that true repentance is changing your mind concerning what you think about God and Jesus Christ and what He has done. Why do I think this? Because until we see God for who He really is, Christ as our total righteousness, and ourselves (before salvation) as dead in sin, we will not come to Him. Most of the scriptures you listed for repentance support this idea. As I understand it, repentance is much more than making promises to God that we will not sin. Why? Because, if we are honest with ourselves, as long as we are in these unredeemed bodies and being 'matured' in Christ, we still have the capacity to sin and we will do so (prayerfully less and less as we walk in the Spirit). So if repentance is a measure of how much or how little we sin, we will NEVER, on this earth, truly repent of every sin. If all I am concerned with is 'cleaning up my act,' it will never be totally clean. I believe that true repentance is allowing God to change our minds through the renewing of it by His Word. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit (allow Him to be your complete source) and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." He didn't say that the desires of the flesh would go away (I assure you that they do not) but we WON'T fulfill them AS we walk in the Spirit. Only as our minds are exposed to the truth of God will our actions follow. Otherwise, Satan keeps us so busy 'keeping our sins confessed' and 'staying right with God' that all we ever focus on is ourselves. Christ calls us to come to Him and His sufficiency. Our actions may or may not change overnight. It is different with different people. The changing of our actions is involved in the process we frequently call sanctification. That is different from repentance. Repentance is seeing God's truth and accepting it. Sanctification is the 'working out' of the truth. If all we focus on is outward actions, then the Pharisees were righteous. But Jesus buried them. He said that God is primarily concerned with our hearts. As our hearts are changed, our actions will follow. Thanks for your comments. As I previously stated, I don't believe 1 John 1:9 should split Christian brothers and sisters. There is so many questions on this passage because of the double-talk we give to people about forgiveness. What I do have a problem with is the 'altar call' attitude of "come forward, get ALL of your sins forgiven, and get in fellowship with God. Now that you've accepted Christ and His forgiveness, you need to keep yourself forgiven through confession or you'll lose that fellowship with God." That's double-talk. If we want to preach that in our churches, we should tell all of it. If that if what we believe, we should tell people, "Come forward and get only your PAST sins forgiven. All your future ones still need to be confessed and forgiven. And, fellowship with God? Well, you will be doomed to being in and out of it for the rest of your earthly life because, as you know, you will never completely stop sinning until Christ calls you home." That kind of a message is not 'good news.' And I don't believe it is the truth. Christ did so much more for us than we often give Him credit for. Why not tell people, "I've got some good news for you. You were born dead to God, separated from Him. But Christ has done a wonderful thing! He has reconciled you to God. Your sins will no longer keep you from God. And if you believe it to be true, then God Himself will come inside you and LIVE there. He will never leave you, He will never forsake you. And nothing shall separate you from His love. Nothing. Will He change you? You bet. He loves you to much to leave you the way you are. Allow Him to do it." Now that's good news! Blessings in Christ, Bill Mc |