lion&lamb: Back Issue

Introduction: Rights and Worship
Derek Poole

Comment: Religious Rights in Vietnam
Joanne Miosz

Comment2: Drumcree
Mervyn Gibson

From the Director
David Porter

Human Rights - A Critical Appropriation
Julian Rivers

Human Rights - Why Churches need to be involved
Brice Dickson

Parting Thoughts on Life and Leaving
Tucker Ball

A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
David Stevens

Does God always forgive his children?
Alan Wilson

Faith and Practice - Ruth Lavery
Ruth Hutchinson

The Concept of Rights
Joan Lockwood O'Donovan

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DOES GOD ALWAYS FORGIVE HIS CHILDREN?
Put your hard hat on and come with me into a theological minefield. Does God withhold forgiveness from his children? “Of course He doesn’t,” I hear you shout. Let’s take a close look at what Jesus said to his followers on the Mount.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matt 6:14-15)

What did Jesus mean when he said your Father will not forgive you? Some information will help our understanding. Firstly we have already established that Jesus was teaching his followers, those who had already placed their trust in him. This is not a treatise on salvation, but an expression of perennial discipline. The issue here is not justification, rather sanctification.

Secondly these words were spoken in the context of the ‘Lords’ Prayer and about people who prayed things like ‘Our Father, in heaven, hallowed be your name, your will be done’ - expressions of passionate intimacy. Furthermore, these words are found in the context of Jesus’ initial teaching on forgiveness. So it is important that we understand what Jesus is teaching.

Sowing and Reaping
What Jesus is saying here is that God will allow us to experience the sin we inflict on others in order to show us how sinful we are and bring us to a place of repentance. This principle is seen throughout the Bible. For example, in the life of Jacob the deceiver, he met Laban, an even bigger deceiver. When the Nation of Israel began to worship idols in the Promised Land, God sent them into exile, to Babylon, a land flowing with idols. It is the outworking of the principle, ‘you reap what you sow’. Sometimes God needs to withhold forgiveness from us to teach us how important it is to show grace and forgiveness to others. Some Bible teachers interpret these verses as Jesus teaching that if we refuse to forgive others, then our fellowship with God will be broken. Of course, if we have bitterness and resentment in our hearts then we will not be able to have fellowship with God and intimacy will be lost. However, what Jesus is saying here is something very different. He is saying that God is proactive, that the breakdown of fellowship is not only because we have unforgiving hearts, but God will make a conscious, 'decisive' decision to withhold forgiveness from us if we refuse to forgive others.

Most evangelicals have a casual attitude to God’s forgiveness, and can unconsciously fall into a trap of thinking that it is God’s responsibility to forgive. We rarely think of God withholding forgiveness, especially from those who are his children, but this is what Jesus is clearly teaching.

This raises a very important question: how do we know if God is withholding forgiveness? God’s forgiveness not only takes away our sin, but it should become one of the highest and most exciting motivations for love, worship and life. God’s forgiveness should lead a person to radical displays of love and devotion. This is illustrated in the story in Luke 7: 36-50, when a woman fell at Jesus’ feet and anointed Him with oil and tears at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus concludes:

Do you see this woman? I came to your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.

Without going into the details of the story, Jesus is making a very simple point. When we experience God’s forgiveness in our hearts it will produce joy and peace in us, enabling us to express a deeper love for Jesus and others. If this is not the case, then maybe God is withholding His forgiveness in order to bring us to the place of repentance. Maybe this is the reason why love is rarely experienced in significant and life-transforming ways in the church. As Christian communities we seldom encounter or display the forgiveness of God in enthusiastic and extravagant ways. Maybe God has withheld his forgiveness from us as a form of discipline! God’s forgiveness should be one of the most radical experiences of our lives. Matthew 6: 14-15 are uncomfortable verses but, if our understanding is correct, then it could lead us to a new freedom to love and forgive others, and to a deeper experience of God.

Alan Wilson is a member of Hamilton Road Baptist Church, Bangor.