Ephesians 4:31-32
Conditions for Conferral by God & Reception by Man
In this sermon, Pastor Martin expounds on Ephesians 4:31-32 and Colossians 3:12-14, addressing the essential conditions for God's conferral of forgiveness and man's reception of it. He critiques popular unbiblical notions of 'unconditional forgiveness,' arguing that both divine and human forgiveness are conditioned upon repentance and faith. Martin uses passages from Luke 24 and Acts to demonstrate the apostles' consistent preaching of repentance and faith, and he illustrates ongoing conditional forgiveness in the believer's life through David's repentance in 2 Samuel 12 and Psalm 32. He then applies these conditions to interpersonal forgiveness, emphasizing that believers are to forgive one another 'even as God in Christ forgave you,' which implies a conditional, not unconditional, process.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 11 sections · 71 min
- Introduction: The Confusion Surrounding Forgiveness 0:00
- Review of Previous Messages: Defining Forgiveness 5:38
- The Crucial Question: Conditions for Divine Forgiveness 10:54
- Qualifying Statements: Not Meritorious or Self-Generated Conditions 19:35
- The Conditions: Repentance and Faith in Scripture 22:18
- The Ongoing Conditional Forgiveness for Believers 35:39
- Case Study: David's Repentance and Forgiveness 41:33
- Practical Relevance: Conditional Human Forgiveness 50:12
- Interpersonal Forgiveness in Matthew 18 and Luke 17 53:45
- The Disposition of Forgiveness and the Lord's Prayer 64:16
- Closing Prayer 69:57
Key Quotes
“according to the scriptures, the most horrible possibility of human existence is to die in an unforgiven condition.”
“they are conditions without which it would be immoral for God to confer forgiveness the moral character of God demands that though he has provided a totally gracious gratuitous provision for forgiveness in Christ and though he freely, sincerely and passionately offers it to us in the gospel Were God to confer it without these conditions being met, it would be immoral.”
“Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
“saving faith is self commitment to Christ in all the perfection the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is so freely and fully offered to us in the gospel”
“If you ever get God's forgiveness and you are a stranger to that repentance and that faith God going to have to come down from heaven and rewrite the Bible He has snuckered us He deceived us Because He's made it abundantly clear. He never confers, nor does the sinner receive forgiveness, apart from repentance and faith.”
“If we are to forgive even as God forgives, and God's forgiveness initially and continually is conditional forgiveness. You beginning to get the picture? What's that mean about our sinning against one another? And our conferring and receiving forgiveness for one another? All of this loose talk about unconditional forgiveness goes out the window.”
“He does not forgive impenitent, unbelieving sinners.”
“Forgive us our debts even as we forgive our debtors. You want God to deal with you the way you deal with others? You talk about something that makes you jealous to be a forgiving person. That'll do it.”
Applications
All listeners
- Be passionately concerned with the question of the conditions for God's forgiveness, as it is a matter of life and death.
- Be in passionate pursuit of the biblical answer to the question of the conditions for God's forgiveness, lest you be charged with foolish recklessness.
- If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault between you and him alone, with the aim of gaining your brother.
- Maintain a disposition of readiness to forgive, keeping no scorecard, but still requiring confession and conferral of forgiveness.
- When confronting a brother, approach with love, gentleness, and a desire for reconciliation, emphasizing the shared bond and the grief over disrupted fellowship.
- If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, even if it happens multiple times.
- Do not allow a brother to continue in sin without pointing it out, as it is not doing him good and hinders his pursuit of holiness and a good conscience.
- When rebuking a brother, reflect a humble, gentle, gospel-percolated spirit, remembering your own status as a forgiven sinner.
- Earn the reputation of being 'chomping at the bit to forgive people,' reflecting God's readiness to forgive.
- Deal graciously with others in forgiveness, desiring that God deal with you in the same way, as taught in the Lord's Prayer.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 175 paragraphs, roughly 71 minutes.
Introduction: The Confusion Surrounding Forgiveness
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 1st, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you follow in your Bibles as I read two brief and parallel portions of the Word of God, the first in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 31 and 32. Ephesians chapter 4 at verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and railing be put away from you with all malice.
and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. And then Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 to 14. Colossians 3, verse 12. Put on therefore as God's elect holy and beloved a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving each other.
If any man have a complaint against any, even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. Let's again pray and ask for the help of the Spirit of God. Our Father we have sung in the words of your servant from another generation that it is your Spirit who breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to light that we may both have light and heat from the Scriptures.
And this is our prayer that you would give to us light that you will help your servant to cut a straight course in the handling of the word of truth that you would illuminate the minds of your people that there would be that present influence of the Spirit driving away the mists of misunderstanding and skewed perspectives we desire with all of our hearts to think your thoughts after you So come by your Spirit and help us to that end, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You must learn to forgive yourself.
You must learn to forgive your dead relatives who wronged you. you must even be willing to forgive God now as hard as it may seem for some of you to believe it these exhortations are only a sampling of some of the current counsel being given with respect to the duty and the privilege of Christian forgiveness In the books that set forth that counsel You will find such words as I have used You must learn to forgive yourself Though I challenge you to find one phrase in the Bible
That ever says you must forgive yourself You will find reams of Bible that says you must appropriate to yourself God's forgiveness of you, but you will not find one phrase in the Bible that tells you that you have a duty to forgive yourself. Furthermore, counsel is given to people to learn to forgive their dead relatives, to sit down in a room and imagine their now deceased relatives sitting in front of them and to go through a ritual of extending forgiveness to the dead relatives.
And in one case, a woman who was bitter because her son was a short little guy and her husband had a rather demeaning job, she was counseled to forgive God for making her son a shorty and for giving her husband a less than honorable job. Now we laugh, but dear people, this is counsel given in books, printed by Christian publishing agencies and sold in Christian bookstores. The books containing such counsel are written, bought, read, and taken seriously as an indication of the great need that people feel
Review of Previous Messages: Defining Forgiveness
and of the great confusion that exists with respect to the subject of forgiveness. And because of these two realities, we come today to the fourth and, God willing tonight, fifth studies in a series that I've entitled, Now Concerning Forgiveness. In message number one, I sought to set before you the central place of forgiveness in biblical revelation. We saw its place in the character and nature of God Himself, in the substance and proclamation of the gospel, and in the initial and ongoing experience of the people of God.
And I trust you have captured what was the summary of that initial message, that the God of forgiveness has proclaimed a message of forgiveness which gathers to himself a forgiven and forgiving people called the church. That's all I tried to lay before you in that initial message. But that's reality. The God of forgiveness in Christ proclaims a message of forgiveness which gathers unto God a forgiven and a forgiving people.
Then in the second message, I tried to work out with you a biblical definition and description of forgiveness. We looked at the family of words used in the Old and the New Testaments. We looked at the vivid word pictures of forgiveness. God putting sin behind His back, burying it in the depths of the sea, remembering it no more, blotting it out like a thick cloud, etc.
And we came to this conclusion that divine forgiveness is a gracious act of a holy and a just God by which he removes from a sinner the guilt and legal liabilities of his sin, thereby clearing the way to a restored relationship between himself and the forgiven sinner. And then we considered what human forgiveness was. Human forgiveness is a gracious, God-like act of one sinner to another sinner by which the offended party makes a commitment not to remember the sin of the offending party, thereby clearing the way for a restored relationship between both parties.
And in this review, I want to park there for a moment and remind you that when someone comes to you and says, Will you forgive me? A husband comes to his wife and says, Dear, will you forgive me for the sharp way I responded to you three minutes ago? Or the way I reacted to such and such? And the wife says, Dear, I forgive you.
What is she doing? She is making a four-pronged promise. She is saying, first of all, I will not volitionally or consent to think about this issue again. Now granted, the thing that needed to be forgiven may have gone into the hard drive of the soul.
And at times may pop up on the screen of the mind. Or it may come into the screen like spam. You haven't asked for it, you haven't sought for it, and there it is. but to know that when it's there you push the delete button that's the promise of forgiveness I'll work the delete button as often as I need to and once it's there on the screen of the soul I will not gaze upon it I will not bring it to it no, if it's there I've made a commitment that I will not consent to think about this thing again Secondly, I will not bring up the issue with you.
And certainly not to hold it against you in a future thing that's very similar. You always, do you remember when? No, no, forgiveness is saying there's nothing to bring up to say, do you remember when? That's forgiveness.
A commitment not to remember it. If it pops into the mind to push the delete button. Not to bring it up with the person who has been forgiven. and certainly not to bring it up to others.
That's the third prong of true forgiveness. And fourthly, not to allow it to be a hindrance in working toward a restored relationship. Now that's what forgiveness is. So when you say, I forgive you, that's the promise you're making.
A four-pronged promise from the heart with serious intention before God to keep that promise. That's the essence of forgiveness in interpersonal relationships. Well, then, in the third message, I sought to establish from the Scriptures that divine forgiveness is the foundation, the motive, and the pattern for human forgiveness. And that's why we part on Ephesians 4, 31 and 32.
The Crucial Question: Conditions for Divine Forgiveness
For in that passage, God has set before us this great truth That we are to forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us. Divine forgiveness is the foundation, the motive, and the pattern of human forgiveness. Now this morning I want to focus our attention on another very basic issue with respect to the biblical doctrine of forgiveness. And the issue is this.
What are the essential conditions without which forgiveness is neither conferred by God nor received by man? What are the essential conditions without which forgiveness is neither conferred by God nor received by man? Almighty God in Jesus Christ and in His saving work has made a perfect provision for the forgiveness of sin. Furthermore, this gracious, merciful God sincerely and passionately offers this forgiveness to sinners in the proclamation of the gospel.
You following me now? God in Christ has made provision for forgiveness. For the vilest of sinners, provision has been made in Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ has the capacity to cleanse from all sin.
God comes to us in the gospel and sincerely and passionately offers this forgiveness to sinners as that gospel is proclaimed. However, although forgiveness has been provided in Christ And is offered to sinners It is not automatically conferred upon sinners It must be conferred and received with certain conditions Now the question is And this is what we are going to wrestle with this morning What are the conditions without which That forgiveness is neither conferred nor received by sinners.
Now this is a question that you ought to be deeply concerned about and that for two reasons. Number one, the question and its biblical answer is crucial for the well-being of your own never-dying existence.
This question and its biblical answer is of crucial importance for the well-being of your own never-dying existence. Notice I didn't say never-dying soul. Because it's not just your soul that's never-dying, it's your existence as a soul-body entity. You will be somewhere, body and soul, forever.
Neither your soul nor your body are to be annihilated. And therefore, according to the scriptures, the most horrible possibility of human existence is to die in an unforgiven condition. There is no more horrible state of human existence set forth in the Bible than that of dying in an unforgiven condition. Jesus said in John 8 and verse 24, These most sobering words, hear them from the lips of the gracious, tender, loving, meek, lowly Son of God.
In John chapter 8 and verse 24, He said this, Therefore I say unto you that you shall die in your sins, For except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Those are the most frightening words imaginable. Jesus said there are people who when they die, their sins rather than being blotted out, their sins rather than being put behind His back, rather than being buried in the depths of the sea, their sins will go with them into death and on to resurrection
and on to eternity in everlasting punishment. That's why when he was seeking to underscore the horrible danger of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in Matthew chapter 12 and in the parallel passages, He says with respect to this sin, this is the horror of it. To commit it is to have no forgiveness in this age or in the age which is to come. I say according to the teaching of the Bible, there is no more horrible human existence, state of human existence, than to die in an unforgiven condition.
Therefore, you better be passionately concerned with this question. On what conditions will God confer forgiveness to me? On what conditions can I receive forgiveness? This is not a preacher doing his thing.
This is life and death. Some of you, some of you will die in your sins. a horrible thought it's enough to make me want to run off this platform and go in the back room and say God send an angel to talk about things like this you're going to die in your sins doesn't it trouble you the very thought of it it ought to it ought to be the one thing that occupies your mind Oh God whatever this life holds for me may it not find me dying in my sins Unless you would charge yourself with foolish recklessness of the highest order,
with respect to the most important issue of human existence, you ought to be in passionate pursuit of the biblical answer to this question. What are the conditions upon which Almighty God will confer forgiveness on me? And the conditions by which I can receive that forgiveness. But then the question is crucial for understanding under what conditions we are to confer forgiveness upon others.
And under what conditions they are to receive it from us. This is crucial. Until we are clear in our minds with respect to the conditions under which God confers and we receive forgiveness, how can we be clear when God says we are to forgive even as He forgives? If we are muddied in our thinking with respect to the conditions upon which God confers and we receive forgiveness, How can we forgive one another even as God forgives?
And you see, much of the confusion in people who write the nonsense that I quoted to you in those opening three statements is rooted right here. They've never dug into their Bibles and wrestled with this question. Upon what conditions does Almighty God confer forgiveness? and on what conditions does the sinner receive forgiveness.
Qualifying Statements: Not Meritorious or Self-Generated Conditions
So I hope I've persuaded you that this is no tempest in an intellectual peapot about the doctrine of forgiveness. This is life and death stuff, dear people. And so we come this morning to take up the question, what are the conditions without which divine forgiveness is neither conferred by God nor received by man. And I want to state two qualifying statements as we come to grips with this.
These are not meritorious conditions. In other words, these are not conditions of the soul with which we come to God and say, God, here are my brownie points. Will you take record of them? Here's my little coins of the conditions I've met.
On this basis, God, extend forgiveness to me. No. God's forgiveness is not earned by these conditions. Christ has met all the requirements for a holy God to extend forgiveness to the likes of you and me.
When He cried from the cross, Tetelestai, it stands accomplished, it is finished. It doesn't wait for any conditions on our part to complete the virtue of His saving work. These conditions are not meritorious conditions. Furthermore, they are not even self-generated conditions.
They are not created by unaided human will. God clearly calls them in many places of the scriptures His gifts and the result of His own almighty acting upon the soul. And yet they are conditions. And that they are actions of the soul which you and I engage in.
Not meritorious, not self-generated. but let me state it this way they are conditions without which it would be immoral for God to confer forgiveness the moral character of God demands that though he has provided a totally gracious gratuitous provision for forgiveness in Christ and though he freely, sincerely and passionately offers it to us in the gospel Were God to confer it without these conditions being met, it would be immoral. God's moral constitution demands these conditions.
I hope that perks your ears up. Pastor Martin charged God with the possibility of being immoral. Violating the canons of his own moral government. Now then, what are those conditions?
The Conditions: Repentance and Faith in Scripture
you know what they are God in Christ has provided a full adequate salvation for the vilest of sinners now in the gospel he comes and he presents that forgiveness to you freely sincerely he passionately urges you to embrace it on what terms what does he call upon you to do if you say oh God I do believe in Christ there has been an adequate provision for my sin made and oh God I want more than anything else to know that forgiveness
what must I do what's the answer of the Bible well I hope many of you are already thinking it is you must repent and believe repentance and faith And I want us to do a very brief survey of several passages in the book of Acts to demonstrate that when the apostles preached the gospel authorized by their Savior, they preached that forgiveness was provided, was available, was sincerely and freely offered, but the terms were repentance and faith. and I want you to begin with Luke chapter 24 and then we go into the book of Acts in Luke chapter 24 beginning with verse 45
at some point in the post-resurrection ministry of our Lord we're not sure exactly when Jesus gave these instructions to the apostles Luke 24 45 then opened he their mind that they might understand the scriptures And he said unto them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance unto remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. based upon His work as the Savior,
His death and resurrection which form the basis of God being able to offer forgiveness throughout the nations, what were they to preach with respect to the conditions upon which that forgiveness would be conferred and received? It's clear. and that repentance unto remission of sins should be preached in His name. That is preached in the light of the full revelation of God's mercy and kindness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
That's what it means. Preach repentance in His name. That is not only in His authority but in the light of all of the mighty saving acts of God in Jesus Christ. display Christ crucified.
As Paul could say to the Galatians, he said, when I came among you, Christ crucified was black-hearted. That was the theme of my message, he says to the Corinthians. Jesus Christ and Him is crucified. But then what were they to do?
Simply nod their assent to the fact that He died. No, there was this demand of repentance, this change of mind, resulting in a change of will, issuing in a change of life. It is repentance unto remission of sins. Well, were they obedient to their Lord?
Well, turn to the book of Acts and we'll see. On the day of Pentecost, Peter's preaching and he had an experience that I hope I'll have before I die. The Holy Spirit comes in such power in the midst of his preaching that he gets broken off before he can finish. People can't hold it in any longer.
and in the middle of the sermon, verse 37, they are pricked in the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? The sermon wasn't completed. Because we read in verse 40, with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, the sermon wasn't done. People broke him off.
Such pressure of conviction in their hearts stabbed us with a dagger. And I say, oh God, let me see it before I die. Some of you sitting here. Week in, week out.
Month in, month out. And my cry has been, oh God. Pierce somebody. Pierce somebody.
Don't let him walk out another Lord's day and shake my hand. Go on their way to hell.
I mean it dear people. I long to see it before I die. Peter saw it in the day of Pentecost. And they cried out.
And what did Peter say? Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins. Would you have remission of your sins, the very sins with which I have charged you? You are murderers of the Lord of glory.
You by wicked hands have crucified Him and slain Him. You've been guilty of murdering God's Messiah And they cry out What should we do? How do we get the blood off our hands? How do we get from under the frown of Almighty God The Judge of the universe?
How do we find acceptance? He says repent And implicit in that Is so commit yourself to Jesus Christ That you are willing to be identified with Him in a confessional faith. That's the significance of baptism. There's no virtue in the waters of baptism.
It is simply an expression of that attachment to Christ that is so real that you're ready to be identified and aligned with Him in the presence of the very ones who with you murdered the Son of God. Repent. Repent unto the remission of your sins. Then in chapter 3, verse 19, Repent therefore and turn again That your sins may be blotted out Peter could not be more plain Do you want your sins blotted out?
One of the vivid word images of forgiveness God says I've blotted out as a thick cloud your sins Would you have almighty God blot out your sins? Repent, repent and turn again Have a deep change of mind about who Jesus is, about who you are, and where you stand before the court of heaven. Have a deep and thorough change of mind that results in a change of will, of a change of direction, a change of purpose. Repent and turn that your sins may be blotted out.
The conditions are clear. Then in chapter 8, in verse 22, preaching to an individual who though he made a profession of faith It shows that his heart was not really changed. And Peter's preaching to this man, Simon Magus. And what does he say to him?
Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray the Lord if perhaps the thought of your heart should be forgiven you. Would you have forgiveness, Simon? You must repent. You must turn from these horribly carnal thoughts about buying the gift and power of the Holy Spirit.
You're a covetous mercenary and your profession of faith is a lot of bunkum. Oh yes, you've professed, you've been baptized, but your actions show there's been no repentance, there's no remission. Repent, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. There the emphasis in the early chapters of Acts falls predominantly on repentance.
But now notice in the latter chapters it falls predominantly upon faith. So when we turn to Acts chapter 10 We have the record of Peter preaching in the household of Cornelius And this is what we find, Acts 10 and verse 43 To him bear all the prophets witness That through his name Everyone that believes on him Shall receive remission of sins Would you receive and appropriate to yourself remission You must believe upon Him who is the great central theme of the prophets, this Jesus of Nazareth whom I preached to you, approved of God by mighty signs and wonders.
This is the Jesus whom I set before you and forgiveness in His name. And you must believe if you are to receive that forgiveness. And then in Acts 13, we have the record of Paul preaching at Antioch. And we find a similar emphasis.
Verse 38. Acts 13, 38. Be it known to you therefore brethren. Through this man is proclaimed unto you.
Here's our terminology again. Remission. Forgiveness of sins. Through him.
Forgiveness is preached in the gospel. Free. Full. Forgiveness.
But not unconditional forgiveness. This man. Through him. Remission of sins is proclaimed.
And by Him everyone that believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Then in Paul's summary statement of his ministry at Ephesus, we see the two things beautifully brought together in Acts 20 and verse 21. Acts 20 and verse 21. I testify both to Jews and to Greeks.
Now note, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So in answer to the question, what are the conditions without which divine forgiveness is neither conferred by God nor received by man, Scripture is abundantly clear. Repentance and faith. And I love the shorter catechism definition of repentance.
What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. Isn't that beautiful? That's repentance.
True sense of sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. It's repentance preached in Christ's name. In the full light of His saving mercy. Sinners are called to stack arms when they've seen Jesus hanging on a cross. They're told to turn from sin that will not only take them to hell, but brought hell to Golgotha in the person of the Redeemer.
that's repentance what is saving faith the most helpful definition I've ever found is Professor Murray's saving faith what is it saving faith is self commitment to Christ in all the perfection the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is so freely and fully offered to us in the gospel What's saving faith? Not tipping your hat to a few propositions. It's self-commitment to a person. Saving faith is self-commitment to a person.
It's person, the sinner, to another person. Jesus. What Jesus? In all the glory of His person is the God-man.
In all the perfection of His work is our prophet, priest, and king. as He is so fully and freely offered to us in the Gospel. My friend, listen to me. Listen to me.
Listen to me. Listen to me. If you ever get God's forgiveness and you are a stranger to that repentance and that faith God going to have to come down from heaven and rewrite the Bible He has snuckered us He deceived us Because He's made it abundantly clear. He never confers, nor does the sinner receive forgiveness, apart from repentance and faith.
The Ongoing Conditional Forgiveness for Believers
You persuaded of that? I hope you are, because that's the truth. That's reality. You say, Pastor, you've labored that.
You've underscored. What's the big deal? Well, the big deal is this. When Paul wrote Ephesians 4.32,
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. He's writing to people who knew the experience of receiving God's conditional forgiveness. They knew what it was to be stabbed in their hearts. To see themselves as sinners.
To hear the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. that in Jesus a full pardon was offered to the vilest of sinners that through His servants God was entreating them to be reconciled to Himself. They knew what it was to turn from their sins. Read the account of it in Acts 19.
To abominate their former way of life. To turn from it and all of its manifestations and to give themselves up to Jesus Christ as He was offered in the Gospel. So when they read, you are to forgive even as God in Christ forgave you, they knew that their forgiveness was received not unconditionally, but conditioned upon repentance and faith. No, they were led to understand from the second chapter of the book of Ephesians that even their faith was the gift of God, yes.
But they weren't saved apart from faith. By grace are you saved through faith. And though he says that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. God didn't believe for them.
They believed. They repented. They had forgiveness conferred by God. They received it in the joyful embrace of faith in the promises of God.
Any people at Ephesus that were willfully blinded or ignorant of their sin, too in love with their sins to forsake them, too proud to cast themselves upon Christ, they were not forgiven. Even though God was ready to forgive, in Christ full provision for forgiveness is made. In the gospel forgiveness is freely and passionately offered. If men will not own their sin, turn from their sin, cast themselves upon Christ in the flesh withering exercise of saving faith.
They will not know God's forgiveness.
Now, what is true for the unconverted sinner and the initial experience of saving grace, now hang in there with me, is true for the pardoned sinner in the ongoing experience of grace. The forgiveness we receive from God as the judge of the universe is a once for all irreversible forgiveness that is part of our justification.
Even the sins we've not committed are pardoned. But when we are made His children and brought into His family, we now relate to God not as the judge in the courtroom, but the Father in the living room. And the Father has taught us that we are to keep short accounts with Him. That if we sin, His ongoing fatherly forgiveness is not conferred unconditionally.
It's conferred upon condition of what? Ongoing repentance and ongoing faith. Are you thinking of a verse? I hope you are.
1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What if we won't confess our sins? Proverbs 28, 13.
He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. as His children. If we refuse to meet the conditions of ongoing repentance and faith, we grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, we elicit the frown of our Heavenly Father, our intimate face-to-face communion with Him is disrupted, we are not made condemned sinners back in the courtroom on our way to hell. No.
The forgiveness of God the Judge in conjunction with our justification is this category. Here in this category is the ongoing forgiveness of our loving Father to maintain the open-faced communion and unhindered relationship between the children and their Father. Jesus said, When you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, forgive us our debts. It's asking the Father for forgiveness.
Case Study: David's Repentance and Forgiveness
Now what happens if the son or the daughter gets stubborn and won't seek forgiveness? Well, I want you to look with me at David as a case study. And please believe me, I haven't lost my track. I'm still moving to my track.
But we've got to go there along the same path, all right? Remember what David did? He committed adultery. than to cover up his adultery, committed murder.
And when you put the chronology together, it looks like he went for a space of approximately a whole year. The baby is born. There's a period where David is in a rotten spiritual condition. Then God sends the prophet Nathan to him.
And when the prophet comes, and I want you to see that it's one of, to me, one of the most thrilling passages in all of my Bible. 2 Samuel chapter 12. here's the man after God's own heart,
writer of so many of the Psalms that speak of intimate, warm, passionate relationship with God. Don't you get embarrassed at times when you read David's language? I do.
When I read such things as my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you. O God thou art my God earnestly will I seek you I'm going to wake up to dawn I'm going to get up and clap my hands and say son come up I'm already up communing with God I get embarrassed and I'm ashamed here's a man that knew the sweetness the face to face communion with God now he has sinned and he doesn't experience that as we'll see as we look at a second passage and now month after month has passed There is the hiding of God's face. There is the trauma in his own soul. When you read Psalm 51 and Psalm 6 and Psalm 32,
you'd say David would have been labeled as a psychotic. He'd have been on Prozac or something else. Day and night, making his couch to swim with tears until he says, my moisture has turned into the drought of summer. I cried myself dry.
He was a mess. No sweet psalms of intimate communion with God were penned in that period. now God who loves his child and is determined to bring him back into communion with him sends the prophet now look at 2 Samuel chapter 12 the prophet comes to David gives his little parable and David gets all emotionally hot and bothered and totally forgetting that he fits the picture he's incensed when this parable is spoken about the man that had all kinds of sheep and the other one that had this one little ewe lamb etc. Verse 7.
And Nathan said to David, You are the man. You're the man, David. You're the man. David's heart is smitten.
And he goes on to drive home how culpable David was, sinning against so much light and so much privilege. But now I want you to see what we read in verse 12. You did it secretly, but I will do this thing, that is some of the temporal chastisement that will come before all Israel and before the Son. Now verse 13.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
I have sinned against the Lord. Now what are the next words?
All right and good, David. You've owned your sin. But look at what you've done. No, look at the next words.
I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. Think of it.
What's the picture? Here's the picture, and I hope you see it. When David sins with the wretched sins of his adultery and murder and his backsliding over these many months, The heart of God is yearning as His heavenly Father to forgive Him. Longing to forgive Him.
Longing to have restored communion. If I may picture it this way, the door of God's heart had the spirit of forgiveness damned up behind it until the door was bowed with the pressure. You got the picture? Doors don't bow, I know, but can you think with me and use a little imagination?
There the door is bulging out with the pressure of God's heart, yearning to forgive his erring sinful son. But God does not forgive him until David repents and owns his sin. And the moment he says, I have sinned, all the locks were on David's side. There wasn't a lock on God's side.
And the moment David said, I've sinned, the door busts open. And the free forgiveness of God comes down cascading over his miserably backslidden child. I have put away your sin. You get excited about that?
You ought to. that's the God who is our Father yearning, longing, pent up passion to forgive his earning child but he had to hear him say I sinned, I sinned there was no unconditional forgiveness for his child and there is none for you or for me as his children now you're going to see how important this is If we are to forgive even as God forgives, and God's forgiveness initially and continually is conditional forgiveness. You beginning to get the picture? What's that mean about our sinning against one another?
And our conferring and receiving forgiveness for one another? All of this loose talk about unconditional forgiveness goes out the window. People aren't thinking biblically and theologically. That's why I've labored to walk you through for 35 minutes a closely reasoned argument.
Why? Because I want you to be forgiven people. I don't want you deceived about so crucial an issue as what are the conditions for the reception of divine forgiveness. And when you turn to Psalm 32, you have an expanded commentary of David on his understanding of this reality.
He says in Psalm 32, 1, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit is no guile. David, how'd you get there? God, come along and just throw over you this marvelous, unconditional forgiveness, and take you from your depressed, backslidden, sad state to joy and peace?
He said, no way, Jose. When I kept silence, when my lips would not open and say I've sinned, when I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long. Day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer.
I acknowledged my sin unto you, and my iniquity did I not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. That's David's commentary on 2 Samuel chapter 12. I kept silence.
I wouldn't own up. I wouldn't say the words. I sinned. But, O God, the moment I did, you put away my sin.
Practical Relevance: Conditional Human Forgiveness
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Now, having answered the question, what are the conditions without which forgiveness is neither conferred by God nor received by the sinner, initially in conversion continually in the Christian life I want you to see in the second place the practical relevance of this foundational issue with respect to human forgiveness I want you to see the practical relevance we go back to Ephesians 4 32 and Colossians 3 13 we are to forgive as God in Christ
forgave us. Is there any place in the Bible where God confers forgiveness unconditionally? That is where anyone is promised forgiveness apart from the conditions of repentance and faith.
Someone says, oh yes, Jesus prayer from the cross. We're going to take that up tonight, but that's no conferral of forgiveness. That's not an expression of absolution. It's a prayer.
Jesus gave expressions of absolution in the gospel son thy sins be forgiven thee woman neither do I condemn thee go sin no more this is a prayer it is not a pronouncement of absolution as we'll see tonight if it were Jesus is asking the father to forgive a whole bunch of his murderers and these foul soldiers who are strangers to repentance and faith he would be asking God to give a salvation nowhere promised in the Bible. I get sick and tired of Jesus' prayer on the cross being used as a blanket justification of this woolly-headed nonsense of unconditional forgiveness. Jesus was unconditionally forgiving them.
No, He wasn't. He does not forgive impenitent, unbelieving sinners.
Well, then maybe a lot of them repented on the day of Pentecost. Well, where in the Bible does He forgive before repentance and faith? All right, so we've taken away that. What's left?
Where in the Bible, where in the Bible, does God confer unconditional forgiveness? If not, then much of the talk in literature about unconditional forgiveness is either blatantly unbiblical at worst, or is a noble but careless confusion of issues at best and I believe a lot of it is the latter and I want to show that tonight That people who gotten hold of a certain biblical truth have been so passionate to press it that they pressed it into the category of forgiveness, and they never should have done it because it doesn't fit in that category. It fits in its own biblical categories, not the category of forgiveness. Remember, forgiveness, all the words we looked at, remember?
Same word used for divorce is used for forgiveness. Separation. Picking up. Carrying away.
Where does God divorce the sinner from his sin? Pick it up. Carry it away. Lift it in order to remove it.
Apart from repentance and faith. Nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere.
Interpersonal Forgiveness in Matthew 18 and Luke 17
And so we're going to look now at a couple of verses. With this understanding. That we must always interpret the unclear. in the light of the clear.
We must always interpret the condensed in the light of the expanded. You follow me? If God states something in a condensed way and He's saying the same thing elsewhere in an expanded way, the expanded way is to regulate our understanding of the condensed way. Alright?
What is clear is to regulate our understanding of what is not clear. Now can you think of two passages in the New Testament that explicitly deal with how we are to deal with our offenses one with another and whether they are to be conditional or unconditional. You heard one of them in the previous hour. Matthew chapter 18.
Let's look at it. Watch my clock here. Matthew chapter 18.
You all still with me? I've done my best up here. I've worked up a sweat.
I hope you're still with me. Alright. Matthew chapter 18.
Verse 15. If your brother sin against you, go. Show him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you, you have gained your brother.
Verse 21. Then came Peter and said unto him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him. Until seven times.
Jesus said unto him I say unto you not seven times but until seventy times seven now let's rewrite this according to the unconditional forgiveness theology if your brothers sin against you go tell him the good news that you have unconditionally forgiven him and there is now no barrier to your relationship end of issue right Wayne you sinned against me I'm to unconditionally forgive you so I come to you and I say Wayne you know you sinned against me I know you sinned against me but I want to tell you something I unconditionally
forgive you the issues dropped is that what I'm supposed to do no then what Jesus said then what Jesus said that isn't what Peter understood Peter understood there was an exchange of forgiveness in these directions. That's why he came at the end of this paragraph. How oft shall my brother sin against me? Assumption being that in seeking to gain him, he has asked my forgiveness and I forgive him.
Up to seven times, Lord, I'll aim high. The Lord said, no, you set the bar far too low.
The disposition of forgiveness keeps no scorecard. but the disposition of forgiveness does not negate the need for confession and the conferral of forgiveness you see that go tell him his fault and if he's going to be bold to sin against you 70 times 7 you wear out your shoe leather and you go to him 70 times 7 but with the disposition of readiness to forgive him when he owns his fault and you've gained your brother. In the spirit of love and gentleness, with a disposition of readiness to forgive,
with a desire for reconciliation, with an overwhelming sense of the wonder of God's forgiveness. That's how I go. Now listen, here's how some people treat the passions. If your brother sinned against you, go.
Show him his fault, brother. I'm here because Jesus said I'm to come to you. And you've done me wrong. Is that what the Lord is talking about?
No You're going to gain him You're grieved That your brother's sin against you Has put a barrier in your relationship It's a grief to you Because you're bound in love As brothers, as sisters So you go to your brother And you say now Wayne You have no question that I love you, do you? No I have no question you love me We've enjoyed years of sweet fellowship together, haven't we? Yes. I think you feel that if anything were to disrupt that fellowship, you'd be grieved, wouldn't you?
Yes. So would I. Now, my dear brother, there's an issue that has the real potential for disrupting that fellowship, and I desperately want to see it removed. Will you hear me out as I address it?
that's going showing his fault he's got to be a pretty rotten stinking perverse guy not to melt before that and say my dear brother I with you don't want any barrier in our fellowship what have I done and I pointed out he said I never even oh my brother can you forgive can I forgive you that's what I came for Forgiveness was bowing the door of my heart. All you need to do is tip the latch. No locks on my heart. You tip the latch and say, Will you forgive me?
And I confer to forgiveness. And we embrace. And I've gained my brother.
That's what Jesus is talking about. Not talking about just, I come, I'm offended. Jesus said, I'm to go to you. That's so contrary to the spirit of the gospel.
it has nothing to do with what Jesus was saying here. Nothing. Nothing. Look at Luke 17.
Second passage.
Luke 17 verses 3 and 4.
Take heed to yourselves if your brother sin. We know that it's not just sinning generally but sinning against the individual because look at verse 4 if he sinned against you seven times. So here the more expanded description helps us to fill in the blanks. Take heed to yourselves if your brother sin, parenthesis, against you.
Rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. And if he sin against you seven times in the day, excuse me, and seven times turn again to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. Now again, the unconditional forgiveness theory would say if your brother sinned against you, go and tell him, Brother, you sinned against me, but I unconditionally forgive you.
The issue is buried. That isn't what the Lord said. You see, you're not doing a man good to allow him to go in a course of sin without pointing out his sin. And if he's a true believer, he wants to pursue the holiness without which no man will see the Lord.
You're his friend if you help him to see sins he's not aware of. And if you help him to repent of sins that he is aware of, Like David was, Nathan was his friend. Nathan didn't come and say, David, I've got good news. God's unconditionally forgiving you.
Put your heels.
No. See, you're not a friend to your brother if you don't help him to see his sin. You're not helping him to press on in holiness. You're not helping him to maintain a good conscience.
So if your brother sinned against you, you rebuke him. How do you do it? Brother, you sinned against me. I'm here to rebuke you in the name of the Lord.
Some people wonder why in the world they don't get anywhere in this kind of dealing. You go in the spirit contrary to the gospel. Your demeanor is to reflect, I'm a forgiven sinner. I come as a forgiven sinner.
I come with the God of heaven, having put my sins behind his back. when He could have left me joined to my sins and sent me to hell. A forgiven sinner will be, in the language of Paul, kind, tender-hearted. Or as Paul expands and has five qualifiers in Colossians, the disposition you see percolates with gospel tenderness.
I've gone to God this morning with my sins. how can I come to help you see your sins with anything other than a humble gentle gospel percolated spirit but I come nonetheless and I say my brother are you aware that in this particular area you've done something that has put a barrier between us I believe you wrongly no what did I do or he may say yeah yeah I believe you deserved it well my brother I may have deserved it and if I did something to provoke you tell me my sin so that I may confess it to you and there are times when you go to reprove another brother about his sin you end up being shown your own sin
and you show that you've come with that disposition that welcomes it and you say my brother forgive me, forgive me I didn't realize that that provoked you that was my sin to provoke you my insensitivity Will you forgive me? Of course, brother. And can you forgive me? And then they're falling over one another to extend forgiveness.
And they almost have a fight as to who needs more forgiveness. Who should extend more forgiveness? It's wonderful. It's wonderful.
In each of these passages, it's assumed that the offended one confronts with a settled disposition of forgiveness. The inside door has no bolts, has no locks. The pressure of a forgiving spirit is exerted upon that door and it's just waiting for the latch. In some cases there may be many locks on the outside of that door that the brother has put there that you cannot justly confer forgiveness until he owns his sin, repents of it.
The Disposition of Forgiveness and the Lord's Prayer
and in a real sense and this is what has been a tentative thought to me it's just tentative there's an element that's very much like faith not only must the offender repent of his sin but when I say to him I do forgive you and I make the promise that I will not willfully let that thing come up on the screen of my mind and look at it that I will not speak of it to him again I will not speak of it to others. I will not allow it to be a barrier. There's got to be an element of trust that I mean what I say when I say I forgive you. Now what's a church like that breathes that atmosphere of this kind of gospel reconciling climate?
you see Jesus assumes that his church is going to be a bunch of sinners who will offend one another who will sin against one another and as we'll see tonight Peter and Paul assume that there will be a lot of little piccadillos that don't demand confrontation and a blanket of love will cover the issues or forbearance will bear with the issues not every single issue is one that demands confrontation explicit expressions of repentance and conferral of forgiveness. But where there is this climate you see we have nothing to fear about discovering in one another
our sins and our offenses. We see them as a marvelous opportunity for the gospel to exert its power and to display its glory. We then reflect the God who is constantly disposed to forgive. Psalm 86, 5.
Thou, Lord, art good, ready to forgive. That should be us always ready to forgive. We should earn the reputation of being chomping at the bit to forgive people.
And when that becomes so, and this will blow your mind as it blew mine. I'm thinking out loud with you. What did Jesus teach us to pray in the Lord's Prayer? Forgive us our debts as we forgive.
You talk about reversing things. Paul says you forgive as God forgives. Now Jesus said when you pray, tell God to forgive like you forgive.
I looked at that. I open my Greek testament and a little particle host is used. Forgive us our debts even as we forgive our debtors. You want God to deal with you the way you deal with others?
You talk about something that makes you jealous to be a forgiving person. That'll do it. God deal with me the way I deal with others.
See, I never thought of that before. Neither did I. So I'm thinking out loud with you. But you see what the implication is? That when God's people take so seriously the directive of Ephesians 4, that they are forgiving one another even as God forgives.
that becomes so much the pattern and climate of their life that they dare to say our Father forgive us the way we forgive one another and know that God ain't going to zap them for my Bible says he that shows judgment without mercy shall receive no mercy and mercy rejoices against judgment oh won't people take advantage of it so what they'll answer to God for it I want to be able to say God I'm dealing graciously with others deal with me the same way don't you well that's what I want to lay out before you
now tonight hope to take up some of the misconceptions that grow out of this some of the other text time permitting I want to deal with five misconceptions that I hope will help sort out our consciences in this but I trust if nothing else you've seen this morning that God's forgiveness is not unconditional our forgiveness of issues that need confrontation is not to be unconditional and we'll look at the things that are to be unconditional and can be by the grace of God you pray that God will help me as I said before I preached this morning I'm breaking new ground in my own
study of the word in my own understanding and I got scared when I came to a certain position and I couldn't find any commentary, any book on forgiveness 10 o'clock the other night I came running down to my wife I said honey, honey I found it, found it in one of my books a well known book on forgiveness I found someone saying what I had come to And then I found a 19th century commentator. I said, well, Lord, I'm not alone. I'm scared to death when I come up with something nobody else has seen. But I want to give you a couple of those quotes tonight, and I hope they'll be helpful.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray.
Our Father, we're so thankful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. I thank you for the privilege of standing here this morning and with an open Bible wrestling with your people in seeking to come to grips with what your word teaches on this most vital issue we pray for those who sit here yet unforgiven who will not repent who will not believe oh God will you not lay hold of them cause them to be broken before the sight of your infinite mercy in the Lord Jesus. Seal your word to our hearts. Continue to give us light and understanding and grace to walk in that light, we pray.
Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage sets the pattern for human forgiveness, stating believers are to forgive 'even as God also in Christ forgave you,' which is the central theme of the sermon.
This passage records Jesus' direct command to the apostles to preach 'repentance unto remission of sins,' establishing the divine conditions for forgiveness.
This passage explicitly outlines the conditions for human forgiveness, stating, 'If he repent, forgive him,' directly addressing the sermon's main question.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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