Another Thought Provoking Grace Gem

I have said before how much I look forward each day to the email that I get each morning from Grace Gems, and that even though every one of them is worth reading, on some days they are just profound and I find myself thinking about what I read all day. Today is one of those days. Today's Grace Gem was an excerpt from Arthur Pink's article David's Terrible Sin, and he asks the question, "Why did God permit David to fall so fearfully and sin so grievously?"

Have you ever asked that question about David? Have you ever asked that question about yourself? Have you ever wondered why God allows us to continue living in this sinful world and why, when He could keep us from sinning (Genesis 20:6), He allows us to still make our own choices and still lets us sin grievously against Him?

I have quoted Romans 8:28 here before and I think that this verse is just as applicable in answering these questions as it is in answering any other question we may have: everything that God allows in our lives has as it ultimate purpose to make us more like Christ. But how does that apply to when we sin? Look at what Arthur Pink had to say:

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. " Psalm 51:1-2

Why did God permit David to fall so fearfully, and sin so grievously?

One reason may be--that we might have set before our eyes the more clearly--the solemn fact that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). Unmistakably plain as the meaning of those words is, uttered by Him who cannot lie--yet how very slow we all are to really receive them at their face value, and acknowledge that they accurately describe the natural state of every human heart! But God has done more than make this bare statement: He has placed on record in His Word-- illustrations, exemplifications, demonstrations of its verity--notably so in allowing us to see the unspeakable wickedness that still remained in the heart of David!


Also, the fearful fall of David, made way for a display of the amazing grace of God, in recovering His fallen people. If we are slow to receive what Scripture teaches concerning the depravity of the human heart and the exceeding sinfulness of sin--we are equally slow to really believe what it reveals about the covenant-faithfulness of God, the efficacy of Christ's blood to cleanse the foulest stain from those for whom it was shed, and the super-abounding grace of Him who is "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." Had David never sinned so grievously and sunken so low--he would have never known those infinite depths of mercy which are in the heart of God!


Also, had his terrible sin, his subsequent broken-hearted confession, and his pardon by God, never been placed in the Divine record--many of God's people throughout the centuries would have sunk in abject despair.


Also, thousands, from age to age, have by this solemn example of David's terrible sin, been rendered . . . .

• more suspicious of themselves,
• more watchful,
• more afraid of temptation,
• more dependent on the Lord,
• and more fervent in prayer.
  

By means of David's fall--they have, themselves, been preserved from falling!

Could this not also be the reason that some of us have fallen into terrible sin? Maybe the purpose was so that we would more fully appreciate the redemption that we have in Christ. Or maybe it is just so we can show compassion to others when they stumble themselves. I am certainly not saying that I completely understand why God chose to leave us with the ability to sin after we have come to Him in repentance and faith, but what Arthur Pink wrote does make sense.

Remember, as a child of God our goal - our desire - is to never sin, and we should be doing everything within our power to flee from any and all sin, but when we do fall we have an advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ; He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2).

Take some some tome today to get alone with God, repent of any known sin in your life and then thank Him that He alone is our Rock and our Salvation.

The Heresy Of Open Theism (Part 2 - The Atonement)

The other day I began a series of posts dealing with the teachings of Open Theism and I want to continue that today by taking about the Open Theist's view of the Atonement. This is essential to the issue of whether or not Open Theism is a heretical belief system, or if it is just another acceptable form of orthodox, historic Christianity. I will show here that the Bible clearly teaches that Christ died in our place as substitutionary Atonement for our sins and that the Open Theism denies this and replaces it with a governmental model of the Atonement that obliterates the true meaning of the cross.

As we begin the first question we must answer is this, what does the Bible teach about the death of Christ? Was it a sacrificial atoning death, or was it just an example for us to see how God feels about sin? To answer this question we must look at to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and the picture that was being painted there, because as we see in Hebrews, and the Mosaic law, the temple (or tabernacle) and the Old Testament sacrificial system were set up as a picture of what was to come and to point us to Christ (see Hebrews 8:1-6 & 10:1).

We see throughout the Old Testament that when someone sinned, the sin could not merely be forgiven and forgotten as if it had never happened. When sin occurred a sacrifice had to be made and that sin had to be atoned for. The Hebrew word that for Atonement is kāp̱ar, which The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament defines as a word of "supreme theological importance in the Old Testament..." It then goes on to say:

At its most basic level, the word conveys the notion of covering but not in the sense of merely concealing. Rather, it suggests the imposing of something to change its appearance or nature. It is therefore employed to signify the cancellation or “writing over” of a contract; the appeasing of anger... The word also communicates God’s covering of sin. Persons made reconciliation with God for their sins by imposing something that would appease the offended party (in this case the Lord) and cover the sinners with righteousness. In the Old Testament, the blood of sacrifices was most notably imposed. By this imposition, sin was purged and forgiven. The offenses were removed, leaving the sinners clothed in righteousness. Of course, the imposition of the blood of bulls and of goats could never fully cover our sin, but with the coming of Christ and the imposition of His shed blood, a perfect atonement was made.

According to this definition, what Jesus did on the cross was take upon Himself the wrath of God that our sin deserved. Notice that the definition includes "the appeasing of anger" in connection with the forgiveness of sin. The Open Theist teaches something completely different, however, Open Theism teaches that God never demands a payment for sin and that the death of Christ did not absorb the wrath that we were due but that it merely shows Christ as a partaker with us in the human problem of pain and suffering.

So the next question that we must ask then is this, is there any Biblical basis for saying that Jesus appeased the wrath of God, or even that God expresses anger and/or wrath towards sinners?

To answer this question we need go no further than Psalm 5, where we read:

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness, evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies, the Lord abhors the blood thirsty and deceitful man.

Psalm 5:4-6 (emphasis added)

From this passage, and many others, we can see that the Bible teaches that God hates "all who do iniquity" (Psalm 5:5 NASB). This passage also tells us that He abhors violent and deceitful men (v6). Anyone who has looked honestly at themselves knows this description fits each and every one of us since we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Romans also tells us that the penalty for our sin is death (Romans 6:23), which is exactly what God told Adam in the Garden when He warned him not to eat of the tree (Genesis 2:17). God is good to His word, in fact it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18), and Galatians 6:7 warns us:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.

Galatians 6:7

So we have a problem; God hates sin, and He hates those who practice sin. He also said the the result of our sin would be death, and He cannot lie. But our problem is even worse than that; according to Proverbs 17:15 we are told that it is an abomination to the Lord to forgive the guilty, therefore, if you have sinned even once God cannot just forgive you - you must pay for your sin. And the price of sin is death.

This concept is repeated all throughout Scripture as we can see from the following verses:

...I will not acquit the wicked (Exodus 23:7)
... the Lord will by no means clear the guilty (Nahum 1:3)

And in Romans chapter 1 we read:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:18

This is the problem that we all face, and this is the reason for the death of Christ. His death was the payment for our sin; He took the wrath that was meant for us upon Himself so that in exchange He could give us the righteousness that is His. His death was an Atonement that appeased the wrath of God and paid the penalty for our sin. Again, you cannot read the Bible without this being clear:

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...

Galatians 3:13

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness...

1 Peter 2:24

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...

1 Peter 3:18

He is the propitiation for our sins...

1 John 2:2

Writing on this subject in his book The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness, John MacArthur said:

The Atonement was a full payment of the price of sins, to satisfy both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sins without compromising His own holy standard.

And A.A. Hodge wrote:

With few exceptions the whole church from the beginning has held the doctrine of Redemption in the sense of a literal propitiation of God by means of the expiation of sin.

In other words, it has been a core belief of the Church, from the very beginning, that the death of Christ was a substitutionary death; that He purchased with His blood people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).

This is clearly what the Bible teaches about the death of Christ, but as I said above this is completely different from the governmental theory of the Atonement taught by Open Theism.

The Open Theist believes that the death of Christ was necessary only to salvage God's reputation, and not an actual substitution in which He literally took the sinners' place. This view of the atonement originated with Hugh Grotius, a Dutch theologian in the sixteen hundreds. His theology grew out of the Socinian view, which stated that the Atonement accomplished nothing objective on the sinners behalf; it was merely a symbolic gesture.

The problem with this view is that it alters the Gospel by making the message of the cross not about what God has done for sinners, but what the sinner must do for God. The governmental theory therefore leaves the sinner responsible for his own salvation, with is just another form of works salvation.

So how does the Open Theist come to this conclusion? George Otis who is an advocate of the governmental theory described it this way in a sermon he gave in 1981:

God loves man, He loves him so much, He wants this intimate fellowship with him. But He also recognizes that sin is a horrible, powerful thing and He doesn’t want it to start spreading out of control in the universe. And to allow man, to help man to understand how He viewed sin and how terrible sin really was, He attached a sanction to it and that sanction was death.
So what is God going to do? Is He going to, in effect, condone sin? And say “Okay, I know I said, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall surely die’—but in this case, the soul that sinneth it shall live, because I really like you and I really don’t want you to die”?

But then what’s going to happen when the next person sins? God really likes him too. And the same with the next one and pretty soon nobody’s going to die for their sin. But the other alternative, of course, is that everybody dies. And that’s not too hot an alternative either. So this is God’s government problem. How can God, as the righteous moral governor of the universe, whose responsibility it is to uphold the law of the universe and to uphold righteousness and to protect society. How is He going to get out of this dilemma? This is God’s governmental problem.

George Otis, Jr.

So what does God do? According to George Otis, God makes a dramatic display of divine justice in the death of Christ and he uses Romans 3:21-26 as his proof text; this verses says:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26 (NASB)

Mr. Otis places the emphasis on verse 25 and the word demonstrate. He completely misses, however, the word propitiation which means "a sacrifice of atonement." It is not the public display that removes our guilt and our sin, it is the propitiatory death of Jesus Christ. But Otis completely misses this and he states:

Christ did not pay the debt or literally suffer the penalty of the law for His people. He prepared the way for our debt to be remitted. Or in plain language, dispensing with all metaphor, He made it consistent and proper and honorable for sin to be forgiven according to the prescribed terms of the Gospel.
The truth is Christ paid no man’s debt.

Then he goes on to say:

On a personal basis God could say the second after a sin is committed, “hey, I forgive you.” He doesn’t hold any grudges or bitterness. He doesn’t need to be paid back before He can forgive. There are no strings attached to His love. But He’s got to be careful in His role, not as our father, but in His role as righteous, moral governor of the universe, that He’s not careless in extending forgiveness so that it encourages others to sin. He can’t do that.

George Otis, Jr.

According to the governmental view of the Atonement then, the death of Christ was necessary only to salvage God's reputation, and it had no actual value as a substitutionary Atonement on the sinners' behalf. This emasculated view of the death of Christ and the Atonement that He made completely obliterates the true meaning of the cross. According to the Open Theist the cross is merely a demonstration of Christ's willingness to suffer but it in no way appeased the wrath of God, nor did Jesus suffer for the sinner in his place. This view completely ignores verses like:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

John 1:29

...without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:22

The language used in these verses deliberately evokes images of the Old Testament sacrificial system and the concept of expiation upon which that system was built - shed blood was the required payment for sin.

This concept is completely foreign to the Open Theist because they teach that sin may be forgiven, or it may be paid for, but it cannot be both - the mere idea of sin being paid for makes forgiveness impossible in the Open Theist's mind. They also believe that neither sin, nor righteousness can be imputed from one person to another and go as far as to say that to do so would be unjust and would therefore make God unjust. They do this by ignoring verses like Romans 4:5 and Philippians 3:9, which both teach that the Righteousness that the Christian possesses is not his own, but Christ's.

To make the point, Charles Finney (a nineteenth century Theologian often quoted by Open Theists) denied that justification was by faith and actually taught that the sinner must become perfectly righteous in order to be saved, he wrote:

There can be no justification in a legal or forensic sense, but upon the ground of universal, perfect, and uninterrupted obedience to law. This is of course denied by those who hold that gospel justification, or the justification of penitent sinners, is of the nature of a forensic or judicial justification. They hold to the legal maxim, that what a man does by another he does by himself, and therefore the law regards Christ’s obedience as ours, on the ground that he obeyed for us. To this I reply: … His obedience could no more than justify Himself. It can never be imputed to us. … It was naturally impossible, then, for Him to obey on our behalf.

This then is the Gospel of Open Theism - it is a Gospel of works. You cannot have it any other way; if Christ's righteousness is not imputed to the sinner then the sinner must make himself perfect - and any way you look at it this it is a doctrine of works. The Apostle Paul warned us:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:8

And that is what Open Theism teaches - another Gospel.

If We Confess Our Sins

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:9-10

In the last post we saw the importance of recognizing our own sinfulness, and that without that recognition we will not be able to come to the Savior.This time we are going to look at the last 2 verses in chapter 1 and see what we are to do once we have acknowledged our sinfulness, repented of our sins and come to God, and we then find that we are still living in a body of flesh that struggles with sin.

Let me say here right up front that I in no way am indicating that someone can say they are a Christian and then continue in a pattern of unrepentant sin. That is contradictory to the teaching of the Bible in general and to the message of 1 John in particular. (There will be a much more in depth discussion of this topic when we get to chapter 3.)

Before we get into these verses from First John we have to ask a question, do Christians sin? There are many who would say no, but that is not what we see in the Scriptures. What I want to do here is show that as a follower of Jesus Christ who still lives in a fallen world we still have to deal on a daily (hourly?) basis with the presence of sin. After that I want to look at what John said that we are to do about it.

1. Do Christians Sin?

To answer this question we need to look at what the Bible teaches about the believer and sin. I want to start today with a clear passage from Paul's letter to the Galatians. In Galatians chapter 6 the apostle Paul wrote:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 6:1

There are 2 important things to point out in this verse: first, in the context of this verse Paul is writing to those who are walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). It is to this audience that Paul then writes, "if anyone is caught in any transgression" indicating that it is possible for a Christian to fall into sin. The second thing we see here is Paul warning the Christians that he is writing to that they are to proceed with caution when it comes to restoring a brother or sister who has fallen. Why? Because they too can be tempted to fall into the same sin. If it were not possible for a Christian to sin Paul, writing through the power of the Holy Spirit, would not have given us this warning.

This verse in Galatians is not the only place where we find the Christians' struggle with sin (it is always dangerous to try and build a theology on only one passage or verse) we can also see this all throughout the Bible. Here are just a few more passages that teach this:

In Romans 7, in the context of wanting to do good and not doing it, the apostle Paul writes:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Romans 7:21-23

And one last passage. This one is Jesus, on His last night with His disciples before He was betrayed. In John chapter 13, as Jesus and the disciples are preparing to celebrate the Passover, Jesus laid aside his garments, put a towel around His waist, and took a basin of water and began to wash the disciples feet. When He came to Peter, Peter protested, and Jesus replied: “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8). Then Peter said, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (verse 9). Jesus then answered Peter with these words:

The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean..."

John 13:10

Why did Jesus say this? In addition to showing us that we are to all serve one another with humility He was also making the point that once a person comes to faith in Him and repents of their sin their salvation is secure, but we get dirty feet from walking around in this world so we need to wash our feet. There is no need to be re-saved every time you commit a sin, you simply need to confess it to your Heavenly Father, repent of it, and move on.

We could spend a lot more time on this topic, but for the sake of time let's move on to the second question and 1 John 1:9-10.

2. How does John say the believer is to respond to sin?

We now arrive a 1 John 1:9, which says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and then cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This verse brings up at least 3 more questions that we must deal with:

1. What does it mean to confess our sins?
2. Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when He forgives us?
3. What does it mean that He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

Let's take these one at a time:

First, what does John mean when he says we are to confess our sins? Is confession just saying, "I sinned, I'm sorry." or is there something more involved? The Greek word used here is the word homologéō, which means to say the same thing as another. So what John is telling us here is that confession is not merely saying that you are sorry, it is acknowledging openly to God what we have done and agreeing with Him (saying the same thing) that what we have done was sinful. For example, according to the definition of the word homologéō if you have just realized that you have been gossiping about someone and that you need to confess it to God you would say something like, "I have sinned Father. I have been gossiping about ... and Your word makes it clear that gossiping is a sin and that it is wrong. I agree with what you say and I confess that what I have done is a sin. I repent of this and will not do it again." Confession is not simply saying that you are sorry; that is obviously involved, but confession is much more than that.

The verse then goes on to say that if we do confess our sins that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, which brings us to our next question: Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when he forgives us? To answer this question we only have to go to the book of Isaiah and read what was prophetically written about the death of the Messiah; Isaiah wrote:

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

According to this verse when Jesus died on the cross He paid the penalty for our sin, so it is just for God to forgive us not because we deserve to be forgiven, but because the penalty for our sin has already been paid. Our faithful God is justified in forgiving us simply because the debt of our sin has already been paid, and to require another payment for our sin beyond what His Son has already paid would be unjust because it would be like a judge requiring a criminal to pay a fine that has already been paid in full.

Finally then we read in verse 9 that "He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness." John has already told us (verse 8) that we are not to deceive ourselves by thinking that we are sinless, and he has just told us that we are to confess our sins to God. Now he is giving us a wonderful truth that as we confess to God every sin that we are aware of that because God is faithful and just, and because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin with His blood, that God will forgive not only the sins that we know of and confess to Him, but He will forgive ALL of our sins - even the ones we are unaware of!

John then wraps up this chapter in verse 10 where he once again reminds us that we are all sinners and when we deny that fact we show that we do not believe God's word about us; we make Him a liar and we prove that His word is not in us.

Are You Deceived?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8

In my last post I wrote that we would cover verses 8-10 next time, but as I began to study these and pray about these 3 verses I decided to break this down into 2 posts. So today we are going look only at verse 8 of 1 John chapter 1, and we will pick up verses 9 & 10 next time.

In my previous 2 posts on First John we have seen that God is holy (God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all) and that he requires holiness from us as well. Then we saw that it is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that we can be made holy (the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin). In this verse we are going to see that without the acknowledgment of our sin we are not in fellowship with God. In fact, John goes so far as to say that the truth is not in us.

As I read this, the question that came to my mind was: What does it mean to say that we have no sin, or conversely, how do we acknowledge that we have sin? If getting this wrong results in self deception, and this is somehow tied into our very salvation, we had better get this one right.

What does it mean to say that we have no sin, and why is this important ?

John begins by saying, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Why would John tell us that if we say we have no sin then truth is not in us? I think the reason is that far too often we tend to see ourselves as better than we really are. The world teaches us that man is inherently good, but the Bible is clear that we are just the opposite - we are evil. The Bible actually teaches that apart from Christ we are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:5).

In our minds we may have made some mistakes, but overall we're pretty good people. But this is not how God sees us and not how we should see ourselves. There are many passages in the Bible that teach the total depravity of man, but without doing a whole study on that subject let's look at a one; Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Romans 3:10-12

This is how God sees us, and before we can have fellowship with Him we must first see ourselves and our sinfulness as He sees it. James tells us to:

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:9

Why would James say this? Because this is the reaction a person has when they see themselves as God sees them, and they see God as He really is. This is really nothing new, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus begins with these words:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Matthew 5:3-4

What Jesus is telling us here is that true salvation begins with us recognizing that we are totally sinful - we are wretched through and through, and there is no good in us at all. Before we can repent of our sin (which is a requirement for salvation) we must first acknowledge that we are sinful and that we have willfully and defiantly disobeyed and rejected God and His commandments. It is not just that we have made little mistakes, but that we are evil to the very core of our being. When we come to this place we will see ourselves as poor in spirit, and we will realize that we have nothing to offer to God. At that point we are then ready to place our faith and trust completely in Him and His provision for our salvation; now we see our sinfulness, and we see that there is nothing within us that can change who we are. Now we can see our need for Christ. Now we see the wickedness of our sin in the eyes of a holy God. This is when mourning comes in, and Jesus tells us that those who mourn will be comforted.

So let's take this now and apply it to what we are seeing here in 1 John 1:8. John is telling us here that anyone who says he has fellowship with God, and does not recognize his own sin, is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him. Does this mean that you cannot be a Christian if you don't recognize your sin? I believe that it does; if we don't see that we are sinful we will never see our need for a Savior. Remember, Jesus said that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick and that He didn't come to call the righteous but sinners (Mark 2:17).

John goes even further in this verse and actually says that those who say they have no sin are self-deceived. Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and that is being reiterated here. We must be honest with ourselves and honest with God when it comes to the condition of our heart, because according to what we are seeing here, if we are not we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In order to experience salvation we must come to grips with our own sinfulness, and as we do and as we confess it to God, He promises to forgive us (more on this next time).

Spend some time today alone with God and ask Him to show you any area of sin in your life that you may have overlooked. Then take what He shows you and confess it to Him, repent of it, and thank Him for the forgiveness of sin that He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ.

It's About The Cross

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Luke 2:1-20

This passage in the Gospel of Luke tells us of the birth of Christ, but have you ever wondered why He was born in the first place? If you have ever asked that question, either out loud or quietly to yourself, take a few minutes to watch this video by the Go Fish Guys and you will have your answer. This is why Jesus came, and this is the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Christian Journey

We Must Forgive

Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"

I think this is something we have to deal with on a daily basis on our lives, so how would you have answered this question? I think Peter genuinely wanted an answer; he wasn't trying to show how spiritual he was by saying that he would forgive up to seven times, he was looking for the answer. And Jesus answered him with a parable.

There was a slave who owed his master a debt that was so large he would never be able to repay it; in the parable Jesus says that he owed 10,000 talents. A Talent was worth more than 15 years wages for a laborer, so what this man owed would have taken him 15,000 years to repay. The master told the servant that he, his wife , and his children were to be sold to repay the debt, but when the servant begged his master for patience and said that he would repay the debt his master had mercy on him and forgave the entire debt. Then after being forgiven an unpayable debt this same man turned around and had a man who owed him a small debt thrown into prison because he cannot repay.

When you hear this story do you find yourself becoming angry? Do you ask yourself how a man could be forgiven such a large debt and then be so unforgiving to someone who is in a similar circumstance? Well, God asks us that same question every time that we withhold forgiveness. He has forgiven us a debt that all eternity would not be long enough to repay. We were so indebted to God for our sin that is cost Him the life of His Son to erase it, and yet we still hold grudges and withhold forgiveness to people who offend us.

Peter asked Jesus how many times we should be willing to forgive, and Jesus answered "not seven times, but seventy times seven." Jesus didn't mean that we are to forgive 490 times and that's all; He was making the point that we should forgive so often that we loose count. If God has forgiven your sins, you have no right to withhold forgiveness from anyone else; they could not have done anything that is as bad as what we have done to God.

Is there someone you need to forgive today?