As I have thought over the text and the teaching from this last week I am reminded all over again that the forgiveness extended to us is the most astounding gift we could ever have been given and that it IS given to everyone.
In the letter to the Colossians Chapter 3 verse 13 Paul commands them to 'forgive as they have been forgiven'. We forgive whether the other person accepts the gift or not. We forgive without reservation. We forgive without demand or expectation from the offender. We forgive because we have been forgiven; the dept was paid once for all.
Most of my life I've believed that God was ticked at most people and happy with those who had been forgiven. Of course, the way a person was forgiven was by praying some form of a 'sinners prayer'. With this view also came the belief that God simply wouldn't forgive some people either because He didn't want to or He wasn't able to.
This is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Scriptures is the one who accepts the sacrifice of the Lamb and it IS enough for the whole world. God is satisfied, the final sacrifice has been made and it was good!
Behold the Lamb of God who takes AWAY the sin of the world
For He did not come to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be saved
Forgive as you have been forgiven
The prodigal son, forgiven but not reconciled
IT IS FINISHED
What if we began to view those around us as forgiven but not yet reconciled?
What if the gospel became good news again, instead of bad news with a 'choose your own adventure' twist at the end that could make it good if you choose the right page number?
So may you begin to live as though Christ was enough, and may you realize that you cannot add one thing to the sufficiency of Christ atonement. May you begin to live in the knowledge that your sins have already been atoned for, past, present and future and that we walk in the humility and reality that forgiveness finds its completion in reconciliation with God.
Loving The Good News,
Jonathan Walker
