Someone emailed me and asked me to post this question on the blog. I think it is a worthwhile question and, considering the reaction in class, many of you seem to think the same. I have cut a pasted the email below. Enjoy.
"If someone is already in a relationship to God, and sin does not take the person completely out of the relationship, and taking the steps of being reconciled with our brother is enough to qualify us for things like Sunday worship and communion and being in fellowship with God again, what is the place of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for sin?"
The implications of this question is precisely why I contend that Matthew must be taught in dispensational terms of revealing God's ideals regarding motives and behavior. Jesus' Sermon presents the ideal: if you bring your gift to the alter and there remember you have something against your brother (implying that the person is an Israelites for during this time, Jews had no dealings with Gentiles), leave your gift and go your way...first be reconciled to your brother." The ideal is forgiveness toward others. When Peter asked: "How often shall my brother (again, another Jew) sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus replied "I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven." (Matt. 18:22) Do you think he was telling Peter to count how many times he forgave and then stop at 490 times. No, He was telling Peter to forgive as many times as it takes. Again, the ideal is presented with the Omniscient God the Son knowing that such an ideal is impossible without an Intercessor and a Helper. The Intercessor, the only One who can plead the case of a one who transgresses, was Jesus Christ, Himself, after He carried out the plan of redemption on the Cross. The Helper being the Holy Spirit that dwells within to teach, lead, and guide us in how to live.
ReplyDeletePaul teaches in Romans 3 that we are all guilty of sin because we cannot meet God's ideal of holiness. Try as we might, every single day, we will break one of the commandments, and by breaking one, we are guilty of breaking all of them. So how do we get saved? By believing that Jesus died for our sin, was buried and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4). Now, we can understand with Spiritual enlightenment (made possible by God the Holy Spirit living inside those who believe and receive Jesus Christ as Savior) that Jesus' Sermon in Matthew was about motives as much as about behavior.
Paul also teaches in Romans 3 that when we are saved we are completely justified, that is, we are made 100% righteous before God. Does this mean we will not sin, not have occasion to be angry with other believers, or that we will not succomb to temptation? God knows what we will do even before we do it, yet He loved us enough to save us because of our faith in what was accomplished on the Cross. We are as "in" as we will ever be, and we will be "in" through all eternity. Think about it, if we were "in" and them we do something that is wrong, and God reacts by putting us "out", would we not question His Omniscience (one of His attributes, along with Omnipotence and Omnipresence)? He does not leave the room or fall asleep and wake up surprised that we have blown it in someway. He knows and yet He loved us to make a way for us to stand before Him completely innocent, as though we never sinned, all because of what Christ did on the Cross. We are not required to forgive others to be forgiven, which was the legal requirement before the dispensation of grace, we are to forgive others BECAUSE we are forgiven.
Consider the adjustments in light of our sin, that we are called to make -- for example, to get reconciled to someone (Matthew 5:24); to forgive others (Matthew 6:15 and 18:35); to make friends with our opponent before a judge rules against us (Matthew 5:25) -- should we think of these things as necessities for being forgiven, but not enough, because we simply must take the sacrifice of Christ into account ... and then, all together, they become enough?
ReplyDeleteI would say no, that such a thought turns forgiveness into a recipe: you gotta have this, that, and the sacrifice of Christ. Bad mentality.