Forgiveness

While doing evangelism on the square this past weekend, I ran into a person who was so violently apposed to the gospel that I was taken aback. Actually, she never got to hear the gospel because she stormed off saying that "all we have to do is ask God to forgive us and we will go to heaven". I tried to tell her that she was partially correct, but she would have none of it. Her statement begs a question; if all we need do is ask God to forgive our sins, why did God send his son to die for us?

Though much of the church would deny it, she is expressing something which is common to the gospel that most of us preach. Just ask God for forgiveness and He will forgive and give you eternal life. The cross has become, in some ways, a sideshow. Ask God to forgive you and invite Jesus into your heart. Jesus died for you. What does that even mean?

You see, we are by nature slaves to sin. We break the Commandments. People disregard God's holy law and use his name as a cuss word, go about in the ignorance (even hatred) of God, and we tell them that Jesus loves them. He does. He loves them so much that he died a horrible death and suffered unimaginable spiritual consequences on their behalf. But we don't tell them that. We tell them that Jesus loves them.

God expresses His love to humanity in one way - "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). Look to the scripture. Is there another way by which God shows his love to unsaved humanity? Is there a way by which someone can approach God aside from the grace which is by faith? Not in the Bible. God's love for humanity is historical fact, not emotional pandering. We need to get past the idea that God goes around begging people to return to Him. He has once for all shown His love to humanity and put a church in place to point humanity to that fact. We are failing.

If God were to forgive us our sins simply for asking, he would be acting contrary to His nature. God is perfectly holy and just. God does not let lawlessness slide. He can't. He says "This is the standard. Break the standard and there will be hell to pay." His justice must be satisfied. He demands nothing less than perfection. Jesus said "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."(Matthew 5:48) Until you are perfect, you have no basis from which to ask for God's forgiveness. The bad news is you can't make yourself that perfect, so forgiveness is beyond your grasp as a human being.

Here is one of our favorite scripture soundbites to use while sharing the Gospel, Romans 3:23; "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 ESV). Here it is in context:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.(Romans 3:21-26 ESV)

What does it mean that God put Christ forward as a "propitiation by his blood"? It means that sent his son to die that He might be appeased by the blood of Christ. So the death of Christ pleased God. It appeased His wrath. What does that mean to us? It means that in order for God to be pleased with us, to have any relationship with this holy God, we must in some way be identified with Christ. In what way? By faith as verse 26 says. By faith in what Christ did on the cross, we become identified with him and God looks on us with pleasure. God forgives us not because we ask Him, but because He has been propitiated by the blood of Christ on our behalf. This is the only path to forgiveness that the scripture describes. We don't invite Jesus into our hearts. We place our faith in him knowing there is no other way to please God, no other way to be declared righteous.

I was very saddened by this encounter on the square. It is heartbreaking to see someone so violently apposed to that idea that God is just and holy and will punish for sin. What kind of God would set forth rules and consequences and not follow through? More importantly, what an incredible God we have that sent his only son to die that we may be declared perfect in His sight? I will pray for her and hope that someday, someone will get the truth through to her.