The message of peace with God that Jesus declares is so free that if it is preached correctly, it should make you feel a bit uncomfortable. You should ask ,”Where is the guilt, and where is the condemnation?” When Jesus responds, “I took all the guilt and condemnation for you,” it is simultaneously refreshing and terrifying. Free forgiveness is refreshing because the struggle has ended. Free forgiveness is terrifying because it sounds too good to be true.
Born the son of a preacher man, I’ve been in church since conception. In my 37 years, I’ve heard everything from the scandalously free message of forgiveness to condemnation to outright heresy. I even heard that God would save me, but my breeches would be smoking when He did as if the Father is holding a match and Jesus is trying to restrain Him.
Some say that the message of forgiveness from God, even the message of needing forgiveness, is passé. Some would ask, “Can’t we move on to more important matters?” That is one of those questions that is best answered with an affirmative and a negative. Let me explain.
Yes, we do need to move on from the message of forgiveness but only in the sense of learning to apply it. So often the church talks about forgiveness but never gets around to actually practicing it (sorry for the split infinitive but God will forgive me). What I mean is that the church spends a lot of time talking about God forgiving sin, but so often we don’t know what to do next. Perhaps we should consider what it looks like to demonstrate God’s forgiveness in areas like mercy and kindness and doing good for the sake of doing good. That would be a pretty clear demonstration that we understand the forgiveness that we proclaim to the world.
But we can also say that the church does not need to move beyond forgiveness? We need to explore just how free and how comforting the end of the struggle for goodness is. I think that kind of message is pretty appealing now days, and I’m confident it is consistent with, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” I even used King James there. Wow that message is timeless.
I don’t presume that I, my church, or my circle of friends have got it all figured out. That would be pretty inconsistent with our overwhelming need for forgiveness that I’m talking about here, but we would all do well to proclaim and practice it in the same scandalously free manner in which Jesus first mentioned it.
Gordon Duncan is the pastor of Sovereign King Church (www.newgarnerchurch.com), the Garner Police Chaplain, and best of all, the husband and dad to his great family.
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