Monday, June 1, 2020
707 - Completing the Course
Spirituality Column #707
June 2, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Completing the Course
By Bob Walters
“… if you
hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your father in heaven may
forgive you your sins.” – Jesus to the disciples, Mark 11:25
I was
listening to an older adult (though younger than me) last weekend wonderfully,
excitedly describing his newly burnished faith in Jesus Christ.
His
testimony, which took the shape of a warm and engaging “coffee shop” interview
with his pastor, was the recorded centerpiece of his church’s Memorial Day
weekend online worship service. I
listened to it with great interest since he is a former work colleague and
friend. I smiled a lot listening to the
sincerity of his budding faith and seeing the joy emanating from the peaceful glow
on his face. Powerful stuff. Praise God.
The core of
his conversion, as he laid it out, was coming to the critical knowledge that through
God’s son Jesus he is forgiven of his sins, that God in heaven loves him, and
that heaven will be his home – all holy gifts he has sturdily embraced. Praise God, again.
For his
privacy and our focus, it is not his name but the lesson embedded in his
testimony into which I would like to delve.
And we will start where he starts, with the most common and heavily “merchandized”
aspect of Christian evangelism: forgiveness.
Ask 100
Christians, “Why are you a Christian?” and – ball-park guess – 99 of them will
say some version of, “Because my sins are forgiven, Jesus loves me, and I get
to go to heaven.” The other one might
say something about the music, the pastor, the fellowship, or possibly offer up
some theological or scriptural profundity about love, truth, obedience,
humanity, freedom, divine relationship, serving others, or maybe accepting the
offer and demands of joining God’s glory.
Or that one person might say, “I don’t know.”
But, “My
sins are forgiven, Jesus loves me, and I get to go to heaven” is the
preponderant batter’s box / starting blocks / green flag of any walk, run, or
race with Jesus.
That said,
salvation is not achieved standing on the self-directed trinitarian starting
line of “my, me, and I.” The gracious lesson of Christ is not what we get for
our faith, but what our faith provides others.
It is not “God’s forgiveness of me” that saves me; it is my forgiveness and
Christlike love of others, glorifying God, that saves me. How do we know?
Read the Gospels. Yes, Jesus remarkably offers forgiveness
throughout, but notice that those instances are incidental to His more profound
mission and message. Jesus’s deepest
teaching is about Who He Is as a person – the Son of God – and about His
obedience to God, God’s love, His oneness with the Father, humanity’s creation
in the image of God, our suffering, the truth and peace of the Holy Spirit, and
the necessity not just to love God and others as Jesus commands in the upper
room (John 13:34), but, as Jesus says in Mark 11:25 (above), our forgiveness
requires that we forgive others.
Certainly,
Jesus came to save and forgive us; it is plainly laid out in John 14:6 that
Jesus is the only “way, truth, and life” for us to come to the Father; we
receive and accept salvation. We often
talk – in some error, I believe – about the “cost” or “price” Jesus “paid” for
our sins. Jesus’ work of forgiveness on
the cross was an act of God’s love, Holy truth, and Christ’s human obedience,
not an exchange or a transaction or a credit card swipe.
No, our true
Christian mission is not to be forgiven, but to forgive and love others.
When my
friend understands that, his testimony – and his peace – will be
complete.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that all kinds of folks in the Old Testament ask for or predict God’s forgiveness; God’s full answer to their prayers and pleas is Jesus Christ.