Forgive Us Our Sins 

Have you ever heard the phrase, “To Err is Human, To Forgive is not Company Policy!”? Forgiving someone who has harmed us can be one of the troubling events in our lives. How do we understand the concept of sin and the interaction of God’s forgiving authority?

How do we define “Sin”, according to the authorities at Wikipedia, “In Abraham contexts, sin is the act of violating God's will. Sin can also be viewed as anything that violates the ideal relationship between an individual and God; or as any diversion from the ideal order for human living. To sin has been defined as "to miss the mark". Some sins are regarded [by whom?] as greater than others. In this nuanced concept of sin, sins fall in a spectrum from minor errors to deadly misdeeds.”

Sin is then something that “happens” by us. We act in the doing of the sin. We are responsible for the actions of the sin. Sin is not something that we just “trip over” or do unknowing, we are active agents in the sin we perform. The Church has said that we all are guilty of sin. As it says in Romans 3: 22-24, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Jesus’ understanding of “Forgiveness by God” was never based upon an acceptance of the sin. Forgiveness is seen as chances to break away from the “bondage” that one finds oneself held in. Jesus’ very first teaching was a call to repentance. Repentance understood as being a change in one’s direction in life. Nowhere in the Bible does one find Jesus, or scriptures, condoning the continuation of any sin.

The best example of this would be the story of the “Women caught in Adultery.” (John 8) when all the accusers had went away, Jesus forgave the woman but told her to “go and sin no more”. Jesus did not instruct the woman that her sins have been approved or condone in anyway. She still was called to separate herself from her sin.

In today's world there appears to be an understanding that forgiveness is in some way an approval of our sins. We have begun a process in which we are trying to find a way to make our sins more palatable in the eyes of God so as to allow us to keep participating in them. We try to walk on a fine line of trying to keep within our Sins while all the time stating that we are being faithful to the teachings of Jesus. Repentance is neither wanted nor desired.

As a church that calls upon a restoration of Wholeness, we cannot abandon the idea that this restoration can never be fully accomplished without the acceptance of one’s own involvement with sin, and the repentant act which is followed by God’s forgiveness through the cross of Jesus the Christ. The only question would be if we are willing to accept this forgiveness.

Accepting God’s forgiveness is not a display of having weak or timid behavior. We do not show ourselves as being any lesser of a human by allowing for God’s Forgiveness. We also should not see others as being any less when they stand before God asking for God to forgive them. In Jesus’ parable of the two men who come to the temple for forgiveness, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Sin is real and Forgiveness is Real. God forgives through the blood of the Christ shed on the Cross.

Praying for you as I hope that you are praying for me.

-Pastor Craig