Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:32; 1 John 1:9; John 20:23; James 5:15-16; Matt. 6:14-15; Gal. 6:7; Luke 6:37-38; 2 Sam. 12:9, 14
According to Ephesians 4:32, we were forgiven by God in Christ. According to John 20:23, the disciples have the authority to forgive: "Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven." According to 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, He will forgive us. According to Matthew 6:14-15, if we forgive others, God will forgive us, and if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. According to James 5:15, if we have sinned and we ask the elders to come and pray for us, we will be forgiven. By reading these five passages we note that they all speak of the matter of forgiveness. They also speak of five different kinds of forgiveness, not just one kind.
The first kind of forgiveness is eternal forgiveness because God forgives us for Christ's sake. If we have this forgiveness, we are saved for eternity; we will never perish. If the Lord forgives our sins, we know that we are saved for eternity; therefore, this is eternal forgiveness.
In John 20:23 the Lord told His disciples that the sins they forgave were forgiven and vice versa. Rome has built a system of forgiveness on this verse, teaching that their priests have the authority to forgive or retain sins. We know that this is false. What did the Lord tell the disciples that they had authority to do? What is the meaning of this passage? We know that the Lord is the only One with authority to forgive. When He was on earth, He said to one man, "Your sins are forgiven" (Matt. 9:5). The Jews objected because they thought that God was the only One who had authority to forgive. John 20:23 does not speak of eternal forgiveness, but of forgiveness granted by the church. What does this mean? If you are a sinner who believes in the gospel and applies for baptism or the Lord's supper, the church has something to say. If the church believes you are truly the Lord's, they will receive you, but if not, they will reject you. This forgiveness is an instrumental forgiveness. God uses the church to pronounce whether sins have been forgiven or not. Moreover we must connect verse 22, which says, "Receive the Holy Spirit," with verse 23, which says, "Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whosever sins you retain, they are retained." This shows that if the church is in the power of the Holy Spirit and they say that a man is saved, he is saved. If they say that he is not saved, he is not saved. This does not mean that the church can cause a man to be saved or unsaved, but that the church is the instrument of God to pronounce whether or not a man is saved.
So far we have seen two kinds of forgiveness: eternal forgiveness and instrumental forgiveness. But we need more than this.
After we have become a Christian, we often fall. We know that we should not and yet we do. The sins of the past have been forgiven and yet we sin again. What should we do? We must go to God and apply for new forgiveness. Our position as to eternal forgiveness is settled. No question can ever be raised regarding eternal forgiveness. Once God has forgiven our sins, He will not revoke His forgiveness. But if we sin after we have been saved, we lose our communion with God. We are still His sons, but we cannot look into His face. If your son sinned against you, he would not be disinherited because of his sin, but he would lose his fellowship with you. There would be a barrier. As a Christian we cannot lose our life, but we can lose fellowship with God. It is impossible to lose eternal life, but it is possible to lose our fellowship. If we sin as Christians, we must get new forgiveness; otherwise, we cannot have communion with God. First John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins." (Remember that 1 John was written to Chris- tians; therefore, he is dealing with the sins of the saved, not the unsaved). The Word says that if we confess our sins, we will be forgiven. If a saint sins, he must go to the Father and confess, "I have sinned, please forgive me." "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous" (2:1). He is at the right hand of the Father for us. He presented His whole work before God. In His merit we can look up to God, confessing our sins and accepting His forgiveness. This forgiveness differs from eternal forgiveness; it also differs from instrumental forgiveness. When the church says that we are saved, it is an instrumental pronunciation of salvation, but this forgiveness restores our fellowship. Therefore, we can call it a restorative forgiveness. Forgiveness is for sins in regard to eternal salvation. Forgiveness is for our position among the people of God. Forgiveness also restores us to fellowship with God. The first is a matter of salvation, the second is a matter of the church, and the third is a matter of life in the family. We now have forgiveness in regard to eternal life, the church, and the family of God — three different kinds of forgiveness.
In Matthew 6:14-15 the Lord said, "If you forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also; but if you do not forgive men their offenses, neither will your Father forgive your offenses." In Matthew 18:23-35 the Lord speaks of a man who was forgiven. He was a slave of the king. After he had been forgiven, he saw another brother, a fellow slave, who owed him money. He owed his master ten thousand talents, but his fellow slave only owed him a hundred denarii. Yet the slave tried to exact that sum from him. What did his master do? He delivered him to the torturers until he had paid all that was owed, and Jesus said, "So also will My heavenly Father do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts" (v. 35). This matter is certainly not of salvation, because eternal salvation is based on the Lord Jesus, not on human effort! We are saved by grace and not by works. We are saved by the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Our sins are forgiven because of the shed blood, our sins are not forgiven because we forgive others. But after we have become Christians, after we have been called a brother, a "slave of the Lord," we must forgive our brothers. If we do not forgive, God will deal with us when the Lord Jesus comes back. During the kingdom age the Lord will allot to us what He considers just. We will not be lost, but He will chasten us according to what we have done. Eternal salvation is secure, but our place in the kingdom, the millennial age, will depend on our conduct today. God will deal with us according to what we have done to others. God will deal with us according to His justice. This forgiveness can be called the millennial or kingdom forgiveness. In addition to these four kinds of forgiveness, there is still another kind of forgiveness.
We want to emphasize this fifth kind of forgiveness. James 5:14 says, "Is anyone among you ill? Let him call for the elders of the church." When the elders come, they will anoint the sick brother and pray for him. They will not only pray for him, but confess one to another. When they pray, "The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick...and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him" (v. 15). This is rather a peculiar kind of forgiveness. Have you ever heard it said that if the elders pray for you, you are forgiven? If we sin, we pray to God, and He forgives us. Why is it necessary for us to call the elders, confess one to another, and ask the elders to pray for us so that we can then be forgiven? What kind of forgiveness is this? Before answering I would like to deal with something else and then come back.
In Scripture there is a something known as the government of God that applies not only to the unsaved but also to the saved. God has a way to deal with every child of His. If you are a father, you take pains to educate your children. In all your plans and doings you have a purpose behind the education of your children. How much more so with God! This is one of the most important things God is doing. He governs us according to certain principles. We call it the government of God. The chief principles of the government of God are spoken of in Galatians 6:7 and Luke 6:38. Galatians 6:7 says, "Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." Whatever we sow, we will reap. This is certain; we cannot dodge this. If we sow wheat, we will reap wheat; if we sow beans, we will reap beans. We cannot reap anything other than what we have sown. God has ordered it so, and nothing can reverse this law. It is true of Christians and it is true of unbelievers, but it is more true of Christians than of unbelievers. Luke 6:38 says, "For with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you in return." If we are stinted in measure, what we get back will be stinted; if we measure liberally, we will get back liberally. Galatians is a matter of kind; Luke is a matter of degree. The first is a matter of quality; the second is a matter of quantity. We all are reaping what we sowed in days past. What we are reaping in 1938 is what we have sown in 1937 and before. All that we experience comes into our life well-measured and ordered by God — in family, personal life, and business. Whatever we meet today is something we have sown in the past, perhaps many years ago. Nothing comes by chance. God's purpose in causing us to reap what we have sown is to educate us. Here is a man who is very critical and always finding fault with others. He is very censorious, always thinking and speaking harshly of others. This is what he is sowing, but soon he will begin to reap. Sometimes people criticize us. We resent it and feel that they are all wrong. But have we not done the same thing? God is trying to bring us to our senses. If we do not like being criticized, what about our criticizing others? I knew a brother who was very critical. A special word was always in his mouth — "The hand of God." If someone was sick, he would say, "It is the hand of God on him." One day a brother lost a son. This brother wrote a letter saying, "It is the hand of God on you." I saw the letter and asked why he was so hard on the other brother. Instead of comforting him, he criticized. Within two weeks he lost his own son. Then the temptation came to me. I took up my pen and wrote, "If that brother's son died because the hand of God was on him, what about you? Are you willing to admit that the hand of God is on you?" I finished the letter, and then I was rebuked. I was doing the very thing I was rebuking him for doing. He had said, "It is the hand of God upon you," and now I was saying the same thing. I tore up the letter. Since I did not want to reap this, I did not sow. If I do not want a certain measure measured to me, then I must beware of measuring with that measure to others.
We must be very careful not to invite the governmental hand of God on us. Once the governmental hand of God is on us, it is difficult to remove. Forgiveness to restore us to fellowship with God is easily procured, but the forgiveness that causes God to remove His governmental hand is quite difficult to obtain. This fifth kind of forgiveness can be called the governmental forgiveness of God. The governmental forgiveness of God means that He takes His hand from me without making me reap what I have sown. Restorative forgiveness is often given to us, but governmental forgiveness is often withheld. For instance, a little boy is allowed by his mother to go into the park every afternoon on the condition that he behave himself. He is told that he is not to fight with other boys or throw stones at the windows. He is quite good for several days, but then one day he has two fights with another boy and also throws stones and smashes several windows. Though his mother knows nothing about it, he does not want to see her when he goes home. At supper time he does not seem hungry, and he is strangely silent. The relationship between mother and son is not broken; he is still her son, but the fellowship has been broken. He sits still and does not speak, and his mother thinks he must be sick. So she asks, "What is the matter? I am afraid that you need some medicine." The trouble, however, is not with his body but with his conscience. The relationship is still there, but the fellowship is gone. How is it restored? It is restored when he makes a clean breast of everything and makes a full confession. So it is with God. Our relationship is eternal and can never be changed, but our fellowship with God is conditional, depending upon our sinlessness. If there is sin, then there must be confession before fellowship can be restored. When the son confesses, the mother will forgive. Does this mean that his mother will let him go back to play in the park? It is one thing to embrace him and say, "I forgive you," but it is another thing to let him play in the park the next day. She may say, "I am so glad that you have confessed, but I cannot let you go and play out there. You must come straight home for a week. If you are good and obedient, I will let you go to the park next week." Do you see the difference between restorative forgiveness and governmental forgiveness? So it is with God. If we sin and we confess, He will immediately forgive, but He may chasten our bodies. He may let something happen in our family or business to chasten us so that we will not lightly sin again. Until He sees that we are safe, He will not take His hand off. We must see the difference between restorative and governmental forgiveness. We see this clearly in 2 Samuel 12. David committed two terrible sins — murder and adultery. David was deeply repentant. We see this in Psalm 51. When God sent the prophet to him, Nathan said, "Jehovah has also put away your sin." David could have thought, "Hallelujah, God has forgiven me. All is well." But we should not be so quick! Nathan said he was forgiven, but he also said that the sword would not depart from his house and that God would raise up trouble against him within his own house. Fellowship was restored, but the hand of God was still on David. Restorative forgiveness was granted, but governmental forgiveness was still withheld.
Some of us ate many sweets and chocolates when we were young. Now our teeth are decayed. We have become Christians, and we confess, "Previously, I ate too many sweets. Please forgive me." But do our teeth grow anew? Our teeth may be impaired for life.
Praise God, there are many things that He is willing to forgive governmentally, but we must learn to fear God. Praise God that all is grace, but in grace He is educating us to know His holiness. Let none of us try to live as we like. Nothing may happen today; but remember, if we sow today, the reaping time is coming even though it may not be tomorrow. In James 5 there is one who did not know whether his sickness was because of a breach against the laws of nature or whether it was God's governmental hand upon him. No one knew, so he called for the elders and they came. They confessed one to the other, saying, "He has been acting as an individual and now we bring him back to the fellowship of the Body." They anointed him, bringing him under the anointing which is upon the whole Body (cf. Psa. 133:2). "And if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him" (James 5:15).
We must learn to differentiate between the five kinds of forgivenesses in Scripture, concerning: (1) eternal salvation, (2) our position in the church, (3) our fellowship with God, (4) our future position in the kingdom, and (5) our living in the world, whether in prosperity or adversity. God will not let one of His children escape His governmental hand. Everything that comes to us today has been measured for us by God. He is educating us so that we can have a share in His holiness. Therefore, we should fear Him. God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31). Paul said we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive according to what we have done, whether good or bad. The next verse says, "Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Cor. 5:11).
If there is anyone here who is conscious of sin before God and who acknowledges that sin before God, there will be instant forgiveness. There is no question and no delay in God's restorative forgiveness, but there is a question as to His governmental forgiveness. In regard to difficulties in our circumstances and physical life, we should be willing to submit ourselves under His hand. Then it will be easier for God to remove His hand. We may murmur, we may kick, and we may say, "Why should I have this difficulty? Why do others prosper and I do not?" The more we kick, the more the hand of God will be upon us. One day we will confess, "Father, it was right that Your hand was on me." We will one day say with Madam Guyon, "I will kiss the chastening rod," and when we say this, it will be removed. May our heart's attitude be, "Father, You can never be wrong, whatever I meet with is all right, I praise You for all that comes to me." "Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Pet. 5:6).
