In our last post, we looked at the account of Jacob's reunion with Esau, and we noted that Jacob's sin had produced two effects - creating an obligation to Esau and also introducing alienation and enmity between the brothers. When a sin is forgiven, both the obligation and the alienation/enmity are dealt with, and therefore we need to consider each of these aspects in more detail. In this post, then, we will reflect on the concept that sin places the sinner under obligation to the one sinned against, and we'll consider forgiveness in the light of that. Next time, we will look at how sin is the cause of enmity and alienation between the sinner and the one sinned against, and we will look at forgiveness in that context.
In our text above, Paul reminds the Colossians that before they came to know Christ as Savior, they were dead to God because of their offenses against His law (there is the separation and alienation caused by sin). However, it is clear that their sins, at one and the same time, had rendered them bankrupt before God. They had run up incalculable spiritual debts to Him that they had no way of repaying. They were guilty and liable to punishment. Paul tells us this by describing the way in which God had made them alive from the dead (i.e. had removed the alienation and enmity). He forgave all their sins, Paul says, by cancelling (wiping out, or blotting out) their debt to Him (v14)!
The Colossians' misdeeds are pictured as being recorded in what was effectively an "I.O.U." to God - a certificate of their indebtedness, or "record of debt". This listed all the ways they had presumed upon His goodness, broken His gracious laws and rejected His rightful claims over them. It completely justified their condemnation by God and explained their alienation from Him - but God had forgiven them by blotting it out completely! How did He do this? Paul tells us. God took the Colossians' I.O.U., which called for His justice to be meted out upon them, and He made it over to Christ's account instead. Then He punished Jesus in the place of the Colossian believers. Their I.O.U. was nailed to Christ's cross as a charge-sheet that gave the reasons for His execution.
In 1 Corinthians 15:56, Paul indicates that death gets its ability to hurt us from sin, and sin gets its power from the law (this is the source of indebtedness to God). When they were apart from Christ, the Colossians were dead in sins (see our passage above). But when Christ blotted out their record of debt, they had to rise to life in Christ!
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 1 Corinthians 15:56
This passage is not the only place in the Bible where sin is spoken of in language associated with debt. Jesus Himself talks about our sins as debts in the Lord's Prayer:
Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6:11-12)
In fact, in the version of the prayer that appears in Luke, sin and debt are linked quite closely:
"..and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 12:4)
Why is it that sin is often pictured in terms of debt? It is because sin is a breaking of God's law, and in God's economy, all breaking of His law attracts a penalty that must be exacted. The law of God requires us to love Him first and foremost, and to love each other as we love ourselves. Therefore, all our sin is ultimately an offense against Him and creates an obligation to Him. We are not able to repay this debt to God, so (as we saw above) God has found a way to pay it for us by making our debt over to Christ and inflicting the penalty that should have been ours on Him instead (thus maintaining His justice) - if we will renounce our sin and trust Jesus alone to make that payment for us.
So with God, our sin puts us under an obligation to Him that is so great we could never meet it. If we are to be set free from that obligation, we must give up any idea of ourselves making the repayment or even contributing to it - Christ Himself must pay it, and He must pay it all.
What about the sins we commit against one another? How does forgiveness operate here? Clearly these still put us in a place of obligation to God that we need Christ to fulfill on our behalf. But there is more we need to see here:
- First, such sins also put the one who sinned against us under an obligation to us (as they did for Jacob with Esau). They may or may not be able to make restitution. If they can, then they should (and this clears the financial aspect of the obligation). However, whether or not they can do this, we must be willing to forgive them. If they come to us in repentance and are able to make restitution, then our forgiveness will dismiss any lingering grudge, distrust or malice from our hearts (which means dealing with the alienation and enmity aspects of the offense). If they are not able to repay, but nevertheless show genuine indications of repentance, we are to be willing both to discharge the obligation they were under, and effectively forget the offence by not harboring ill-will towards them in our hearts.
- Second, this becomes easier for us to do if we remember that we have been forgiven an incalculable debt by God's grace. Therefore, we should be willing to forgive others their relatively trivial offences against us (see Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 7:41-50) We'll see more on this in a later post.
- Finally, as the old saying says, "To err is human, to forgive, Divine." When we exercise forgiveness towards others who show repentance for their sins against us, we are behaving in a way that is truly Godlike. We are putting His likeness in us on display, and that brings glory to Him.
Great God of wonders! all thy ways
are matchless, godlike and divine;
but the fair glories of thy grace
more godlike and unrivaled shine.
Refrain:
Who is a pard'ning God like thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?
Or who has grace so rich and free?
In wonder lost, with trembling joy
we take the pardon of our God;
pardon for sins of deepest dye,
a pardon bought with Jesus' blood. [Refrain]
O may this strange, this matchless grace,
this God-like miracle of love,
fill the whole earth with grateful praise,
and all th'angelic choirs above. [Refrain]
