“If we confess our sins,” writes John (1 John 1.9), “God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
But do we need to confess our sins – be repentant – before God will forgive us? Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Matthew 6.12) The precondition to God forgiving us is not that we confess our sins but that we forgive others. Jesus emphasises this point in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18.23-35), where the King cancels a servant’s debt simply because the servant has no way of paying it back. But then the servant goes out and refuses to cancel a miniscule debt that a fellow servant owes him – and as a result the King un-cancels the debt the first servant owes to him, and throws him into prison. Confession and repentance aren’t even mentioned in the parable.
Jesus went about forgiving sin – whether or not the sinner repented. For example the man who was let down through a hole in the roof (Mark 2.1-12). The first thing Jesus did was forgive his sin. The man had not even been given an opportunity to confess his sin.
Another example: the parable of the lost son. The Father didn’t even give his son an opportunity to make his penitent speech – it didn’t matter to him (Luke 15.21-22). He was forgiven, whether or not he was penitent.
And then there’s Jesus’ own prayer: “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23.34) Did God answer this prayer? Those who hammered the nails into his wrists didn’t repent. The Jewish leaders who condemned him to death had no desire to “confess their sins”. But Jesus forgave them.
If God just forgives everyone whether they ask for it or not, whether they want it or not, we have universalism: everyone will wind up in heaven. But it’s unlikely that people would be forced into heaven who have no desire to be there. On the other hand (as Dallas Willard writes) God is unlikely to turn away from heaven anyone who would sincerely like to be there. Heaven is a place of grace, of forgiveness. Those who prefer ungrace, unforgiveness would not feel at home there. Perhaps that’s the general principle of who winds up in heaven – like the parable of the unforgiving servant: those who choose unforgiveness wind up in the place of unforgiveness while those who choose forgiveness wind up in the place of grace and forgiveness. By choosing forgiveness I am choosing to forgive those who sin against me. By choosing unforgiveness I am choosing to not forgive those who sin against me.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Emerging Church
Back in 2003 I was preaching in Redhill and Seaford (in the UK), using an article by Andrew Walls as my starting point:
- Did a Gentile need to become a Jew to become a Christian? No!
- Did a Barbarian need to become a Greek to become a Christian? No!
- Does an African need to become a Brit to become a Christian? No!
- Does a Tatar need to become a Russian to become a Christian? No!
- Does a post-modern hip-hop rocker need to become respectable and middle-class to become a Christian? You what mate!
In an article in Christianity (March 2004) Laurence Singlehurst writes that we need to think about reaching Britain as a missionary might think. Well, since I am a misionary I can think in that way. In fact, one of my main activities is encouraging peoples to express their faith using the forms of the culture God has given them. God created a beautiful diversity of languages and cultures - each one a vehicle of his praise and worship. Nothing gives me greater joy than to see a people using their own language and their own culture to worship God and to get to know him better.
If we don't contextualise the Gospel, the Gospel will never take root in that culture and amongst that people. It will always remain the religion of the foreigner, the outsider.
What's this got to do with Emerging Church? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that what "emerging church" is doing is expressing the Gospel in contemporary post-modern western culture. And this is as different from the Gospel contextualised in 1960s modern culture as Celtic monks were different from the early Greek Church Fathers. Same Gospel. Same faith. But wrapped up in a different culture.
Michael
- Did a Gentile need to become a Jew to become a Christian? No!
- Did a Barbarian need to become a Greek to become a Christian? No!
- Does an African need to become a Brit to become a Christian? No!
- Does a Tatar need to become a Russian to become a Christian? No!
- Does a post-modern hip-hop rocker need to become respectable and middle-class to become a Christian? You what mate!
In an article in Christianity (March 2004) Laurence Singlehurst writes that we need to think about reaching Britain as a missionary might think. Well, since I am a misionary I can think in that way. In fact, one of my main activities is encouraging peoples to express their faith using the forms of the culture God has given them. God created a beautiful diversity of languages and cultures - each one a vehicle of his praise and worship. Nothing gives me greater joy than to see a people using their own language and their own culture to worship God and to get to know him better.
If we don't contextualise the Gospel, the Gospel will never take root in that culture and amongst that people. It will always remain the religion of the foreigner, the outsider.
What's this got to do with Emerging Church? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that what "emerging church" is doing is expressing the Gospel in contemporary post-modern western culture. And this is as different from the Gospel contextualised in 1960s modern culture as Celtic monks were different from the early Greek Church Fathers. Same Gospel. Same faith. But wrapped up in a different culture.
Michael
Thursday, January 04, 2007
At last we are free from God!
Jeremiah 2.31 sounds exactly like the contemporary western world: “O people of the west, listen to the words of Yahweh! Have I been like a desert to you, bringing you drought, famine and poverty? Have I been like a land of darkness to you, blinding you with lies, deception and false religion? Why then do you say, ‘At last we are free from God! We won’t have anything to do with him anymore!’"
“It’s me who put you where you are now,” Yahweh could sing, “and I could put you back down too. Don’t you want me, baby?” And the west would not be where it is now had it not been for the hand of God. But then to read the regular godless arrogance in the newspaper, ridiculing God and the notion of the divine – ‘At last we are free from God! We understand that the unenlightened masses who went before us needed their silly childish beliefs to keep them going – but we are mature, free from such trite nonsense.’ Choosing ungrace over grace. Choosing dog-eat-dog over forgiveness. Choosing pride over thankfulness. Do they not realise what they are rejecting, who they are abandoning? ‘At last we are free from the One who is Love – so I can indulge my every selfishness’ – and rape the poor (Jeremiah continues).
“It’s me who put you where you are now,” Yahweh could sing, “and I could put you back down too. Don’t you want me, baby?” And the west would not be where it is now had it not been for the hand of God. But then to read the regular godless arrogance in the newspaper, ridiculing God and the notion of the divine – ‘At last we are free from God! We understand that the unenlightened masses who went before us needed their silly childish beliefs to keep them going – but we are mature, free from such trite nonsense.’ Choosing ungrace over grace. Choosing dog-eat-dog over forgiveness. Choosing pride over thankfulness. Do they not realise what they are rejecting, who they are abandoning? ‘At last we are free from the One who is Love – so I can indulge my every selfishness’ – and rape the poor (Jeremiah continues).
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