Sometimes we all wonder: Will God forgive?By Neil Earle
Sometimes we all wonder: Will God forgive?Last week two colleagues and I interviewed a pastor engaged in prison ministry for 18 years. His report was riveting to say the least.
Fortunately the light of Christ shines even in prison through the work of groups such as Prison Fellowship and Kairos Ministries. One inmate confessed to the shame and indignity of “strip searches” that occur all too regularly behind bars: “We were forced to strip out of our personal clothes and stand around a-- naked in front of more people than I had ever known in my nineteen years…I no longer felt I belonged to myself.”
The indignity of prison is something counselors talk about. Yet when it comes to discussing forgiveness with the counselees on the inside, the Number One problem many of them have is to forgive themselves first of all. Not all, but many.
In some ways we’re all like that.”Conscience” is a word our society doesn’t talk about very much. But it affects us all. As William Lane says in the Word Commentary: “Conscience is the point at which a person confronts God’s holiness…” And that can be very overwhelming and even self-destructive. St. Peter’s conscience tore him apart when he denied Jesus three times and he never forgot it (Matthew 26:75).
The pains of Conscience can be very real.In Hebrews 9 and 10 Paul speaks a lot about conscience, he also presents the antidote to the total demoralization and sense of defeat a violated conscience can leave behind.
These chapters are the climax of his argument in this sobering but inspiring and comprehensive letter.
To his wavering readers Paul is pressing the case not to return to the Old Covenant system of tabernacle worship with its dignified but now obsolete rituals. These ceremonies only existed to foreshadow infinitely more meaningful events in the heavenly realm.
Hebrews 9:27 picks up the story: “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven
Jesus was sacrificed long ago “to take away the sins of many people” (v. 28) and that is why the tabernacle/temple worship has become obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Glorious as it was and as long as it had existed, God was setting forth those old covenant rules and regulations to point to an incomprehensively greater reality.
Most Christians know this. They enjoy “the good things that are coming” – the good news about Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and return.
Here is real Christianity and the difference between the old and the new is the difference between obsolescence and living forever. Hebrews 10 continues that argument and then climaxes with news about the new and living way Jesus opened up for us.
Since Jesus is our high priest in heaven “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” Assurance. We all need that. In some senses the only religious question most people have ever wondered about is “how can I approach God?” “How can I get right with God?” I know I’m a sinner how can I now God will forgive my sins?”
The next phrase shows how. By “having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.” The sprinkling the high priest did on the Day of Atonement inside the holy of holies pointed to the Holy Spirit supernaturally applying to our guilty consciences the very sacrifice of Jesus, relieving us from guilt, removing our sin and the shame and the stains and reconciling us back to the beloved Father.
The blood of Christ takes way what George Smeaton calls “the sense of guilt or the painful foreboding of merited punishment.”
The Old Testament sacrifices pointed to forgiveness for all.The wise commentary writers expand on this:
“A purified conscience is seen in the boldness of access, the peace, liberty and hope which Scripture connects with it. This is a freeing from the inward power of sin.
“When conscience is cleansed the powerful sense of agonized guilt ceases to torment the mind. Conscience is like a courtroom in the human mind and spirit and is only pacified by that which pacifies the justice of God.
“The blood of Christ does this – it makes atonement for us when it is sprinkled on the conscience. When a man receives the Atonement he has a sensible peace and a well-grounded persuasion of exemption from guilt and punishment on the ground that Christ has taken our guilt upon himself.”
As wonderful as that is there is even more, The blood of Jesus has retrospective as well as future prospective effects.
“But what about our defiled memories? Is not that an everlasting stain? Here is where we bring to mind Calvin’s great exchange (our sins for Christ’s righteousness). Sin does not attach to me but to my Substitute who took it upon him by act of the court in heaven. For he tasted death for everyone and his merits He transferred to me with the accompanying blessing of the Father’s good pleasure for he is not ashamed to call us brothers!
“The natural and necessary result of this Divine Exchange is that we serve the Living God. The cleansing and perfecting of conscience facilitates access and emboldens the worshipper to draw near “
The blood of Christ achieves what had been promised through Jeremiah 31:31-34 and demonstrates that Jesus is mediator of a new covenant.
And what does all this mean?
Lane adds: “The purpose is that those who are called might receive the promised inheritance that comprises the blessing of the new covenant. The promise concerns the enjoyment of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 10:36).
So there it is: forgiveness, reconciliation, restitution and reward far beyond any human goal.
All done by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the centerpiece of what the author of Hebrews has been leading towards in this magnificent letter.