SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2020 8:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 ‘God’s
Pardon”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 6:12
Message of the verse: “12 ’And forgive us
our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
In
our last SD we mentioned that we were going to look at four principles from
this verse and then in our next SD we will look at four words that come from
these principles to help us remember the principles. It is my desire to just look at the four
principles with and explanation of them in our SD for today, and then name the
first word, but not go into detail of it until our next SD as there is much to
talk about that word so I want to dedicate an entire Spiritual Diary for it.
Principle
number one is that “Sin
makes man guilty and brings judgment.”
As we look at this principle we should be able to see that this is
really the focal point of the human dilemma, as man is a sinner, and that is
his problem. The Bible teaches us that
sin is disobedience, lawlessness, breaking God’s law, and violating His
standard. I want to look at Romans 3:19
at this time and highlight a portion of it.
“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are
under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God”
(NASB95). In the KJV we see the words “guilty
before God,” and the NABS uses the words “accountable to God.” I want to give the meaning of that word
accountable: “1) under judgment, one who
lost his suit; 2) debtor to one, owing satisfaction to; 2a) of liable to
punishment from God.” This is the word
and how it is pronounced: “hupodikos hoop-od’-ee-kos.”
According to my Online Bible dictionary it is the same word translated
guilty in the KJV and is only used one time.
In Romans 6:23, a verse that most of
us are familiar with we see “For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” Here is the penalty, and
the sentence for sin and that is death.
So in breaking God’s laws, all men are guilty and face death.
Principle
number two: Forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of
Christ’s death. We can see from
this principle that our holy God who sees a sinful society is also a merciful,
loving, and forgiving God as He sees man’s need. Though man is guilty and stands in judgment,
God is a forgiving God. The Bible
teaches us that God will remember our sin no more as He will pass by our
iniquities; He will bury them in the depts; of the sea; He will remove them as
far as the east is from the west.
MacArthur
writes “Throughout the prophets and the apostles of the Scriptures there is
this unceasing promise: He wants to
forgive our sins. But in His holiness,
He could not do that. He had to bear the
penalty for our sins. The Bible tells us
that Christ bore in His body the sins of all the people who ever lived, and
paid the price of death for every man.
He is the propitiation, or covering, for the sins of the whole
world. He became sin for us, He who knew
no sin. A just and righteous and holy
God cannot forgive sin unless the penalty is paid. So Christ took our place.”
Principle
number Three: Confession of sin is
necessary to receive that forgiveness from God.
We will look now at what Paul says in Acts 20:21 “21 solemnly testifying
to both Jews and Greeks of
repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The results
of this is salvation for the one who repents and confesses Christ as their
Savior and Lord. Then a familiar verse
from 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” So in effect, that the
ones confessing their sins are the ones giving evidence that they are being
forgiven. There is no man who will
receive salvation without him repenting of His sins.
Principle
number Four: and I will quote this paragraph from MacArthur’s book “Jesus’
pattern of prayer: “the knockout punch
of this passage—Forgiving one another is an essential part of receiving
forgiveness for ourselves. Don’t be
confused, although it looks like forgiveness from God requires that we forgive
somebody else. It’s not that you have to
start forgiving people before you can get saved. You can’t
really forgive somebody else if you are not a Christian. How can you do a righteous act before you
have a righteous nature? That raises a
basic misunderstanding of verses 14 and 15 following the Disciples’ Prayer.” He goes on to say that this will be discussed
later on and so we will wait to talk about this later on.
11/29/2020 9:12 AM
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