IS FORGIVENESS SOMETHING GOD DOES OR GIVES? – PAUL ELLIS

When you sin against someone, your relationship with that person comes under strain. There’s this Thing that comes between the two of you. To be reconciled you need to deal with the Thing.

Jesus said if you are bringing your gift to the altar and you remember your brother has some Thing against you, go and deal with that Thing (Mat 5:23). He also said if your brother sins against you seven times in a day and seven times says, “I repent,” forgive him. “Send that Thing away” (see Lk 17:4).

All this we know and understand.

But here’s the thing. God is not like you or me. He doesn’t wait for you to act before He does His thing with your Thing. That Thing that was between you and Him – your sin – He’s already dealt with it. He has already forgiven you. To forgive literally means to send away and on the cross the sins of the world were sent away.

So what in the wide world of sports was John thinking when he wrote: “If you confess your sins, God will forgive you” (1 John 1:9). Technically, this is just not true. God won’t forgive you because He hasalready forgiven you. God doesn’t judge the same sin twice and at the cross He judged all sin. Consequently, He is no longer counting men’s sins against them. Sinners think that God is angry with them on account of their sin – their Thing – but the gospel says, “See Jesus!” As far as God is concerned the Thing is not the thing anymore.

So why does John say that God will forgive us our sins as though it was something He hadn’t already done?

In a recent post on 1 John 1:9, we saw that John was quoting an Old Testament scripture to illuminate a New Testament concept. In that post we looked at the word “confess” but today I want to look at the word “forgive” because John’s choice of words is rather strange. John describes forgiveness as a verb (aphiemi in Greek) when all the other New Testament writers tend to describe it as a noun (aphesis). This puzzle prompted me to do some counting and here’s what I found: prior to the cross, God’s forgiveness is almost always described as a verb. After the cross it is almost always a noun.

Do you see the significance of this? Prior to the cross God related to the Israelites on the basis of the law-keeping covenant. “If you do A, B, and C, then I will forgive your sins and heal your land, etc.” This is called conditional forgiveness and it’s what Jesus preached prior to the cross: “If you forgive others, God will forgive you.” It’s an eye for an eye and a verb for a verb.

But after the cross, everything changed. The law was fulfilled, grace was revealed and verbs became nouns. Forgiveness was no longer conditional on you doing A, B, and C. Forgiveness became a free gift paid for by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Himself was the first to announce this:

He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness (aphesis – a noun) of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”  (Luk 24:46-47)

Now just take a moment to go and check that passage in your own Bible. What does it say? Does it read “repentance for forgiveness” or “repentance and forgiveness”? The difference is huge. Repentance for forgiveness is what John the Baptist preached prior to the cross. It’s forgiveness conditional on you turning from sin. It’s a verb for a verb.

But this is not what Jesus preached after the cross. In Luke 24 Jesus says, “From now on, forgiveness is a noun. Forgiveness is not something God does, it’s something He’s done.”

This becomes clear when we read the verse in the King James: “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.” Forgiveness that has taken place is called remission. When were all our sins remitted? On the cross (see Mt 26:28 and Heb 9:22). This is what Jesus said we should preach – nouns, not verbs; gifts, not works.

Forgiveness is not something to sell but something to give. Jesus said the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name and that’s exactly what Peter (see Acts 5:31), Paul (see Acts 13:38), and the other apostles did. They proclaimed the good news of forgiveness – forgiveness as a noun, forgives as a done-deal – and invited people to believe in it. They encouraged people to receive the gift paid for by Jesus.

But John didn’t. He said, If you confess, God will forgive. He went with the old style verb instead of a new covenant noun. Why? Was He not in the room when Jesus made His Luke 24 announcement? Did he not get the memo that a new and better covenant was in town and that God’s forgiveness has been lavished upon us according to the riches of His grace? No, John uses the old verb for the same reason Paul does in Romans 4:7-8 – they were both quoting Old Testament scripture. Indeed, they were both quoting the same Old Testament scripture – Psalm 32. And that’s as good a place as any for us to finish:

“Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned.” (Ps 32:1, GNB)

Culled from: http://escapetoreality.org/2012/06/20/is-forgiveness-something-god-does-or-gives/