Bike

As a child I memorized:

 

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9

 

But I struggled with how it would be “just” to forgive someone.  Don’t they simply “get away with it”?  Is that really justice?

 

Let’s say, as you were learning to drive, you borrow the family car and on one of your first solo drives, you proceed to back over your younger sister’s bike in the driveway.

• If your Father makes you work hard and replace the bike, that would be just.
• If your Father, simply forgives you, then your sister does not have a bike.  That would not be just.
• But if your Father, out of his own money, buys her a new bike, if he then still makes you buy her a second bike.  That would not be just.

You see, God is being just by forgiving your sins, because Jesus has already been punished for them.  It would be unjust to make you pay for them a second time.

 

Paul describes it this way:

“It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:26

This leads to a difficult, but true, thought.  If the same thing happens to the neighbor’s children, a new driver in that family drives over their younger sibling’s bike, must your Father also pay?  No, that would not be just.  Your Heavenly Father is just to limit His mercy to those who are His children.

 

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
John 10:14-15

 

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:24-30

 

While this difficult thought is tied up in the mystery of eternal God’s Providence, 1 John 1:9 starts within our temporal experience with the phrase “If we confess”.  It is that simple action that guarantees we are part of God’s eternal plan.  This is the gospel.

 

Let’s do that today:

·       I have sinned and God would be just to punish me.

·       Jesus Christ was faithful, did not sin, and died in my place.

·       By the power of God, Jesus Christ rose again and by God’s mercy I can as well.

·       Heavenly Father, because it would be just, please forgive me.