In our study of the Heidelberg Catechism (The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism) when we reached the fifth request of the Lord’s Prayer "forgive us our debts" (Lord's Day 51), I mentioned my recent understanding of forgiveness that came from our lengthy study of Matthew where the binding exercised by a priest's "finger"( Matthew 23:4) was contrasted with the power granted to us by which we loose what is bound both on earth and in heaven (Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18).
For when a priest bound a person, that person had to make atonement for their actions. When we forgive someone personally, we loose them from that debt. They need not make atonement to us. They are forgiven.
Let’s watch this in action in Matthew 12:1-8, when Jesus and the disciples took advantage of the law that permitted personal consumption of a neighbor's grain (Deuteronomy 23:25). Hunger mercifully overrides the eighth commandment (Exodus 20:15), which prohibits theft.
Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
However, the Pharisees held that it did not override the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8), which prohibited work on the Sabbath. They attempted to bind Him and require atonement.
In response, Jesus repeats for them a second time Hosea 6:6 (Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:17), which instructs us to add mercy to judgement. And in Matthew 12:9-14, Jesus demonstrated this by working on a Sabbath to be merciful to a man. This infuriated the Pharisees.
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Then in Matthew 12:22-32, the Pharisees attempted once again to bind Him. Without denying any of the miracles, they challenged the source of Jesus’ power as He continued to cast out demons. This would have been a violation of the laws having to do with sorcery (Deuteronomy 18:9-14). This is the second time (Matthew 9:33-34) that this blasphemous charge was spoken:
“It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
In response to this blasphemy (blasphēmia) of Himself and in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:12), He forgives them! But He warns them, that similar actions against the Holy Spirit could not be similarly forgiven. Instead, such sin must always be punished (Matthew 12:32).
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
This is a tough passage. What happens if I make an off-handed comment? What if I say something during a temporary period of deep lamentation?
Many attempt to comfort the repentant by explaining that if they are repentant of this unpardonable sin, they cannot possibly have committed the sin, because the repentant are always forgiven (1 John 1:9). They identify this sin as the high-handed ongoing rejection of the Holy Spirit, which would indeed lead the unrepentant to damnation (Matthew 25:31-46).
However, the brevity of the action (“a word”) and the tense of the verb, do not support this. In fact, in Matthew 12:33-37, it explains that every word will be judged and must be accounted for. Even the careless ones.
“ . . . I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
So, this shocking statement must be understood from within the proclaimed Gospel. Our Redeemer does not simply erase sin, but rather takes it upon Himself (Matthew 8:17). So, for the repentant, this grievous sin like all others, are propitiated by the work of Christ on the cross, where He is punished instead of them. There is no sin, where the work of Christ on the cross is not sufficient!
So, what then, is the difference between our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? Why is blasphemy against one forgivable and not the other. We are taught in WSC #6 that "these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory".
While they are not substantively different, they are positionally different. Jesus temporally relinquished His authority to become the sacrifice. But not so with the Holy Spirit. He has remained in glory. He is not the sacrifice. He cannot similarly forgive such evil. He must require atonement.
Praise be to God that our Lord Jesus Christ is willing to be the propitiation for our sin and protect us from God’s wrath, for any sin against the Holy Spirit must be punished.
Regularly we pray as we have been taught by our Lord:
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Jesus became the ultimate example of this on the cross, when Jesus said "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34).
Now, with that request were all those who were scourging, mocking, and killing Jesus ushered down the Ordo Salutis from regeneration, through justification, to adoption? No, they were simply forgiven for that particular action.
But what does that mean? What takes place? Let’s read it again.
Luke 23:34
"Father, forgive them"
Two participated: the Father and the Son. Jesus asked the Father to loose them from that sin. And it was struck from the "books" (Revelation 20:12) by which they will be judged.
It does not, however, add their name to the "book of life" (Revelation 20:15). For that is immutable, written before the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8).
While we will be judged by the “books”, God has already chosen those in the “book” to be saved (Revelation 20:11-15). And they will be saved only through the substitutionary work of Christ, in response to faith and repentance, where He is punished for their all their sin and they are credited instead with His righteousness.
So, when we forgive someone, terrestrially, we become a sacrifice, one that has been made “holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12) as we request the Father to celestially apply the work of Christ to sin. Just as Christ did on the cross, we pray “Father, forgive them”.
But unlike Christ, we have no righteousness. We can forgive (or better said, ask the Father to forgive), but we cannot save.
In this way, this does not do violence to the Westminter Larger Catechism question 194 which says in part:
- “that we and all others are guilty both of original and actual sin”
- “that neither we, nor any other creature, can make the least satisfaction for that debt”
- “that we from the heart forgive others their offenses.”
Say, for example, your spouse does something sinful that disrupts your morning routine, you miss the bus, arrive 30 minutes late for work, and must work through lunch to make up for it. If you go to our Father and ask Him to forgive them, if you commit neither to retaliate nor resent them, if you erase it from your terrestrial ledger, God will erase it from His celestial books as well. This is forgiveness.
This is so central to the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgy that before Great Lent, there is Forgiveness Vespers, during which members of the congregation turn each to the other and say “Forgive me, a sinner”, to which the response comes “God forgives, and I forgive”.
At this point we must return to the warning of Matthew 6:15:
“. . . but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
That is another tough passage. In essence, it warns that those that fail to practice forgiveness should question their salvation.
Jesus was asked by Peter how many times one should forgive. The Pharisees held that it was three times based on God’s pattern (Amos 1-2). Peter thought it might be seven. Jesus responded with a ridiculous number (Matthew 18:21-22) and then goes on to explain in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23-35).
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
These keys are given not just to Peter, but to all who stand with Peter in the Kingdom of God. They are not simply the capricious power to pass judgement, but rather the opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ.
To see this in action, let’s look at still another tough passage:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
Paul did not say here that Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, was in some way insufficient, just that there was more sacrificing to be done (Romans 8:16-18). Each time Paul was stoned, imprisoned unjustly, or falsely accused, he forgave them! He did not require atonement. He loosed them from it. Using the keys of the Kingdom, asked the Father to forgive them and it was removed from the books both on earth and in heaven! See for another example, the Stoning of Steven (Acts 7:60).
I had previously held that when I forgive, God would still eventually punish my offender. That is not true, for what I forgive (or better said, what I ask God to forgive), they will not be punished. Never. Ever.
Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
We are to step aside and literally “give place” (didōmi topos) for divine wrath. The English idiom “leave it” inaccurately ties the wrath to the present offence, permitting the thought that God would punish them for “it”. Rather we are to live a life where we are not the judge but rather the sacrifice.
Is there a time not to forgive? Yes. The protocol is clearly laid out again in Matthew 18:
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The only time we are commanded not to forgive is for an unrepentant “brother”, and only after this three-step protocol has been followed and their unrepentant sin has been recognized by the church. For, then they are no brother at all. Rather than repenting and receiving the forgiveness from a true brother who is willing to be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), they are now presuming upon Christ’s sacrifice, essentially attempting to crucify Him a second time (Hebrews 6:4-6). As a result, they should be removed from the visible church for they have entered back through the gates of Hell. They should be bound.
At risk of making this section too long, one more tough verse must be addressed:
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Reading this verse by itself, or worse yet combined only with its prior verse, we can jump to the conclusion that the effect of our good would in some way bring about the "vengeance" of God (Romans 12:19). But when taken in the full context of the chapter (Romans 12) a different picture is formed, that of an altar, its consuming fire, and a living sacrifice.
For we are that sacrifice, the offense we terrestrially forgive is the wood, and our enemy is the altar. Yes, indeed their conscience may burn as our small sacrifice brings about the sweet aroma of the Holy Place (Leviticus 16:12), but they may also repent, and receive the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we should want for even our worst enemy.
So, we are called to love in this way:
1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
And with this understanding (that we participate as the terrestrial sacrifice) we can now understand:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation . . .
Again, this “spiritual” (logikos) milk is identical in nature as the difficult to translate “spiritual worship” of Romans 12:1, during which the sacrifice (forgiveness) is now done with the mind, without the physical service of atonement.
And we are to long for this milk, because the proscribed sacrifice for a sin offering was a lamb (Leviticus 4:32-35), and we, like them, drink . . . milk.
