Forgiveness
 |
| My photo of Dali's Christ on the Cross, Glasgow |
‘Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they do’ is one of the seven statements Christ made while
on the cross (Luke 23:34). Another is Jesus quoting Psalm 22:1, ‘My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Both these
statements are easily understood, even by a casual reading of the Bible – during
His execution Jesus is asking God to forgive His executioners and experiences an
awful feeling that God has deserted Him. For a deeper understanding (and
therefore growth in the grace and knowledge of God) we must apply the three things
needed for accurately studying the Bible, viz., context, context, and context!
The immediate context
is that while being put to death, Jesus addresses the crowd, and He addresses
God. The words forgive and forsake, (though different words in
the original language), have similar meanings here. Perhaps we may sum it up
thus: ‘Father, forsake their sins but why do I feel as if You do not forgive
Me?’ Why would God forsake His Son if His Son had never sinned? ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all’ (Isa. 53:6). To forgive those who trust in Jesus to save them from being
forsaken forever in hellish torments, God placed their sins on His Son on the
cross where He experiences the hellish torments each deserve for their
iniquities. So, the immediate context is that Jesus is asking that sinners be
forgiven, and God is responding by handing over their sins to His Son. Thus His
words, ‘Why Have You forsaken Me?’
The
historical context is that God had promised to supply a Redeemer, a Saviour of
His people, His people being all who believe in the salvation He has supplied
through Jesus. Old Testament believers believed in the One who was to come, New
Testament believers in the One who has come. So, Jesus on the cross is the
fulfilment in history of God’s promise to forgive His people. ‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Biblical context is that
the historical event of the cross was God’s bringing His unthwartable plan to
pass, through the birth, life, and death of His only begotten Son Jesus, ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’
(Rev. 13:8). And by what means were the eternal counsel of the Godhead’s plans
brought to pass? ‘This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite
plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands
of lawless men’ (Acts 2:23). So, if we were to add ‘context, context, and
context’ together we might say: God’s eternal plan to grant forgiveness to His
people can be found in the words spoken by Jesus Christ on a cross over 2,000 years ago.
Did the ‘lawless men’ know God was using them to kill
Jesus to fulfil His ‘definite plan’? No! Thus Jesus’s asking for their
forgiveness, ‘for
they do not know what they do.’ The unbelieving Jews wanted Jesus crucified and
the Romans authorities unjustly condemned Him. The Roman soldiers followed
orders by carrying out their sinful demands after the most unfair trial in the
history of Man. What’s it all about? From our perspective it’s about forgiveness!
‘For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16). From God’s perspective? ‘Behold, the dwelling
place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they
will be His people’ (Rev. 21:3).
