FORGIVENESS

                                                                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).