SORRY

                                                                         Sorry

Sorry is one of those words that is always in need a partner. Sorry to bother you about my sorry state of feeling sorry for myself for doing something for which I am sorry! Yes, sorry, like misery loves company. In the Biblical context, sorry seeks for forgiveness to be its partner. Whenever you wrong someone, saying ‘I am sorry’ to them is like a marriage proposal. If they reply with an ‘I forgive you’, then it is wedded bliss and time to rejoice.

Rembrandt's
Return of the Prodigal Son

Jesus says, ‘there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’ (Luke 15:10). Repent is fast becoming one of those ‘Christianese’ words, right up there with ‘behold’, ‘begotten' and many more. However, we are glad that the angels still understand the meaning of repent! It has to do with being sorry, in this particular instance, the sinner being so sorry for his/her sins against God, that he/she has turned away from them and has sought God’s forgiveness. This is what Jesus meant when He was walking around saying to people, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). In brief, if anyone wishes to enter the kingdom of God and thereby escape His eternal judgment on you for your wrongs against Him, then give the angels something to rejoice about. Tell God that you are sorry and thereby receive His forgiveness. The gospel is the good news that God forgives sorry sinners.

Of course, we know that not everyone will be sorry and believe in the good news of forgiveness. For it was un-sorry unbelievers that had Jesus nailed to a cross. However, that was part of God’s grand scheme of things. ‘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). Being raised from the dead to never die again was God showing His approval that Jesus lived a perfect life representing believers, and that He died a death by receiving their punishment as their substitute. Thus, the Father took all our sorry sins and placed them on His Son by having Him put on a cross. The Son took all our sins willingly. The Father turned out the lights during the day and then incinerated every last one of our wrongs against Him.

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The tomb couldn’t hold Jesus because death is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23) and He had no sin, no sin of His own. ‘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). Here’s what happened. God did a swap. He transferred our wrongdoings to Jesus and shared Jesus’ non-wrongdoing with us. His non-wrongdoing is righteousness, which is His perfect obedience to God on our behalf. ‘It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification’ (Rom. 4:24-25). The way for us to receive God’s forgiveness is for us to to believe in what God is telling us, which is that which is another word for good news, namely, the gospel.

Being sorry for wronging someone and seeking their forgiveness is a small picture of something infinitely larger. God says that ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:23). Jesus is that glory (John 1:14). Dear reader, surely you’ve experienced the conscience-clearing joy that comes when you say sorry to someone you’ve wronged and they forgive you? Ask any angel, but it is everlasting joy for those who say sorry to God.