Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: Obviously, forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God. We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway. We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway. As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others. In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
As we open Numbers 5, we hear about the punishment for the unclean
as well as some words on restitution.
The unclean are to be put out of the camp – at least until they are no
longer unclean. Proper restitution is to
be accomplished. In both cases we hear
the lesson that God desires that those people who are to be in His midst are
clean from their sinfulness.
Of course, in Christ we are made clean. We are washed in the blood. We know complete and utter forgiveness
through Christ. We should not forget
this point. The Hebrew people of Numbers
certainly couldn’t have known this, but we in our day most certainly do.
Knowing that we are made clean in Christ, it is also valuable for
us to remember that God desires us to be clean from our sins. He doesn’t want us to take our cleanliness
for granted, He desires that we genuinely repent and seek after spiritual
cleanliness. He knows that we cannot be
perfect, but He desires that we still take the process of repentance and forgiveness
seriously. Our forgiveness is no cause
for cheap grace. Rather, our forgiveness
is costly. Restoration is costly. Forgiveness is something to be valued.
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