Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: 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.”
Psalm 53
is a great psalm for people like me.
Talk about blunt! The psalmist
doesn’t mince words and he certainly tells it like it is. “God looks down from heaven on the children
of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” That sounds like a good thing, right?
But look
at the conclusion that the psalmist reaches in the very next verse. They have fallen away; together they have
become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Ouch.
That pretty much lays out the human condition right there, doesn’t it?
Think you
are good? What does Psalm 53:3 tell
you? Think that person in your life that
you love or admire or look up to is good?
What does Psalm 53:3 say about that?
To be
fair, we do need to temper this verse.
There is no good in us by our nature.
That’s the point of the psalm.
But when God is in us and working through us, then good can be
found. So on those days that you are in fact
good, it is because God is at work within you.
Those people that you look up to, admire, or love are only good when God
is at work through them. Therefore we
can be an example of good in our actions and words, but only because of God’s
hand within us.
How is
all of this possible? That’s where
forgiveness comes in to play. God looked
down from heaven and saw that not one of us was good. However, He still sent His Son. He still wanted relationship with us. He still desires us to come to Him, know His
ways, and be like Him. That’s all
possible because He forgives.
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