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.”
The
Chronicler gives us a mixed bag of news today.
When we read the chapter from the start, it reads like a horrible
chapter. King after king does evil in
the sight of the Lord. They reign a
short time. The king of Babylon comes
and puts them in their place and a new vassal is put into a leadership
position. The people are falling apart.
The nation is falling apart. God is
allowing the nation to fall into the judgment it deserves because they pursued
the desires of their own hearts.
While this
is a hard way to open the chapter, it is a righteous chapter. What would God be if He did not give us the
freedom to pursue our hearts? What value
would our love truly have if we did not have the option of rejecting Him? How can we ever truly show God’s love if we
don’t even have the ability to show to each other the evil that lies
within? No, we sin. We must have the freedom to choose sin so
that when we choose to imitate God’s love instead it actually has meaning.
That’s
really where the forgiveness comes into play.
God knows the rebellion that is within us. He will let us choose rebellion so strongly
that we will then suffer consequences for our choices. But that doesn’t mean that He abandons
us. He is always there to help us pick
up the pieces. No matter how grave the
consequences of our actions, He is always there to help us repent and offer us
an eternity of peace with Him.
We see that
as the passage comes to an end. The Babylonian exile doesn’t last forever. Seventy years pass by and the Persians come
onto the scene. They release the Hebrew
people to go back to their homeland. God
gives them another chance to be loyal and faithful. That’s what forgiveness is all about. Forgiveness says that with God, so long as
there is breath in our lungs there is always time for repentance and a change
in our heart.
It’s hard to
believe that today marks the end of my sixth year of this blog. It’s time to start up another three-year
cycle. I’m not sure what the next cycle
will bring – or even the format that I’ll be writing under. But I am going to continue reading and
blogging. It is good for me to be in the
Word daily, and blogging helps makes sure that I am in the Word daily and that
I am processing what God’s Word has to say to me. Please feel welcome to continue to continue
to read along!
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