Hebrews 5:1 Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. 2And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. 3That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.
The sacrifice of Christ also reconciled God's sins against me. Yes, God has sinned against me. He has acted against my will, he has allowed or even committed tragedies that offend my sense of right and wrong, He demands righteousness from me that I do not desire to obey, in general He stands other and above me, and I find myself His offended enemy.
Colossians 1:21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Although His sin against me is universally irrelevant, inconsequential, and even my voicing them as "sins" may be silly and probably is in fact insane or at least ignorant, the sting of the offense still embitters me against Him. However, I believe that God is lovingly concerned with my perceived encroachment by Him upon my person, the person He created me to be, no matter how ignorant or irrational I may be.
Job 9: 32 “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. 33 If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, 34 someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. 35 Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Through Christ, even though He was not truly guilty of anything apart from offending my ignorant perception, God still seeks to be fully reconciled to me, and I forgive Him. He became sin and sacrificed himself for the sin that he became, once and for all, I receive all of it. He receives my forgiveness, even as His truth chisels away at my own ignorance.
Hebrews 7:27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
It might seem pointless, even heretical. You might be saying, "You're crazy Dax, God doesn't need to be forgiven, He hasn't sinned, you are just misunderstanding Him, seeing Him wrong". And my answer is "So what?" I am still angry, my ignorance to His ways has created a chasm between us and I still need for Him to be reconciled to me, and I need to forgive Him. If he shows me the full truth later, I will receive it, but as it stands, I know I need to be forgiven, but I also need to forgive God in order that my relationship with Him be fully reconciled. He not only allows for me to do this, but He has provided for it through Christ's ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a two way street, an exchange of equal value, if not in reality, at least in the minds of the parties to the reconciliation In fact the Greek word for "reconciliation" in the text below is a monetary word meaning something like "exchange of equal value".
2 Corinthians 5:18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
How great is the love of God that He does not dismiss my offense, even though it is worthy of dismissal even ridicule, instead he honors it. Much like a father apologizing for having to correct his child, he does so, not because his actions toward the child were in any way wrong, but because of his love he is concerned with recognizing the individuality of his child, and maintaining the relationship.
Understanding this aspect of Grace, and of the the ministry of Christ in not only working to reconcile me to God, but also God to me, has helped me to see that when I have brought an offense to another person, even if their offense is unfounded, even if they completely misunderstood me, even if they are acting out of total ignorance, or out of spite, God has still provided the example for me to take the offense seriously and work and sacrifice to see that it is forgiven and that the relationship reconciled.
4 comments:
This is a really interesting thought, one that could be a member of a series of responses to a question needing answered, that of the ethical/moral perfection of God Himself, and what this ethical/moral perfection is.
Or by what standard is the moral perfection of God measured? Would it not be God Himself? You see, it isn't fair from my perspective, He gets to make all the rules. But thankfully that's ok, because of Christ, I forgive Him!
I thought I would post this comment here as well as in the Facebook group where I saw the link. :-) :
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Interesting article. It makes sense from a "how the heart works" point of view. The heart is not always rational.
I think if you use "forgive" to mean "overlooking an offense" your article makes some sense.
And, obviously, if by "forgive" you mean "let someone go free from the justice they deserve" than you are indeed a total heretic. ;-)
I am pretty sure that you are using the former definition and idea of "forgive" and not the latter.
So I guess you are not a heretic after all.
:-)
This ex-Christian Gentile has read and re-read Kushner's excellent book, yet implied is a translation truth that might startle so many: G-d the not-so-omnipotent and creator of ra, or moral evil (Yeshayahu 45:7), is a sinner, too.
However, the Eternal can never be a sinner in the sense of pesha or willful transgression, or in the sense of avon or iniquity, but is very much one in the sense of chatah: missing the mark.
What can we of the image of G-d do about it? We can sulk in resentment, which the Eternal never intended for us in this life or the next, or we can be partners with the Incorporeal in refining and improving this world and, in the process, ourselves, as our Partner on the other side works day by day to earn and renew our trust. In the process, in those moments when we are not obligated to fulfill universal or covenant-specific commandments regarding our neighbour, it is important to thank G-d for the little things, things as little as nourishments after being nourished, and to appreciate the Eternal for the little miracles that happen every day and that should not be taken for granted.
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