What is Love?

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 3:4-8

\”Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father\’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.\” John 15:9-17

The Sting of Death

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:55-56)

In most churches you will hear this verse of scripture changed to the converse. That is to say they (and some study Bibles) will teach you that the \”sting of sin is death.\”

What? Seriously? The \”sting of sin is death?\” But doesn\’t it say the opposite? Of course it does. Then why are they teaching you a lie?

Is God not able to make His point? Is He not able to properly inspire His word for transcription? Does He really need us to take His word, turn it on it\’s end and teach it like we think He meant to say it instead of the way He did say it? If you are one of those people who actually believe that you or someone else is God\’s gift to mankind and as such, have a special anointing to preach and enumerate His word as he actually meant it (instead of how He actually inspired it), then maybe you should just stop reading here, because it\’s only going to get worse.

It\’s about Life, Not About Being Good
Ask just about any person on the street this question: \”what is the purpose of Christianity?\” They may tell you it\’s about teaching one how to do good, or be good, or how to do the right thing. They may tell you it\’s about not doing the bad or wrong thing. What they\’re saying is this: Christianity is about being good and not being bad. If they\’re really thinking (or parroting) well, they\’ll tell you that the purpose of Christianity is to provide one a system of beliefs which attempts to enable the believer to do good works instead of the bad works they\’re accustomed to performing. And when you die, if your good works out weighs your bad works, then you get to go to heaven.

Well, I\’ve got news for you. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of Christianity is not to teach you how to be good. It\’s not about enumerating the bad things you shouldn\’t do, or the good things you should do. Someone once said \”there are more do\’s in the in the Bible than there are don\’ts. And if you spend all of your time doing the do\’s you won\’t have time to do the don\’ts.\” Well, it\’s not about that either. So, lets take the tag of \”Christianity\” out of the discussion and simplify it like this: what is God\’s fundamental purpose for you? Before we can answer that question, we must have some rudimentary understanding of who God is.

Who is God?
Jesus said, \”I and my Father are One\” (John 10:30), and \”I am the way, the truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me\” (John 14:16). Jesus had apparently had a lot to say about \’life\’ in His ministry, for someone came to Him with this question: \”Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?\” (Matthew 19:16). And who hasn\’t heard the saying, \”the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it\” (Matthew 7:14) or possibly, \”everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name\’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life\” (Matthew 19:29)

Fundamentally, God is Life. When God breathed Life in to the nostrils of man, He wasn\’t giving man blood and a heart beat, He was making man in His image, an image of spiritual Life, separate and distinct from all other living things. While all other creatures are \”alive\”, it is only man that was given the breath, the spirit of Life. Sorry – all dogs don\’t go to heaven, any more than the trees some people love to hug.

God is also described as being Light: \”God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all\”, and \”he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.\” (1 John 1:15, John 3:21) Light as we know it (as composed of photons) is an interesting way to describe God. Have you ever understood that you cannot have more darkness, but you can always have more light? Theoretically, it\’s always possible to add more photons, but you can\’t have any less than zero photons. Thus, darkness is not actually a thing, but a description of the absence of light. The same is true in death, it being defined as the absence of life. You can\’t have more death, but you can have more life. Even now your body is dying and being renewed: cells die and are replaced. What would happen if no cells died? You\’d have more life, you would have perpetual or eternal life.

Therefore since God is Light, it\’ is impossible for there to be any darkness in Him. The same is true with Life: since He is Life, it\’s impossible for there to be death in God. Hence, seeing that Jesus and the Father are one, \’He is the way, the truth and the Life.\”

The Law of Sowing and Reaping
The Law of Sowing and Reaping is stated thusly: \”Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.\” (Galatians 6:7) Therefore, God

will render to each person according according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. (Romans 2:6-8)

When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. When they sinned, they sinned for everyone because in them, everyone existed. They literally passed the consequence of their sin to every subsequent human. Thus, all have been and will be born born spiritually dead.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned … nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam\’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (Romans 5:12-14)

So, since man is now spiritually dead, can he therefore co-exist spiritually with God? If that\’s a difficult leap to make, then bring the comparison into the natural instead of the spiritual. Can death abide with life? Do companies hire living people or dead people? Do you want to marry a living person or a dead person? Do you want to date a living person or a dead person? Spiritual death is the problem that God solved for man through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to give life:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Did you notice the reference to life in that scripture? Since God is Life, and that is what He provided man in the beginning, but man later lost, then God provided a mechanism for you to receive His Life (again) through His Son, Jesus Christ. See? It\’s all about life.

The Sting of Death is Sin

The sting of death is sin, because the un-regenerated (spiritually dead) reaps the harvest of eternal death in physical death. Since spiritual death is the result of sin, it is therefore sin that provides the sting after or or death. Thus in eternal spiritual death, you reap the sting of the sowing in sin, the rewards of sin. Just as a man reaps at the harvest the rewards of sowing wheat in a field, man reaps the rewards of  sowing the seeds of sin throughout his life.

Thus we see that physical death will reward you in one of two ways: for those who have found the Life and Light, they will reap the harvest of sowing life and light. For those who have rejected the Life and the Light, they will reap the harvest of sowing death and destruction. The scripture says, 

these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

Did you notice that part about \”eternal destruction?\” 

Exactly how would you like to be destroyed or killed when you die? By a car, a train or by being riddled with bullets? Exactly how many times can a person be destroyed during an eternity? What exactly do you believe eternal destruction is, or have you never considered it? If you were to rot until you died, then how would you like to rot for eternity? When you sow death and destruction, you reap death and destruction. When you sow life and love through faith in Jesus Christ and repentance from sin, you reap life and love.

Thus, when the scriptures state that the \”sting of death is sin\”, they\’re saying this: that thing which stings you for eternity, that thing which discomforts you for eternity, that thing which destroys you for eternity, that thing is called sin. The scriptures are saying that death for the un-regenerate has a pain, and that pain is sin, because in that you have sown sin in your life, you will reap the rewards (or punishments) of sin in death – thus sin is the sting of death.

Contrary wise, for those who have sown Life and Light, scripture says \”\’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?\’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.\” Thus, it is Jesus Christ that has removed the sting of death – He has obliterated the power of sin to sting you in death.

How to Sow Life and Light
In order to be given the Life of God, you must repent of your sins. Why? Because sin destroys. Life renews. Therefore, you must give up death and destruction and embrace Life. Turning away from sin is called repentance. Confessing your sin is agreeing with God that you have disobeyed His will, His desire for you. Through repentance and confession, you must place your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Why? Because you can not give yourself life. You didn\’t make your parents give you life and you didn\’t determine to come into this world on your own. When God breathed spiritual life into man, it was an act of Grace – God made man something he could not be or become on his own. Neither can you make yourself spiritually alive:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Thus we turn to God in faith:

But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: \”do not say in your heart \’who will ascend into heaven?\’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or \’who will descend into the abyss?\’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).\” But what does it say? \”The word is near you, in your mouth and in you heart\” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, \”whoever believes in Him will not be disapointed.\” (Romans 10:6-11)

It’s not Just about Belief and Forgiveness

Once upon a time, I suggested that “teaching people to know the Word rather than to know the Lord is the single greatest failure of the modern church era.”  

There were fewer responses to that post than one might imagine. A pastor friend of mine chimed in and took me to task, saying that “properly teaching the word is teaching the Lord.”  The operative word in that phrase is “properly.” There is a difference in teaching law and doctrine and teaching relationship with God. One may properly teach the Bible regarding law and doctrine but not know how to demonstrate faith and relationship. The Pharisees and Scribes were masters in teaching law and doctrine, as are many of our pastors and teachers.

If one lacks faith and a relationship with Jesus, what business does one have teaching it, or even the doctrine and law? And therein is the problem: we have learned how to teach and exposit the law (good versus evil), but rarely have we succeeded in properly teaching the word of faith and relationship (life).

Just because someone has been to Seminary and sat under or read after the venerated saints and learned from the self-proclaimed best doesn’t mean that same person can teach faith and relationship. We actually believe (to our detriment, I might add) that all one must do is go to seminary and regurgitate what they’ve been taught and repeat the things they’ve managed to scribble in notes or memorized from Sermons On the Net.

Case in Point: Reconciliation vs. Forgiveness

You may believe that going to heaven hinges completely on God forgiving you of your sins. Or you may believe that you will be judged according to your works before God makes up his mind where He is going to send you. But the problem is this:  your status before God does not rely upon what He is going to do in the future at your judgment, nor is it entirely about what you’ve done in the past, nor it is entirely about faith and Him forgiving you.  There is a deeper root, and it’s called reconciliation.

You’ve been Forgiven: You need Reconciliation

One of the core issues concerning redemption and salvation is reconciliation. Our misunderstanding of this stems from the fact that we have taught and preached that humanity needs, yea, requires God to forgive them of their sins when we should teach and preach that humanity needs to be reconciled to God.  To compound the problem, we have incorrectly taught that reconciliation and forgiveness always go hand-in-hand, and at worst, we have taught that they are the same.

Reconciliation is not  Forgiveness

Nowhere is this fallacy more apparent than in the typical Sunday morning pulpit teaching regarding forgiveness and reconciliation between you and a friend. Conventional wisdom states that if your friend sins against you 490 times, and you forgive him 490 times, then you and your friend are also reconciled by the act of your forgiveness.  

And that, my friends, is the lie.

When you study reconciliation and forgiveness, you will find that they’re not the same words, and they don’t have the same meaning. You will also find that forgiveness can happen privately, while reconciliation is a mutual agreement between two parties.  

Forgive

The word forgive is aphiēmi (af-ee’-ay-mee).  It means “to send forth, in various applications: – cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let alone, let be, let go, let have, omit, put away, send away, remit, suffer, yield up.”   

Reconcile

The word reconcile is katallosso; (kat-al-las’o).  It means “to change mutually, that is, (figuratively) to compound a difference: – reconcile.”  In this day and age, the word “compound” may seem out of place in this definition.  Well, there is an additional meaning of this word, which is “to settle amicably: adjust by agreement” (Meriam-Webster)

While there are other words used for reconcile and forgive in the NT, it can be clearly seen from these definitions that reconciliation is not the same thing as forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a singular, personal matter of laying aside, whereas reconciliation is a cooperative, plural matter of mutually changing.

If your Brother Sins …

Consider the Matthew discourse on forgiveness and reconciliation

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18:15-18

Expose the Fault; Brace against failure?

The first step of the process, as outlined by Jesus, is to “show him his fault in private.” And if he hears you, then you have won your friend.   Also, consider what Jesus said in Luke:

Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.

 Luke 17:3-4

Therefore the Matthew 18 instruction of “if he listens to you” means that your friend, having been rebuked and/or shown his fault, there must be a subsequent and appropriate response: a demonstration of repentance. In such a case of demonstrated repentance, you offer him forgiveness. Pay special attention to the fact that Jesus said: “if he repents.”  It is only in the presence of repentance that forgiveness is offered.

The other warning relates to not forgiving: “Be on your guard…” Your job is to guard against unforgiveness.

What then, of Forgiveness?

Does God command and expect us to forgive? Absolutely.

But not the way we’ve been taught in our churches. There are two types of forgiveness.

The first type is personal forgiveness which is commanded and expected of the offended in every case of an offense. Secondly, there is reconciliation forgiveness which is offered to the offender in the presence of repentance. Personal forgiveness and reconciliation forgiveness are not the same. Personal forgiveness is meant to free you – the offended – of bitterness and resentment, and reconciliation forgiveness is meant to free the offender of his conscience regarding his offense against you.

In terms of a relationship with God, the scriptures teach that only through faith and repentance is reconciliation achieved. Why? Because without belief and trust, there is no acknowledgment of a Holy God nor a Holy standard. Without repentance, there is no turning away from that which caused offense. Therefore, faith and repentance are paramount, and reconciliation forgiveness does not happen outside of those two things. During his journeys, Paul taught both of these things, repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing so, he referred to this ministry as a ministry of reconciliation, not as a ministry of belief and forgiveness. This is what some evangelists and evangelistic messages teach: just believe, and you’re forgiven. 

Rebuking

What people don’t like about this process is the rebuke. But doesn’t God have plenty of rebuke for sin (just read the books of Moses and the prophets)?  People prefer not to hear the rebuke. Instead, they would rather persuade you to “just wipe this and that under the rug and move on, as if it never happened; we’ll just forgive and forget the whole thing, okay?”  It is the epitome of co-dependence, and Jesus is not co-dependent.

If God is not willing to be reconciled with you outside the confines of a rebuke and a reconciliation (whether it be of the Old Covenant of bulls and rams or of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ), why then do we act as if we can just wipe things under the rug and pretend they never happened, and call that forgiveness and/or reconciliation? Are we greater than God?  Does God pretend sin never happened?  Does He overlook rebellion? Does God save a person who refuses to repent of their sin?

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.  Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.  Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.   If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 1:16-20

Belief in God and faith in Jesus Christ must work in concert with repentance and confession of sin: they are necessities for salvation. Anything less or more is heresy – anything that adds works to faith, excuses faith, or removes or minimizes confession and repentance, or excuses God from the process, is a lie. Grace is that which makes you into something which you cannot become by yourself. And grace can not be used of God to activate the power of redemption unto salvation outside of the precondition of your faith, your confession of sin, and your repentance:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ()

Matthew 4:17

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Luke 5:32

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgave the iniquity of my sin. ()

Psalm 32:5

Summary

So, the point is this: you can believe that God exists.  You can also believe that Jesus died for your sins.  And you can believe that God has forgiven you.  Or not, as the case may be.  But the fact of the matter remains until you’re willing to repent of your sin and be reconciled to God, you will remain in your sin.  And should you remain in your sin, you will die and be judged in your sin.

Forgiveness is not Reconcilliation

There is a fallacy maintained in our churches today, and it is this: forgiveness and turning the other cheek go hand in hand, that they are one in the same and as such, forgiveness should look like, be like and feel like turning the other cheek.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Turning the other cheek is one of two things: it is either getting what you know you deserve, or it is a subtle rebuke which will drive the repentant to confession and reconciliation. In the worst case, you will be slapped again, and having no more cheeks, you turn and leave.

In regards to forgiveness, wise people will tell you something like this: “forgiveness does not mean you allow yourself to be run over by the same bus more than once.” Doing so is passivity which results in further damage and resentment towards the bus driver and yourself.

The two types of forgiveness

There are two types of forgiveness: personal forgiveness and reconciliation forgiveness. In this post, we will explore the necessity of personal forgiveness.

Why Forgive?

Forgiveness is necessary because the damage has been caused in you. Someone did something to you that caused some type of damage. It’s as if you are a car and someone smacked you with a sledge hammer, leaving a large hole in your fender. Forgiveness is necessary because you’re damaged, physically and/or emotionally.

If you’re like most people, you may be thinking that forgiveness opens you up to another attack. No, actually it does not. What opens you up to another attack is an improper boundary. If you’ve been robbed because your door was unlocked, and you refuse to lock your door after the robbery, then you are partially responsible for subsequent robberies. Should the robber keep out of your house? Of course he should. Should you erect the proper boundary, in this case a locked door, to keep future attempts at bay? Most certainly you should. So then, forgiveness does not obliterate proper boundaries, rather it has the potential to enable you to erect proper boundaries in the future.

While you’re holding onto un-forgiveness, you are not in any way hurting the offender, nor are you protecting yourself. The way you protect yourself is by erecting a proper boundary, by locking the door. But this doesn’t negate that fact that you still have damage, something has been stolen. The robber is perfectly happy with your goods, and you’re perfectly unhappy without them.

It’s about letting go

Personal forgiveness is the mechanism that begins the process of releasing us from the damage caused by others. Until you can let go of the damage caused by others, you will continue to suffer in that damage in which you maintain.

If someone threw a rock through your window during the middle of the winter, do you fix the window or do you maintain anger against the person who broke your window? You fix the window because you’re cold and your heating bills will break the bank.

What sense is there in leaving the damaged window and maintaining anger against the person who threw the rock when you’re the one suffering? The logical thing to do is fix the window and ask the person who broke it to pay for the damages because to make you whole is what he owes you.

When we choose not to forgive, we chose to hold on to damage, and in doing so we become bound to the damage – we are in bondage to the pain, the suffering and the hurt. Furthermore, failing to forgive causes more damage than the actual offense: you’re living the hurts continually. Failing to forgive does nothing to the one who hurt you, but it causes a root of bitterness to grow deep, strong and hard in your heart.

What is Personal Forgiveness?

Personal forgiveness is a private, volitional exercise that we perform so that we may be released from the bondage of the damage caused by those who sinned against us. It is the forgiveness is spoken of in the Lord’s Prayer –

… and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors … (Matthew 6:12)

In this type of forgiveness, we do two things: we release the offender from their obligations to repair the damage they caused in us, and we release ourselves from bondage to the damage in us.

This type of forgiveness is not tied to the offender repenting of their sins, nor is it tied to the offender saying they’re sorry. Sometimes the offender cannot repent or refuses speak to you, or worse, they’re dead. In this type of forgiveness, the participation of the offender is never required.

Condemning the Damage

Personal forgiveness requires that you call sin what it is: sin. If you don’t mind people robbing your home, then you’ll leave the doors open and replace all of the things people take just so those things can be stolen again. In this case, you’re not agreeing with the sin, you’re not condemning the sin, and you’re not calling it wrong. But God has given us a permission to call a spade a spade:

No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me, declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

You have a right and obligation to call sin what it is: sin. When someone sins against you, you have the right to call it wrong. If you don’t call it wrong, then you have no place to forgive, for how does one forgive the good done by another? Good is not forgiven, it is praised and thanksgiving is offered.

Avoiding a Root of Bitterness

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled (Hebrews 12:15)

Un-forgiveness results in bitterness. But forgiveness is the key that opens the pathway to grace. And grace is that thing which makes you into something that you cannot become on your own. When your car is damaged by someone else, they typically have insurance that makes you whole again. But if they don’t you can call your insurance company and they will make you whole.

In personal forgiveness the participation, or repentance of the offender is absent. It’s as if they hit you and ran away. But God is your insurance company and He will make you whole again. But, you have to be willing to condemn the sin (agree that it was wrong) and report the offense to God, and then release the offender from their responsibility to you. Once you’ve released them of their obligation to you, then you have enabled God to make you whole.

Personal Forgiveness is not Reconciliation

You cannot be reconciled to someone who is dead, but you can forgive them.

Reconciliation is not the goal in personal forgiveness. Personal forgiveness is not for the offender and it is not for restoring relationship with the offender, it is for you, your freedom and your relationship with God. Personal forgiveness always frees you to pursue reconciliation with the offender, should they be available and participatory.

When we take our hurts and our damage to God, He makes us whole. But only when we choose to let go can we be free of hurts. Personal forgiveness not only releases us from the damage caused in us by others, it is also the mechanism by which we maintain or re-establish communion with God in the midst of the trial caused by other people.

When we do not forgive, we shy away from God and hide from Him. When we harbor bitterness in our hearts, we damage our walk with God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they not only hid from each other, they hid from God. Jesus said, “whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” (Mark 11:25) Having something against another is sin – it is something that you must confess. The Law of Bitterness insures that your relationship with God suffers while you suffer in un-forgiveness.

Conclusion

When we fail to forgive, we hold onto something that is not ours: we hold onto the damage caused and created by someone else. Ultimately, we allow the person of offended us to continue an additional offense.

Personal forgiveness is the gateway to eradicating or preventing a root of bitterness. It’s not necessarily easy, and you may find that you pick up the offense again and again. But when you do, just take the offense back to God and forgive again. Eventually, you will find God has honored his word by restoring you to the place you were before the offense, and by giving you an additional blessing to move you forward in your relationship with Him:

Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; this very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you. (Zechariah 9:12)

Overcoming Bondage to Sin

There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains, because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He humbled their heart with labor; they stumbled and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bands apart. (Psalm 107:10-14)

Our churches are not well versed in explaining why people find themselves in bondage to sin, nor are they well versed in providing mechanisms to enable people to overcome and break free from habitual sin. In most cases it seems that they\’d rather shoot the sinner than bind the wounds. They\’re quick to condemn, reject and ostracize those who break their rules.

So, have you been shot down because of your sin, have you been condemned? If God does not condemn you of your sin, you who are in Christ, then why do so-called Christians condemn you? Actually, why do you condemn yourself?

What is Bondage to Sin?

Being in bondage to sin means this: you are repeatedly involved in a sin such that the involvement presents itself more as a habit, rather than an occasional failure or deviation. Alcoholism is bondage. Repeated involvement in pornography or sex outside of marriage is bondage. The need to always be right, or always needing to be approved of can be a bondage. Refusing to forgive is bondage.

Bondage is the state of being in which we find ourselves under the control of an abstract influence, force or power. If you can imagine an ox in a yoke, then you can begin to understand the abstract nature of being in bondage to sin.

How to Be free

First things first. Until you\’re ready to admit two things you will remain in bondage. First you must admit that you have a problem; that you\’re in bondage. Secondly, you must admit that it is your choice to be in bondage, just as it is your choice to be free.

British author Douglas Adams was correct when he said, \”when you blame others, you give up your power to change.\” Until you\’re ready to take responsibility for who and what you are, and where you are in relationship to your habit, addiction or bondage, you will never be free. It is your right and responsibility to condemn the evil and wrong in your life. But until you are willing to call your addiction a sin, you will remain in bondage. Until you are willing to call your participation in your guilty pleasure a sin, then it will remain in bondage to your guilty pleasure.

Reject the Lie, Believe the Truth

The primary cause of bondage is an improper belief system which enables you to act upon a lie. Some people believe that pornography and strip clubs will make them feel better, so they participate in those things. Others believe the approval of people will make them feel better, so they make themselves dependent upon how others feel towards them and will do whatever is necessary to be liked or approved of (co-dependency). Others think that alcohol or drugs will dull their senses and help them feel better about their circumstances, so they drink or take pills until they\’re drunk or high.

I could go on and on. But the root of what I\’m talking about is an improper belief system. There was a saying when I was in school: you are what you eat. The truth is, you are what you believe. If you believe you\’re just a sinner saved by grace, then you\’ll act just like a sinner. If you believe looking a pornography will make you feel better, then you\’ll look at pornography.

Choose you this day, whom you will serve: yourself, your feelings and your desires fueled through your improper belief systems, or choose to believe God.

What are the root causes of Bondage?

Jesus said, \”you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.\” (John 8:32)

Now, ask yourself this question: are you free from bondage or addictions? If you are not free, then according to Jesus, do you know and act upon the truth? No, you do not. Some where, some how, you have chosen to believe a lie. And the Bible is clear, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he: you are what you believe. (Proverbs 23:7)

\”There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains, because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.\” (Psalm 107:10)

The scriptures are clear: those in bondage to sin are in bondage because of rebellion against the word and counsel of God.

There is a good reason we are to \”pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.\” (Hebrews 2:1) Bondage to sin and addictions are never the result of believing the truth, they are always the result of believing a lie. And once you have believed a thing, you act upon it. Does sanctification result from believing truth, or believing a lie? Jesus prayed for us saying, \”Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.\” (John 17:17) What then does God use to sanctify His people? Truth or lies?

If believing (and acting upon) truth results in sanctification, what exactly do you think believing a lie results in?

Why do people refuse the grace of salvation? Because they have believed a lie. Why do people refuse to allow others to pray over them for healing? Because they have believed a lie. Why do people reject the notion that the laying on of hands and/or the anointing with oil is not necessary for healing? Because they do not believe the scriptures. I specifically prayed for healing in a person who, eventually, was not healed. Later they told me this: \’in the midst of the pain and suffering I asked the Lord why I was not healed when he laid hands on me and prayed for me, and the Lord responded, \”because you did not believe.\”\’

Where Does Freedom Begin?

It will start with faith.

You must understand several things about faith. Faith is defined as trusting and believing.  Therefore, it is the substance and assurance of things not seen, of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). When you chose to believe God and His word, you will grow in your assurance of that which is hoped for. In the process of maturing your faith, God will take you from hope and assurance into knowledge and experience.

For, what happens when the thing hoped for shows up? You know longer hope for it, because it has arrived. You no longer have assurance that it will come, because it is here. Well placed faith always results in an experience with God and an intimate knowledge of God (2 Peter 1:2-11). That is the Law regarding faith: when faith is provided as a gift from God, it will always result in experience and knowledge of the thing hoped for.

We are released from bondage to sin and addictions when we reject the lies they are based upon, and delivered into freedom when we choose to believe the truth of Gods word, and act upon those truths. Therefore, in regards to your freedom beginning with faith, consider this:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

The process begins with you going to Christ and yoking yourself to Him, and learning His ways.

It Continues into Warfare

We are exhorted to \”put on the full armor of God, so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil\”, since our \”adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.\” And while the devil is seeking to destroy you, you must remember that your \”struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.\” (Ephesians 6:11, 12; 1 Peter 5:8)

In the processing of rejecting the lies and renewing your mind through the word of God, you will be hammered by your adversary. He knows that as soon as you believe and act upon the truth, he will lose the battle. Confusion may set in – that\’s a sure sign of an attack from the enemy. You might not know which way to go. When that happens, stay in the word. Memorize the scripture God will give you. And continue to pray for His protection.

God wants you to be free, but He is not going to smack you with a Holy stick as if he were the good witch of the north. There are other people He wants you to touch, to lead out of darkness, and you can\’t do that unless you understand the process and have participated in the process. We need to learn, first hand, that is it God \”who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.\” (2 Corinthians 1:4) And until we walk this path, we can\’t lead others in this path.

We must believe we are free from the Power of Sin

As Christians, we are made free from the power of sin through the work of Jesus Christ. Consider, however, that unless you believe in the work Christ (that it has the power to set you free) and actively choose to apply it to your life, then you will never receive the benefit of His work.

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man\’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:17-19)

Although I\’ve said this before, it bears repeating: if you believe you\’re just a sinner saved by grace, then you\’ll just act like a sinner. There is a vast and wonderful difference between living like a sinner saved by grace and living like a saint. In the first case, you believe you can never do anything right, that you\’re always going to mess up and thank the Lord, He will always forgive you of just continually being a screw up. In the later case, you believe correctly that you\’re a saint, that through Him you can and will do things right. But you\’re not deceived, you know that you will occasionally sin, but that doesn\’t slow you down. Why? Because \”there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. … Who will bring a charge against God\’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.\” (Romans 8:1, 33-34) If Jesus does not condemn you (for how can one who lives to make intersession for you also condemn you), then why do you condemn yourself? Why do you allow others to condemn you? Take the yoke of Christ, let Him carry your burden and be free from your bondage.

The Steps to Freedom
Psalm 119:57-64

Psalm 119:57 – The LORD is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words.

When you find yourself in bondage to sin, acknowledge two things: you have made something else your portion, your allotment, your nourishment, and secondly, that you have failed in your promise to keep His words.

Make God your portion in life, not things, not relationships, not pleasure. To keep His words means to guard the matters of which they speak. If God says not to covet the things of your neighbor, then to keep His words means to covet or want only the things you have.

All of us at one time or another have promised to keep Gods word: we’ve determined not to sin; we’ve determined to say the right thing; we’ve all said in our heart, \”I will do the right thing in this or that circumstance.\” What you are effectively saying is that ‘you promise to keep Gods’ word’.

When you come to the realization that you have sinned, you are in effect saying, \”I did promise to keep your words, but in this one thing I have errored and broken my promise.\”

Psalm 119:58 – I sought Your favor with all my heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word.

How do you seek God\’s favor? By confessing your sin to God, and repenting (turning away from) your sin. You must do both. It is possible to confess your sin but not repent of it. It is even possible to somewhat turn away from what you did but never admit that you did it. You must do both.

It is the mercy of God that forgives us, and the Grace of God that changes us and saves us. But the word ‘gracious’ implies, within current context, the totality of God’s mercies and grace. God has promised to be gracious to those that seek his face

My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Psalm 119:59 – I considered my ways And turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Note that after he has confessed his sins and sought the graciousness of God, he then again considered his ways. After careful consideration of his ways, he ‘turned his feet to Gods’ testimonies. This is the action of repentance. You consider what you have done or are doing, and turn away from those things towards the word of God. Did you notice that the pslamist turned towards the testimonies of God? In effect, he turned from the lies causing his bad behavior (his ways) and turned towards the truth of Gods word which will change his heart and his actions.

Psalms 119:60 I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments.

There’s not much to say about that; don’t be slothful; seek God with immediacy and all diligence. Be Steadfast in your dedication to God and learn to Praise and Worship God

Psalm 119:61 – The cords of the wicked have encircled me, But I have not forgotten Your law.

Satan will try to keep you in bondage. Evil will do everything it can to keep you away from the grace and mercy of God. In the midsts of the attacks, do not forget the testimony and the word of God. Seek him, reject evil. Focus on God, not on your circumstances.

Psalm 119:62 At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You Because of Your righteous ordinances.

Continually give thanks and praises to God. Do not fail to make time to give thanks to God; go out of your way and cause yourself to give God thanksgiving, honor and glory. The psalmist even thanked the Lord when he woke up at night.

Psalm 119:63 – I am a companion of all those who fear You, And of those who keep Your precepts.

Seek out and surround yourself with Godly friendship. Godly friends and counsel are required in our lives. This does not mean that we cannot spend time with our unbelieving friends for the purpose of serving them through the power of the Holy Spirit. But it does mean that our core companionships must be Godly people. There may be people and relationships that you must remove from your life. Seek the Lord and His counsel regarding your friends, and be willing to make the adjustments. Don\’t put yourself in a position wherein God has to make the changes for you.

Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals. (1 Corinthians 15:33)

Psalm 119:64 (a) The earth is full of Your loving-kindness, O LORD;

You must believe, proclaim and acknowledge the loving-kindness of God. Those who cannot see God’s loving-kindness are deceiving themselves of the most precious truth there is to know about God: how He chooses and desires to relate to us. Your relationship with God goes beyond doctrine and belief – it must go into knowledge of His divine nature. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Psalm 119:64 (b) Teach me Your statutes.

Learn the word of God and believe His word. You must base the foundation your life in the truth of God, not in your desires, not in your fears, not in your self protection. You must believe God\’s word. You must ask for and seek Gods wisdom.

It Takes Discipline

Discipline your mind against your sinful actions and thoughts, and discipline it to rest in God. In all cases of recurring sin, the mind has won the battle against the spirit:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ… (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life. (Proverbs 6:20-23)

While you are in the process of disciplining your mind and rejecting sin, your spirit is in the process of gaining strength. However, you must remember that discipline can take you only so far: it is the act of living by the Spirit that is the victor over sin and which provides true freedom.

Conclusion

Bondage and addictions have their root in mis-information, in believing a lie. When we confront the lies, reject them and replace them with the truth of God\’s word, then we begin the process of winning victory over our addictions. It is God\’s truth that provides the process of sanctification in our lives. When we do not know His truth, then we believe something else. And what we believe defines who we are and how we behave. In order to begin the process of winning the battles over addictions and bondages, we must discover and reject the lies we hold on to. We must choose to begin the process of finding our worth and comfort in God and in Him alone.

From Faith into Knowledge and Experience

There are Christians who believe and teach that faith is the end all of our experience with God, that nothing exists beyond faith.

As a matter of fact, I cannot remember ever being in a church service wherein faith was presented as something that moved a person from point A to point B, rather it\’s just something to have and to hold for the purpose of \”pleasing God.\”

Furthermore, I don\’t recall hearing that faith moves into or becomes something else. I have always heard faith being something you possess, a thing that you keep and maintain, but never as something which changes or goes away. Rather it is presented as once you\’ve got this elusive, all needed ethereal faith, then you just need to maintain it: keep the faith, as they say.

In a previous post, I discussed natural faith vs. Biblical or God given faith. I provided an example of natural faith which, contrary to popular belief and custom, is used routinely and relied upon daily. In regards to faith, God has imbued man in the natural with that which he must exercise in Spiritual. In either case the results – though differing – are the same.

The Scientific Method
The scientific method requires that we postulate either an outcome or the reason for an outcome (observation vs. idea), and then set about proving or disproving our postulate. This postulate is known as the hypothesis (defined here and here), and the mechanism of proving or disproving it is known as the scientific method.

For example, man observed water in its various forms in rivers, lakes and oceans as a liquid and a solid. So, he set about to discover for himself exactly how water exists in nature and then, lo and behold, discovered exactly what the scriptures had already told us.

But lets break this down just a bit more. Clearly man had knowledge of water in several states (liquid and solid), and a at least one other variation known as the condensate (i.e., clouds). The question was, how do we get from water to condensate and back to water? That was the invisible, missing link.

So, he said to himself, \”Self, I believe that water evaporates from a source, becomes a gas, travels through the air, condenses into a cloud, and then falls back to earth as rain.\” As a matter of fact, he believed it so firmly that he set about to prove it.

In this process of discovering for himself the nature of water, what exactly happened? Man made an observation, created a hypothesis and proved himself right. Or, we could also say that he accumulated a system of beliefs (based in observations) regarding a subject domain (water), created a hypotheses regarding that subject domain, and implemented a method to discover if his system of beliefs were correct.

When man went from a simple hypotheses into observing his hypotheses proven, he went from trust and belief into knowledge and experience.  Interestingly enough, the scientific method is inextricably tied to man, through and by his observations.  It could be argued (and very well, I might add) that man\’s scientific proofs, and their underlying theories, are based solely upon man\’s trust and belief in himself to first properly conjecture, and secondly, to properly observe a given phenomena.  It\’s why we have a thing called \”peer review.\”  Peer review is the vetting, the process of other people reviewing anothers\’ findings in order to determine if the other person has postulated and observed correctly.

What is Faith?
In it\’s simplest definition, faith is trusting and believing.  Therefore, when man observed water and proved it\’s circulatory path, it is just as valid to say that man went from faith into knowledge and experience as it is to say that man went from hypothesis into proof.
What exactly are we saying? When trust and belief is well placed and well formed, it always results in a knowledge that proves and substantiates the belief. We no longer just believe that water turns into vapor and condensates into clouds, we have empirical evidence resulting in knowledge that it behaves in this manner.

Faith works exactly the same way. Faith is trusting and believing, and faith brings experience and knowledge.

Seeking the Experience: The Spirit of Religiosity says it\’s a no-no
There are Christians who will tell you that seeking an experience with God, other than the mental ascension which you can acquire through faith based in doctrine (doctrine as derived from the knowledge of reading scripture) is wrong. What are they saying? Head knowledge good. Mustered up belief good. Actually expecting to have your cancer or migraines cured because of what Jesus commanded us in the Gospel according to Mark? Uhm … no: don\’t go there.

On one point I must agree: seeking the experience for the sake of partaking in the experience can be wrong.  In example, when one has no desire for relationship with God nor the creation and nurturing of Godly Life.

An Example of Experiential Faith
So then, why did Moses raise his staff and his hand at the Red Sea? Well, because God told him to: 

But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14:16)

Did Moses believe God? Apparently so. What was the result of that belief? Works, experience and knowledge were the result. What exactly did Moses do? In my view, he thrust out his staff with his right hand in an upward and outward motion parallel with his body. His left hand went forward over the waters, perpendicular first to the left, then to the right in a parting motion.

That is probably not what you had in mind, but it does reflect exactly what God said to do: \”… lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.\” Have you ever understood before now that God told Moses to \”divide\” the sea? That\’s not exactly how it happened in the movie, is it?

So, when did Moses stop believing God would part the Red Sea?

Ah, I can hear the wheels in your thoughts spinning! \”Moses never stopped believing God would part the Red Sea!\” Are you sure? \”Yes\”, you\’re probably thinking.   As a matter of fact, not only do I disagree, I assert that you\’ve believed a lie. I maintain that at a given point, Moses stopped believing God would part the sea. Hear me out and keep reading.

Are you a parent? (if not, imagine that you have a 3 year old running about).

When did you stop believing your child would be born?  Seriously: in the midst of the labor, when did you stop believing that your child would be born? Do you still believe your child will be born?

Once the labor was over and your child was in your arms, you stopped believing your child would be born: at about that point, you moved from faith into knowledge and experience. You knew that your child had been born. And as our curtain climbing, crumb-grabbing rug rats continue to evade even our simplest logic of normalcy and move into child hood, teenage years and adult hood, we no longer believe that our child will be born, we continue in the knowledge of the ever changing ramifications of that simple act of our child being born.

I submit to you that once Moses believed God and stepped into the works of his faith, he stopped believing and entered into knowledge of the sea parting from left to right and forward to the other side, just as God said it would.

Semantics you say? Hardly. Are you telling me that you sill believe your child will be born, after the fact?

Did God part the sea? Yes and no. Of course, God provided the power for the works. But He also told Moses to \”divide it.\” So, not only did Moses have to believe God, to take him at His word, Moses had to provide the works in order to prove God, to provide for an experience of the nature of God.

In doing exactly what God told him to do, Moses moved from belief into knowledge, just as you moved from belief of your child being born into the knowledge that your child has been born. So, once Moses moved into the works of proving God, Moses stopped believing the sea would part and moved into the knowledge of seeing that it was parted before him.

Attacks against Experiential Faith
This tidy argument of rejecting an experience with God falls squarely into the plan of Satan: for if he can convince you that experiences with God are wrong and should not be sought, then he has short-circuited your faith journey. And by damaging your faith journey he effectively prohibits your ability to abide in Christ.

Biblical Faith Produces Knowledge
Biblical faith, that which is given by God, always produces an experience based in the faith which came beforehand. It\’s the law. If faith does not produce knowledge, then it was not Biblical faith. Scripture clearly says this about faith:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) 

What happens when the \”thing not seen,\” the \”thing hoped for\” shows up? You no longer have faith: you have knowledge.

The experience provided by faith produces knowledge of God and the experience is always the effect of the faith given. Faith producing an experience is a cause and effect relationship: God gives us cause, reason and ability to believe Him and then provides a tangible experience of the faith He authored.

Practically speaking, I don\’t believe God heals, I know that He does (and I have seen the MRIs that prove it). I don\’t trust that God saves, I know that He does.

God\’s gift of faith always moves us into an experience resulting in knowledge. And once we have the knowledge He wanted to impart to us, we have a place of abiding and operating because we have knowledge of who God is.

Consider the first few verses of 2 Peter.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, … For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God said that we would have knowledge of salvation, that Jesus came to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins (Luke 1:77)

The only way to have knowledge of salvation is to execute (perform) the works of faith for that which is given through grace. You can go to church, hear the good news and believe that Jesus is the Christ, but until you act out on your faith, you will never experience salvation. You do not go to heaven for being good, and you don\’t go to hell for being bad. Goodness and badness are results of belief systems acting out. Life and death, on the other hand, are states of being. You are either alive to God or you are dead to God.

That\’s why the Atheist cannot comprehend the Christian: the Atheist is operating from a position of disbelief where as the born again Christian is operating from a position of knowledge. Darkness cannot comprehend light because darkness has no substance, no reality.

A Bit About Darkness and Light
Enter a room and turn out the light. What happens? It becomes dark. Have you ever stopped to consider that darkness is not a thing? Light, on the other hand, is a thing: it\’s a photon. Conversely, darkness is simply the absence of photons. Darkness, in a real sense, does not exist – it is not a tangible thing. Darkness is simply the terminology we use to describe the absence of photons. But we certainly treat darkness it as if it were a tangible object.

The absence of knowledge is like darkness. Knowledge exists, and so does ignorance. But ignorance is not a tangible thing, it can only be defined by that which is absent: knowledge.

However, belief and trust without knowledge is still faith: faith has substance, it is evidence and substance of things hoped for. When God gives faith, He is providing a tangible substance of things yet to be. When God proves Himself, faith is no longer needed for that given thing for knowledge has arrived. It is this knowledge of God that we call abiding, since abiding provides fruit, or knowledge of salvation:

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

You cannot observe a tree bearing fruit without the fruit being on the tree. Observation of the tree bearing fruit is knowledge of the fruit. Knowing in the dead of winter that your apple trees will bear fruit in the summer is well placed faith. That well placed faith will be proven out in knowledge when you pick the fruit in the harvest (assuming frost does not kill the buds and the bees do their jobs).

Therefore, it is impossible to please God apart from faith. Why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

The Experience of Salvation
Although you, as a Christian, know that salvation is a gift given by grace through faith, have you ever stopped to think that salvation has a tangible and quantifiable effect? It results in a change that provides not only an immediate experience, but a life long experience as well.

This is why scripture admonishes us to work out our salvation (Philpians. 2:12) and that we will know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:16). If you do not have the experience of salvation or observe the fruit of salvation in another, then you have reason for suspect. The result, the experience of salvation is quantifiable, it is something of which you have intimate knowledge.

An Example of Failure in Faith
On the other hand, Jesus told the disciples to feed the 5000, and they said \”with what, 200 denarii?\” Jesus set them up to respond and act in faith so that they could have an experience of feeding the multitude and thus move into knowledge of what the proper application of trust and belief can provide. Even though they failed the faith test, Jesus still fed the people, in order to provide knowledge that might grow their faith in the future.

The same thing happens today. When God provides faith that He will do something or does something unexpected, people may sometimes become fearful and reject His presence, just as the Gadarenes did. If God\’s presence in your life is offensive, then you run the risk of excusing Him to move on to someone or someplace else.

Conclusion
God has provided in the natural an example of how His gifts of faith function. He provides reason to believe, gives the substance and evidence of things not seen through faith and then follows it up with an experience reflecting the faith He provided. Through trusting and believing we learn to abide in Him through the partaking of his Divine nature. Seeking the experience provided by God through faith is natural and expected, but seeking an experience for the sake of the experience only is rejecting the One who wishes to prove Himself to you through faith and knowledge. We all have the capacity to believe and to exercise faith, to take His word and believe it, and as such, it is impossible to please God apart from faith. Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Perseverance: Gaining a Proper Perspective on Trials and Tribulations

Persevering through trials and tribulations is something that we must all do:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4)

But a problem arises when we fall back into the lessons of those who have taught us a lie, through either the error of man\’s understanding or by listening to evil.

We know, or we should know, that we are to no longer walk as the un-regenerated also walk, who in the futility of their mind, are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. If you do not approach the trials and tribulations in which you find yourself with a proper attitude and perspective, then Satan will win the battle and gain victory. In defeat, you will have failed to exult in your heritage, and you will become callous and open the door to opportunities to fall further into sin (Ephesians 4:17-18)

It Begins with Knowing Who You Are

It all begins with our attitude and our perspective, both of which are formed by our knowledge of God and our belief and our trust of who we are in Christ.

For example, if you are a born again believer and you are in a church wherein the pastor refers you and other Christians simply as \”sinners saved by grace\”, or you view yourself as \”just a sinner saved by grace\”, then in the former case you need to find a new church, and in the latter case, you need to re-read your Bible and learn who you are in Christ. Christians are not just sinners saved by grace, Christians are Saints. If you believe you\’re just a sinner saved by grace, then you\’ll act like a sinner.

Understanding The Law of Being

There is a law called the Law of Being. For example, one is either male or female. There are dogs and there are cats, fish, and birds. Each one has a given state of being. A fish can no more live and act like a bird than a dog can sharpen its claws like a cat.

Satan understands the Law of Being and he uses it against you.

It\’s All About What You Believe

He knows that whatever you believe, you will become: \”for as he thinks within himself, so he is\” (Proverbs 23:7) and \”whosoever believes in Him {Jesus} shall not perish, but have everlasting life\” (John 3:16). 

I imagine that the Proverbs reference you were expecting, but the John 3:16 took you off guard. Why? Because you\’ve never made the connection between faith in Jesus, faith in God\’s word and believing the truth as a mechanism responsible for changing who and what you are.

Whenever possible, Satan will use circumstances and lies to alter your belief system. For if he can change your mind regarding the Word of God, or change your mind regarding who you are in Christ, then he has altered your belief system. And by changing your belief system, your actions, attitudes, and responses to the trials in which you find yourself will be altered to match the desires of evil, instead of the desires of Jesus Christ.

The Word of God says that when we encounter various trials and tribulations, that we should consider it all joy because the testing of our faith will produce endurance (James 1:3). How do you consider a trial of cancer as joy? How do you consider a trial of unemployment as joy? And what about this endurance clause? Does this mean we\’re just supposed to suck it up and bear the burden of God\’s sovereignty?

The Proper Perspective

In the face of trials and tribulations, many Christians are quick, and rightly so, to quote Romans 8:28:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, \”what are these good things that God has for me?\”

You probably have, but maybe you didn\’t give it much thought. Instead, your mind went back to the circumstances in which you found yourself. You did exactly what you\’ve been taught to do: focus on your problems and take them to God for remediation. You\’ve been taught to lay everything at the foot of the cross because if anyone is in trouble, they are to pray (James 5:13). And the people who have emphasized this truth to you are exactly right. God said it, we believe it, and that settles it.

And yes, I\’m fully aware of the counter colloquialism, \”God said it, that settles it.\” It\’s a nice counter platitude, but it\’s only half true, for if you do not believe what God says, then you have believed a lie. And when you believe a lie, you practice self-deception. When God says it, you must believe it, otherwise, it\’s not settled in your heart and mind.

But I\’m not talking about taking things to God in prayer or popular colloquialisms.

What I\’m addressing is your perspective on your circumstances. What I\’m addressing is your beliefs regarding God in your circumstances.

If you approach your circumstances improperly, if you maintain an improper belief system regarding the attitude of God towards you through your circumstances, then you will lose that which is to be gained through your trials and tribulations. Furthermore, if you have an improper self-image of who you are in Christ, then you will possess an improper understanding of how God views you through your trials and tribulations, and you will miss the entirety of the double blessing God has for you through your trial.

The Knowledge of God and the Partaking of The Divine Nature

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.(2 Peter 1:2-4)

Let\’s put a couple key concepts together and see what God is excited about doing in us through trials:

\”… so that by {the promises} you may become partakers of the divine nature …\”

\”… knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing …\”

Clearly, there are things we lack, James 1 teaches us that. And clearly there are things which God is working into us, those being the aspects of His Divine nature; 2 Peter teaches us that.

When we focus on the trial, we don\’t see the work God wants to perform, we don\’t see the Grace of God working His Divine nature into us. By focusing on the trial, we focus on the negative. By focusing on the negative, we give strength to that which would defeat us.

What God wants to impart into us is the positive.

As a man thinks in his heart …

If you believe that your trial is God punishing you for your sin, then you have made two errors. The first error is to believe that the sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah was an insufficient redemption and an insufficient judgment of sin, that you must somehow bear and pay for your sin through the punishment of trials.

The second error is related to the first: you believe that God is beating your sin nature out of you.

It\’s Not About Beating Out Your Sin Nature

Trials are not about what God is trying to push out of you. Read that again.

Trials are about God imparting His Divine nature into you.

But we have a problem, and it goes like this: as being redeemed creatures, we still possess memories, patterns, and habits of the old man, Adam. But as being new creatures, we are not bound to those old patterns. The Apostle Paul struggled with the old man, and he summarized it like this:

Romans 7:17-25 (Message Bible)

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can\’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don\’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can\’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don\’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don\’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  

It happens so regularly that it\’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God\’s commands, but it\’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I\’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I\’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn\’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

So, trials and tribulations are not about God beating you down to push out your sin nature. For, how can a person who has a new nature, a new life, who is no longer dead be made any more un-dead or any more alive than they currently are?

We have a new nature, we are a new creature.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:4-7)

Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:7)

… in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus … for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God\’s household (Ephesians 2:2-6, 18-19)

It\’s About your Heritage

So, if God is not beating our sin out of us, then what exactly is He doing? Seeing that we tend to function in the old man, though being a new creature, God is at work making us Christ-like through an on-going process called sanctification.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification … (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

What you need a to do is change how you view the trials which present themselves in your life. In order to help us do that, we must first understand our heritage:

\”No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,\” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

Your heritage is to stand against evil, to stand against condemnation. Your heritage is to condemn false accusation (evil against you) as wrong. Your heritage is to watch the vindication of God on your behalf.

Your enemy stands against you, your enemy accuses you:

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, … \”Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. \”And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Revelation 12:9-11)

Therefore when you are in the midst of a trial, you must stand against the enemy and reject the lie that there can be no good thing come from the trial. You must reject the notion that God is punishing or chastising you on behalf of His righteousness because of your sin. And in doing these things, you are condemning the enemy and the evil beset against you, and you are acquiring God\’s perspective of who you are in Christ, and who you are in the trial.

Ask The Key Question

What you need to do in the midst of the trial is ask God this question: \”What are the blessings you have for me in this trial?\”

Change Your Perspective

Is God your stronghold? Yes. But only if you allow Him to be your stronghold. If you focus on the trial and the evil that is besetting you, then you are not in your stronghold. If you fail to hope in God, then you cannot enter the stronghold of God. What you need to do is change your attitude: instead of focusing on the bad, focus on the good that God has in store for you. Set your mind on things above not on things below. Ask God about His double blessing that He has in store for you.

The Law of the Double Blessing

Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; this very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you … (Zechariah 9:12)

Every time the enemy knocks you back, God has a double blessing in store for you. The first blessing that God has for you in the midst of an attack from the enemy, is to restore back to where you were before the attack. The second blessing that God has for you is to move you forward past the place you were when the attack occurred.

But then, you may ask, why do I have to go through the same trials over and over again? Because God has a lot of blessing left over that you didn\’t get the first time. God isn\’t sitting in heaven thinking, \”this is fun, let\’s smack her down some more\”, but rather He is saying to you, \”you didn\’t get all of the blessings I had for you the last time. I want you to have all of the blessings I have in store for you.\”

\’For I know the plans that I have for you,\’ declares the LORD, \’plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ (Jeremiah 29:11)

But if you refuse to see or believe that God can restore you and bless you through the trials you find yourself in, then you have defined for yourself the truth of your existence in that trial.

Read the story of the Demoniac of Gadarenes. Was there another blessing available for the people Gadarenes? Could not Jesus Christ have richly enhanced their spiritual condition, healed their diseases and taught them the Word of God? Of course, He could have. But what happened instead? They had an improper perspective based upon the trial of losing their heard of swine. In focusing on the negative, they missed the positive blessing Christ could have provided.

Conclusion

How you view your trials and tribulations is purely your choice. But when you stand against evil and choose not to yield, then you are embarking upon the process of seeking God and asking Him about how to obtain freedom, and you are knocking on His door.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? (Luke 11:9-13)

If you persist in a negative perspective regarding your trial, then you will miss the double blessing God has for you. And eventually, you\’ll repeat the trial. But if you instead view the trial as a mechanism by which the blessings of God are poured into your life, then you can enter through faith the valley of the shadow of death, and walk out with the experience and the knowledge of who God really is in your life.

Reconciliation Forgiveness

In a previous post, I discussed Personal Forgiveness.  Personal forgiveness is not tied to the person who offended you in that it is something you can do even if the offender is dead or the offender cannot or refuses to communicate with you. Personal forgiveness is referenced in the model prayer, and it is required to maintain a proper relationship with God.

Personal forgiveness is not reconciliation, and personal forgiveness does not provide reconciliation, although it will free one up to move towards reconciliation.

God has standards for reconciliation: first of all, it happens in the presence of repentance.

What Is Repentance?

Repentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong. It is a turning away from that which caused offense for the purpose of gaining forgiveness from a person who is wronged. For salvation God requires not only faith but repentance of sins:

But go ye and learn what that means, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice’: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:13)

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (Mark 1:4)

For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death]. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

For Whom is this Forgiveness?

Reconciliation forgiveness is for the purpose of mending and possibly restoring a relationship between two or more people. This type of forgiveness is not for the person who was offended, but for the person who caused the offense.

In as much that personal forgiveness heals the damage caused in us by the offender, reconciliation forgiveness enables the healing of the damage in those who have caused the offense. This is why repentance is required: for without repentance, the offender is in denial regarding the offense they caused.

When an offender realizes and is sorry for their error, remorse sets in. In the presence of this remorse, forgiveness from the offended releases the offender from their indebtedness and frees them to begin the process of healing the damage they have caused within themselves.

When does reconciliation forgiveness occur?

Some people will tell you (incorrectly) that as soon as someone has sinned against you, then you go to them, you forgive them and that makes everything right.

You, the offended, must participate in personal forgiveness for yourself and your right relationship with God – that much is commanded of us. The question then, is this: when someone has caused you damage – and before they speak to you or admit their wrong – do you go to them and say “I forgive you for causing me damage …”?

The Short Answer:

No, you do not.

The Reason Why: The Process

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17)

That is a very clear process. But first, you must recognize that you’ve been damaged when your brother sinned against you. That’s usually the easy part, figuring out when you’ve been damaged.

The next step is to go to your brother in private. How many times have you seen this step ignored? Instead of going to the brother in private, the person is brought before a committee, or the friend of the offender goes to a friend of the offender, or the offended starts spreading gossip, or in the at least telling everyone who will listen what so-n-so did to them.

God is a one-on-one type of person, and He expects you to be too. So do it. When your brother offends you, you do what God said to do: go to him in private. You, the offended are to go, not your father or your husband or your wife or your sister. No one else has a place in this until you’ve gone in private and your brother has refused to listen.

A Failure to Communicate

What does it mean to “refuses to listen?” It means there is no repentance. Not listening means you have explained your grievances to the person who offended you and the offender ignores what you had to say. They may even give you good reasons why they’re paying you no attention, at least from their perspective, such as you’re immature to even bring this up or you’re creating lies out of whole-cloth, and so on and so forth.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what excuse is presented. Any dialog in which some type of resolution could be obtained is forfeited when the person who offended you refuses to acknowledge the possibility that they may have committed wrongs against you or refuses to have dialog regarding the situation.

When you confront the person who hurt you and enumerate their sins, you are giving them an opportunity to contemplate and understand what they did to offend you. In this process, several things could happen: they will agree with you, become remorseful and repent, you will understand they actually meant no offense and they will apologize for the miscommunication, or they will disagree completely and spurn you.

Take Some Witnesses

If your brother does not listen to you, then you take witnesses.

What exactly is a witness?

A witness is someone who has intimate knowledge of the offense. A witness is not someone to whom you enumerate your side of the story and thereby turn them into your champion. It may be that there are no witnesses to the offense other than yourself and the offender. In such a case, personal forgiveness may be all that you have in the presence of the un-repentant malefactor.

And the rest …

If being confronted by yourself and the witnesses of the offense does not lead one into repentance, then the next step is to bring them before the Church. By this point in the game, it’s probably already gotten sticky, and if you’re not full of mercy and grace you might as well forget the process until you are. The point of this process is not to prove your righteousness; the point is to restore the offender from bondage to sin and un-repentance to a place which can receive the healing of God.

Do I really have to do this?

Jesus was clear on this process:

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

In this statement we have a warning, a process, and the possibility of two outcomes.

The Warning: You’re in a Pit

The first thing Jesus says of the person who has been sinned against is this: “take heed to yourselves.”

Read that again.

He did not say “take heed to your brother who offended you”. The first thing we are to do after having been sinned against is to “take heed to ourselves.”

What this means is that you’ve been pushed into a pit (example: Joseph) and you need to take inventory of where you are and how you’re going to get out. If you don’t, you will stay in the miry clay and your feet will sink deeper into the bondage of the damage inflicted upon you.

Once the average Christian has found himself in a pit, he usually tends to compromise himself further by offering forgiveness or an apology when neither has been sought by the malefactor, what-so-ever – typical co-dependent behavior. Can’t you hear Joseph screaming from the pit, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll never do that again,” all the while his brothers who never asked for an apology in the first place sat down to a tasty meal?

Job addressed the issue of taking heed to ourselves in this way:

Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Is it that my help is not within me, and that deliverance is driven from me? For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; so that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty. (Job 6:12-14)

Once you’ve been pushed into that pit, you typically do not have the ability get out on your own. You have been damaged by someone else, and they owe you a repair. In such a situation, it is imperative that someone come alongside you and help you out of the pit, lest you ‘forsake the fear of the Almighty’.

Causing your brother to forsake God is the risk you take when you sin against your brother and refuse the process God has outlined for reconciliation – as the malefactor not only have you pushed your brother into the pit, you have forsaken kindness and prohibited God’s purpose of reconciliation and peace.

The Next Step: Rebuking and Condemning

Once you’ve found yourself in the pit, there is a process to get out: it’s called rebuking: “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him.”

Ouch.

That doesn’t sound fun, and it certainly is confrontational. Can’t we all just get along? Apparently not, else why were you pushed into the pit in the first place?  You have a right to call sin what it is. As a matter of fact, if you refuse to call sin wrong, you are denying your heritage in the Lord. Once you’ve found yourself in the pit, call it what it is: a pit. Don’t move in and set up the couch and big-screen television. That’s refusing to acknowledge the wrongs committed against you.

In Isaiah 54:17, God says it like this:

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.

So what does it mean to rebuke, and what does it mean to condemn? A rebuke as sharp scolding, and to condemn is to pronounce something as wrong.  As a person in a pit, it is necessary to admit that the act of pushing you in that pit was wrong: that’s condemning the action.  But be careful that you do not condemn your brother – God is the judge of hearts and of people, not us.

However, refusing to acknowledge a wrong done is tantamount to standing in front of a moving bus that has already hit you once before. When we refuse to acknowledge a wrong done against us, it is impossible to act out in personal forgiveness and reconciliation forgiveness. Furthermore, it prohibits God from repairing your damage.

Nevertheless, we must consider the whole counsel of God when we confront our brother, for He says “be angry and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26), so this rebuke is not a license for an all-out assault of verbal abuse. It is better that you stop, wait, and consider carefully your words:

He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the LORD weighs the motives (Proverbs 16:2)

In the Presence of Repentance Forgive

… If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

Does God provide salvation and reconciliation to those who refuse to repent?  Tha\’s a patently simple answer: of course not. Unequivocally no.

Does God require you to offer reconciliation forgiveness to those who refuse to acknowledge and repent of their sins against you?  Before we answer that question, read the scripture again:

… If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

There’s a really, really big “IF” in that commandment.  This is not conditional, “if I feel like it, then I perform the process.”  This is a mandate.  I cannot be stated any more plainly or clearly: “if  he repents, {then} forgive him.” And “if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”   The good thing about this part of this post is that God said it, and not me! Interestingly, the converse is true as well.

This isn’t Personal Forgiveness

I will remind you that I am discussing forgiveness offered to those who have offended you and repented. I’m not talking about the personal forgiveness which we are commanded to exercise in order to provide a right relationship between ourselves and God.  There is a vast difference between personally forgiving an offense and offering reconciliation.

Forgiveness clears the offense in your heart which provides release from the damage.  It can be done with or without the participation of the offended.  For example, you offender may be dead, but you can still forgive them.  However, it is impossible to reconcile with them.  Reconciliation provides two things: assurances that the offender is aware of the wrongs committed, and that he/she has repented of those wrongs, and secondly, an assurance that the offence will not happen again.

What If He Doesn’t Repent?

Then you don’t reconcile. Jesus said, “if he repents”. He did not “when you think about the offence”, or “when you go to him to discuss the offense, forgive him.” If an offender refuses to repent, then we must not offer them forgiveness for something they either refuse to acknowledge or do not believe was an offense.

To offer an offender forgiveness outside of their remorse and repentance towards you (not towards a third party) is to give the offender permission to offend you again.

Scripture is clear: if the offender repents towards you, then you must offer him forgiveness. If he refuses to repent, do not offer him forgiveness.  And again, I must stress that this forgiveness is for them – not for you.  If you have not personally forgiven your offender, it is not possible that you can truly be reconciled.

Nevertheless, in the later case where he refuses to repent, you will need to take your hurts and damage to God, thus continuing the process of healing through your personal forgiveness.

But first and foremost in this scenario where repentance is not to be found, we do not ever hold a grudge of unforgiveness. In no way do we ever not forgive – in our hearts we forgive the offense and the damage, we practice personal forgiveness, which releases us from the bondage of the damage inflicted upon us by the other person.

What we’re talking about is making an offer of forgiveness to the offender who is repentant – for the purpose of initiating their healing and for the purpose of providing some type of relational reconciliation between you and them. Offering forgiveness to a repentant offender is never performed from a point of self-righteousness or false piety, or from a point of abusive power: it is offered in love and grace knowing that it will initiate a form of reconciliation and healing in the offender.

If you cannot offer forgiveness to a person from a point of grace (allowing them to repent), love (building them up) and mercy (offering them something they cannot earn), then you have not forgiven them, you have not first practiced personal forgiveness.

They Must Repent

It is impossible for anyone to be released from bondage when they chose to remain under their self-imposed yoke. Therefore, when we offer forgiveness to those who do not seek forgiveness, we implicitly provide them permission to offend and damage us again in the future. A co-dependent would offer forgiveness without change. A co-dependent would also stand again in front of a bus that just ran them over if they believed it would make the bus driver love or approve of them.

Conclusion

There are clear processes outlined in scripture for conflict resolution. We are to take heed of ourselves when we have been offended, lest the result of the offense become a worse thing than the offense itself. In the least, we are to go to those who have offended us (in private) and tell them how they caused offense. If they listen and repent, then we have won our brother and we must offer them forgiveness.

In order to continue the process, for someone who is unrepentant, we take witnesses of the offense, or in the least, an objective and unbiased third party. If they continue to refuse to repent, then they are to be brought before the church. Should they continue to refuse, they are to be treated as one who is not a brother in Christ, as one who would continue to do you damage. (Matthew 18:15-17)

In such a case as this, reconciliation forgiveness is not offered to the unrepentant offender because to do so would provide them permission to do more of the same damage in the future. Furthermore, by excluding this person from your life, you take an active role in protecting yourself from future offenses.

Conflict resolution is never easy. Personal forgiveness is for you and your relationship with God: it is always necessary and is never optional. Reconciliation forgiveness is given only in the presence of repentance.

You may find that your circumstance prohibit you from following through on all of the steps. In such a case prayer and counsel are advised. Always remember that God can heal anything, but you may be the only one who receives the healing. In such case, thank the Lord that He rescued you from the pit and set your feet on solid ground.

You can read my post on personal forgiveness, here.

Personal Forgiveness

 

There is a fallacy maintained in our churches today, and it is this: forgiveness and turning the other cheek go hand in hand, and forgiveness should look like, be like and feel like turning the other cheek.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Turning the other cheek is one of two things: it is either getting what you know you deserve, or it is a subtle rebuke which will drive the repentant to confession and reconciliation. In the worst case, you will be slapped again, and having no more cheeks, you turn and leave.

In regards to forgiveness, wise people will tell you something like this: “forgiveness does not mean you allow yourself to be run over by the same bus more than once.” Doing so is passivity which results in further damage and resentment towards the bus driver and yourself.

The two types of forgiveness

There are two types of forgiveness: personal forgiveness and reconciliation forgiveness. In this post, we will explore the necessity of personal forgiveness.

Why Forgive?

Forgiveness is necessary because the damage has been caused to you. Someone did something to you that caused some type of damage. It’s as if you are a car and someone smacked you with a sledgehammer, leaving a large hole in your fender. Forgiveness is necessary because you’re damaged, physically and/or emotionally.

If you’re like most people, you may be thinking that forgiveness opens you up to another attack. No, actually, it does not. What opens you up to another attack is an improper boundary. If you’ve been robbed because your door was unlocked, and you refuse to lock your door after the robbery, then you are partially responsible for subsequent robberies. Should the robber keep out of your house? Of course, he should. Should you erect the proper boundary, in this case, a locked door, to keep future attempts at bay? Most certainly, you should. So then, forgiveness does not obliterate proper boundaries; rather, it has the potential to enable you to erect proper boundaries in the future.

While you’re holding onto unforgiveness, you are not in any way hurting the offender, nor are you protecting yourself. The way you protect yourself is by erecting a proper boundary, by locking the door. But this doesn’t negate that fact that you still have damage, something has been stolen. The robber is perfectly happy with your goods, and you’re perfectly unhappy without them.

It’s about letting go

Personal forgiveness is the mechanism that begins the process of releasing us from the damage caused by others. Until you can let go of the damage caused by others, you will continue to suffer in that damage in which you maintain.

If someone threw a rock through your window during the middle of the winter, do you fix the window, or do you maintain anger against the person who broke your window? You fix the window because you’re cold, and your heating bills will break the bank.

What sense is there in leaving the damaged window and maintaining anger against the person who threw the rock when you’re the one suffering? The logical thing to do is fix the window and ask the person who broke it to pay for the damages because to make you whole is what he owes you.

When we choose not to forgive, we chose to hold on to damage, and in doing so, we become bound to the damage – we are in bondage to the pain, the suffering, and they hurt. Furthermore, failing to forgive causes more damage than the actual offense: you’re living the hurts continually. Failing to forgive does nothing to the one who hurt you, but it causes a root of bitterness to grow deep, strong, and hard in your heart.

What is Personal Forgiveness?

Personal forgiveness is a private, volitional exercise that we perform so that we may be released from the bondage of the damage caused by those who sinned against us. It is the forgiveness is spoken of in the Lord’s Prayer –

… and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors … (Matthew 6:12)

In this type of forgiveness, we do two things: we release the offender from their obligations to repair the damage they caused in us, and we release ourselves from bondage to the damage in us.

This type of forgiveness is not tied to the offender repenting of their sins, nor is it tied to the offender saying they’re sorry. Sometimes the offender cannot repent or refuses to speak to you, or worse, they’re dead. In this type of forgiveness, the participation of the offender is never required.

Condemning the Damage

Personal forgiveness requires that you call sin what it is: sin. If you don’t mind people robbing your home, then you’ll leave the doors open and replace all of the things people take just so those things can be stolen again. In this case, you’re not agreeing with the sin, you’re not condemning the sin, and you’re not calling it wrong. But God has given us a permission to call a spade a spade:

“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

You have a right and obligation to call offenses and sin what they are: sin. We refuse to condemn the sins against us; we are in effect calling them blessings and goodness.  If you don’t call it wrong (condemn it), then you have no place to forgive, for how does one forgive the good done by another? Good is not forgiven, it is praised, and thanksgiving is offered.   

Avoiding a Root of Bitterness

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled

Hebrews 12:15

Unforgiveness results in bitterness. But forgiveness is the key that opens the pathway to grace. And grace is that thing that makes you into something that you cannot become on your own. When your car is damaged by someone else, they typically have insurance that makes you whole again. But if they don’t, you can call your insurance company, and they will make you whole.

In personal forgiveness the participation, or repentance of the offender is absent. It’s as if they hit you and ran away. But God is your insurance company, and He will make you whole again. But, you have to be willing to condemn the sin (agree that it was wrong) and report the offense to God, and then release the offender from their responsibility to you. Once you’ve released them of their obligation to you, then you have enabled God to make you whole.

Personal Forgiveness is not Reconciliation

You cannot be reconciled to someone who is dead, but you can forgive them.

Reconciliation is not the goal of personal forgiveness. Personal forgiveness is not for the offender and it is not for restoring the relationship with the offender, it is for you, your freedom and your relationship with God. Personal forgiveness always frees you to pursue reconciliation with the offender, should they be available and participatory.

When we take our hurts and our damage to God, He makes us whole. But only when we choose to let go can we be free of hurts. Personal forgiveness not only releases us from the damage caused in us by others, it is also the mechanism by which we maintain or re-establish communion with God in the midst of the trial caused by other people.

When we do not forgive, we shy away from God and hide from Him. When we harbor bitterness in our hearts, we damage our walk with God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they hid from each other and hid from God. Jesus said, “whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” (Mark 11:25) Having something against another is sin – it is something that you must confess. The Law of Bitterness ensures that your relationship with God suffers while you suffer in un-forgiveness.

Conclusion

When we fail to forgive, we hold onto something that is not ours: we hold onto the damage caused and created by someone else. Ultimately, we allow the person of offended us to continue an additional offense.

Personal forgiveness is the gateway to eradicating or preventing a root of bitterness. It’s not necessarily easy, and you may find that you pick up the offense again and again. But when you do, just take the offense back to God and forgive again. Eventually, you will find God has honored his word by restoring you to the place you were before the offense, and by giving you an additional blessing to move you forward in your relationship with Him:

Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; this very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you. (Zechariah 9:12)

You can read my post on reconciliation forgiveness, here.

What’s so special about Christianity?

Every religion has a method by which one may obtain a desired state of being, which in this discussion will be called salvation.

In a generic definition, salvation may be seen as a state of being. A state which in it’s ultimate form, is absent of pain and suffering (whether inflicted upon us by ourselves or others) and free of sin. Sin is defined as the propensity of man to disobey (one or more times) a given moral law or code.
Thus, salvation is seen as the ultimate condition to which a person may aspire, and it is defined in contrast to man in his worst condition – as he is, living on earth in pain, suffering and sin. Salvation, therefore, is man being saved from the a condition of sin and suffering into a perfect state of being where the grip of pain, suffering and sin does not exist, neither can it ever lay hold upon man again.

Every Religion Has It

Every religion defines a process by which the undesirable is made null and void, hence salvation obtained.

The question many people have, or at least consider, is this: what must I do in order to be free of sin, what must I do to be free from pain and suffering? To answer that question, we\’re going to briefly review Buddhism, a religion that has touched the lives of many pious people. By doing so we will provide a general foundation by which other religions can be understood. Once we’ve done that, we’re going to answer the question, “what’s so special about Christianity?”

Buddhism

Buddhism identifies the burden of life in the two-fold problem of sin and suffering. The question Gautama Buddha (the founder of Buddhism), sought to answer was, “why is there pain and suffering?” In addition to this, he also held a belief common to Hinduism called reincarnation – being reborn to an earthly life in either an higher or lower form. So, one might return as a man, woman, a flea or a rat, depending upon one’s good and bad deeds in the previous life. The point of reincarnation is ascension to a higher form all the while shedding that which encumbers you from reaching enlightenment, and subsequently, Nirvana.

How does one ensure they reach Nirvana? It is obtained via the eight-fold path, which is defined (briefly) as follows:

The “Right” …

  1. Views. One must accept the four noble truths
  2. Resolve. One must renounce all desires (lust, bitterness, cruelty, selfishness)
  3. Speech. One must speak only truth.
  4. Behavior. One must abstain from sexual immorality, stealing, and all killing.
  5. Occupation. One must work in an occupation that benefits others and harms no one.
  6. Effort. One must seek to eliminate any evil qualities within and prevent any new ones from arising.
  7. Contemplation. One must be observant, contemplative, and free of desire and sorrow.
  8. Meditation. One must be disciplined in meditation in order to overcome sensations of pleasure and pain so that one may enter a state of transcending consciousness and attain a state of perfection.
Therefore, in the most basic of statements, Buddhists believe that through self effort one can attain the state of peace and eternal bliss called Nirvana, or salvation. This effort which results in salvation is called atonement. Atonement is compensation for wrongdoing.

It’s no Different Elsewhere

Seriously, it’s not that much different in any other religion. In any of the world’s religions the most basic tenant is this: man through his efforts provides his own atonement for his condition. Some people obey the Four-Fold Truths and the Eight-Fold Path resulting in Nirvana. Others place their faith in a creed followed by doing good works and possibly obtain the favor of their god resulting in salvation (The Five Pillars / Islam). And yet others follow another type of creed and/or asceticism that they hope will result in a type of liberation.

Christianity: There’s Good News and Bad News

In Christianity, there’s good news and bad news. Isn’t there always? Someone always asks you “do you want the good news first, or the bad news first?” Most people prefer to receive the good news first – they think it will soften the bad news, but it never does. In lieu of this, someone once said, “do the hard part first and the easy part last, then the easy part will be easier.” So that’s what we’re going to do here – you get the hard part first.

The Bad News

You’re dead, spiritually speaking that is. God said to Adam and Eve, “if you eat from that tree, then you will die.” And Adam and Eve did die, spiritually speaking. And just like some of us inherited blue eyes and blond hair form our mother, we inherited spiritual death from Adam. That’s the root of the suffering, pain and sin that we see and experience in the world today

 

It doesn’t feel too good, does it, thinking of ourselves as spiritually dead sinners? What we really want, deep down, is to be free from the bondage of sin and suffering. So we like to think better of ourselves – we don’t sin that much and we do a lot of good things, surely God takes notice. In a real sense, you’re correct: God does take notice and we will be judged according to our deeds, but you can no more enter a Corvette into a Formula-1 race, or make an apple pie with pork chops, than you can make a spiritually dead man persist in the presence of a living God for all eternity: they don’t mix – death cannot comprehend life.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
As thou knows not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knows not the works of God who makes all
They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

More Bad News: It’s Your Nature

When was the last time you went to a funeral and heard the deceased give the eulogy? When was the last time you used wholly rotten apples in an apple pie? When was the last time an aborted baby re-assembled itself, came back to life and punched the Dr. in the family jewels? It doesn’t happen – death cannot comprehend, abide or persist with life. Think of it this way: as a spiritualy dead person, you’re a penny. In God\’s Coke machine of Eternity, only quarters make it to the money box, pennies are ejected out the bottom. You don’t fit, you’re the wrong size, you\’re spiritually misshapen to abide in spiritual life after physical death. That which is spiritually dead remains spiritually dead after physical death.

More Bad News: You’ve Got the Wrong Currency for Atonement

As a Spiritually dead person, not only can you not abide in life, you’ve got the wrong currency needed for atonement. Every time you sin, you earn wages. That sounds about right, doesn’t it? Paid for the bad things, paid for the good things, and if the good out-weighs the bad, then you’re in like Flint. Wrong. You’re getting paid with – you guessed it – death.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But, what about all the righteous things you do? Surely my righteous deeds can wipe away my death, right? Lets take a look:
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
Our righteousness deeds cannot cleanse our death – who among us uses a greasy rag to clean a window? What’s the point? It will be no better than when you started. Secondly, since the the power of your iniquities is death, when you die physically you will spend eternity reaping spiritual death:
… who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power …
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

God has a Pattern – A Method Resulting in Eternal Spiritual Life

God’s method and pattern is simple:
  1. God’s Redemption
The first step in God\’s pattern is redemption. The Israelites were redeemed by God from the bondage of Egypt. If the Israelites could have left the bondage of Egypt on their own, without a savior, without a redeemer, without the action of God, then they would have. What they needed was a deliverer, which is what they got:
And it came to pass in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the children of Israel, and God took cognizance of them.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel: I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for a heritage: I am the LORD.\’
  1. God\’s Law
The second step in God\’s pattern is Law. After the Israelites were redeemed and given a new life in the promised land, He gave them the Law – a basis by which they were to live their lives and understand their relationship with Him and others:
And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in thy mouth; for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
And thou shalt teach them the statutes and the laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand; tables that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
  1. God\’s Temple
The third step in God\’s pattern is the Temple – the place you commune with God.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: \’On the first day of the first month shalt thou rear up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony … Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
First, we must be redeemed. Redemption results in spiritual life. It takes us out of the bondage of sin (Egypt – spiritual death) and into the freedom of life (the promised land – spiritual life).
Second, we listen to and understand the Law which results in knowledge for two things: proper relations with our fellow man, and our ability to do the third thing …
Which is communion with God.

Man has a Pattern – A Method Resulting in Eternal Death

Mankind does not like God\’s pattern – we like being in control of our destiny, we like proving that we\’re able to do it ourselves, and we like being able to say that we are better than someone else. So we want to take control and do God\’s plan backwards, assuming all the while that it will be acceptable to Him.
  1. Our Temple (Worship)
First, we worship at our temple. Call it what you may, be it a lifestyle of asceticism or church on Sundays, man has a way in which he worships that which he believes will provide eternal value to him.
  1. Our Law
Second, through his worship man believes he will be changed by gaining knowledge of law and shedding of sin (pain, suffering, etc) which will improve his relations with mankind, resulting in good deeds.
  1. Our Redemption (Heaven – Enlightenment – Nirvana )
Third, through his knowledge of the law and the resulting improved relations with himself and his fellow man, he believes that he will atone for his misdeeds, thereby redeeming himself before his god, in that the good deeds will out-weigh the bad deeds.
That is the absolute basis of every world religion, with the exception of Christianity.

What\’s So Special About Christianity?

Grace. Grace is the single, defining quality of Christianity – no other religion in the world has it.
In Christian circles, grace is poorly defined by an an acrostic:

What is Grace?

Grace is a gift which makes you become something, gives you a position that you cannot be or achieve through your own actions or merit. For example, a fireman rescuing a non-breathing victim and resuscitating them – Grace. Rescue workers digging victims out of the ruble of an earthquake – Grace. Giving a jobless person a job just because you can, not because he/she is qualified for the position – Grace. Providing a home to the homeless – Grace. Making someone your spouse – Grace. Human life – Grace (it\’s a gift given through the the graciousness of the mother and father).
Releasing the Israelites form the bondage of Egypt – Grace.
Grace is that external force acting upon a thing by which the means of becoming something better is provided. Grace provides improvement that cannot be obtained without the provider. A grain of wheat cannot become a stalk full of life giving seed by itself. It must fall to the earth, and it must have water and sunshine. It needs an external force acting upon it before it can transform from death into life.

You Need the Potter

What you need is something to make you alive. You need something to make you into that which you cannot become by yourself – you need grace. Consider again these verses from the Old Testament:
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever;

We are the clay? He is the potter? He is our Father? What does that mean?
It means you\’re a penny, not a quarter. It means you\’re an unfired mound of clay, not a bowl useful for good works. It means He is the one that makes the dead come alive. It means that you cannot, through any amount of self discipline, work or asceticism make yourself alive – you need Grace – you need an external force making you into something you cannot become through your own efforts.

The Good News

The good news is that positionally, you\’ve won the lottery. That\’s right. In the Death vs. Life quandary that you find yourself, you\’ve been given the winning ticket as a birthday present. The present is this: your sins have already been judged, in Jesus Christ:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Well, you might ask, if that\’s so, then why do some people go to hell, and others go to heaven? That\’s a good question! The answer is simple – Faith – in God\’s order.
In order to get the money from the Lottery Commission, you have to exchange the winning lottery ticket for the cash. You\’ve got to make the trip to the lottery office, sign the ticket and turn it in to the officials. You have to trust and believe (provide faith) that the lottery officials will give you the money in exchange for your ticket. If you don\’t apply that little bit of faith and act upon it, then you\’ll never get the money you\’ve won.

A Righteousness that\’s not Yours

But what if you don\’t believe they will give you the money? What if you believe someone will steal the ticket from you on the way to the lottery office? What if you believe you\’ll lose the ticket on the way there? If you believe those things, then you will live in and act out those beliefs and in doing so, you will stay in your home, clutching a winning lottery ticket, but never receive the money that belongs to you.

In the very same way you must also turn away your arrogance that you can become righteous in and of yourself. You must be willing forsake those things which keep you away from placing your Faith and Trust in God. You must be willing to receive His righteousness through His redemption, before doing the deeds of the Law or the self sacrifice of Worship which cannot, and never will, result in redemption, atonement or salvation.

How is Grace Obtained?

So how is this grace given? Exactly like it was given to the Israelites. Look again:
…
What does it take to cry out to God? It takes faith. And what is faith? It is believing that God is (as the Israelites did when the cried out to Him), it is believing and trusting that God will do what He said He will do.
…

But isn\’t faith works?

No, faith is not works. Faith is trusting and believing, and when you trust and believe, you produce works, as in crying out to God, as in the trip you make to the lottery office. Before you can cry out to God, you must believe He is. Before you can make that trip to the lottery office, you must trust and believe that they will honor

Therefore, grace is provided through trust and belief (faith) that God has done and will do the work for you, through the atoning work of the High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Once the Israelites were out of Egypt and had received the Law and the Temple (take note of the order – redemption, law, temple) atonement for common sins was provided through grace, by faith in the Word of God. This faith was acted out through the those who brought the sacrifices and through the actions of the High Priest. It was the priest that made the offering, but God who made it acceptable.

Why did He make it acceptable? Because of their faith. How did He make it acceptable? By His Grace.

Through these actions, God provided an imperfect picture of the perfect sacrifice to come, of the perfect High Priest, Jesus Christ on the cross, by which He Himself entered into the Spiritual Holy of Holies – rather than the earthly holy place found in the earthly temple – thus making a way of salvation for all mankind, not just the Israelites.

God Provides Atonement and Salvation By Grace Through Faith

And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. Surely the LORD\’S mercies are not consumed, surely His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. \’The LORD is my portion\’, saith my soul; \’Therefore will I hope in Him.
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The point is this: God has done the work, the High Priest, the Christ, has done His job: He has made the sacrifice. Our job is to humble ourselves before Him, accept the work He has done and turn away from our arrogance, our sins, and our disbelief. Through faith we can be clay in His hands, and be made vessels of Grace.
When we place our trust and belief in Him, He will do precisely what He promises to do: provide Salvation by Grace through Faith.