Forgiveness of Sins
Forgiveness of sins is brought before us in different ways and in different connections in Scripture; there are different kinds of forgiveness of sins. We may divide them into four, certainly into three. The first we may call judicial forgiveness; the next, administrative forgiveness; the next, governmental forgiveness; and the last, brotherly forgiveness. All have their distinct place and character in Scripture, but sometimes they are sorrowfully mixed up in the minds of God's people.
Judicial forgiveness is that eternal, absolute and complete forgiveness that we have once and forever when we receive Christ as our Saviour, when it becomes true of us what is said in Psalm 32:11<<A Psalm of David, Maschil.>> Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm 32:1): "Blessed in he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the mar. unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." We are included in that class by God Himself in other Scriptures. For instance, Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7) says, speaking of Christ, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever." Revelation 1:5, 65And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5‑6). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17).
When we receive judicial forgiveness from the hand of God, we never have to meet God about the question of our sins. We cease to be sinners in His sight when that absolute and eternal forgiveness is ours. We are then what we were not before; we are children of God and we are placed on a platform where we will never again have to meet God in judgment about our sins. Morning, noon and night, it is true we stand in the forgiveness of all our sins according to the riches of God's grace. Nothing can change it. We don't have to meet God twice about our sins. It is always true of us, "God" in Christ—or "for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." 1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12).
The platform we have referred to in Ephesians gives us the ground and measure of this forgiveness. That ground is redemption through His blood. The measure is the riches of God's grace. There we stand as to our sins before God, unchangeably so. Is that not very blessed? Now that the whole question of sins has been eternally settled, as it has, grace in its fulness can flow.
Think what it is to be before God as an unforgiven sinner. Suppose I had the sins of eighty years to answer for. What then? Suppose I had the sins of one year to answer for. What then? Suppose I had the sins of one day to answer for. What then? Oh, they would sink me under the weight of God's judgment. If you are an unforgiven sinner, may you realize what it is to be an unforgiven sinner in the sight of God. Receive Christ as your Saviour and your sins are forgiven once and forever.
That is judicial forgiveness of sins in having to do with God about it. God came out in judgment against sins at the cross. There He judged sins according to His estimate and judged them in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the ground of that He preaches forgiveness. Forgiveness is preached in His Name: "There is none other name . . . given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).
Let us now consider a few passages which bring before us administrative forgiveness, a forgiveness that is placed in the hands of men: John 20:2323Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23), "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." Acts 22:1616And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16), "And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." 2 Corinthians 2:55But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. (2 Corinthians 2:5), "But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow."
God in His wisdom has committed nothing that is vital unto man's hands. He knows him too well. In administrative forgiveness there is nothing vital. What does it mean in that passage, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins"? How can sins be washed away by baptism? Saul's case involved a name he had hated and a people whom he had persecuted. He identifies himself outwardly with those people he had persecuted and confesses that name he had hated. Outwardly identifying himself with that people who called upon His Name washed all away. After the Lord had smitten him down when he was near Damascus, appearing in a glory above the brightness of the sun at noonday, He called him and spoke to him in the Hebrew tongue, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"
The question was asked, "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "Arise and go into the city." He asked what he was to do. "It shall be told thee what thou must do." Acts 9. And he goes. And for three days and three nights all is darkness. He is blinded before God. He neither eats nor drinks. He is passing through some deep exercise of soul before God and he learns there what judicial forgiveness is in its character. He learns there what we have in the first few verses of the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received." What about baptism? Not a word. He had received the forgiveness of his sins. He tells there what he preached, how that Christ died for our sins. Wonderful, blessed truth: Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day. Paul learned that in deep exercise of soul, and he says, "That is what I received and what I preach." And that is what God tells us in connection with judicial forgiveness. "How that Christ died for our sins and that He was buried." Meditate on that in His Word, the solemn truth of a dead and buried Christ, but the blessedness of a risen Christ! That is all vital.
The three days and three nights came to an end. The Lord has a beloved servant in Damascus named Ananias and tells him to go to his servant Saul; he is not yet called Paul. He says to him, Go to him "for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in." And when Ananias does go—oh it is exceedingly sweet—that man expressed fear: "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy Name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel." As Ananias enters that chamber of the blind, praying, repentant man, he says to him, "Brother Saul." Oh, the precious grace of God! "The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."
Oh, that is precious! And he arose and was baptized. He received not only judicial but administrative forgiveness.
There is nothing vital in the two ordinances committed to man, the ordinance of baptism and of the Lord's supper. Do you want a proof that there is nothing vital? A solemn proof is that there are many baptized persons in hell and many persons in hell who have partaken of the Lord's supper. There are, contrariwise, many in heaven who have never been baptized and who have never partaken of the Lord's supper. How important to see this, especially in this day when ritualism and rationalism are on the increase.
Administrative forgiveness is the same kind of forgiveness as is spoken of in John 20:2323Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23), "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained"—forgiveness committed into the hands of men. And when they received one among themselves in a definite pointed way, they remitted his sins. That was individual. There was nothing vital.
In 2 Corinthians 2, there is a company of people that have forgiveness of sins in their hands, and they are refusing to administer it. What is it? There is a church at Corinth, and they have had to bind the sin of one upon him. Now he is a forgiven man all the time, judicially, a saved man, but he had fallen into sin, and they have bound that sin upon him. It is only they who can release him. God has forgiven that man. He is being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. He has what you might call governmental forgiveness but not administrative. The administrative forgiveness is in the hands of those who had bound it upon him, and they were responsible to release him. That is important in this day. An assembly which binds a sin upon one is the only gathering which can release. That is administrative! There is nothing vital about it. The apostle had fellowship with them and it was his exhortation that led them to put him out, but it is the same assembly that must restore him. He beseeches them; he says "ye ought . . . to forgive him ... lest such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." But it is the repentance of a saint who had sinned.
We press that point a little of what administrative forgiveness is. Ananias exercised administrative forgiveness. The assembly at Corinth exercised administrative forgiveness in putting that man out and receiving him again. Administrative forgiveness is with the saints that are gathered to the Lord's name. They are responsible to exercise it, both in binding and in loosing. A little meditation on the difference between judicial forgiveness and administrative forgiveness is very helpful. Sad is the work of putting away, if done in the fear of God and in a sense of responsibility and obedience. Happy is the work of receiving, but the whole thing is in the hands of the assembly. The principles of the Church are just the same as they ever were. If we take the ground of the assembly, we must act on the principles of it.
Let us now consider governmental forgiveness. We will have to turn to the epistles of James and John. Remember, this is not administrative but governmental. James 5:13-1513Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. (James 5:13‑15): "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." 1 John 5:14-1614And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 16If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. (1 John 5:14‑16) says: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it."
In these passages we have governmental forgiveness. Here in James is a brother or a sister who is sick. It may or it may not be because they have sinned. "And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." He will forgive in what way? The Lord shall raise him up. It is governmental, not judicial, forgiveness. He may have been saved for years; he received that eternal and judicial forgiveness once and forever.
Some of us have had to do with such cases. Some of us have known what it was to have the governmental hand of God removed through confession and prayer. There has to be the confession' Both principles remain true! There is nothing miraculous about the prayer of faith. It becomes us to search ourselves when we find ourselves in these circumstances to see if it is for sin. It may not be—"And if he have"—it comes in by and by, "the Lord shall raise him up."
In 1 John is a saint in communion who knows he has the petitions that he asks. God's grace is given to him to use that intercession that he has with God on the behalf of a brother who has sinned. If he sees a brother sin, a sin not unto death, he shall ask. Who shall ask? The brother who has not sinned. "And the Lord shall raise him up."
On the other hand, "there is a sin unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it." That is what perplexes. We may sometimes be asked, What is the sin unto death? It may be with one some kind and with another something else. It has long been thought that a sin unto death is the result of a course. God bears with it for a while, but at last He says that is the end.
Many years ago we had an earnest brother and lover of souls in Chicago. He went away and we lost track of him for awhile. However, at last he was found in a hospital. A brother said, "Do you wish some of the brothers to come to see you?" "No," he said, "it is unto death and I do not wish to lighten the stroke," and he died.
In both cases in James and in John it is the natural life, not eternal. It is the governmental hand of God. Many a saint has died under the governmental hand of God. I do not refer now to Ananias and Sapphira. There is nothing to indicate that they were not saved people. But their sin was so deliberate and willful. They were not overtaken in a fault. Many a saint has died under the governmental hand of God since that but not in that direct way. What an awful thing sin is! Theirs was a deliberate sin! They had agreed together. They wanted credit, like the others, for giving all. Ananias did not tell a lie; he acted one. His wife told one. But both were alike in the sight of God. God sees as well as hears.
Notice one more important principle concerning governmental forgiveness. Take what is called the Lord's prayer—a wonderful prayer and only the Lord could teach it. The Lord said to His disciples, when ye pray say, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed [sanctified] be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." What a wonderful prayer! Think of the scope of it! That prayer will never be answered until there is a new heaven and a new earth. Then "God's will" will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And when the Lord was teaching them to pray, He could not give them anything short of that. But now observe what He says, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Do you think for one moment that God forgives judicially the sins that we forgive others? Not a bit of it! It is governmental forgiveness, as we forgive others.
Finally, what do we know about brotherly forgiveness? We shall look for that first in the 11th of Mark, the 25th and 26th verses, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also...in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." There are many other trespasses of that kind. Look at Matt. 18:2222Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:22): "seventy times seven." We have in another Scripture if a brother sins seven times in a day and seven times comes and says, "I repent," you are to forgive him.
But mark, when ye stand praying if ye have ought against any, don't stand there praying with an unforgiving spirit and holding something against a brother. "Forgive...that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you." But for that we shall have to turn to that other passage "And seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent." That confession is necessary.
A few years ago some brothers were at strife. They could not settle their difficulty so they called some other brothers to help them, but the other brothers could not do anything with them. All at once one brother, who was really in the right, said, "Brother, I forgive you." It angered the other brother and he said, "I don't need your forgiveness." The other brother, while in the right, should have waited until he said "I repent." If a brother comes seven times in a day and says "I repent," we are to forgive him. We are to bear with him and forgive him. If we harbor an unforgiving spirit, we lose the sense of the Father's forgiveness in the soul.
Many years ago there were two brothers, related by nature, and of very different characters. One was the Jacob type and the other the Esau type. It is better to have to do with Esau than Jacob. These two became very separated in spirit. We were walking with the Esau brother—Esau is a righteous man; he said, "They shall not come out -until they have paid the last farthing." We said, "that is what you are doing."
The government of God in that way is very stern. You have something against your brother in an unforgiving spirit, and your Father in heaven will hold something against you. We don't mean judicially. How important that is. "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you."
Another case comes before us which was also long years ago and very sad also. In a certain state there was a man who was a widower, and he had a son grown to manhood who became engaged. The father and mother of the daughter opposed it and so did the meeting, but there was no Scripture to hinder them and they were married. The mother died. She was the most bitter. The father was still unrelenting. He went to Switzerland without a letter—did not ask for one— and it was five years before he came back. He found he was out of communion with the brethren and said, "Oh, brethren, it seems as if there is a wall between God and myself." One brother quoted, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." He sent for his son-in-law and confessed his failure. The wall was broken down and he departed in peace.
What a lack there is of brotherly forgiveness! "Forgiving...as God also for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," but don't forget also the need to get the confession. "When ye stand praying forgive."
Well, now we will look at it in another way. Five or six times you have come confessing to me. I say, I don't know. You must be a hypocrite. "Thou shalt for-give." That kind of thing is dwelt very largely upon in Scripture—brotherly forgiveness. Another passage states, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Lev. 19:1717Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. (Leviticus 19:17).
In summary, we have God's eternal judicial forgiveness of sins through the redemption in Christ Jesus. To the assembly the Lord has given the administrative responsibility to put away from its midst wicked persons and to forgive and restore to its midst those who repent. This authority does not imply perfection in action nor is it eternal in character. God Himself may lay His governmental hand on the life of one of His children because of sin in his life. He may forgive and remove His hand of chastening, or if needs be, He may remove the believer through death. His governmental ways have to do with this life, not with life eternal. Finally, we should remember that if we are to have God's forgiving hand upon us, we must as brothers and sisters in Christ have a forgiving spirit toward one another.