God’s radical, total forgiveness

In one of his stories – that we call parables – Jesus used a powerful word to speak of God’s forgiveness. In the temple, a self-righteous worshipper was praying, thanking God as he enumerated the good things he did, comparing himself favourably with those he considered worse than himself. In a corner of the same temple, a broken-hearted outsider beat his breast as he pleaded with God for mercy for his sinful behaviour. This second man, said Jesus, was heard rather than the proud religionist, and he returned home “justified” (Luke 18.9-14).

To be “justified” is to be more than merely forgiven. It means he obtained the status of a man right with God, considered righteous in God’s eyes so as to be accepted as guiltless in the final judgment. This is God’s radical, total forgiveness and it assures the penitent that he has “no condemnation” to fear on the Day of Judgment.

In 1517 AD, Martin Luther hit on this glorious revelation, famously revalorising how God justifies sinners. In his day, religion taught that you had to earn your way to heaven. He had tried his best to do that but ended in despair because sin was deep in his psyche, even as a religious monk. Then he discovered in the New Testament that God was so kind and gracious that he promised to “justify” the sinner who turned away from all wrong and trusted Christ, the Saviour of sinners, to forgive him totally. Luther had grasped the biblical revelation that we are “justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3.28). By a radical faith commitment, a person could be totally forgiven and made clean in God’s sight. And this was possible only because Jesus, on the cross, had borne the sinners’ punishment in our place, out of love for us. This work of atonement satisfied the demands of Justice, allowing the righteous Father to grant full and free forgiveness to those who came to trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

That radical faith commitment is referred to in the Bible as “conversion”, or being “called” by God, or also being “born again”. It is a double decision: first, to abandon all evil conduct, turning away from all that God calls sin so as to start a new life in obedience to God. Secondly, to ask the Lord Jesus Christ, in faith, both to forgive and to clean up one’s life and to enter in, to dwell within, by his Holy Spirit, to enable that radical transformation to take place.

Now this step of commitment is how a person enters into the harmonious relationship with God, for the Father gladly accepts the repentant sinner and grants both his full forgiveness and the status of being justified.

Those who make that commitment can affirm with Luther and the apostle Paul: “We have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law” (Galatians 2.16). And “being justified by faith, we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5.1).

Clive Every-Clayton