Tag: mercy

Sin can be forgiven

This perceptive word was written in the Gospels: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5.21). It’s great news to know that God is in the business of forgiving sin.

This is especially the case when considering sexual sin. Most people are aware of the Ten Commandments, one of which prohibits adultery. Adultery is remarkably common, as is fornication (sex outside of marriage) and various other forms of sexual activity condemned by Jesus under the general term “sexual immorality” which he listed among various other sins (Matthew 15.19). These sins arouse a particularly deep feeling of guilt which is hard to shake off. 

The “Good News” that the Gospel of Christ brings, is that “All the prophets bear witness to Jesus, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10.39). Forgiveness of sins can be received! It can be yours because of the Lord Jesus Christ: he “bore our sins in his body” on the cross, so that we sinners might be forgiven. The early Christian preachers declared: “Through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is justified [i.e. declared legally righteous] from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13.38-39). God’s forgiveness clears our slate, makes us acceptable at the great Day of Judgment, and opens the way to heaven. 

This is the promise of the Word of God himself. The very first Christian proclamation, given by the apostle Peter seven weeks after Jesus had died and risen again, ends with these words: “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. To be forgiven there are three essential conditions: to repent, which means to turn away from all sin, and the Holy Spirit is given to make that possible. The second condition was mentioned in the previous verses, to “believe in the Lord Jesus”, which means to receive him as your Lord, Master, Saviour and Friend, and to become one of his followers. The third condition was to be baptised in the name of Jesus, which means to make a public stand as a Christian, committed to obey Jesus as Lord.

In other words, you can’t expect to get God’s forgiveness with your right hand while continuing to sin with your left! You have to be honest with God. Forgiveness is free – you don’t have to earn it by any special pilgrimage or fasting or deeds of mercy. You do, however, have to decide with God’s help, to change your life around, to repent and give up your sins – which is not easy, but God’s Holy Spirit will help you if you pray sincerely in Jesus’ name for God to forgive you. He will be glad to answer that prayer!

Then, however heinous may have been the sins you have on your conscience, they are all wiped away by God’s grace. God promises: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow” (Isaiah 1.18), and “Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8.12). God’s forgiveness is mediated through his word of promise written in the Bible. He is a God who “forgives iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34.7). If we fulfil the conditions, he will fulfil his promise.

Maybe you will want to turn to him in prayer right now? He is right there close to you: open your heart to him.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Reforming the church

Some parts of the modern-day church are called “Reformed.” One may wonder why. Should the church need reforming? May she have gone off course? Is she infallibly held in the truth or may she become corrupted? If so, what authority is competent to reform her? Is it even thinkable that anyone may be able to reform the church? The church is a global phenomenon of believers in Jesus, divided into innumerable groups, some large, some small. It is so huge that no-one can grasp the whole with a view to reforming it, not even the Pope.

So while some want a progressive or reforming Pope and others insist on a traditional Pope, there are already two dividing tendencies within the Roman Church, quite apart from the many other kinds of churches. And if one wants to “reform” the church, by what criteria might it be reformed?

The 16th century saw what came to be called “the Reformation”. The moral quality of the church and its leadership had suffered a sad decline over the previous century. Even Roman Catholic historians admit the immoral behaviour of some Popes left a lot to be desired. Their conduct was unworthy of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they professed to serve.

Apart from that moral decline, the reformers discerned theological errors that had been adopted in the church’s teaching and practice. How did they know there were errors? By a return to studying the Bible.

Martin Luther was a monk whose task was to teach theology. He therefore studied the Scriptures that he had to teach. As he did so, he struggled to understand some key concepts that were fundamental to the Gospel message, notably those of righteousness and justification. He had his own personal struggle to become righteous, being very conscious of his inner faults, spending a lot of time in confession. He was at the same time puzzling over St Paul’s teaching on the theme of justification, notably in the epistle to the Romans chapters 1-5.

After a lot of soul-searching and Bible study, he finally found the key that he had never grasped before: how God “justified” (i.e. declared legally just and acceptable in the judgment) those who believe in Jesus, the Saviour who died and rose again for their salvation. None of his confessors or colleagues at university had been able to share this good news with him, for they neither taught it nor understood it themselves. But there it was in the New Testament!

It was this rediscovery of the Bible’s message of “justification by faith in Christ” that led to the reformation and birthed the “reformed church”. While official church leaders condemned Luther, many were glad to receive the message of salvation by faith in Christ. They studied the Bible to find the truth of God, and by that truth they sought to reform the church’s moral laxity and its inadequate teaching on justification.

When challenged as to why they held their doctrines, their answer was simply, “Because the Bible says so.” The Bible was henceforth to be the sole authority to which Christians should absolutely adhere. In any dispute, the way to resolve it was always by a return to studying what the Bible actually says. This remains the principle of the reformed church.

Unfortunately, the temptation to allow passing philosophical trends to influence theologians has led parts of the church to drift from biblical faithfulness. Wisely did the Reformers insist that the church should be “semper reformanda” – continuously reforming itself by Holy Scripture, maintaining the purity of both its holiness and its biblical doctrine.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Gentle Jesus

If it was up to you to envisage how the Almighty Creator were to visit his creation, this planet, how would you set it up? How do you think people would expect such a divine intervention to take place?

Would he arrive as twice the size of a human, descending in a kind of parachute into Rome to slay the Emperor and take his place? Or zooming in on the Areopagus in Athens to confront and confound the leading philosophers like Plato and Socrates? Or again, shining in blinding glory while zooming over a war zone calling for conflict immediately to cease? Or would he be wandering in the mountains and coming to the grotto of a “holy man” to quietly introduce himself without overwhelming him?

Well, you could think of several scenarios which could have a degree of plausibility about them. But not many outside the reach of Christianity would come up with the idea that the Almighty would show up in a new-born baby, fragile and vulnerable, utterly dependent on the care of his parents. The God revealed in Scripture could have come in his power and glory (as the Lord Jesus is predicted to return at the end of the age); but instead, he chose the humble way: the baby grew up to say “I am gentle and humble of heart”. A strange divine visitation indeed!

What message does this Gospel record seek to communicate? Surely not that God is weak and feeble. No, rather that he comes not to pour down his wrath on a wicked world – even though that would be perfectly justified – but to “seek and to save the lost” (as Jesus put it in Luke 19.10). What does that imply? Well, first of all, humankind is “lost”. What does that mean? It means we have erred and strayed from the right path, we have forsaken the way of righteousness, and have embarked on a dangerous “broad road that leads,” according to Jesus’ warning, “to destruction” (Matthew 7.13). Here came a divine guide to stand in our way, to turn us back from our errors and sins, and to offer us forgiveness and moral renewal that will clean us up and set us on the right road. 

When Jesus was travelling and preaching, he would at times express his compassion for lost humanity in tears and lamentation – longing for people to get wise and turn from their evil ways. “How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”, he mourned (Matthew 23.37), grieving over the hardness of people’s hearts who obstinately refused to hear his loving warnings. His coming into the world was an act of mercy, offering pardon and grace – at the cost of his life.

This extraordinarily gentle approach opened the era of grace – when rebels against the Almighty who lay down their arms and surrender to his will are guaranteed pardon and eternal life. That era still endures; anyone may turn to Christ and receive him and his saving work which will grant them a new abundant life that he promises to give. But the offer ends either when Jesus returns in power and glory to judge the nations of the world, or at “death, after which comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9.27). In that day, the gentle Jesus, meek and mild will be revealed as the all-powerful Creator he is, and he will fulfil his role as righteous Judge and upholder of justice in the universe. It is in our highest interests to get ready for that judgment day.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Everything hinges on

Everything hinges on one key decision.

As you struggle with the profound existential issues that overwhelm the sensitive soul; as you think through what could be the real purpose of your life; as you wonder if there’s a God who could possibly help you; as you resist the temptation to put an end to it all – there is one key decision that confronts you.

You don’t have to go on a long pilgrimage; you don’t have to follow a three-year university course; you don’t have to master some obscure concepts, and you don’t have to pass some test of endurance. 

You have to be humble, open to be taught that the life-philosophy you hold dear may well be wrong. You have to realise that no atheistic worldview can offer you the serious answers you seek. You have to consider not “religion”, but rather God himself, because whether you realise it yet or not, God has demonstrated his existence in coming by a historic incarnation into this world: Jesus Christ is the proof that God exists, and if you do not know that yet, a thoughtful reading of the four Gospels recounting his life, his teaching, his divine claims, his miraculous ministry, his atoning death, and his triumphant resurrection will lead you to conclude that God has indeed sent his divine Son into the world to give us the answers we seek.  Jesus said he “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19.10); human beings without Christ are lost. He is the key we need to be “saved”.

Jesus is able to save you from your ignorance, for he is “the light of the world” (John 8.12). He is able to reveal to you how much God loves you, for “God so loved the world (including you) that he gave his only Son (Jesus) that whoever (including you) believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3.16). He is able to enter your life by his life-giving Spirit, as if you were born again into a completely wonderful life in relationship with the God who loves you; he is knocking at the door of your heart, eager to come in and forgive all your failures and sins, and renew you in a life that has real meaning and purpose.

Millions the world over have experienced this new life that Jesus gives; it is what corresponds to the deepest needs of our soul. Until we experience this, we are lost, confused and guilty, wandering hopelessly to no apparent purpose. Jesus can heal your inner being; he can save your soul; he can give you new life.

It all hinges on one thing. Surprisingly, one decision, clearly and resolutely taken, can lift you out of the darkness of despair and bring you to the joy of a real, harmonious relationship with God. One decision involving willingness to be made anew. One decision that you will hold to in the days to come. It all hinges on you calling upon the name of Jesus, opening your heart and saying, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, the sinner; cleanse me from my sins; make me born again; come into my heart and be my Lord and Saviour; I will follow you with all my heart”.

This prayer of faith and commitment is the key to experiencing God’s loving presence, and proving to yourself that He is real, for he is eager to answer that prayer when it is sincerely prayed. Your wavering and doubting will be over; a relationship with God will begin.

Clive Every-Clayton

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My spiritual birthday

This week I celebrate my spiritual birthday. “What,” you may ask, “is a ‘spiritual birthday’”? The idea comes from one of Jesus’ vital but rather obscure teachings. The Son of God declared categorically: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3.3).

One has to admit, it’s not obvious what Jesus was meaning, and his interlocutor responded with incredulity: “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus went on to explain he was speaking of a spiritual birth, the beginning of a new spiritual life in a person’s heart. Elsewhere in the Gospel it is called being “born of God” – born anew as God’s child when God grants new life to a human soul. 

In John’s Gospel (1.10-13) it says that when Jesus came into the world, there were many who did not recognise him nor welcome him; but “to all who did receive Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. That is an amazing blessing, but the passage adds that those who believe in Jesus and receive him by faith as their Lord and Saviour are “born of God”.
What does that mean? Let me back up a little first. When a baby is born, all the family rejoices: it receives a human life which will go on to develop as he or she grows. Yet when it matures, albeit marvellously endowed, it becomes evident that there is selfishness and unkindness when bad attitudes and actions become visible in its life. In biblical terms, it is born with a sinful disposition that produces behaviour that is sometimes aberrant.

Human experience testifies that however hard we try, we cannot efface this sinful tendency from within us. That’s why the Bible says we are all “sinners”: we all know what it is to have a guilty conscience; no-one is perfect.

What can change us? Well, Jesus proposes giving us a renewed Christian life by a new spiritual birth. He means that his own Holy Spirit will make us born again. As the text above states, this is for those who believe in Jesus and who receive him as Lord and Saviour. This new birth occurs as people turn away from sin, trust in Jesus, and commit to following and obey him.

The day I was born again, it was Easter Sunday; I had heard a preacher explain that when Jesus died on Good Friday, he took on himself, out of compassion for the likes of lost sinners like me, all my faults and all their punishment. He suffered in my place; he died the death that was the “wages of sin” for my disobedience. He did it because he loved me; and now, alive and risen from the dead, he called me to receive him as my personal Saviour, to forgive me, to change me, to come and give me new life, to come and live in me by his Holy Spirit. So I prayed and committed my life to Christ.

Thus was I “born again”: in the weeks that followed I developed a relationship with Jesus as my best and closest friend, my helper to enable me to overcome the temptations that were on my path, and to put away various sinful attitudes and habits.

I cannot more strongly encourage all my readers to do the same. Become a “born again Christian” – that’s the kind of Christian Jesus wants and he will give you that new life if you ask him.

Clive Every-Clayton

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God can forgive your sin

The Bible is a very realistic book. It does not hesitate to recount the sexual failures of some of its main characters – to make us realise two essential truths. One, that in even the best of men there is sin (the sole exception is Jesus). And two, the worst sinners may be redeemed.

Take King David for an example. He was called “a man after God’s own heart”, he penned a number of Psalms that are in the Bible, many of which express his devotion to God and trust in the Lord. But when he was tempted, seeing Bathsheba bathing, he was overcome with lust and committed adultery with her. Then, in a vain effort to cover us his sin, he brought about the death of Bathsheba’s husband, and then married her.

When the Bible records such events, it never encourages such behaviour, of course. The reader is to learn from the bad examples in the Bible as well as from the good: to imitate the good, not the bad!

Indeed, the Bible recounts how a prophet came to rebuke David for his sin, and two of David’s psalms (numbers 51 and 32) give deep emotional expression to his most earnest contrition, his search for forgiveness, his prayer of repentance, and the ultimate joy of knowing God had forgiven him. 

The Bible constantly maintains that double message: first, we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, whether our sin is desperately wicked or relatively respectable; and second, our sin can be forgiven however awful it may be.

We need both those messages. To ignore how sinful we are leads us into pride and self-deception and we fail to realise our need of God’s forgiveness. To ignore the grace of God that saved even a wretch like the slave-trader John Newton (who wrote the hymn “Amazing grace”) is to cut yourself off from the hope of a conscience finally cleansed of all guilt and at peace with oneself and (more importantly) with God.

So the Bible abounds with God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation, and as we all fall short of the good life we should lead, we all need God’s forgiveness. Furthermore, no-one else can grant us that forgiveness; but God can and he wants to forgive you. In fact he wants so much to forgive you that he sent his Son to bear your sins and “pay” for them when he died on the cross, so that if you accept his offer of forgiveness you won’t have to pay for them in all eternity – yes, in hell. 

So listen to God’s words: “Seek the Lord while he may be found… Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55.6-7). What an invitation!

“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity? …He delights in showing mercy. He will have compassion on us… You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7.18-19).

“In Christ we have redemption through his blood (shed on the cross), that is, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1.7).

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1.18).

“Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3.19).

If you turn from sin in your life – whatever you may be conscious of, and call on the name of Jesus, he will forgive you.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Is there a hell?

When a well-known criminal monster, whom I will call Y____, much hated for his horrible and widely publicised wickedness, died in prison, the headline filling the front page of a tabloid shouted: “Burn in Hell, Y_____”. That not only expressed disgust at evil, it also revealed the positive human requirement of punishment for crimes committed. Hell would be the just penalty for sin.

Is there a hell? The question is rarely discussed openly; it may deeply perturb our hearts, as it did mine when I was a teenager. It deserves a clear answer, and as I have said before, only God knows the answer, so only he can tell us. When his Son Jesus came as his spokesman into the world, he left us in no doubt. He spoke of one sinner, who “died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment…” complaining, “I am in anguish in this flame” (Luke 16.22-24). He taught that at the last judgment, the lost “will go away into eternal punishment” (Matthew 25.46). More than once he warned, “in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8.12, 13.50). He insists that “it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God, than… to be thrown into hell” (Mark 9.47). However you may wish to interpret these passages, you cannot escape the fact that Jesus taught there would be severe pain suffered after death by unrepentant sinners. This is a most solemn warning.

Would you rather I said, “It’s okay – we’ll all get to heaven”? From another context, the words of a political advisor are relevant: “If you want to help people, tell them the truth; if you want to help yourself, tell them what they want to hear”. If God has given us such a serious warning, preachers must faithfully teach the truth he has revealed, not alter it in the vain hope of helping people. 

What I can say, however, is that even if you’re the worst offender, you can escape hell and go to heaven if you receive forgiveness from God in this life. That is why I have written a lot in previous blog posts about forgiveness: everyone desperately needs it!

When the Son of God came to earth, he wept over the unrepentant masses and urgently warned us: “Unless you repent you will perish” (i.e. in hell – Luke 13.3). He so wanted to save us from hell that he suffered the most horrendous agony on the cross for us. On the cross he was bearing your hell and mine – the punishment that we deserve – in our place. He died for you because he loves you; he wants to save you from hell. His death made atonement for our sins so that God, in all justice, may forgive us. If there is no hell, we cannot understand why the Son of God should have suffered such an agonising death.

The cross is the supreme measure of Jesus’ love for you. As awful as was his suffering, so strong is his love, bearing it for you. So you can be forgiven, redeemed, transformed, and made ready to go to heaven – if you repent and turn in faith to Christ your Saviour. Ask Jesus to forgive and save you from hell – and he will! “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved” (Romans 10.13). 

But if you would spurn Christ’s love and reject God’s wondrously merciful offer to free you from hell and grant you heaven, what do you think you would deserve?

Clive Every-Clayton

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