Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. A friend and I were discussing
forgiveness when he said he could forgive someone for offending
him, but he could not forget the offense that had taken place.
After pondering that statement for a while, I have concluded
that he was partially right. Our mind is like the hard drive
on our computers. When something is burned into
our memory, it will always be there. We can attempt to erase
it, but it can always be reconstructed. Only the Lord can forgive and
totally forget an incident as though it never happened. That
very concept is at the root of the doctrine of justification
which the Lord has brought to pass by the redemptive work of
Jesus Christ our Savior. Through Him we are considered
just and justified. This literally means that we
are treated in a fashion as though we had never sinned. The sin
of God's children will never be brought up again in a judicial
manner. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Their sin was laid on Him and
is now completely taken away. They stand clothed not in their
own righteousness, but covered completely from head to foot
in His. When the Father sees them, He
sees the perfection of His Son. When Paul says, forgetting those
things which are behind, he is not espousing wishful thinking,
but is describing the necessary mindset of the true child of
God. Primarily forgetting means abandoning or casting off. This
very action forms the core of true repentance. The most popular
definition of repentance is feeling sorry for one's actions. While
sorrow for one's failures is indeed part of true repentance,
it is but a starting point. The repentance spoken of in Scripture
is a turning away from our old way, or casting off those things
in which we delighted and took comfort in, and turning to something
new. Judas wept over his disgraceful
conduct, yet there is no evidence that he abandoned it in favor
of something new. He continued in the disgraceful
way he began, and embracing darkness took his own life rather than
turning to the only one who could deliver him from the darkness
that enveloped his soul. The Lord said, No man, having
put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God. Lot's wife looked back upon Sodom
and was turned to a pillar of salt. The children of Israel
murmured and complained on their journey, longing for the leeks
and onions of Egypt. And that whole generation died
in the wilderness and did not enter the promised land. Yet
the scripture says of faithful Abraham and his family, and truly,
if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came
out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. They were not
mindful of that country that they came out of. Rather, they
abandoned that land, putting it out of their minds, pressing
on in that land to which the Lord called them. So the children
of God are admonished by Paul's example to abandon the old way
and keep pressing on to that new and living way, which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We are not looking behind us
to savor the pleasures of sin which did so easily beset us.
And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. We are given a new life and have
been called out of the darkness and into the light. How can we
then live in that way which we have been delivered from? We
do not entertain those thoughts of malice and revenge which ruled
us when we were stumbling in the darkness and deadness of
our sin. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Though we may not be able to absolutely forget an offense
in the recesses of our minds, we can abandon it or cast it
off insofar as we think of restitution for it, and forbear one another
as if the offense never occurred. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. For even Christ pleased not himself. We are in the world, but not
of it. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
The sons of God have a completely different mindset than the majority
of those they live among. They march to the beat of a different
drummer. They do not desire the endorsement of the men of this
world, but seek only the approval of their master. The world will
approve of religion, but will always reject those who embrace
Jesus Christ. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. For a free CD containing
15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at
windstream.net.