Amazing grace how sweet the sound
Commentary
The Bible, Old Testament and New, is filled with words for forgiveness in its original tongues. The Hebrew texts are redolent with terms like caphar, "to cover over, blot out," showing God applying a substance that he uses to put misdeeds out of view, and salach, "to send away, to put distance between two objects," in this case between a perpetrator and his/her corrupt acts, and nasah, "to lift up, to remove the foot from one's neck who is down," or "to lift to their feet one who has fallen under a weight," in this case their sin-load! The Greek texts describe forgiveness as apolou, "to set loose, to allow to go free," as one would untie a prisoner and allow him to return home, or aphiemi, "to send someone on a journey," so that they can enter a new land far from what they left behind, or charizomai, "to be kind hearted, generous," as one would do for a person who might be indebted to them but had no resources of their own to clear away the I.O.U.s which they had amassed.
What this variety of terms for forgiveness underlines is the variety of different kinds of sins that have been perpetrated by human beings in our wanderings, and the myriad of ways God has designed to deal with the burdens and pain our deviousness has caused. Throughout, the scriptures show God as the insatiable lover of his people even at their worst. Whether he is trying to woo them by reminding them of how things were when they were in need and he stooped to help them with whatever it took to survive the crises into which he stepped, or thunders from the mountain when they forsook him for other lords which would become millstones around their necks, the character of the Lord is consistent ... he suffers when his children are in rebellion and does what it takes to turn them homeward. The over-arching fact is that God is amazingly full of grace! And that graciousness is highlighted in each section of this pericope.
OUTLINE I
The countdown to salvation
Genesis 18:10-33
A. vv. 20-21. God gives us every benefit of the doubt. No matter what others may think, he judges us on the basis of what he knows to be the facts, not what people as faulty as ourselves report. "I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not I will know." Even Sodom and Gomorrah are given that kind of chance. Will less be done for you, or for me? It was for a good reason that God did not want human beings to be "like God" when he settled them in Eden. Neither they, nor we, have the divine capacities to see all in life, or even one individual life, in the depth it deserves to be evaluated and finally judged. That power rests with God alone. Back off and leave the judgment seat to him!
B. vv. 22-32. Bargaining comes into play when we are in a bind. Be threatened with the consequences of a sinful plot of action, or get the news that the illness you face may be your final one, and the dealing begins ... "O God, I will do thus and so if you get me off the hook!" Abraham may well be the "father of bargainers!" Not trusting God's grace, he wants to make certain that the Lord will not overreact to the sins of the twin cities. "Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?" What a worry from one who palmed off his wife as his sister to save his own hide when an admirer wanted to sleep with her! But then we tend to think we are more than just God, right? But what Abraham learns in his wheeling-dealing is that God is far ahead of him in forgiveness. Had Abraham pushed his efforts a little further he might have learned that God was prepared to spare all humanity for one righteous person ... even if he had to send him from heaven to do so.
C. v. 33. The conversation and inspection over, "... the Lord went his way." But the work of forgiveness was not finished. It would take a cross and a resurrection for that to happen!
OUTLINE II
When the cheers die away
Colossians 2:6-15
A. vv. 6-10. It was Paul, the writer of this epistle, who in another letter wrote to a church not far away, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God --not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)." Your salvation costs you nothing. Nothing you can do can earn it, or pay for it. That God alone could and did do through the blood of his Son. What we can do is follow that gift with an outpouring of our gratitude which leads us to shape our lives in ways that please the God who gave them back to us! It is not a demand, a kind of after the fact pay back for the cross. It is, or should be the same kind of "gush" from the heart that an oil-driller gets when the pool is struck! We should be easy prey for no competing life-claimers. We belong to Christ, and gladly!
B. vv. 11-15. Baptism is the act that marks the newly reborn with a public sign of the new life ... water and the Word that wash away all of the dirt of corruption that covered us. Like water that rolled over us, we were "buried" by it, coming out from under it as new creatures who have left behind the "old self" that was deluged by the "flood of the font!" With that done, live as the new beings we have been made, and as walking tributes to the One who "disarmed the principalities and powers" that had held us in their clutches.
OUTLINE III
Forgiveness is more than forgetting
Luke 11:1-13
A. v. 1. Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer is not the one most of us pray! That one is found in Matthew 6:9-13. Both versions, for all of their differences, share not only many of the same petitions, but also the fact that they were intended for Jesus' followers to pray. That being so, it could more accurately be dubbed the "Disciple's Prayer."
B. vv. 2-4. "Father" is the operative word in this prayer. It is an intimate one that opens the way for the kind and breadth of requests that would turn away the average benefactor. They usually want to make a quick grant then get the petitioner off of their hands. The kind of petitions made here are huge ... "Thy kingdom come...," or long term, recurring ... "Give us each our daily bread" and "... forgive us our sins," and "... lead us not into temptation." They are not "done-once-and-for-all" kinds of things. None of them! They need doing again and again.
C. vv. 5-8. And the degree of that intimacy is illustrated in the rather saucy parable Jesus gives about how persistent we ought to be in making the pleas to our "Father!" Look at it as though it were not printed in the Bible and some of its punch and raw edge will come to the fore. Note the word translated "Importunity." The Greek term behind it is anaideian. It means to be without shame, without restraint or put-on, as we only can be with one with whom we are so close that we no longer think of how we, or our requests, might "look!" Who better than a loving, and generous, parent?
D. vv. 9-13. The clincher is this, "Isn't God more generous than the most open handed and gracious parent?" Then seek him, and ask, and persist ... and get ready to be overwhelmed with how right on the mark his response to you will be.
What this variety of terms for forgiveness underlines is the variety of different kinds of sins that have been perpetrated by human beings in our wanderings, and the myriad of ways God has designed to deal with the burdens and pain our deviousness has caused. Throughout, the scriptures show God as the insatiable lover of his people even at their worst. Whether he is trying to woo them by reminding them of how things were when they were in need and he stooped to help them with whatever it took to survive the crises into which he stepped, or thunders from the mountain when they forsook him for other lords which would become millstones around their necks, the character of the Lord is consistent ... he suffers when his children are in rebellion and does what it takes to turn them homeward. The over-arching fact is that God is amazingly full of grace! And that graciousness is highlighted in each section of this pericope.
OUTLINE I
The countdown to salvation
Genesis 18:10-33
A. vv. 20-21. God gives us every benefit of the doubt. No matter what others may think, he judges us on the basis of what he knows to be the facts, not what people as faulty as ourselves report. "I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not I will know." Even Sodom and Gomorrah are given that kind of chance. Will less be done for you, or for me? It was for a good reason that God did not want human beings to be "like God" when he settled them in Eden. Neither they, nor we, have the divine capacities to see all in life, or even one individual life, in the depth it deserves to be evaluated and finally judged. That power rests with God alone. Back off and leave the judgment seat to him!
B. vv. 22-32. Bargaining comes into play when we are in a bind. Be threatened with the consequences of a sinful plot of action, or get the news that the illness you face may be your final one, and the dealing begins ... "O God, I will do thus and so if you get me off the hook!" Abraham may well be the "father of bargainers!" Not trusting God's grace, he wants to make certain that the Lord will not overreact to the sins of the twin cities. "Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?" What a worry from one who palmed off his wife as his sister to save his own hide when an admirer wanted to sleep with her! But then we tend to think we are more than just God, right? But what Abraham learns in his wheeling-dealing is that God is far ahead of him in forgiveness. Had Abraham pushed his efforts a little further he might have learned that God was prepared to spare all humanity for one righteous person ... even if he had to send him from heaven to do so.
C. v. 33. The conversation and inspection over, "... the Lord went his way." But the work of forgiveness was not finished. It would take a cross and a resurrection for that to happen!
OUTLINE II
When the cheers die away
Colossians 2:6-15
A. vv. 6-10. It was Paul, the writer of this epistle, who in another letter wrote to a church not far away, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God --not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)." Your salvation costs you nothing. Nothing you can do can earn it, or pay for it. That God alone could and did do through the blood of his Son. What we can do is follow that gift with an outpouring of our gratitude which leads us to shape our lives in ways that please the God who gave them back to us! It is not a demand, a kind of after the fact pay back for the cross. It is, or should be the same kind of "gush" from the heart that an oil-driller gets when the pool is struck! We should be easy prey for no competing life-claimers. We belong to Christ, and gladly!
B. vv. 11-15. Baptism is the act that marks the newly reborn with a public sign of the new life ... water and the Word that wash away all of the dirt of corruption that covered us. Like water that rolled over us, we were "buried" by it, coming out from under it as new creatures who have left behind the "old self" that was deluged by the "flood of the font!" With that done, live as the new beings we have been made, and as walking tributes to the One who "disarmed the principalities and powers" that had held us in their clutches.
OUTLINE III
Forgiveness is more than forgetting
Luke 11:1-13
A. v. 1. Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer is not the one most of us pray! That one is found in Matthew 6:9-13. Both versions, for all of their differences, share not only many of the same petitions, but also the fact that they were intended for Jesus' followers to pray. That being so, it could more accurately be dubbed the "Disciple's Prayer."
B. vv. 2-4. "Father" is the operative word in this prayer. It is an intimate one that opens the way for the kind and breadth of requests that would turn away the average benefactor. They usually want to make a quick grant then get the petitioner off of their hands. The kind of petitions made here are huge ... "Thy kingdom come...," or long term, recurring ... "Give us each our daily bread" and "... forgive us our sins," and "... lead us not into temptation." They are not "done-once-and-for-all" kinds of things. None of them! They need doing again and again.
C. vv. 5-8. And the degree of that intimacy is illustrated in the rather saucy parable Jesus gives about how persistent we ought to be in making the pleas to our "Father!" Look at it as though it were not printed in the Bible and some of its punch and raw edge will come to the fore. Note the word translated "Importunity." The Greek term behind it is anaideian. It means to be without shame, without restraint or put-on, as we only can be with one with whom we are so close that we no longer think of how we, or our requests, might "look!" Who better than a loving, and generous, parent?
D. vv. 9-13. The clincher is this, "Isn't God more generous than the most open handed and gracious parent?" Then seek him, and ask, and persist ... and get ready to be overwhelmed with how right on the mark his response to you will be.
