“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32, NKJV)
From his imprisonment, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask of Jesus: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Luke 7:19). Jesus didn’t reply to John’s question with a simple “yes.” Rather, He answered John by having him take stock of what he has witnessed. “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22).
Jesus was assuring John that the kingdom of God had indeed come. He was the promised Messiah.
What did Jesus point to in order to convince John? He pointed to healing. The fall of the world under the dominion of sin had wreaked havoc on what God had created. The intrusion of sin had brought misery, alienation, disorder, decay, and death.
The miracles that Jesus pointed out to John were not primarily to get people to pay attention, nor were they simply evidences of His deity, although both these things were valid. The miracles that Jesus mentions – the blind seeing, the lame walking, the dead being raised to life – reflected the reversal of the fall by the presence of God’s redemptive kingdom.
The kingdom of God brings healing and wholeness. We see this kingdom manifestation in our day, not ordinarily by miracles, but by the healing properties of the gospel of the kingdom.
The penalty and power of sin that characterized the dominion of darkness has been overcome by Jesus. In the gospel God reconciled sinners to Himself, not counting their sins against them because He counted them against Christ and Jesus paid the debt of those sins – fully, finally, and forever.
In like fashion we are to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven us. We forgive as an expression of the kingdom and in the power of the kingdom. Freely dispensing the healing properties of forgiveness is one of the ways we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We look to overlook offenses and give grace in the model of God to us.
Forgiveness is a discipline of the kingdom of God. It exercises grace. Freely we have been given and freely we are to give. Freely we have been forgiven and freely we are to forgive. It is a way that the poor have good news preached to them as a witness to the world.
What features of forgiveness do you find in Psalm 130?
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This course will involve self-paced study under the direction of a mentor. Each lesson will feature a video interview related to a book I have written and will include a study guide. Links to books and supporting materials will be provided.
The course is free. Watch for an announcement about the availability of Thy Kingdom Come later this summer.
The featured book for this session of Kingdom Disciplines is Finding Forgiveness: Discovering the healing Power of the Gospel (Stanley D. Gale, Reformation Heritage Books, 2016). Click here for an article on the propriety of forgiving ourselves.
