The Forgiven

Luke 5:17-21

If you are saved, then you are ‘the forgiven.’ Never get over it.

We use the term saved, as we should, but we need to remember from what we are saved. Call me a Christian, a believer, whatever you want, but I want to be known as ‘the forgiven.’ Call me a sinner, and you’ll be correct. Just know that I am a forgiven sinner.

As we work our way through the gospel of Luke, we find it expansive.  The historical events that are recorded here for the most part can be easily understood at a glance.  But as we look closer they have a way of expanding as we fill in the cultural background, the linguistics, and the geography, these stories expand to a richness that is almost beyond us, with measurements nearly impossible to plumb.  I think that's why the apostle John said that the world couldn't contain the things that could be written about Jesus Christ.  Every time we get close to Him, we find great truths wrapped up and shrouded in a depth of wisdom that is unfathomable. 

vv. 17-20         Without a doubt, the greatest preacher ever was Jesus Christ and beyond all argument, the greatest message ever preached was the message of forgiveness.  That God will forgive all your sins if you repent and ask -- is the good news, the gospel.  Jesus came to preach that message, and He came to offer the sacrifice to make that forgiveness which He preached be possible by His death on the cross.  Forgiveness is the single best benefit that God can provide.  Forgiveness is the door to all blessings.  Forgiveness is the door to blessing in this life.  Forgiveness is the door to eternal life in heaven.  And so the matter of forgiveness is the heart of the Christian gospel. 

You cannot preach the Christian gospel about forgiveness unless you understand sin and its consequences.  Leprosy was our grotesque illustration that opened our eyes to how repulsive sin is to our Lord. To understand that all men are sinners, that all men are alienated from God, all humanity is headed toward eternal hell where they will forever be punished for their sins, and then to understand that God by grace has devised a means by which He can forgive sinners all their sins so that they can escape judgment and enter into eternal bliss in the glory of His heaven, that is the message of the gospel, that is the good news.  And any true preacher preaches that message because that is the message that runs right through the saga of redemption. It is the story of God forgiving sinners.

Acts 13:38

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

That's the essential element of the Christian message.  We preach the forgiveness of sins. 

Ephesians 1:7

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Ephesians 4:32

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

That's the great theme of the Christian message.  If you want to know what is distinctive about Christianity that is it.  God will forgive all your sins, which changes forever your relationship to Him.  Instead of being your judge, He becomes your friend [alt. of ‘man’ in v. 20] .  In fact, He becomes your Father.  Instead of sending you to hell in an act of justice and retribution, He takes you to heaven in an act of gracious blessing, and all because your sins have been forgiven.  That is the message that Christ came to preach. And to provide that forgiveness He had to die on the cross and take the judgment of God for sinners.  Their judgment having been rendered on Christ, God could then forgive those who repent and come to Him.

Now most people understand that that is the message of the New Testament.  Perhaps they don't understand that that is also the message of the Old Testament.  From Adam on we see God acting in a forgiving way toward sinners.  That is the whole saga of redemption.  At the very beginning when Adam had sinned and God cursed him, immediately God set about to kill an animal and to make garments and to cover Adam and Eve in an act that portrayed sacrifice.  By an animal sacrifice which provided a covering for Adam and Eve's shameful nakedness, God was giving a picture of the sacrifice of Messiah, by whose death a covering would be provided for the shame of sinners.  Always God has demonstrated a willingness to forgive sin.

God identifies Himself specifically in Exodus chapter 34

Exodus 34:6-7

…The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, ⁷ Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;

That's His desire, that's His nature.  That is why from the very outset at the Fall, God set in motion a redemptive plan by which He could grant forgiveness, putting all the guilt of all who repent on Jesus Christ, who died as the sacrifice, the substitute for sinners. 

Nehemiah 9:17

^… but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

To show how extensive that forgiveness is, Psalm 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."  How far is the east is from the west?  That's infinite.

Micah 7:18-19

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. ¹⁹ He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

And certainly the prophet Isaiah understood the forgiving nature of God.  There are a number of quotes in Isaiah we could read, but listen to

Isaiah 55:7

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Isaiah 38:17

Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

Isaiah 43:25

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

That is, “It puts My own grace and glory on display, and I will not remember your sins."

Now all of these scriptures and many more give testimony to God as a forgiving God by nature.  And He alone can do that.  He is the God who has been offended. All sin is against Him.  In Psalm 51 David said, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." It is His holy will and holy law that is violated.  He then becomes our judge and executioner.  It is God then and only God who has the right to forgive sin since He alone is the offended One, and He is the judge of all the earth. He sits on the divine bench.

Now in today’s passage, Jesus did an astonishing thing.  He forgave that man his sins.  And when He did that, He was either doing the work of God as God, or He was a blasphemer.  In fact, in verse 21 the scribes and the Pharisees [Piety Police] were all gathered and began to reason saying, "Who is this which speaketh blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

They had good sound theology on that point.  Nobody can forgive your sins, no priest, nobody.  Oh we can forgive one another an offense against us, but we cannot absolve anyone of an offense against God.  We can tell sinners that if they repent and seek forgiveness from God that He will grant it, but we cannot forgive sins ourselves.  We cannot say to anybody, "I forgive you your sins," in the sense that we have exonerated that person from all record of iniquity.  That only God can do.  And their theology was accurate.  Either Jesus was God, and He had a right to do it, or He was a blasphemer.

So this passage reaches a high-water mark in the ministry of Jesus.  We haven't been here before.  This is the first time He has said this to somebody.  Jesus is here claiming to have the authority to forgive sin.  And thus He is claiming to be God.  And He is either God or He is a blasphemer.  They were right.  He's not anything in between.  He's not just a well-intentioned teacher.  He's either a blasphemer or He's God. These are the only choices. You can't describe Jesus with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a good teacher. That's not sound theology.  That is seriously flawed.  Good people don’t claim to be God. If He's not God, then we have to say He is a blasphemer and that is the most heinous crime that can be committed against God.  And the Pharisees and the scribes knew it.

He has already solved this dilemma for us, though. We know He's God.  How do we know that?  Well Luke has made it abundantly clear.  There’s the testimony of angels.  There's the testimony of Zacharias and Elizabeth.  There's the testimony of Joseph and Mary.  There's the testimony of Anna and Simeon.  There's the testimony of the shepherds who heard the angelic chorus.  There is the testimony of John the Baptist.  There's the testimony of the Holy Spirit who descended upon Him at His baptism, the testimony of the Father whose voice came out of heaven, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  There is the testimony of His triumph over the devil, His vanquishing of Satan in the temptation.  And then there's the testimony of His power over disease, and His power over demons, and His power over nature in the amazing account of the fishing story we just studied.  All of that indicates who He is. It's unmistakable.  It's not arguable.

If you know, with 100% assurance, that you are saved, then you are “the forgiven.” Never get over it. If not, don’t leave this place without accepting the great offer: forgiveness.