Hot Buttons

In politics there are certain issues known as ‘hot-button’ issues. These are things that resonate amongst a large percentage of the voters, and are usually somewhat controversial issues. For example, a lot of people feel very strongly about immigration: Some feel that we let way too many people into this country, and some feel that we should have an open border policy; a lot people feel very strongly about healthcare: Some feel that every American should have health insurance, even if the government has to pay for it, and some feel that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s healthcare (whether through higher taxes or higher insurance rates as insurance companies are mandated to cover those that can’t pay). Some people feel very strongly about capital punishment. Some feel very strongly about abortion. The war in Iraq stirs up strong feelings. Global warming. The list goes on.
I think most of us have hot-button issues of our own. Some people are bothered by all of the things I listed in the first paragraph, some aren’t bothered by any of them but are bothered by other things that I didn’t think of. It’s only natural that some things are going to get under your skin, and cause you act with less rationality than you normally would. That doesn’t make it right. Ephesians 4:26 says to be angry, and sin not. Getting angry is not a sin, in and of itself, but letting the anger (or any other strong emotion) control you, is. Does this mean that we should all becomes stoics? No, of course not. God gave us emotions for a reason. Jesus, our perfect example, even showed us His anger, on more than one occasion, but He committed no sin.
The point is, we have been delivered from sin. We don’t have to commit sin any more. We will, because we are human, and we make mistakes; but nothing can force us to sin. It’s almost like being delivered from sin means that we have no excuse for sinning. In Romans 8:38-39, Apostle Paul gives a list of things that cannot separate us from God. I have had people tell me that it is an all-inclusive list, that there is absolutely nothing that can come between us and God, once we have made the profession of faith, but, if you look, it doesn’t list one’s self, and it doesn’t list sin. Of course, none of the things on that list can make you sin, either, so, whatever is between us and God, is strictly between us and God. We cannot blame anyone else, we cannot blame our circumstance, our environment, our culture… God is greater than all of that.

What About the Thief?

I promised Friday that I was going to stop blogging about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ this week, but, then I touched on the (in)famous thief on the cross on Friday, and realized that that topic alone deserved more discussion than I could possibly include in that post, so, once more, but tomorrow, something completely different, I promise.
Luke 23:39-43 gives the account, although Luke is apparently less convinced than Matthew that the individual involved was a thief, he uses the more generic term, malefactor. Basically, the story is this: at the crucifixion, Jesus and two others that had also been condemned to death. At first, the other two mocked Jesus, knowing that He had claimed to be the Messiah, and believing that God would not allow something this horrific to happen to His Messiah. Sometime during the crucifixion, though, one of the men had a fit of conscience, and defended Jesus, realizing that He didn’t deserve the same fate.
Where did this attack of conscience come from? Did this man, knowing that he was going to die, suddenly decide that he wanted to do something noble? Perhaps he thought history would remember him more favorably than the other… I can’t help but think that this was something more along the lines of Matthew 16:13-17, where Jesus asked the disciples who He was, and Peter told Him; leading Jesus to say that flesh and blood had not revealed it to Peter, but the Father. I’m not sure what the thief on the cross prayed, but it seems to me that whatever it was, led the Father to reveal to him that salvation was on the next cross over.
Now, a lot of people theorize that since the thief on the cross clearly believed in his heart, and confessed with his mouth, just as we are told to do in Romans 10:9, that it proves that belief and confession are all that is required for salvation. I have blogged before salvation being more complicated than that. Let us consider for a moment that this was a pretty extreme situation. For one thing, Christianity was a fairly new idea. Jesus’ followers weren’t even known as Christians yet. How many opportunities did the thief have to accept Jesus as his personal savior prior to finding himself dying right next to Him? Further, we know that the thief was a sinner (aren’t we all?); he wasn’t being crucified as a follower of Jesus. Now we have been taught that baptism is for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3, Acts 2:38). Obviously, the thief didn’t climb down off of his cross, get baptized, and then get back on his cross, but it’s equally obvious that he had the kind of sin in his life that would have kept him out of Heaven, so what happened? Surely Jesus knew what kind of man He was talking to… In Luke 5:24 (and Matthew 9:6, and Mark 2:10), Jesus demonstrates that He has the power on earth to forgive sins.
Further, in the book of Romans (often referred to as the book of salvation), Apostle Paul explains to us the mechanism of baptism: When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death, the body of sin is destroyed, for he that is dead is freed from sin. In other words, our baptism represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The thief didn’t have to go through a rite representative of dying with Christ, he literally died with Christ.
How many of us can say, honestly, that the first time we ever had the opportunity to accept Jesus was when we were in the process of already dying, that we were dying with Him, and that He personally forgave our sins? Not too many, I would think. Yet, I have heard an awful lot of people use the thief on the cross as an excuse not to get baptized. I don’t think God likes excuses (I’ve certainly never gotten a warm, fuzzy feeling when I have tried to use one on Him). The Bible also tells us that (in James 4:17), to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So, while the thief on the cross clearly didn’t need to be baptized, the rest of us do; not only would it be a sin to not get baptized, given the opportunity, but we would still face every other sin that we ever committed in judgment…
By the way, one other thing, in John 10:1, Jesus said that if anyone comes up any other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Now I have sometimes wondered if He didn’t say that, knowing that there would be a thief that would end up in Heaven by a little bit different route than the rest of us. Really, though, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, so the thief did make it to Heaven by the same Way. Really, though, too, if you read John 10, Jesus isn’t talking about getting to Heaven some other way, He’s talking about someone coming into the sheepfold (the church) pretending to be the Shepherd, and that’s a whole different situation.

Forgiveness Part 2

It occurs to me that yesterday I posted about God forgiving us, but I didn't even mention us forgiving each other. That's an important part of the forgiveness topic. Jesus warned us in the Sermon on the Mount, right after teaching the Lord's Prayer, that if we didn't forgive each other, then neither will God forgive us. When Peter asked about forgiveness, He taught a parable in which the Lord forgave a servant his debt, but then the servant went and had one of his fellow-servants thrown into debtor's prison because of a debt. When the Lord heard about it, He 'unforgave' the first servant, and had him thrown into debtor's prison also. So it is clear that God expects us to be forgiving, and His attitude towards our misdeeds is going to be dependent on our attitude towards other people's misdeeds. I wonder how many people recite the words, "...and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors..." without really stopping to consider their meaning.

It's also important for our own mental and spiritual health. If you carry a grudge against someone, that person may not understand why you treat them the way you do. If you are trying to be 'Christian' about it, you may even make it a point not to treat them differently, just because you have something against them. That must really do great things for your blood pressure. My point is, that by holding your anger in, you are hurting yourself. Some people have even been known to develop physical symptoms as a result of holding a grudge (and not just hypertension). It usually doesn't even hurt the other person at all, and they may not even realize that you are upset with them.

On the other hand, it's hard to forgive someone who hasn't apologized. Keep in mind that they may not even realize that you feel that they have wronged you. You don't want to go yelling and screaming and acting like a crazy person, that never comes out well. If you go into that mode over something that happened 6 months or a year ago, then they may very well call the whitecoats to come collect you. Think about how you would react if someone came to you yelling and screaming about ancient history. Still, it's important, even if only for your own health, to at least try to talk to them about it (well, if it's one of those people that just likes pushing your buttons, then it might not be a good idea to let them know that was one of your buttons). If for some reason, you really can't talk to the person, it is important that you talk it out. You may be able to pray through it: Describe your situation to God--He'll listen, even though He already knows--and ask Him to help you to forgive. If, for some reason, you can't pray it through, or you don't feel forgiving even after praying about it, talk to your pastor. Don't get offended if your pastor starts playing devil's advocate. He's going to try to make sure that you can see both sides of the situation--even though he's basically guessing at the other person's logic and motivation. He's also going to be more objective about it than you are, because he doesn't have the emotional investment that you have. Be honest with him, at least as much as you can bring yourself to be, because the more he knows about your situation, the more he can help you get over it. Remember, too, that he is obligated to keep confidential anything that you tell him (hopefully this isn't about you forgiving the liquor store owner who shot you when you were trying to rob his store), if there's something that might be embarrassing to you if other people knew about it. Remember, also, that he's probably heard much worse.

Forgiveness

I have posted before about how none of us is perfect. Much as I try to maintain that illusion, myself, I know it isn't true (I also know many other people who are better at maintaining that illusion than I am). Fortunately, there is forgiveness through the grace of God. Now there is a difference between willful sin and a mistake. A mistake can still be a sin, but it wasn't intentional; it was basically an accident. There are some things that would seem to be willful sin to the human mind, that really only happened because the individual responsible got sucked into a situation where his or her mistake seemed like the right thing to do, at the time. Bill Watterson drew a Calvin and Hobbes strip once where Calvin is running along with a water balloon, and he throws the balloon up in the air, and continues to run (I can only assume that he wanted to see the water balloon hit). Well, the balloon comes back down, right on his head. The final line of the strip is, "How can something that seemed so brilliant at its conception, seem so stupid in retrospect?" That's an easy thing for a comic-strip character to do, but let's face it, we've all done something similar (not with a water balloon, but still).
Apostle Paul warns us in Romans 6 that we should not continue in sin, with the idea that Grace will cover our sins.
By the way, some people think that just thinking about doing something wrong is sin--Jesus said that whosoever looketh after a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Notice He didn't say that any man who finds a woman attractive has committed... There is difference between being tempted and committing sin in one's own mind. Granted, both could be called 'sinful thoughts,' but, temptation isn't something that you have control over. Remember that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, yet He never committed sin.
One thing to understand is that forgiveness is not the same as remission. To have sins remitted is to have them erased. God doesn't remember them at all (at least not when dealing with the person who committed them--He still remembers them when dealing with the victim of the sin, until that person either forgives the sinner or dies--but that's a whole other Bible study). Forgiveness means that the sins have been removed from you, but God hasn't forgotten them. To be honest, that's almost as good, but there are consequences. If you've ever seen the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" there's a line where the escaped convicts came upon a baptismal ceremony, and two of them jump in and get baptized. They understand that this will absolve them of their sins, and momentarily think that they don't have to run anymore; but George Clooney, as the other convict, tells them, "Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed." Even when God forgets, people still remember. I have also known people that think that absolution means that there are no ramifications to their actions. There's an old joke about people that go out on Saturday night and sow wild oats, and then go to church on Sunday morning and pray for crop failure. God will forgive, but He will not always deliver you from the consequences of you own actions. That's a whole other prayer request.