Overview
This teaching examines “Forgiveness vs. Judgment Part 1” through 1 Peter 4, John 3, Romans 5, Genesis 2, showing how love, forgiveness, about shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding Forgiveness vs. Judgment Part 1
We’re going to start in 1 Peter chapter 4. The theme for this camp is walking in God’s creation, walking in love, walking in love. And our topic that we’ll look at is the contrast between forgiveness and judgment. And we’ll see that forgiveness is actually an extension of God’s love.
It’s not something separate. Here in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8, we read, and above all things have fervent charity or love among yourselves, for charity or love shall cover the multitude of sins. Forgiveness is related to love.
We have to understand this. It’s an extension of it. It’s something that God initiated, and love is so big that it covers a multitude of sins.
It blankets them. Let’s go to John, the gospel of John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Forgiveness is something as Christians that we’re aware of, but it’s something that we need to keep rehearsing and hearing afresh and hearing again and again the power, the impact of forgiveness, and it’s God’s forgiveness. A very familiar scripture here in John chapter 3, verse 16, it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
God so loved the world, and the word world can be used in different manners in the Bible. It can mean the ordered universe. It can also be used to mean humanity in the ordered universe, and it can also be used as the humanity corrupted by Satan or the worldly systems in the universe.
Here, God so loved the world, it’s not talking about the ordered universe. It’s not talking about the physical environment. It’s talking about all of humanity, because God meets people where they’re at.
He doesn’t have a prerequisite for his love. He loves. He doesn’t have like a like a sieve or a colander like, oh, I’m going to, you know, weed out the people that I’ll love.
He loves everyone. He loves the world. He loves humanity.
He loves people, and if you love God, you’re going to love people, and you don’t have to know them to love them. There’s a lot of people here I don’t exactly know, but I love you. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, and it really does mean whosoever, and we ought not disqualify ourselves from God’s love and his forgiveness.
We ought not rule ourselves out as an exception away from his love and his forgiveness. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and why don’t we ever read the next verse? For God sent not his son into the world, into humanity to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It’s clear that love and forgiveness are intertwined together from God’s perspective.
The Biblical Foundation
You can’t really separate the two. Forgiveness is an extension of God’s heart and God’s love. It’s a spiritual quality.
It comes from him. He initiated forgiveness. He’s the prime mover.
He’s the one that thunk it up. We didn’t think it up. He thought it up, and these concepts are worthy for us to rehearse.
Let’s go to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. You know, whenever I read John 3 16 and 17, those sections, I think of them. I’m familiar with them, but going back to them from time to time is like being in a room with an old friend, a friend that you’re very comfortable with, who soothes you and reminds you about who you are, and as Christians, if we’re not loving and forgiving with ourselves, with other people, what are we doing? What are we doing? From my experience in life, one of the prime charges, if I can put it that way, or criticisms against the church or Christians is that they talk about love, and yet they ignore or judge or hate. They talk about forgiveness, and yet they hold a grudge and gossip, and that’s not how our Father is, and we’re his children.
We’re a chip off the old block. We have his nature, his characteristics within us. We have access to him 24-7.
We heard about that. We have peace with him. We have grace with him, and we have the ability to have that kind of forgiveness.
Here in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12, it says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Well, wait a second. Okay, so I got to tell you, I did not grow up in a Christian home.
My mother was an atheist. My father was an agnostic, and how I learned about God was by spending my summers with my grandmother, and so God so loved the world, but what did I do? I’m thinking, wait a second. What did the world do to need to be saved in the first place? Well, we know that sin and sickness and death entered the world by Adam’s disobedience to God.
Remember in Genesis chapter 2, we don’t have to go there, in verses, I think it’s 16 and 17, God tells Adam, you can eat freely of any tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if you eat of it, you will die. In that day, you will die. That word knowledge, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that word knowledge is to experience.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
God didn’t want Adam to experience evil. He was in a state of perfect harmony with God. All of his thoughts were pure.
All of his thoughts were godly. His relationship with God was pure and holy, and he was at one with God. That’s the state that God wanted him to maintain, and gave him a warning, like any parent would do.
You parents, you have kids when they’re old enough to walk, you tell them, well, when you’re in traffic, look both ways before crossing the street. Look left, look right, and look left again. If you’re going out in nature, you show them what are wasps’ nests, and how to avoid them.
You explain the evil in order to avoid it, so they don’t have to experience it. That’s exactly what God was doing. He didn’t want Adam to experience evil, and yet we know that Adam and Eve did it anyway, and sin, sickness, and death were the result of man’s disobedience and separation from God.
So that harmony with God was interrupted, and that’s the point where forgiveness was needed. It wasn’t needed prior to that. There was no need for forgiveness prior to man’s disobedience to God, and that disobedience affected man’s physical and mental well-being.
But let’s read on, because through Jesus Christ, we’ve been reconciled to God. We’re still in Romans chapter 5, and we’re in verse 17. For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one, much more than they have received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.
It says, for if by one man’s offense, that’s Adam’s, death reigned. And if something reigns, it’s the ultimate authority. Death reigned.
It was the ultimate authority. And this verse, as we keep reading, we’re supposed to be aware of that disobedience and the old man nature, those habits that people develop of disobedience towards God. And parents teach their children how to curtail, how to minimize those habits of disobedience towards God.
And what God is saying in this verse is much more, much more receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. And righteousness is being right with God. You are right with God and shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.
That ultimate authority is Jesus Christ. What he accomplished about 2,000 years ago is it, period, end of story. That’s why you and I have 24-7 access to the God Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth, who also is our heavenly father.
Faith in Action
And it’s not based on our performance. I know we live in a performance-based society. You’re judged all the time.
You have to earn grades. You have to get good reports at work and on and on and on it goes. And yet, there’s an exchange here that God points out.
Now, I don’t consider myself a particularly lazy person, but I kind of embrace the idea that I don’t have to try to work myself into God’s good graces. I’m good with that. I’m his child.
I can accept that. Verse 18, it says, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Verse 19, for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
By the obedience of one. We read yesterday that earlier in Romans that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I get that.
I actually get that one too. When I was at work, I was at a new job and they had a computer set up that I wasn’t exactly familiar with. And I had to send an email, a group email out.
So I did the email. I hit the button, but I wasn’t sure it went out. So I thought I’ll hit it again.
And it didn’t look like it’s, it went. So I popped it pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And, and then I thought, well, I don’t know, whatever.
So then I go out of the office and I’m walking down the hallway and this person walks up to me and says, do you know what idiot sent me 15 emails on the same thing? And I said, well, yeah, uh, I really would like to blame it on someone else, but I did that. So are you a Christian? She says, yes, I’m a Christian. I said, you know how in the word it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Walking in Love and Confidence
She says, yes, I go, well, you’re welcome because it’s so true. What difference does it make in light of the big picture in light of God’s heart? Don’t you know that everyone in your life who’s ever genuinely showed you mercy, you are in love with that person. It relieves the pressure, the anxiety because you’re accepted.
That’s what forgiveness is. It’s acceptance. And God accepts you.
And he accepts, accepts me just the way we are. So what’s the, what’s the Bible saying right here? It’s saying that I should no longer identify and exaggerate my heritage with Adam. I know I’m not perfect, but what I am to emphasize is my heritage from Jesus Christ, because I’m perfect in his sight.
I’m not a perfect person. It’s just the way that God looks at me. He sees me through the lens of Jesus Christ.
He’s my brother. I’m a child of God. And that’s how I identify myself.
I’m not a pedestrian. I’m a daughter of God who walks 10,000 steps minimum. We acknowledge our human frailty.
Sure we do. He told us that he wants us to be aware of it, but not to emphasize it. We don’t have to keep trying to be good enough and earn it because if we focus on our works, really what we’re attempting to do is to be our own savior instead of accepting the one who did it all.
And when people relate too much to Adam, they run the risk of a false sense of humility. Like I said, I didn’t grow up in the church and it puzzled me why a bunch of people who were righteous and knew they were right, knew they were right with God, were always talking about how they had imperfections and what was wrong with them. Why do that? That’s not how God looks at me.
If I flub up, my sins are cast as far as the East is from the West. And I’m good with that. He remembers them no more.
So then why should I? People rehearse their struggles with the adversary or Satan or the devil, whatever you want to call them, too much and end up giving him the focus. He’s just something we’re supposed to be aware of, not something we’re supposed to talk about every day. Sometimes I think about it when struggles come up.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
I really relate to being a little kid. There’s something really pure about it. So struggles come up and I think, like has been mentioned, to go and to pray to God about it.
Except for I reward it different. I just go, I’m going to tell my dad on you. My dad can whoop you.
God’s love is the basis of his forgiveness. And there’s no genuine forgiveness without love. It can’t happen.
Have you ever wondered why self-help books and programs, they really don’t work. I’ve read so many of them and they’re really clever and they talk about whales and cheese and you know, all these things. And they’re usually short, which gets you to read them.
But you get done with it and you think, oh wow, I’ve cool. I feel better. And then, you know, a week or some time goes by and you’re right back in the same boat and you think, well, okay, I’ll get another one.
Somebody tells you about another one and you purchase it because it’s all based on fixing yourself, but you’re not fixed. If you’re, you don’t need to be fixed. If you’re complete in Christ Jesus, there’s nothing to fix.
You’re complete in him. I hear it in Christian songs. They talk about fixing themselves.
I don’t need to be fixed. I need to do 10,000 steps today. They use techniques and they don’t work because all they are is a sense knowledge approach to a spiritual entity.
And that entity is forgiveness that’s based on the love of God that never changes. His love for you, his love for me, it’s never going to change. His forgiveness, it’s already done.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
It’s never going to change. He’s not like us. He doesn’t vacillate.
He doesn’t change. You can say no to God a thousand times and then the thousand and first times say yes, and he goes, yay, and it’s yours. He’s not like us.
You know, as parents, I’d be like, forget it. I already gave it to somebody else. You didn’t want it.
He’s not like that. He knows our frame. He knows what we’re like.
He knows where we’ve been, what we’ve experienced, what appeals to us, what tempts us. And he’s there right along the way. And he loves you and me incredibly all that while, even when we don’t love ourselves.
You’re his kid. You have access to the refrigerator anytime you want. It’s full.
Just open the door and take what you want. It’ll never run out. You know, if you look to your left or to your right and you look at these, look at a tree or you look at the beautiful sky or a cloud, maybe you see a ground squirrel or there’s a bluebird or there’s flies.
I mean, butterflies. But you look at it and you consider that and you can admire it. I’ve heard people talk about this setting since I’ve been here, how beautiful it is.
And yet, did you have anything to do with putting those trees there? Do you control the clouds? Did you pick the beautiful blue hue of the sky? But do you enjoy it? That’s the same thing about God’s love and God’s forgiveness. You and I haven’t done anything, but his heart is to hold it, to offer it, to bring it near to you so you can enjoy it. It says in John 3, 16, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And I’d like to read verse 17 in the Amplified Classic. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge, to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through him. God bless you.
Key Takeaways
- He loves people, and if you love God, you’re going to love people, and you don’t have to know them to love them.
- My father was an agnostic, and how I learned about God was by spending my summers with my grandmother, and so God so loved the world, but what did I do?
- Don’t you know that everyone in your life who’s ever genuinely showed you mercy, you are in love with that person.
- That’s the same thing about God’s love and God’s forgiveness.
- Here, God so loved the world, it’s not talking about the ordered universe.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “Forgiveness vs. Judgment Part 1”?
This teaching examines “Forgiveness vs. Judgment Part 1” through 1 Peter 4, John 3, Romans 5, Genesis 2, showing how love, forgiveness, about shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from 1 Peter 4, John 3, Romans 5, Genesis 2.
How can believers apply this teaching?
Here, God so loved the world, it’s not talking about the ordered universe.
Scripture References
1 Peter 4; John 3; Romans 5; Genesis 2
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
