The Sunday School teacher asked:
What do you need to do in order to be forgiven by God?
Billy piped up:
Sin
Got it in one Billy.
Are you a sinner? That's all you need to bring. Jesus will do the rest.
Jesus is the Word of God
Jesus is the Word of God
The Sunday School teacher asked:
What do you need to do in order to be forgiven by God?
Billy piped up:
Sin
Got it in one Billy.
Are you a sinner? That's all you need to bring. Jesus will do the rest.
Nice answer! You can understand why Jesus referred to kids as the ones to emulate in the Kingdom, right?
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So if sometimes the smart-assed answer is the best, then can I (humbly) suggest that alongside sin (anyone can do that) a couple of other things necessary to know God's forgiveness are recognition of sin along with acceptance of God's solution in Jesus.
But I imagine clever Billy (you sure it wasn't Alec?) probably gave "sin" for his answer as shorthand for those things...
And I think Glen probably captured them all in the word "bring"...
cool. I'm IN then!
Yeah - as Will emphasizes, the one thing we bring is our sins. That's the only thing we bring to the forgiveness equation - the sins for which we need forgiveness! Jesus does the rest.
What we don't want to get into (and what the Sunday School teacher probably had in mind) is the notion that we bring our sins plus sufficient units of contrition/penance/fresh resolve in order to merit Christ's forgiveness. Nope - just bring your sins. You say 'Anyone can do that' and I say 'Yep - that's the beauty of it.'
See for instance Psalm 51 where David just fesses up in the boldest possible way and virtually demands forgiveness not according to his own sacrifices (he won't bring any) but according to the LORD's unfailing love (v1). Just amazing.
Reminds me of that Jonathan Edwards quote:
"You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary."
What does Matt 6.15 mean? 'But if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses'. Note that this forgiveness is within a covenantal relationship with God our father. Nonetheless we need to forgive others to be forgiven. Equally we will tend to forgive if we know that we are forgiven. The cross gives us the option of a virtuous circle of forgiveness rather than a vicious circle of unforgiveness.
Sam and co - The Reformation view:
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var2=847
Very useful.