THE WORD “FORGIVE” IS MISLEADING WHEN APPLIED TO GOD … PART 4 Western Christianity views sin in legal terms. Sin is breaking the law of God. God is offended personally. A debt is incurred against humanity which Jesus pays by dying on the Cross. Forgiveness is seen as balancing the books of heaven. This is the western basis for understanding forgiveness. This idea is not biblical at all. It is built on a very shallow understanding of what sin is. So what is sin? In the western Christian view sin is primarily viewed as behavior. Sin runs far deeper than that. It is true that sin started off as a single act of rebellion. Romans 5:12-21. But after this it became a SICKNESS AND ENSLAVING POWER. Romans 6:12-13. Paul can go so far as to say it is no longer I who commit sin but it is sin that dwells in me that does it. Romans 7:17,20. Sin is described as something separate from the person! It has its own existence and power! This is why the western view of forgiveness is very thin. It sees sin simply as behavior that incurs a debt that needs to be paid. This will not do. Any definition of forgiveness needs to take into account the true nature of the sin being forgiven. With a fuller understanding of sin at hand we can now more fully understand what the bible means by the word forgiveness. Next time ...
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 22:02:41 +0000
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