The Law of Forgiveness

The sermon focused on the eternal blessing that living a life of forgiveness gives us.

Here is a summary of the sermon:

As Christians, we blessed that the Lord taught us how to pray in Lord’s Prayer, as we are weak and don’t even know what the pray for. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” is known as the Law of Forgiveness. Today, we will look at why the Law of Forgiveness came, how Lord able open Law forgiveness, and the transcendence of the Law forgiveness and Gospel.

First, we should understand why the Law of Forgiveness came from Jesus. Interestingly, we see symmetry in the Law of Forgiveness, just like we see in the Law. The law is about evenness, eye for an eye, however, the problem came when Jews had this self-righteous anger and condemnation of the Law. When the Jews brought the woman caught in adultery, Jesus wrote twice on the ground. Although we don’t know what Jesus wrote, we do know Jesus came to fulfill the Law, meaning Jesus was more serious about the Law than the Jews were. Just as Jesus wrote twice on the ground, Jesus gave us the symmetry of the Law in the Law of Forgiveness, exhorting us that just as we have been forgiven, to forgive others.

Next, how was Jesus able to open the Law of Forgiveness? Adam’s deliberate disobedience led to a cycle of sin and death for generations. Adam and Cain started a history of self-righteously blaming others. Instead of blaming, Jesus took on the blame for us, dying on the cross and shedding his blood. With two thieves next to him on the cross, this is representative of the world which takes and blames, while Jesus is the one who bore punishment of our sins. The Law of forgiveness was opened up because Jesus forgave first.

Finally, we want to look at the transcendence of the Law of Forgiveness. The Danish Philosopher Kierkegaard spoke of the 3 stages of life: aesthetic (surface-level), ethical (moral direction), spiritual (loving relationship with God). This speaks accurately to the existential life worldview we see in people around the world. The aesthetic life lives only for surface-level material and worldly desires which is a life of chaos. The ethical life has balance and order, but it is ultimately limited since we put parameters on things. When Peter asked how many times we should forgive, Jesus said not to put a parameter on forgiveness. As Matthew 20 shows us, grace of God is on a different level and God’s grace has no limits. Therefore, we need to see the wisdom of the spiritual life, in a loving relationship with God, we open ourselves up to God’s amazing grace. The Holy Spirit is without boundary and transforms us. Living by the Law of Forgiveness and the Gospel allows us to experience this unending eternal love and blessing of God in our life.