Forgiven for a Purpose

Leaving church one ordinary Sunday a child looked up at his father and asked, “Why do we come to church again?”  The father replied, “Because we believe in Jesus.”  “Oh” the child said and then continued, “...Why do we believe in Jesus?”  The hurried father exclaimed with little pause, “so that we can get our sins forgiven and live in Heaven with God.”   The child answered, “well....at least I’m getting something good out of this!”

The child’s answer is a reminder that we can sometimes make great things like forgiveness and faith and God and Heaven a very self-serving endeavor, “...at least I’m getting something good out of this!”  This is especially true when we reduce faith to a simple formula of getting our sins forgiven and going to Heaven when we die.  It becomes more about us personally and what we get out of it than about God and what God is doing in all of creation.  Don’t get me wrong, our personal relationship with God is important, but isn’t our calling to be Jesus followers bigger than self-interest?

 In a faith approach where forgiveness is simply an individual pass to Heaven the primary goal becomes getting people to acknowledge their sins, asking God for forgiveness, and then living with assurance that they will live eternally in God’s presence after death.  This actually doesn’t sound so bad because it asks little more of us than a brief prayer of regret.  The problem is that it leaves out some pretty important things that Jesus wanted his followers to know and to do.  It also limits the scope of Jesus’ work to personal forgiveness and life after death.  For Jesus, though, forgiveness was the means and not the end of this thing we call the faith journey.  It was a part of something bigger happening in all of creation!

At this point, let me be very clear.  I am not discounting, dismissing, or in any way belittling forgiveness; nor am I saying that it was unimportant to Jesus.  To the contrary, forgiveness, for Jesus, was a vital part of God’s transformation of people and creation.  It was the gift of grace that would put people in right relationship with God and one another, but it was not simply for us to claim an individual prize of salvation.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the forgiveness they offer is much bigger! 

When Jesus preached, the Gospels tells us that his primary message went something like this: change your heart and your life, because the Kingdom of God has come very close, in fact it is breaking into the world, right now!”  (see Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:14-15, and Luke 4:14-21)  It is also what Jesus asked his followers to proclaim (see Luke 10:9-11).  Interestingly, his primary message was not for people to pray a sinner’s prayer and then they could come into Heaven.  Rather Jesus was (and still is) asking people to turn their lives in a new direction and participate in the Kingdom of God.  Remember what Jesus taught his followers to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”  People become new creations by living God’s Kingdom here and now.

This is important because everything that Jesus says and does in his ministry must be interpreted through the lens of his primary message:  change your hearts and lives because God’s Kingdom is at hand!  This is why Jesus called his followers to be the “light of the world” or “salt of the earth”.  It is why he called them to love extravagantly, showing God’s love even to the outcast, the sinner, and the enemy.  It was why he taught that leaders were servants, the first were last, and the true treasures of life were not things that could be bought and sold.  God’s Kingdom was at hand...and everything was changing!

Going deeper, it was not that Jesus was unconcerned with life after death.  I think rather Jesus was announcing that resurrection life was beginning now, here on this earth and would continue into all of eternity.  It was nothing short of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven (as the Gospel of Matthew calls it), breaking into the world, even before death.

Forgiveness, too, must be understood in light of Jesus’ primary message.  In Jesus all people were invited to participate in the Kingdom of God, given a new beginning.  As Jesus gave forgiveness to people (even when they didn’t ask for it, see Luke 5:17-26), he seemed to be saying that past wrongs were not a barrier to participating in God’s Kingdom life.  Anyone could change heart and life and have a new start.  A forgiven life is not simply a ticket to the afterlife it is a call to participate in building God’s Kingdom right now, and it will continue into all of eternity.   In essence, we are not simply forgiven, but we are forgiven for a purpose.

I think it is why Jesus said that the measure one forgives is the measure one is forgiven or the judgment one makes will be the judgment one receives (Matthew 6:14 and 7:1-2).  One who does not have a forgiving and grace-filled heart will feel out of place in the Kingdom of God and will be excluding self from participating.  It is not enough for us to say a simple sinner’s prayer and then go on about our usual business.  One can say all the right words and still miss the Kingdom life.  Maybe this is why Jesus said, "not everybody who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’, will get into the Kingdom of Heaven...only those who do the will of my Father will enter!" (Matthew 7:21)  The faith journey is about participating in God’s Kingdom life. 

Thus, we are forgiven for a purpose: to make a new start, to live a Kingdom way of life.  This doesn’t minimize living eternally with God after our death, but rather it breathes Spirit into our days upon this earth and this will carry us into eternity.  We are not just forgiven...we are forgiven for a purpose, a purpose much larger than self!

You are the hands and feet of Christ...so go build God's Kingdom!  Amen.

Brett