Forgiven part 3
Our forgiveness came over 2,000 years ago on the cross. But before I show you that I want to show you this: When Jesus was raising Lazarus from the dead He, "...lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 11:41-42). This is important because we see that when Jesus prayed... His Father heard Him and answered Him. Jesus kind of preached about this principle a lot. Like in Matthew 21:22 when He said, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, beleiving, ye shall receive." Prayer isn't supposed to be us whining and complaining, or beggin for things that we don't believe we deserve or will ever have. Prayer is supposed to be the dialogue in which we begin to understand what is in our heart--what God PUT in our heart--and then the outworking of that indwelling Spirit. If that makes any sense. Ok. Fast forward to the cross when Jesus prayed this, "...Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." (Luke 23:34). We know that when Jesus prayed this, God heard it... and answered it. But here's what I really want to say about it: I believe Jesus was praying for those people that were physically crucifing them. I do. But I also--and perhaps more importantly--believe that Jesus was praying for EVERYBODY. Before the cross (and really, even after the cross until you have a revelation of Jesus) all of humanity was in the bondage of sin and death. We were under the power of darkness. Adam disobeyed God when he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And, again, I don't believe Adam dying on that day was God's punishiment, I believe it was the natural consequences of eating of the tree of death. If you eat from the tree of death, what else could happen? I believe it was more of a warning from God then a command. But either way Adam didn't listen. He went his own way. And because of that we were all "in trouble." Not with God, but with the world. Darkness had power over us. Until the appointed time when the light of the world shined forth. Remember what we saw yesterday when Jesus connected forgiveness of sins with coming out of the darkness and into the light? We were doing the best we could with what we had... trying to earn our bread with the sweat of our brow, or our own human effort... but we were stumbling around in the dark. When our natural eyes (good and evil) were opened, our Spiritual eyes closed. Then, on the cross, Jesus asked for (and got) forgiveness for us. Because we didn't know what we were doing. We were running FROM God, but (because of His love for us) He drew us into Himself anyway. He reconciled us to Himself. Not because He had ever left us, but because we had left Him. He gave us forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of unbelief. And He did it because Jesus asked Him to. He did it because He loves us. He did it so that we could experience that relationship between a loving heavenly Father and His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased!