Are All Sins Already Forgiven?

QUOTE:

It’s very hard for the human race to accept that: "Nothing separates us from the love of God." We think there must be some breaking point where God would give up on us. "Well, what about if we…?"

Sin is not a problem with God. God solved all his problems with sin before the foundation of the world, in the beginning—and it’s done. The iceberg that lies under the surface of history is the Son of God; redemption is the mystery behind all history. Sin is a permanent irrelevancy. And God is the one to say, "Look, I have taken away the handwriting that was against you."

I like the translation in Matthew, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." What do we do when we don’t forgive somebody else’s debts, or literally, their sins? We carp on what they owe us. We look at the chips that we have saved. This is what you owe me and you haven’t given it to me. There is an IOU I hold against you, and I gotta have this…. Well, it’s not that way with God. With God, it’s done—there is no handwriting against us. It’s done. He’s not holding IOUs.

Legalism is something that’s afflicted the church from the start. Humans have a hard time believing that God doesn’t hold IOUs. But Paul says the law cannot save. He says, "He has made him to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

That’s what I got out of reading the judgment parables. In the way Jesus presents them, people were not denied an invitation to the party; instead, they were kicked out of a party they were already at. Even in the parable of the prodigal son, nothing was stopping the elder brother from joining the party where his younger brother was being received and honored—nothing but his own resentment. He isn’t kicked out; he refuses to go in. But that parable brilliantly ends with a standoff.

The elder brother refuses to join the party, but the father won’t leave it like that. He goes out to the elder brother, and Jesus ends the parable with the father and the elder brother standing out in the courtyard—forever—at least for 2,000 years now. And there it is. It’s all done in the presence of the redeemer. Even the obstinacy of the older brother. The father doesn’t give up. He’s right there with the elder brother, aching for him as much as he ached for the younger one, the prodigal. (An Interview with The Rev. Fr. Robert Farrar Capon)

Commentary

None needed!

Is God Good or is He Angry?

QUOTE

The movement of self-contemplation alone could not satisfy (God’s) goodness, for good must be poured out and go forth beyond itself to the objects of its beneficence; this is essential to the highest goodness. (Orations, St Gregory Nazianzen, CA 365 AD)

COMMENTARY

A typical presentation of the gospel in today’s America explains to the hearer that God is good, and that he loves to bring good to all persons, yet, at the very same time, this good God is also one who is offended by sin, and is therefore very angry with them. This perspective is a legacy left to the western church by St. Augustine, who employed his Platonic logic to the scriptures and Christian theology.

It is inherently difficult, if not impossible to present God as both Good and as angry without having some major philosophical problems to overcome. However, it should be understood that this view has not always been the prevailing view in the church. Unlike Augustine, the basis of the gospel in the early church and in today’s Eastern Church has always been that God is good, and that he loves even those who deeply offend him. The basis for the gospel is what Gregory the theologian calls the essential to the highest goodness. And that which is essential is to pour out goodness and go forth beyond oneself to the objects of its beneficence. True goodness is good all the time, in every place, and in every way, to all. When Jesus describes what God is like to His hearers, and therefore what we are to be like, he says:

Mat 5: 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In this passage we are told that our Father in heaven is perfect, and this perfect One loves His enemies in the same way as His friends. This makes it quite difficult to explain how it is that God is angry with the one with whom the gospel is being shared. In fact, it seems to stand in direct contradiction to the gospel. The heart of the gospel is that God is not angry with his creatures, but instead He desires to share all the goodness that is His with them. He desires them to live in communion with them forever. The short version of the gospel is this: God desires to live in you and you in him, and has opened the way to that relationship by the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of his beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ; God is not angry with you, he wants you back as His own, will you enter into that life?

Without a doubt one can spend a great deal of time explaining the implications of the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, but nevertheless, this is quite a different gospel than many in our day have heard.

The Hierarchy and Typology

QUOTE

I exhort you to be careful to do all things in the harmony of God, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do this then, imitating the same godly conduct, pay respect to one another, and let no one look upon his neighbor after the flesh, but continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality. (Epistle to the Magnesians -Ch 6, Justin Martyr, CA 130 AD)

COMMENTARY

It is clear in this epistle of Justin Martyr to the Magnesians that the threefold hierarchical role of Bishop, Priest (Presbyter), and deacon was in place by the time of his writing in the early second century. However, perhaps even more interesting than this is the reason that Justin gives the church for embracing their authority. His argument for respecting the hierarchy is that their respect serves as a type and evidence of our immortality. In other words, the gospel of Jesus, and salvation itself is presented to the world by the living relationship between the church and its hierarchs. Therefore, this means that without this structure at work in the life of the church, the gospel is damaged and salvation weakened; the threefold office is not merely an option.

Kyrie Eleison by Divna

The Priesthood

QUOTE

It is a priest’s duty to offer something, and, according to the Law, to enter into the Holy places by means of blood; seeing, the, that God rejected the blood of bulls and goats, this high Priest (Jesus) was indeed bound to make passage and entry into the holy of holies in heaven through His own blood, in order that He might be the everlasting propitiation for our sins. Priest and victim, then, are one; the priesthood and sacrifice are, however, exercised under the conditions of humanity. For he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and he is a priest after the order of Melchizedech. (On the Christian Life, St Ambrose, CA 370 AD)

COMMENTARY

Outside of Jesus Christ, there has never been a priest who was able to be the one who offers and at the same time be the offering; for if there were such a priest, he would only make one offering. None but Jesus could rise from the dead, and remain a priest forever. Therefore, every priest before Jesus was a type (foreshadow) of Him, and every priest after Jesus is an icon (image) of the one, true, high priest. Both serve as bridges that lead others to the one who St Ambrose calls the everlasting propitiation for our sins. To be “a propitiation,” means to be a kind of satisfaction or offering that obtains atonement. In other words, the point of the offering is “atonement.” The word atonement is a conjunction of three words, at-one-ment. It is the title given to the event wherein one person is made one with another person. Our high priest made such an offering in his own physical person that it produced at-one-ment between man and God. This is what he refers to when he says that by this offering He made passage and entry into the holy of holies in heaven through His own blood. Ambrose is explaining that salvation is a life procured for us by Jesus that is lived out within the holy of holies, and therefore salvation is nothing less that living con-joined to God. Salvation is the divinization of sinful humans by the grace of Christ’s offering for us. Salvation= propitiation + atonement + divinization. It is this task that our great high priest Jesus Christ has accomplished once and for all. Every priest since Jesus has merely presented Christ to the people of God, and escorted them down the path that was opened into the heavenlies by the true high priest.

Does God Have Grandparents?

Joachim and Anna were the Parents of Mary, and the Grandparents of Jesus, who was fully God and fully man. Therefore, the answer is yes, God has grandparents.

Wearing Our Crowns

QUOTE

Now, it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain, that though beheaded, crucified, thrown to wild beasts, chains, fire, and all kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but the more such things happen, the more that others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. For just as if one cut away the fruit bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful; even so the same things happen with us. (Dialogue with Trypho, St Justin Martyr, CA 100-165 AD)

COMMENTARY

The kind of faith testified to here by Justin Martyr, is not a thing that we contemporary western Christians know first hand. Unlike our forefathers who stood for the faith with their very lives, and unlike our Eastern brothers and sisters, who until very recently were tortured and murdered for their faith by the communists, and unlike our current African brothers and sisters, who sit under the gun of the Mohamedans, awaiting an impending attack at any moment; we really have no recent recollection of the need to make a public confession of Christ when it counts. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us, and if this is true, then this kingdom should be visible in us, especially in the face of beheadings, crucifixions, being thrown to wild beasts, chains, fire, and all kinds of torture, without giving up our confession because we already wear the crown of heavenly princes here and now.

Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Rev 3: 11-12