Ask Pastor Mike Fabarez

Speaker 1

When someone's hurt you deeply, it can be hard to let go of the offense. After all, you've been wronged; what are you supposed to do next? Well, that's our topic as we settle down in the Pastor Study for another edition of Ask Pastor Mike.

Welcome to Focal Point. I'm your host, Dave Drouy. You know, each week at this time, we clear out our schedules, pull up a chair, and sit down for some one-on-one time with our esteemed pastor and teacher in an informal question and answer segment we call Ask Pastor Mike.

Now, if you have a question yourself, I'll tell you how to send it to us at the end of the program. But first, let's join Pastor Mike and Focal Point's executive director Jay Wortin as they kick off the topic of undeserved forgiveness.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Dave.

Pastor Mike, we have been spending some time on the radio discussing marriage this month, and I wanted to ask you about one particular subject, and that is forgiveness.

But perhaps you could start with the concept of forgiveness in general.

Speaker 3

Well, the concept of forgiveness in the Bible is kind of in a dramatic way illustrated by the Greek word in the New Testament that translates forgiveness. It's also translated to let something go or to leave something. You know, I always picture and even said it, you know, sitting here with my hands kind of opening up and letting it go.

The Bible is very clear that I need to in my heart not hang on to the wrongs against me. I need to not ball up with the sense that I've got to settle the score and I've got to take my own revenge and I need to return evil for evil. No, I need to let it go. That's why my relationship with God is so important.

When someone wrongs me, I've got to know that there is a God that is going to ultimately deal with the issues of wrong in this world. I need to recognize the fact that it's not up to me to try and, as I often put, settle the score to even things out. I need to learn to be forgiven.

And Colossians 3 says, "Listen, be forgiving the way God was forgiving toward you." God was a God who took my sin and was willing to separate it from me as far as the east is from the West. Even that word separate—that's the idea, to let it go, to remove it from me. And he did that. He says, now just as you've been forgiven, you need to learn to forgive others.

Speaker 2

Darrell Bock, so when we relate forgiveness to marriages, how important is that to the relationship.

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, of course, here's someone you're living with, someone that you're close to. I mean, the closest human relationship you have is going to be many things that aff and many things that transgress my sense of propriety and what I think is right and good. And so everyone's going to sin against their spouse in one way or another.

And so we better learn to forgive. I mean, someone I see once a week, there's not going to be a high premium on making sure I learn to forgive that person, because the chances of them doing something that I think is wrong in my relationship is a whole lot less than someone I'm seeing every single day and spending time with this closest, most personal, intimate relationship.

We're going to need to learn to forgive. And when we are together as Christians, particularly in Christian marriage, knowing that we have been forgiven a huge mountain of transgression that God has forgiven, I hope it makes it a little bit easier for us to look at each other and say we're going to forgive, just as God forgave us.

Speaker 2

What happens when someone's unable or unwilling to forgive their spouse?

Speaker 3

Well, think about that. I quoted earlier, Romans 12. When I want to take my own revenge and I want to settle the score myself, you've got the person being hurt hanging onto that wrong. And now with a clenched fist, there's going to want to be some kind of retaliation. There's going to be a sharp word or an insult that's returned for something that felt like an insult that you received.

You know, there's going to be tension. It's going to up the static, the noise, the hurt, the frustration in a marriage. And so, I mean, it's one of the worst problems you can have in a marriage is not learning to forgive your spouse. You don't let go of these things; they're going to build up, and it's going to create a lot of tension in marriage.

Everyone can attest to that. Who hears my voice? They know unforgiveness creates a lot of tension, a lot of strife, a lot of bitterness in a marriage.

Speaker 2

Well, certainly it takes two to tango, as they say. What is the responsibility of the one being forgiven versus the one doing the forgiving?

Speaker 3

Well, you know, ideal forgiveness is when someone sees the wrong that they've committed and comes to you in a penitent kind of way, saying, "I'm sorry I wronged you, please forgive me." In such cases, you can experience a kind of great restoration immediately and a reconciliation that is awesome. When one party who has wronged the other can see they are wrong and can quickly confess it, the healing process can begin.

However, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, we find ourselves working so hard to try and get our spouse to see what they have done and to confess it. Unfortunately, they may not see it, which only creates more strife and ramps up the tension, making things even worse.

In these moments, we need to learn from the words of Christ, even on the cross, that there is a kind of forgiveness that can be offered. It may not feel as good as when someone comes and confesses their hurt and acknowledges the way they have wronged you in a marriage. But to be able to say every morning, every day, before God, "I know I've been forgiven for a lot of things, even those I haven't recognized as problematic," is crucial.

We need to be willing to let go of anything our spouse might have done and say, "God, I want to let that go, release that, and forgive them even when they don't see the problem." Sometimes, the issues at hand are significant, but most of the time, they are smaller issues. In those cases, you may need to sit down and try to get your spouse to recognize what has just happened.

However, a lot of the time, you just have to remember that love covers a multitude of sins. I love my wife, and I want to ensure that even if there are problems and issues that she may not even see, which have been hurtful in one way or another, I'm just going to let it go. I will recognize that love will overcome the wrongs I may feel. Forgiveness can be applied even when my spouse doesn't come to me in the way we might want, saying, "Hey, forgive me. I'm sorry."

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. I know this has been a really important discussion for the health of our marriages, and we're going to conclude our discussion today with a message you preached called Celebrating Unearned Forgiveness.

Speaker 4

Well, our reaction to any news really is largely dependent on the context in which we receive that news. Right? Think about it. When my wife calls and says, "We won," it evokes one response if the context is my kids' Little League game, and an entirely different response if it's the $40 million California Lottery. Right? But anyway, context is everything. My response to any news is really going to be based on the context in which I receive that news.

Especially when we consider theological statements, biblical statements, statements like "God loves you," "God forgives you," and "God accepts you." I mean, that evokes one response in a certain context and a whole different response in a different theological context. See, for people today to hear that God loves you, God forgives you, God accepts you, those are statements in the modern context that don't evoke the same kind of relief or joy because most people have been taught to expect that. As a matter of fact, they're surprised and shocked that God would condemn anybody. They're no longer surprised and shocked that God promises not to condemn them. They assume on God's acceptance, they assume on God's forgiveness, and they assume on God's love. "Of course he's going to love me."

Well, that's not how the Gospel starts. I mean, the book of Romans is the expose of the Gospel, starting in verse 16 of chapter one all the way to the end of chapter three. He says sin is such a big problem; it is such a huge, grave, catastrophic problem for human beings that if we understood the ramifications of the problem of our sin in light of a holy God, when we start to hear things like "God will forgive us," "God will love us," and "God will accept us," it really ought to evoke in Christians' lives an eruption of joy and happiness and praise and relief.

Well, we get that in these three verses that we're going to study today. Take your Bibles, if you haven't already, and turn to Romans 4 and take a look at the way the Apostle Paul presents to us the kind of joy, gladness, relief that we should feel when we hear that God is able to and willing to forgive us completely of all of our sins. The word—it's a Bible word, I understand that—but it is packed with positive emotions and feelings. It's the word "blessedness." Look at it in verse six. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed. Now he's quoting Psalm 32: "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." That's a good thing.

Blessed. David speaks of the blessedness of this kind of transaction. That's why, by the way, verse six says David says the same thing. Circle that and put an arrow back to the verses ahead of it. He says the same thing. What do you mean? The same thing as what? Same thing as in Abraham's life. Abraham celebrated God's acceptance because God had credited him righteousness that he didn't have. And it wasn't based on his works; it was based on God's grace, and it was given through faith. And that was a huge deal.

But if you think through that long enough, you start to recognize it's not only the understanding of being accepted as righteous when I'm not that should give me relief. I've got to think about all the things I've done that are wrong that need to be forgiven. And so he says it's the same thing, but it's the other side of the coin. I need righteousness accredited to my account that I don't have, and I need my sin somehow taken off of my account. And so he takes the direction of the same principle on the other side of the coin relating to our sins and says David spoke of it when he said, "How blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

Now there's a word here that is translated variously 12 times. By the way, it shows up in Romans chapter four. You know the Bible was not written in English. I know that's news to some people. God originally gave it in two languages, three languages actually. One was a derivative of the other: Hebrew in the Old Testament, the latter part there was inclusions of the Aramaic language, and in the New Testament, it was all in Koine Greek with a few Aramaic terms here and there. But I want to familiarize you with a word that is used in this text in a more concentrated place than any other place in the New Testament. Romans chapter 4 uses the word "logidomai" 12 times. Here it's found more frequently in Romans chapter 4 than any other place in the Bible. It is the crux of the argument, and it would be good for us as 21st-century English-speaking Christians to get familiar with a more full-orbed picture of the word "logizomai."

But let's start in the context because we already saw it, though we didn't call it out. Beginning in verse number three, "What does the scripture say?" This is the quotation now from Genesis 15: "Abraham believed God, and it was logizomai to him as righteousness." That is the first one. How about verse four? "Now when a man works, his wages are not logizomai to him as a gift, but an obligation." Verse five, however, "to the man who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the wicked, his faith is logizomai as righteousness." Verse six: "David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God logidzomai righteousness apart from works."

So far you're saying, "Well, my English text is credited, credited, credited, credited," right? Well, that's true, but in other translations, you have words like "reckon." Remember that? "Reckon." They still say that in Alabama, right? "It's gonna rain, I reckon." "It's gonna reckon, I reckon." So that's how a lot of older translations translate it. Because the core of the word "logidzomai" is the word "logic." It's the word "I'm thinking something." But the thinking, when a guy in Alabama says he reckons it's gonna rain tomorrow, I don't know, you think, "Okay, whatever you reckon it will." But when God reckons something, it's a big deal, right? It's God. And when God decides in his mind, "Here's how I'm going to perceive the situation," then that's how it is.

It may be that Abraham is not righteous, but God is going to logid zombai that he's righteous. He's going to reckon, he's going to credit him, he's going to—here's a word we like to use in theology—impute to his account righteousness. Consider, think, regard, claim. There's another one here in verse number eight as it relates to our sin. Because it's not only heading toward us; there's something that needs to be logizomied away from us. "Blessed is the man," verse 8, "whose sin the Lord will not, will never logizomai against him." There's going to be a removal. I need righteousness, and I need sin removed. I need righteousness accredited to me, and I need sin credited away from me. Logizomai. It's a transaction.

It's translated in verse 3, 4, 5, and 6 as the word credited or credits. You got a pocket full of credit cards, am I right? And when we swipe them, every time we swipe them, a number gets credited against us, am I right? And then at the end of the month, I see how much damage my credit cards have done, how much logidzomying has taken place. Then they're hoping that there's some positive logidomaing at the bank, and maybe I can send some of those software zeros and ones over to this one, and we can settle the accounts.

And by the way, when those numbers are changed, there has to be a legitimate reason to change them. Can I get behind there and just punch some numbers in my account at the B of A window? How many times have I wanted to do that? What does it say? I don't have that much. I can change that; give me the keyboard. I would live completely different if I could just get to that keyboard and punch in the numbers I want to see in there. But they won't let me do that. Why? It wouldn't be right.

Now, follow me carefully on this. We've got a new theological trend in our world that says that God logizomize just because he chooses to logidzomai and that his logidzomaiing is not backed by any assets. There's no assets backing his logidzomai. And I'm here to tell you, no, that's not true. As a matter of fact, the emergent church, for instance, and I don't mean to always bring that up, but here's the problem with the emergent church. At the core of the problem of the spokesman speaking new words about the theology of the cross, they have stripped it of the asset by saying that God would not punish his own son to forgive us.

And the illustration they constantly use is that if you don't have to kick your dog to forgive your wife, why would God have to punish his son to forgive us? Don't need to do that. If God wants to take your sin off your account, and if he wants to add righteousness to your account, it's just a couple keystrokes in heaven. And all I'm here to tell you is this: God is not into wire fraud. When God transfers righteousness around and sin around, there's assets to back it. And that is not the theology that's being taught in many cool churches today. And this is the growing accepted theology of the day, that God just says, "I forgive you, and you're forgiven," and God says, "Hey, I'll consider you righteous, and you're righteous."

You know that even Abraham could not be considered righteous unless there is human righteousness that is creditable to his account, and that his sin cannot be overlooked by a holy God unless that sin is somehow paid for. Well, it was 2,000 years before the cross. I get that your credit card works before the end of the month, doesn't it? And your debit card works when there's money in the account. And I've said this many times, but the Old Testament, the imputation of righteousness from heaven and sin to the cross, took place on a credit basis. It takes place now on a debit basis. If you're all that into being concerned about time, which God isn't all that tied up with the time and temporal problems we have.

But the bottom line is this: God cannot accept Abraham without the cross of Jesus Christ. And while people are trying to redefine that as some kind of human example of martyrdom, it is not. It is the Father paying off your debt and mine. That's what happened on the cross. If that's not what was going on on the cross, then passages like this make absolutely no sense. Let me give you a couple of them. How about Revelation chapter one? Turn there with me, if you would. Revelation chapter one. First chapter of the last book of the Bible. Look at the introduction here, starting in verse number four.

God does not pay off our debt without assets, if you will, backing up the transaction. And the asset was found in the cross. Look at verse number four. This is Revelation 1:4. "To the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ." Now here we go. "Who is the faithful witness? The firstborn, the prototype from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has now—underline these words—freed us from our sins by his love." Do you see that? Underline love. Do you see that there? No, no, no. He did love us, but he doesn't free us from our sins by his love.

This is God we're talking about, who has to embrace an absolutely, perfectly holy being. And you're not one. So how does he embrace you? How does he accept you? How does he forgive you? The Bible makes it really clear. He freed us from our sins by his blood. You need to appreciate the power of the cross. Go four chapters later to Revelation, chapter 5, Revelation 5:9. They're singing in heaven. What do they sing? They sang a new song. Revelation 5:9. And here's what they sang about the Lamb, about Christ. They said, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and with your—what?—blood you purchased." There's a Logizomai term, "men for God." How did God accept you? You were purchased. What was the asset? The blood of Christ.

Make the connection in your mind. Your sin deserves death. The wages of sin is death. Death. Christ died a death in your place. I don't understand. Who was punishing Him? Well, the Romans, the Jews. No, no, no. God was—the Father was pleased to crush him, putting him to death, offering him as a guilt offering. By the way, you'd have to erase all of the sacrificial system to come up with a theology that doesn't demand that God is going to, through symbolically in the Old Testament, sacrifice and substitute, and in the New Testament, the actual sacrifice and substitution of Christ. You'd have to erase all of that if you're going to buy into the new theology of the day that logizomai is just a decision God makes without any assets backing it up.

Appreciate the power of logizomai. I can't pay off your mortgage unless there's real assets in my account. God isn't living on a monetary fiat system. He's living on a system of real assets, the blood of Christ. When Christ died, he purchased us for God. It was a real transaction. Back to Romans 4. The theme of the passage, while it carries on the concept of logizomai, which we'll see actually in verses nine all the way to the end of the chapter, what he's focusing on here is this concept of blessedness. And that's where we started. If we really understand what a big deal it is for God to pay off our sin debt and we realize what would happen to us if he didn't, then we should be—I hate the fact that it's such a church word, but blessed by that. I mean, there's a word it would be good to retranslate. The concept is one of happiness, of joy, of gladness, of honor. My goal in this sermon is to try and get us to appreciate forgiveness for what it is.

Speaker 3

It's huge.

Speaker 4

It's big. But I'm not so naive as to think that we're going to get it fully. We just can't until we stand in God's presence. But I think you'll get it then. When God says to a group of people, "Depart from me. I never knew you." When he gives people the punishments that their sins deserve, and then he looks at you and he says, "You're forgiven."

My goal in this sermon is trying to get us to appreciate the blessedness of it. Now, if we possibly can, let's pray. God, give us the wherewithal to think a little bit more deeply about these truths so that we can live out the truth and the experience that David wrote about: the blessedness of full forgiveness.

Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven. Make us joyful people, happy people, people that know what it is to experience joy and gladness because of the forgiveness we receive in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Speaker 1

You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. In today's message called "Celebrating Unearned Favor Forgiveness," find the complete, unedited version of this message at focal.radio.org. You know, forgiveness isn't about erasing debt; it's accepting the full payment of the cross so there's nothing more owed except the ongoing debt to love one another. As you open yourself to others, you're proving you're free to live out the love Jesus provides. Start now with the intent to live it out right in your neighborhood.

To help you on your way, we'll send you a copy of "The Art of Neighboring." This book is perfect for a home study and can help you develop a lifestyle leading to rich, rewarding relationships with those God has placed near you, and it's yours for a gift of any size to Focal Point today. Call 888-320-5885 or find it at focalpointradio.org. You can also write with your gift. Address your envelope to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, CA 92654.

Focal Point listeners are part of an active, vital community of believers who value the forthright, expositional teaching of God's Word. As you reach out and connect with others, we want to hear your stories. Post them at twitter.com/pastormike or facebook.com/pastormike. You can also send questions you'd like answered on our next segment of "Ask Pastor Mike" while you're there.

Finally, I want to tell you about the book titled "Praying for Sunday." The enemy loves it when the teaching of God's Word falls short of accomplishing God's purpose of transforming lives. That's why a counter-strategy of prayer is so powerful and effective. Believe me, this little book will impact your weekend worship. Challenge every member of your small group to request the free book "Praying for Sunday" and watch what happens in your church. "Praying for Sunday" is free when you call 888-320-5885 or when you go to focalpointradio.org.

I'm Dave Droue, wishing you a restful weekend ahead. Pastor Mike Fabarez returns with a convicting message about patience and forgiveness Monday on Focal Point. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point.

Speaker 4

Sam.