Title: Asking According to His Will (Part 4)

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

(1 John 5:13-15)

Introduction:

I would like to remind everyone that we are continuing with our series in 1 John in the fifth chapter of this epistle resuming our study of verse 13 – 15 which we began three Sundays ago.

If you recall, since two weeks ago, we have been analyzing the fourth petition of what is known as the Lord's Prayer in our broader study of what it means to pray in accordance with God's will. In the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer, we were taught to confess our sins to God in the manner prescribed in Matthew 6:12:

“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

This petition, like the other petitions of the Lord's Prayer is meant to be a pattern for our own personal prayers, not just something we recite mechanically. The regular, sincere confession of our sins is an indispensable part of praying according to God's will. Since we began studying the fourth petition, we've been addressing this common question about the fourth petition: Why do we need to ask for forgiveness if, as believers, all our sins have already been forgiven? Thus far we learned of two reasons. First of all, although genuine believers cannot fall from their justified state because of their sins and so continue as forgiven and accepted children of God forever, the sins they commit nonetheless displease God. As a result of God's Fatherly displeasure towards our sins, He disciplines us for our correction and repentance. scripture teaches us that believers may avoid suffering God's discipline when they judge themselves by God's word and repent of their own accord. This is what we are doing when we confess our sins to God. The second reason why believers ought to confess their sins is because by doing so, they are engaging in the work of mortifying their sins. We learned that all genuine believers do not leave their evil desires to conceive and give birth to evil deeds but by the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, they “put to death” their deeds of sin. This involves Spirit-empowered abstaining from sinful deeds, repentance for the evils they do commit, and gratifying their holy desires instead of their evil desires. Confessing our sins to God is the first step to putting to death the deeds of the body – the evil deeds that are born out of our evil desires.

Today, we will consider yet one more reason why believers must confess their sins to God continually: We must confess our sins continually because by doing so, we are reminded that we must forgive the sins others have committed against us.

Point 1 – The Fourth Petition

In the fourth petition, the forgiveness of others is expressed as a given for believers. Mark it is as a fact: forgiven people forgive people. Immediately following His teaching of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus asserts that the forgiveness of others is a non-negotiable for believers. If we withhold forgiveness, we have no right to believe that God has forgiven us:

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

This teaching is expanded later in Matthew in Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant:

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35)

In John Calvin's commentary on this parable, he distinguishes between non-retaliation and the forgiveness Christ commands us to show to our brothers. Non-retaliation is what we show to our enemies who have wronged us. It is an attitude that puts aside the desire for revenge and repays their evil with good. It is this kind of attitude which is commanded of believers in Romans 12:

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)

Unlike our brethren in Christ, the presupposition regarding our enemies is that they are unbelieving and so their sins against us are to be regarded as an expression of the spiritual blindness of their unregenerate nature. Non-retaliation towards our enemies accepts that until our enemies are enlightened to the truth of the gospel and born again unto saving faith, they will act according to their God-hating nature in ways that sometimes winds up seriously harming us. Since there can be no fellowship between light and darkness, fellowship is not the aim of Christian non-retaliation. The aim of non-retaliation, as Calvin puts it, is simply so “...that our minds shall be purified from all hatred.” (John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries). Christian non-retaliation was exhibited in the case of In Ho Oh. The parents of In Ho Oh recognized in their letter to Mayor Dilworth that the boys who murdered their son did so because their “souls were not saved”. They acted out of their “paralyzed human nature”. So, they  laid aside malice towards these boys, did them good by donating money for their better guidance, requested lenience for their sentencing on account of their youth, and left the vengeance to God via the governing authorities (Romans 13:4) and His own eternal judgment in the life to come.

At this point, I would like to clarify that this non-retaliation towards our enemies does not mean circumventing the execution of justice. Consider again the directive, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God,” (Romans 12:19) As believers, we are never to avenge ourselves, repaying evil for evil (Romans 12:17), slander for slander, insults for insults, persecution for persecution, malice for malice, but instead, we are to leave it to God's wrath. What is one of the ways God carries out his wrath against the evil doing of our enemies in this life? Here's how:

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:1-4)

The governing authorities are appointed by God to carry out His “wrath on the wrongdoer.” If our enemies have committed a criminal act against us, non-retaliation means to abstain from any form of personal vengeance and allow the civil authorities to fulfill their God-given job to execute justice. “...leave it to the wrath of God”. Civil authorities, what is your God-given responsibility? Not to give wrong doers a slap on the wrist, turn them back out on the streets, and embolden them to break laws and victimize others with impunity. Your job is to make wrongdoers afraid, to enforce justice by the sword, and to be “an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” Your job is to do this with impartiality, being no respecter of race, gender, wealth, power, and political affiliation:

“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:15)

Lady justice is often depicted wearing a blindfold, representing impartiality. Where does this principle come from? It comes from God. Civil authorities: be a terror to bad conduct, approve good conduct, protect law-abiding people, execute God's vengeance on wrongdoers, be partial to neither the poor nor the great, and you will have God's approval as a magistrate.

But what happens when the governing authorities abdicate their role as agents of God's justice? What if they deliberately, even as a matter of policy, exercise partiality to the poor and deference to the great, fan the flames of civil lawlessness, and neglect the interest of the law-abiding people God has appointed them to protect and serve? Then they are undermining the fundamental principles that God has instituted for human government and they are revolting against the Creator and Preserver of civilization. In our nation, it devolves upon the people to elect servants who will faithfully carry out their God-given responsibility to prosper and defend them. Because God has revealed to Christians these fundamental principles of government and justice, they ought to be the first to recognize when a nation drifts towards tyranny and the first to make use of their God-given means to prevent this from happening. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1) By God's providence, our country has a system of government wherein the highest level of authority belongs to the people. The people are not accountable to their elected officials to serve their interest. The elected officials are accountable to the people to serve the interest of the people. This includes our President. Christians in this nation should be the last people to promote indifference towards the governing of our country. Christians in this nation should be the last people to promote blind support of whoever is elected as President in the name of submitting to the governing authorities. God has given the citizens of this nation the highest level of governing authority. Elected officials, no matter how high their office, are not kings and queens and princes over the citizens of our nation. To the contrary, they are servants of the people and it is the people whom God has appointed over them to keep them accountable as stewards of our nation. Returning back to Christian non-retaliation – this does not mean doing away with justice for our enemies. It does mean putting away the desire for personal revenge, never repaying evil for evil but rather doing them good, and leaving vengeance to the wrath of God which He often carries out through the civil authorities when they fulfill their God-given responsibilities.

Unlike non-retaliation towards our enemies, forgiveness between Christian brothers is bi-lateral. Towards our enemies who have done us evil, we leave the vengeance to God while doing them good as we have the opportunity. Towards our fellow believers who have sinned against us, we forgive them by being reconciled to them, restoring whatever breach in fellowship was caused by the wrong they have done us, dropping our anger towards them, and receiving them back into our favor. There is much more entailed in the forgiveness of our brother. Jesus makes clear that this forgiveness is bilateral, conditioned on the repentance of the offending brother:

3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

The reconciliation process initiates with rebuke, is conditioned upon repentance, and is fulfilled with forgiveness. It is regarding forgiveness between Christian brothers which Jesus' parable in Matthew 18 seems to have in view. The context of this parable is Peter's initial question to Jesus: “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter may have thought he was exhibiting great forbearance by setting the limit of his forgiveness as high as seven times. But Jesus' reply shows just how much His followers are required to forgive one another:

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22)

We would need to enter the sins of our brothers into a spreadsheet if we were to literally forgive them up to seventy-seven times. What is actually meant by Jesus' statement is that we are to forgive our brother without limit. Why we must is made clear in His parable.

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. (Matthew 17:23-25)

Each time we confess our sins to the heavenly Father, we are reminded of the incalculable debt for sin He has forgiven us. That debt for sin in this parable is represented by ten thousand talents. How much would ten thousand talents come out to in today's currency? One estimate puts it at around 6 billion dollars. I think R.C. Sproul is right when he calls ten thousand talents the equivalent of a bazillion dollars today. Bazillion dollars? That's what we say when something is beyond counting, a quantity so vast that we can't put a number to it. The point is that the debt for sin which God forgives when He saves us is incalculable. The sheer extent of our sin is great beyond measure and we either pay for it for all eternity in hell or we look to another who pays for our sins on our behalf. If we trust in Christ, Jesus paid the penalty we owe to God for our sins in full when He propitiated God's wrath towards us on the cross. It is for this reason and this reason alone that God forgives our sins. 

The king forgives the unpayable debt which the servant owed him and the first thing the servant does is track down one of his fellow servants who owes him 100 denarii. Instead of forgiving him the debt as he himself was just forgiven, the servant grabs his fellow servant by the throat, and demands he pay up. Refusing his pleas for mercy, the servant has his fellow servant thrown into prison. 100 denarii comes out to several thousand dollars by today's currency which is quite a sum of money. But compared to what the unforgiving servant was just forgiven by the king, it is a minuscule sum. The question is always brought to the forefront of our minds each time we confess our sins to our Father: How can we, who have been forgiven by God far more than we can comprehend, refuse to forgive others whose sins against us are comparatively minuscule? There is one apt description for someone who claims God's forgiveness for himself and yet withholds it from his brother: “You wicked servant!” (Matthew 18:32) There is only one explanation for such an attitude and that is hardened, obdurate wickedness.

28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 17:28-32)

We may feel a real sense of relief when we reflect on the forgiveness offered to us in the gospel. We may comprehend something of the sheer magnitude of our sins and the sheer grace of God's forgiveness. We may be convinced that we are in possession of this forgiveness. We may sing hymns and songs of God's forgiveness with deep relish and zest. But if our Christian brother turns to us and repents for wronging us and we refuse to forgive him, we have no right to assure ourselves that we are really saved. We may rationalize our unforgiveness in various ways. We may reason that there should be certain exceptions to forgiving a brother, saying to ourselves, “This person has crossed the line one too many times. If I keep forgiving him, he may start taking my forgiveness for granted. And what if he does the same thing to someone else? If it was any other brother in the church seeking my forgiveness, I would forgive him. But this guy is a repeat offender so he needs to learn his lesson which he'll only learn if I continue to make him feel miserable for what he has done to me.” Many in the world would call this wisdom. But Jesus makes no exceptions. Provided our brother repents, we must forgive him:

3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

What if God did not accept our repentance for the same reason we won't accept the repentance of our brother? How many times have we repented of some sin and yet shortly thereafter, as heart-felt as our repentance was, fell into that same sin again? What if for that reason God one day refuses our repentance and casts us away in order to teach us a lesson? If God, in His infinite holiness and dignity, does not do this, how could we be so self-important to hold our brother to a more rigorous standard than God does?

Has a brother come to us seeking our forgiveness? Have we closed our heart to his repentance and refused reconciliation? If we profess faith in Christ, we better forgive that brother from the heart. Go visit or give him a call. Be reconciled with that brother quickly. If we refuse to heed Christ's word about forgiveness, mark what He says at the conclusion of His parable:

34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 17:34-35)

If we refuse to forgive our brother as Christ directs, it will not be Paradise that awaits us when we pass on from this life but jailers to haul us away to pay for our sins forever. Mark this as true, forgiven people forgive people. As we have learned repeatedly throughout John's first epistle, love for the brethren is an incontrovertible result of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and all who truly trust in Christ for salvation have been sealed by His Spirit. If our so-called love for the brethren does not express itself in our willingness to forgive them from our heart, our claim to love the brethren is exposed as a lie. Without love for the brethren, we have no reason to think that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And if the Holy Spirit does not dwell in us, we do not belong to Christ.

When we apply the fourth petition to our prayers, we are reminded of just how much God has forgiven us in Christ and that, as a rule, forgiven people forgive people.