Can I Forgive God?
Introduction. This morning I would like for us
to consider a rather unusual question—“Can I forgive God?” That may seem
like a shocking question. It could be easily misunderstood. One might hear that
question and imagine that to even ask such a question makes an accusation
against God that is improper or even irreverent. I assure you that is not my
intention. What I hope for us to consider is something that is quite necessary
for some people if they are to ever have the faith, trust, and obedience to God
that we must. I ask you to bear with me as we consider this question and I
believe by the time we have considered this you will understand my intention
and perhaps even agree that to some degree we must be willing to forgive God
if we are to truly put our trust in Him. Let’s start with a few points we
must understand from the very beginning:
I.
The Bible Teaches Clearly ...
A.
God
never does wrong!
1.
Sin by its
very definition is the violation of God’s law (1 John 3:4).
a. As the Lawgiver, it is God who
defines what’s right and what’s wrong.
b. Any sense of moral righteousness
that man possesses is due to the revelation of God, or His creation of a
moral consciousness within us.
2.
In an
absolute sense there is never anything God can do for which He needs our forgiveness.
a. Moses declared, “His work is
perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous
and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4).
b. Elihu said truly, “Far be it
from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity” (Job
34:10, NKJV).
c. Even so, it must be recognized
that...
B.
Man
Cannot Always Understand All of God’s Ways.
1.
Example: An ant is not capable of
understanding why humans do not want it invading our pantries. We cannot reason
with it and bring it to a rational understanding that it must stay in its
place. An ant, no mater how marvelous a wonder of God’s creation, must be
controlled whether it understands why or not.
2.
God in His
makeup and power is infinitely greater than we are in comparison to an ant.
a. He has given us more
understanding than an ant, but we cannot begin to know why He does all of the
things He does.
b. While we can understand what
He demands of us (Eph. 5:17), we may never understand why.
3.
Paul
declared, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom.
11:33).
a. So, although we are told that God
does not do wrong, since we cannot understand all of His ways, it is possible
that...
C.
Our
Misunderstanding of God May Cause Us to Charge Him with Wrong.
1. Job is praised for the fact
that in spite of all that the Lord allowed him to suffer “Job did not sin
nor charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22).
a. We are not all as strong as Job.
b. We want to understand.
c. We want to make sense of it all.
2.
Sometimes,
when it doesn’t seem to make sense, the unanswered questions lead us to blame
God.
a.
The wise man
reminds us, “As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the
bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works
of God who makes everything.” (Ecc. 11:5).
II. What
Do We Choose to Do With This?
In
spite of the fact that God can never truly be charged with any wrong for which
He needs our forgiveness, that may not change our perception.
•
Many people
come to feel that experiences He has allowed us to suffer or expectations He
demands of us make them feel as if God has done them wrong.
We can choose
to respond to this in a number of ways. We can...
A.
Harbor
Resentment Against God.
1.
Many people
live their lives with great bitterness towards God.
a. They grit their teeth, shake
their fists, and in anger demand to know “WHY!”
b. When no answers satisfy this
question they settle into a condition in which they must constantly hang onto
the anger that leads them to say to themselves “I’ll never serve a God like
that!”
2.
The problem
is that this resolves nothing.
a. Resentment of God doesn’t
change our accountability to God.
b. “It is appointed for men to die
once, but after this the judgment” (Heb.
9:27).
c. “We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body,
according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
3.
Further,
resentment demands great energy and attention.
a. When you resent someone you must
constantly remind yourself what he or she has done that caused the resentment.
b. You must guard your actions lest
you accidentally fail to treat that person with the distance and distain that
resentment demands.
c. This is why some will seek to
resolve their case against Deity by...
B.
Trying
to Avoid God.
1.
Empty pews
and missed Bible studies don’t always come from an intellectual rejection of
the truth of the gospel.
a. Sometimes we imagine that if we
do not expose ourselves to reminders of who God is it changes our need to
answer to Him.
b. David recognized. “Where can I
go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (Ps. 139:7).
2.
The
inadequacy of these two approaches leaves us groping for better alternatives to
settle our case against our Creator.
a. Rather than bitterness and
avoidance allow me to suggest two more practical solutions.
C.
Choose
to Trust God.
1.
What does it
mean to trust God?
a. Is it simply believing that He
exists?
b. Is it just a confidence that
Jesus died for our sins?
c. These things are important but
there is more to it than just the intellectual acceptance of these truths.
2.
Trust is a
confidence that even when we don’t understand we assure ourselves that His
commands are “for our good always” (Deut. 6:4).
a. This a not a blind fog, oblivious
to life’s challenges.
b. Christians recognize that this
life is “full of trouble” (Job 14:1).
3.
Trust is
choosing to believe, even when it’s hard to see how, that “all things work
together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28).
a. Does that mean we always smile
through every dark day? No.
b. Does that mean we never struggle
with understanding why God allows certain things? No.
4.
Remember Job?
a. He never charged God with wrong
(Job 1:22), but he did maintain a hope and assurance that declared, “Though
He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
b. His very words show that He felt
as if what God had allowed him to suffer was something God had done to him.
c. Even so, he continued to say within
himself “I trust Him.”
5.
Now we know
from the account that God did not slay Job.
a. Satan was behind it all (Job
1:12; 2:7), using the sinful choices of the Sabeans (Job 1:15) and the
Chaldeans (Job 1:17), together with his own manipulation of natural laws (1:16,
18; 2:7).
b.
Job 1:16 does
state that “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the
servants” but this may simply be referring to lightening.
i. We must remember that God
told Satan “all that he has is in your power” (Job 1:12), so it was
Satan that used this “fire of God” whatever its nature.
c.
It was Satan
that slew him!
i.
We must never
confuse God’s allowance of something with His direct action.
6.
The
remarkable thing about Job is that even though He didn’t distinguish God’s
allowance from His direct action he did not let the sins of others compromise
His trust in God!
a. We often do that. Because others
fail us we refuse to trust God.
b. Job understood that “God is
faithful” (1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor. 1;18).
c. This was a choice Job made even
at a time when it was difficult for him to fully understand.
d. This is a choice we also can
make, but to do so we may first need to...
D.
Choose
to Forgive God.
1.
The Bible
uses a number of different terms that we translate with the English word
“forgive.”
a. While these terms can apply to
one’s legal need for pardon due to the violation of God’s law, they can also
apply to things that may not involve sin.
b. In this sense these words call
upon one party to release another party from something held over them.
2.
Old
Testament example.
When Nabal showed David great disrespect, his wife Abigail had not done anything
wrong.
a. In her wisdom, however, she went
to David and said two things:
i.
“On me, my
lord, on me let this iniquity be!” (1
Sam. 25:24), and then she begged him,
ii. “Please
forgive the trespass of your maidservant” (1 Sam. 25:28).
b. In asking David to forgive
her Abigail used the Hebrew word nasa’ (אָשָׂנ) meaning “to lift, bear up,
carry, take” (BDB).
c. She had done nothing wrong but
she called upon David, to bear the insult of her husband (which she
sought to take upon herself).
i.
We might put
it that she asked him to just “take it” without revenge.
3.
New
Testament examples. In
the New Testament the most common word that is translated “forgive” is the
Greek word aphiemi (ἀϕίημι) meaning “to
send away” (Thayer).
a. This word is used in the parable
of the unmerciful servant, of what the king did to the man who owed him 10,000
talents—he “made him free of the debt” (Matt. 18:27, BBE).
i.
It can apply
generally to releasing or letting something go.
ii. This can be used positively,
as in the case of the apostles having “left all” to follow Jesus (Mark
10:28) or the fever leaving the nobleman’s son when Jesus healed him (John
4:52).
iii. It can even be used
negatively of the Pharisees “laying aside” the commandments of God by
their traditions (Mark 7:8) or the brethren in Ephesus having “left”
their “first love” (Rev. 2:4).
b.
Even so, this
is the same word used of God’s forgiveness of our sins (Jas. 5:15; 1 John 1:9),
He dismisses them—He sends them away.
i.
This is what
we are commanded to do to others.
ii. We are to pray “forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).
iii.
We must be willing to “let it go.”
Conclusion. So, Can We Forgive God? Let
me make it clear again that I am not saying that God has ever truly wronged us.
•
What I am
talking about is our own difficulty to understand things about God that may
trouble us.
•
We should
strive to understand and trust what God has revealed to us about Himself, but
when the struggle stirs in our hearts what will we do?
The best
choice to make, in the face of our inevitable accountability before God, is in
trust to choose to let it go—this is forgiveness.
A.
Even in
English, the definition of our word “forgive” is to “stop feeling angry or
resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake” (New Oxford
Dictionary).
1. If we don’t understand something
about God, we need to “stop feeling angry or resentful toward” Him and choose
not to hold our misunderstanding against Him.
B.
Our hope in
obedience to the gospel is that God will forgive us of those things in which we
have truly wronged Him.
1. If we hope that God will “send
away” our sins, we must be willing to trust that (even if we don’t understand
it) God has never wronged us.
2. We can choose to bear the
uncertainty.
3. We can decide to let it go.
4. We can choose to dismiss our
resentment.
5.
We can ask
ourselves in those things we may not understand, “can I forgive God?”