THE MESSAGE OF HOPE - V

Titus 3:5b-7
Bob Bonner
May 31, 2009

Many of us as children were raised by parents who used the "fear of God" as some sort of club to hold over our heads to get us to behave appropriately. One mother, when disciplining her son, said things like, "You shouldn't do that because God wouldn't like it." Or, "You better not do that because if you do, God will be angry." Or, "You do that, and God will get you for it."

Usually, these reminders were sufficient to keep the little guy from getting out of hand. But one evening at supper, the youngster rebelled. He refused to eat the prunes his mother had provided for dessert. He would yield neither to persuasion nor warnings. Finally, he was sent to bed with the reminder that, "God will be angry with you."

Soon after the child had gone to bed, a violent thunderstorm arose and the mother went to her son's room to quiet him, expecting that he would be in terror at God's anger. But to her surprise, she found him at the window, looking out on the terrible storm. When he noticed his mother come in the room, he said to her, "Man, God sure is making a big fuss about a few prunes!"

Christians and non-Christians alike have misunderstood God's anger and God's punishment. As a result, many Christians live in fear of God's punishment, or they live underneath a load of guilt that God never intended for them to carry. Furthermore, as a result of not correctly understanding God's anger toward sin, we act wrongly, not only toward ourselves, but also toward those around us.

For instance, it is not uncommon for many Christians to think that God will punish them by causing them to lose all that they have, because either they'd done something wrong or failed to do something they should have. Nor is it unusual to run into parents who look back at their lives and the wrong choices they made when they were younger and believe that it was because of those wrong choices that God is punishing their children by causing them to be born retarded, without an arm, or with some other physical disorder. 

There is confusion in the minds of many that the natural disasters or traumatic events that befall all of us are all due to “an act of God” or God's punishment or judgment or wrath. Furthermore, some people misconstrue God's punishment for the natural consequences of living with the results of wrong choices. Some would say that God is punishing a girl for being involved in illicit sex by allowing her to get pregnant. Getting pregnant is not a punishment. Getting pregnant is the expected result of sexual intercourse without taking any precautions. Getting AIDS as a homosexual is not a punishment from God for a sinful lifestyle. Getting aids is most often the consequence of performing a physical act that the human body was never intended to be involved in.

So, how are we to view God's anger as it relates to us Christians and our sin? What part, if any, does God's punishment play in the Christian’s life? That's what we started to look at last time we were together, when we were studying the false belief that states, “Those who fail (including myself) are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.”

For those who are just coming into this study with us, allow me to explain how it is that we have come to this point. We have been in a study of Paul’s letter to Titus, in verses 3:4-7. This passage is one long sentence which in a condensed form spells out some very significant aspects of the Gospel, the message of hope, the Good News. We have come to see that the Gospel has much to say to those who already know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, as well as much to say to those who have yet to put their lives into the hands of the Savior. It has been my experience as a Pastor that has led me to discover that few Christians really understand how important the Gospel, this message of hope, is for them to live today the meaningful life God intended them to enjoy here on earth. Neither do they understand what an important role the Gospel plays in their ongoing emotional and spiritual stability.

In order to better acquaint you with what I’m convinced many Christians don’t understand or have forgotten, I have chosen to take a short tangent from our study of Titus to explore in depth not just the terms we find in Titus that deal with the Gospel, but a few more terms that complete the picture of why the Gospel is so important to the Christian’s life today.

This morning, we are picking up where we left off last week with God’s answers to the common false belief of, “Those who fail (including myself) are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.”  God’s answer to this false belief is wrapped up in the Biblical term “propitiation” and the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross that made “propitiation” possible between God and us.

After looking at several different Biblical passages last time, we learned that because of Jesus Christ's death, God's anger aroused against us due to our sin was once and for all appeased. In other words, because of Jesus' death on the cross, God will never be angry with the believer again. He may grieve over our sin, but He deeply loves us. We never have to fear God’s hand thumping on us for our sin or mistakes. 

Hence, last time we concluded by defining this term “propitiation” and how it reflects the fact that once and for all God’s anger toward us is resolved.  Here is what we said “propitiation” means: “The crucifixion of God the Son so satisfied the wrath of God that was aroused toward us by our wrongful sin against Him that God now reaches out with His arms of love to wrap them around all those who put their confidence in Christ’s finished work on the cross on their behalf.” Let’s face it. As Christians who know better, from time to time we still choose to ignore God’s stop signs, and we sin. When we do, eventually the consequences of those wrong doings always catch up with us. This can include things like embarrassment, shame, and feeling distant from God, among other natural consequences such as various addictions, emotional hang-ups, financial reversals, jail time, or physical maladies. 

At those times of experiencing the consequences of our sin, it is important to remember that we can freshly apply the propitiating blood of Christ to that sinful circumstance, and that God's need for justice and propitiation has already been satisfied because of Christ's past work on the cross.  In turn, from a grateful heart, we can praise God for His foresight and provision of a Savior who has done the job of meeting our need for satisfying God’s anger against us to such an extent that we can remain in fellowship with God. Therefore every time I sin, when I go to God and admit my failure, I can experience anew Christ's propitiating work on my behalf and express my thanks to Him for it. 

But for some Christians, God’s grace as seen through His complete forgiveness, loving acceptance, approval, and His never punishing us for wrong doing leads them to conclude that there is no motivation to obey God! This response is in error, and typically comes from those who really have not come to grips with the truth of God’s grace, and to be more specific, the mercy God has shown us through His propitiating work. They still fear that people are going to be able to do wrong or be encouraged to do wrong and think that they will get away with it. And the idea that somebody could get away with doing wrong just doesn’t settle well with them. Hence, here is their question that needs to be addressed: “If God’s grace has made us totally forgiven, forever accepted, completely approved of, and loved by God, no matter what we do, what motivation is there to obey God?”

Allow me to quickly cover five reasons for obedience. When we understand what Christ has done for us, Christ’s love motivates us to live for Him. When we experience true love, it usually motivates us to express our love in return. 1 John 4:19 puts it this way, “We love, because He first loved us.”  Hence, we don’t live for Him to maintain His love or approval of us; rather, we choose to live in such away that it brings honor to Him, demonstrating our love for Him so that others would want Him to become the Savior and Lord of their lives.

Secondly, Satan has effectively blinded people to the painful, damaging consequences of ignoring or rebelling against God. Even though the effects of sin are all around us, many continue to indulge in sex outside of marriage, personal pleasure seeking at all costs, and rampant self-centeredness that causes personal anguish and pain. Hence, the truth about sin becomes another motivator to live uprightly before God. Sin is destructive and should be avoided.

Thirdly, our loving Father has given us His Holy Spirit to convict us or to warn us about possible sin. His convicting work is one form of God’s instruction or discipline for our lives. If we don’t turn away from that which the Holy Spirit convicts us, then God will use other forms of discipline like natural consequences to help us recognize the destructive nature of rebellion against God. All of this comes to us as a warning because Our Father lovingly disciplines us for wrongdoing.

At this point, allow me to contrast for you the Biblical difference between God’s punishment and His discipline so that you are not confused by these two terms. God’s discipline and His punishment are not the same. When you study the Bible concerning this subject of discipline and punishment and the terms related to it, you could summarize their differences this way:

	PUNISHMENT	DISCIPLINE
Motive:	God’s Hatred	God’s Love
Source:	To avenge a wrong	To correct a wrong
Purpose:	Alienation	Reconciliation
Personal Result:	Rejection that leads to guilt	Shame that motivates us to live righteously
Directed toward:	Non-believers	God’s children

Next, we learn from the Scriptures that God’s commands are meant to direct us into a life of joy and fruitfulness. In other words, His commands for us are meant for our good. His instructions are not meant to restrict us from enjoying life, rather they are meant to direct us to get the most out of what He has so graciously set before us.

Furthermore, God’s Word in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 teaches us that God will grant us eternal rewards for doing that which is good and in accord with His Word.

At this point, let’s go out on a limb and say that at least we mentally understand the Biblical truth concerning the propitiating work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and that we know that if we have trusted in Christ as our Lord and Savior, God no longer desires to punish us. It is one thing for us to say that we understand this truth, but it is another thing to demonstrate that we have applied this truth to our every day lives. This leads to another question: “What would be an outward evidence that demonstrates whether or not we have fully understood and believed this truth about God’s propitiation?” It is one thing for us to hear it, and say "Right. Thanks a lot, God, for your mercy toward me." But it is quite another thing for us to have really grasped the truth about propitiation so that it changes the way we live before God and others. 

One obvious demonstration is something I pointed to last time. We and others would notice a lessening in our lives of the brutal harshness against ourselves when we fail. To be specific, there would be less name calling of ourselves when we make mistakes and maybe even more laughing at ourselves for our own failures. But beyond that, what would clearly demonstrate our depth of understanding Christ’s propitiating work on the behalf of the human race? 

To answer that question, let’s turn to Matthew 18:21. Here Jesus demonstrated an act of propitiation and forgiveness in the midst of a situation where an injustice had been suffered. In order to fully grasp the passage we are about to read, one must get a proper perspective of the whole context. The subject matter of this passage actually begins in Matthew 18:15. In that section, Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus is giving clear instructions of what to do when someone has sinned against you. When properly understood, these verses not only teach us how to go about correcting a wrong suffered, they also reveal that more often than not, we will suffer wrong doing by another Christian and will not experience due justice. For example, we are told that if we have been wronged by another, we are to confront them on it. If the wrong doer refuses to admit his wrong and act appropriately, then we are to find two or three witnesses to the sin that was committed. But what happens if we can’t find two or three witnesses to the wrong committed against us? We are left with doing nothing and forgiving the one who has wrongly treated us. In other words, we are to suffer the injustice. We are to let it go.

Most people miss that point when studying this passage, and as a result, feel unfairly treated when the steps to church discipline do not end up the way they had hoped. But nonetheless, suffering from injustice is just one reality in life. So, learn to deal with it.

The Apostle Peter had a hard time with this teaching and wanted to know how many times he would have to “deal with suffering injustice.” So, beginning with verse 21, he asked Jesus a question concerning how many times must he experience being wronged and suffering unjust treatment before he could quit forgiving that person and take matters into his own hands. Contextually, that’s what is behind what we read in verse 21.

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin

against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I

do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” 

Wow! That was not the answer Peter was looking for. Jesus said that he would have to suffer this emotional injustice again and again, for 490 times, before Peter could stop forgiving and take matters of justice into his own hands. This is hard to swallow. 

So to explain His answer, Jesus tells this story. It is a story that reveals God’s propitiating work on our behalf and how we could never repay Him for the debt caused by our sin, that God’s just anger and wrath could never be satisfied or paid back by anything we could do. We read:

For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain

king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  And when he had

begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten

thousand talents.  But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord

commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that

he had, and repayment to be made.

10,000 talents was a lot of money in those days. Just to put that into perspective, 10,000 talents was more than all of the annual tax paid to Rome from the provinces of Idumea, Judea, Samaria, Galilee and Perea put together. Annually, all the taxes of Palestine paid to Rome amounted to less than 1,000 talents. So, if the slave could earn 10 years worth of all the taxes that Rome required of all of Palestine, then this slave could get out from underneath this wealthy land owner. That was an impossibility, and everyone listening to the story knew it.

Even if the master had sold all of his slave's belongings and his family into slavery and forced the slave to work all of his life to pay off this debt, the slave could never come up with the full payment of the debt. He would have spent the rest of his life at hard labor with no hope of ever enjoying the soft cushy job and life he had been accustomed to as the administrator over his very wealthy boss's estate.

With this story, Jesus was making the point that it is impossible, apart from Jesus Christ, for us to remove the debt of our sin against God. There is nothing we could do to satisfy this wrong against God. Forget the possibility of earning God’s forgiveness and approval.  We could never get past appeasing God’s wrath for the injustices He has suffered at our hands.

Jesus continues. “The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’” Now that was a good and commendable start for this slave. He recognized and admitted his wrong doing and was begging for mercy from his master. He knew that he was wrong before his master and wanted to make things right.  So the master appreciated the slave’s recognition of his error, and he had mercy on the slave. But we will also see that this slave still didn’t quite see how desperate and helpless his situation was. He still thought that he could do something to pay back his boss.

As we continue to read, keep in mind what the slave asks for and what the master grants him. The slave asked for the opportunity to try to pay back the debt. Jesus now tells us what the master grants the slave. He says, “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” The slave asked for time to repay a debt that he could never repay, but the King instead totally forgave the debt and presumably freed the man and his family of any obligation to pay off the impossible debt. The King did not just forgive the debt, but he agreed not to punish the slave for it. In other words, the King’s compassion for the slave overran his need for propitiation.

But did this slave understand what the master had said and done? His actions reveal that he did not. Somehow he believed or acted as though he still could repay the debt, so that he did not need the King’s gift of forgiveness and compassion. Jesus continues: 

But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him

a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying,

“Pay back what you owe.”  So his fellow slave fell down and began to

entreat him, saying, “Have patience with me and I will repay you.”

Apparently, like many of us, this first slave did not understand that there was no more debt. It had been forgiven and taken care of. There was no more punishment or judgment left against this man. He didn’t need to go after others to hound them for unpaid balances to loans. But somehow, just like us, always having to prove that we are good enough to be accepted by living up to some standard that we believe will prove us worthy, this slave tried to do the impossible. He tried to earn the propitiation that his master simply wanted to give him. He heard the master’s pronouncement, but either he did not believe, understand, or accept it, or he ignored it. The proof of his not accepting what the King had done for him is seen in how he dealt with other people.  In this case, the guilty slave displayed an anger management problem and threatened to punish another slave for the same sin he had committed, which by the way had already been forgiven by the king!

This other slave was asking for the same mercy that the first slave had already received. And since the first slave had been forgiven the debt, he should have forgiven the slave beneath him. So, why didn’t he? Because he was still operating in the system that those who do wrong deserve to be punished, even though he had committed the same wrongs and had been forgiven, the anger toward him having been propitiated. 

The illustration continues. 

He [the first slave] was unwilling, however, but went and threw him [the

second slave beneath him] in prison until he should pay back what was

owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were

deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord [that’s the king] all that

had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, “You wicked

slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you

not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on

you?” And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers

until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall my heavenly Father

also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your

heart."

So what is Christ’s point? This servant was offered a free pass, but he never took it! Instead, he demonstrated that he thought he could pay back his master and avoid the punishment due him. He never fully understood the debt he owed. Furthermore, the evidence that he had rejected the word of the king, that he never put his faith in what the king had promised, was witnessed by how he treated his peers. He refused to forgive them and tried to enact punishment against them. As a result, the king put the first slave in prison.

The warning to the believer is obvious: Examine your life to see if you are truly saved. If you continually demand your pound of justice and punishment against others when they have wronged you or others close to you, hold grudges, act harshly and impatiently, find fault in others, and demand perfection of them because you think that all people must earn your approval or pay for wrongs, then you are demonstrating that you have never understood or accepted by faith the finished work of Christ on your behalf. If you had, you would not be acting that way toward others. You are demonstrating by the general practice of your life, as the slave did, that you have not understood or accepted the free gift of God in Jesus Christ. 

But, the more you recognize God’s grace toward you, the more you will back away from your harsh, impatient, demanding justice-at-all times approach to your relationships with others. You will see a change for the better in your own anger management and verbal haranguing and abuse of others. In the end, you will become more like Christ.

I remember specifically the moment that understanding Christ’s propitiating work on my behalf directly affected the way I approached the discipline of my own children and how I would try to deal with others when I was in conflict with them. It took place one day when my two boys were around 9 and 7. My dad was expected for a visit, and I wanted the house and yard looking great, because, honestly, I wanted his approval, and I wanted to hear him say, “Wow! You sure have your life in order.” 

With too much to get done in too little time before Dad arrived, I heard a lot of laughter and fun taking place between two boys who were supposed to be working hard sweeping out the garage. I started to get agitated, because I was working hard and it just didn’t seem right that everybody shouldn’t be working as hard. So I stepped into the garage and found the boys having a typical sword fight with their broom handles. Well, that didn’t set well with me, and I came uncorked. I let them know in no uncertain terms that I was unhappy with their behavior and that they had better get back to work or else! No sooner had I walked back into the house to finish a job I was working on when the deathly silence of laughter struck me. And then I heard the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit. “Okay, Bob. The kids were out of line and were disobeying your instructions. But did you speak to them as beloved and valued children of mine--children who, just like you, have been forgiven, accepted, and loved by me? Did you speak to them out of wrath and punishment, or out of love, trying to teach them how to work? Did you model for them My love toward you?” 

Right then, I had to admit to God that I had treated them harshly due to my fear of failure and rejection by my own dad. And that I believed they deserved to be punished out of my anger, not disciplined in love. I then went back to the boys, and asked them to sit down with me. I told them in calm words that I loved them and was wrong to have lost my temper with them. I told them that I was struggling with earning my own dad’s approval, and because of that, I had wrongly turned my frustration toward them. I asked them to forgive me. In return, quite naturally, they responded by saying that they had wronged me for not doing what I had asked them to do. We hugged each other, and having understood more about each other, we all went back to work. The laughter returned to the work place and the jobs got done.

The point is that as we see ourselves vertically before God, accepted fully or not, we evidence this in the way we treat others. Do you condemn others for every mistake or failure? Do you condemn yourself and call yourself names for every blooper you make? Or do you accept God's compassion, his gift of propitiation, and allow yourself and others the freedom to fail? Do you continue to hold grudges against others? Are you still demanding justice? If so, then you do not understand to what incredible lengths God had to go to save you and to appease His rightful wrath against you.

How do you deal with others who fail you or don’t live up to your expectations? How do you deal with injustices that either you have experienced personally or you have witnessed those around you experience? Does your response reflect one who has experienced the forgiveness and love of God that came to you as a direct result of the propitiating work of Christ? Are you forgiving each other “just as God in Christ has forgiven you?"

As we parents become secure in our value and worth before God, we won't feel the need to berate our kids when they fail or don't perform well or live up to our expectations, because we think that their poor performance will reflect negatively upon how others see us. Instead, when they do fail, we will deal with them gently, as God, who is no longer angry at us, deals with us.

Quickly, let me give you two evidences in our lives as we daily more fully understand the truth of God's propitiating work in our lives. We will find growth in our own patience, longsuffering, and kindness toward others. We will find it easier to more quickly forgive others and demand less punishment of them when they fail us.

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