Last night the youth pastor at my church gave a very good lesson about forgiveness and repentance, and I thought it went right along with the seasonal message of Lent. Through the use of a scene from the movie "Courageous" he made a very good point that we are all guilty, yet, thankfully, Christ came to take our punishment. But does that mean when we accept Jesus' free gift of salvation that we're done? When we know we are forgiven by God is that all that we need? I have to agree with our youth pastor's answer - not at all! We must seek the forgiveness of those we have hurt, those we have sinned against and we must face the temporal, earthly consequences.
He gave this somewhat harsh, yet very valid example: if a man burst into the room right now and shot at us all, killing some and injuring others, but as he escaped he was convicted by the Holy Spirit and accepted God's forgiveness, would that be enough? Doesn't the Bible teach us that in order to live a righteous life and truly claim Christ as savior we should allow Him to CHANGE us and fill us with a desire and strength to completely turn our backs on sin, while we bravely accept the consequences of our past actions and seek forgiveness from those we hurt along the way? So, it would follow that the man in the example would need to turn himself in and face whatever consequences might come, knowing he was saved by grace and living a Christ centered life after telling the whole truth.
Along with the movie and this rather potent example, we discussed the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19. He was a master tax collector in Jesus' day, which basically translates to a modern day scam artist or embezzler as he would take for himself a high percentage of the already extraneous earnings of the tax collectors beneath him. Or as our youth pastor put it, he stole from thieves and swindlers and was a very hated person in society. Yet this thief of thieves sought a glimpse of Christ! And Jesus didn't stop with a simple head nod of acknowledgement, He welcomed Himself into Zacchaeus' home, which led to such a shift in his heart that he repented and repaid his victims' loses plus interest! What an awesome example of true repentance that leads to lasting change which reveals the grace and glory of God!!
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