A Forgiving Church

Evan, thanks for the challenging message yesterday on A Forgiving Church.

A Forgiving Church is a necessity. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness of sins...... here's a good definition: "The act of divine grace by which, in virtue of the merits of Christ's atonement, appropriated by faith, God frees the sinner from the guilt and penalties of his sins. The Law is vindicated by the atonement of Christ, and the penalty of sin is paid. God offers free and full forgiveness to all (John 3:16), and such forgiveness is received by all who believe in Christ as their Mediator and Redeemer (Isaiah 1:18; 55:1–2; Acts 5:31; Romans 3:24, 28; 1 John 2:12).

Viewed from another angle, this act is called justification, not in the sense that the person justified is morally just, but just with respect to the Law and the Lawgiver, one who has received pardon is justified in the sense that he is declared innocent, being placed in a position of not having broken the Law and not deserving punishment.

Such forgiveness is granted believers as a free gift, not because of any merit of their own (Ephesians 2:8). The whole pattern is one of mercy, to which the sinner makes his appeal. This mercy provided a Redeemer who reconciled men to God (2 Corinthians 5:19)."

So what is a loving and forgiving Church? You see, God is the one who is love and He tells us what is true love. What a wonderful thing it is to love others. To be a peace with others. A person who truly loves cannot be easily hurt, will rarely ever get bitter and will not criticize others. They see the business of being forgiving as their privilege in Christ Jesus...as children of God.

May God help us to apply these godly principles in our lives and be loving Christians, and may we, here at Central, continue be a loving and forgiving Church.