The Church’s F-Word

There’s a word that we seem to have all agreed must not be mentioned around children. Not because the word is bad in itself, (if it were a bad thing we couldn’t have even entered this realm in the first place), but because children may not be mature enough to handle it. They mustn’t hear us talking freely and openly about it because such undue exposure may tempt them into damaging and wrongful behaviour. At least that’s how we reason it.

When I say “children” here, I am of course referring to spiritual children – not our physical tots and teens. Also, the “realm” I mentioned above refers to the spiritual realm – God’s kingdom – not this physical world!

So what is this word that ‘mature’ Christians know about but will not discuss when spiritual ‘babies’ are around? Well, the word is: FORGIVENESS – full, unqualified, complete Forgiveness.

The Bible doesn’t say that the Believer is temporarily forgiven, or that we’re partially forgiven. The Bible states that we are forgiven, period. This was the thrust and message of the Apostles in Acts right from Day 1.

In Acts 2:38, Peter says to the crowd, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Again in Acts 10:43 43  Peters  says of Jesus, “To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.

After His Resurrection, Jesus told His disciples that the message they were to preach was “repentance and remission of sins” in His name.” (Lk 24:47).

In two separate epistles, Paul defines “redemption” as “the forgiveness of sins”. (Eph 1:7 and Col 1:14. See also Jer 31:34; Act 5:31; 13:38, 39; 2Co 5:18-21; Heb 8:12-13; 9:9-14).

Why then is this basic fact of the Gospel not being proclaimed in our message? You guessed it correctly, because we believe that immature Believers will handle it wrongly and go into licentiousness.

This is an unfortunate encroachment of human wisdom on God’s Word. The Bible never hid this from believers – mature or not; in fact, John brazenly proclaims to young Believers, “I write unto you, LITTLE CHILDREN, because your sins ARE FORGIVEN you for his name's sake.” (1Jn 2:12).

The power of the Gospel message lies in its forgiveness. If we present the Gospel scripturally in the first place, we wouldn’t need to resort to human wisdom and scare tactics to keep our new converts’ behaviour in check.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN