Forgiving for the Gospel, Part 6, Philemon v14-15

I love the words to the song we just sang:  "For God the just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me."  Those are words that relate directly to our series on Philemon where we focus on forgiveness.  God is just, and He demands payment for our sins - all of them.  And the payment that Jesus Christ made on the cross for our sins has "satisfied" God's justice on our behalf.  No more payment is needed to be made.  Christ paid it all.  God's forgiveness of us is directly related to Him being satisfied with Jesus Christ's payment. 

   Now here is the point:  do we forgive others like this?  Are we able to be satisfied in Christ and also able to pardon others fully? Paul was urging Philemon to be "satisfied" with Christ's payment for Onesimus' sin, and willingly pardon him from any personal wrong he committed against him.  Let us look today at 2 points that Philemon was to understand from Paul's letter.  These are 2 points we are to understand from Paul's letter today as well.

Forgiveness is Voluntary (v14)

            Forgiveness is voluntary.  Notice verse 14, “…”  I would suggest forgiveness is one of the highest expressions of our free will.  Paul wants Philemon to voluntarily forgive Onesimus.  He wants it to be all Philemon and none of Paul.  Paul does not want Philemon to feel guilted into forgiving Onesimus.  He does not want him to feel forced, to only say the words but secretly harbor his grudge.  Paul wants Philemon’s forgiveness to come from his heart, not from Paul.   

The Lord never simply wants outward obedience from us.  He seeks from us a life that is lived voluntarily from the heart, not a life that veils the heart.  He wants our outward obedience to express our inner obedience.  Sometimes our outward obedience actually masks our inward disobedience.  This can be easy to do as Christians because we certainly don’t want to be seen as unforgiving people, after all, being forgiven is the definition of being a Christian.  Our Biblical ethic we all know is that we are to be quick to forgive.  And while we don’t want to seem like we’re being unchristian by withholding forgiveness, we can say we’ve forgiven while harboring unforgiving attitudes and acting in an unforgiving way. 

This problem is that we let God shape us outwardly, but, not inwardly.  But God not only looks upon the heart and sees the heart, He works in our hearts.  He wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Mark 12:30).  He wants us to love each other deeply from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).  He wants us to  set our hearts on things above (Col. 3:1) and to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts (Col. 3:15).  He wants us to believe in Him with all our hearts (James 1:5-8) and not harbor doubt.  The life lived for Christ is lived fully from the heart. 

And a life lived for Christ from the heart will lead to voluntarily forgiving from the heart - like Christ.  We don’t do it to put up Christian pretenses.  We don’t do it because of peer pressure.  We don’t do it begrudgingly.  We don’t do it outwardly to give the appearance, we do it outwardly because it is what we have done inwardly in our hearts.  That means we volunteer to forgive completely, generously and wholeheartedly.  It means we volunteer to relate to the other person no longer on the basis of their sins, but, as though they’ve not sinned.  It means we volunteer to cancel the debt they owe us and no longer see them as “owing” us.  It means we volunteer to stop bringing up what they did:  to them, to others, and to ourselves.  That is forgiveness.  And as Christians it must be done from the heart.

The key that unlocks the heart for this forgiveness is that we remember the forgiveness we have received from the Lord.  Colossians 3:13 is a companion verse to this letter, “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  He has forgiven us all our sins completely.  He doesn’t see us in light of our sins anymore.  The Bible uses language like, “All our sins are cast into the sea”, or, “Our sins have been separated from us as far as the east is from the west”, or, “God remembers our sins no more.” 

But, what if the Lord related to us based on the way we relate to others?  What if He forgave us in the same way we forgive others?  Would He forgive us in a way that He would cancel our sin from His records?  Or would He keep bringing up all our past failures because that’s what we do after we say we’ve forgiven?  Would He relate to me based on my past sins and treat me in light of all my past, even though He had forgiven me? 

God’s Providence (v15)

            Secondly we see Paul suggesting God’s Providence in this situation.  Notice verse 15, “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was so that you might have him back for good.”  Paul wants to take the events that have unfolded in this story and place them into the hands of God.  Because that is what is evident here:  God’s hand.  Paul doesn’t want Philemon to see this situation simply as an isolated human event.  He infers that God may have been overseeing the course of events.  “Perhaps the reason…”  He’s not talking about the stars aligning; he is talking about a sovereign God who is intimately involved in the lives of people like Onesimus and Philemon, and you and me.  Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”  Proverbs 20:24 says, “A man’s steps are directed by the LORD, how then can anyone understand his own way?”  Let us draw 3 points here:

            First, God is not the author of sin, but, God can and does use the sinful situations people create to accomplish His purposes.  A classic example of this is the story of Joseph.  He was the youngest son of Jacob and the favorite.  But Joseph’s 11 brothers were jealous of him and so they sold him into slavery and lied to their father telling him that he was eaten by wild animals.  Joseph eventually was brought to Egypt and by God’s favor he became the 2^nd most powerful man in Egypt, behind only Pharaoh. 

Eventually a famine caused Joseph’s brothers to come to Egypt for help.  I’m sure they never thought they’d see their brother again, and I’m even more sure that they never thought Joseph would be the 2^nd most powerful man in the nation they were going to for help.  It is a gripping narrative in the last chapters of Genesis.  But in that meeting Joseph forgives his brothers for what they did to him.  And it is his next words we get to see how a great man of God made sense of the senseless injustice committed against him when he utters those epic words tying together the evil of men and the providence of God in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”. 

Joseph saw the evil perpetrated against him in the greater context of God’s plans to help save lives.  He never saw that years ago as he rode away in the wagon of the slave traders who just bought him from his brothers.  As he watched his brothers fade away behind him I’m sure he asked God why this was happening and how he could let this horrible thing happen to him.  But it was later on that he would learn to understand that the tragedy in his life was in God’s hands and would be used in His greater plans for good. 

            It’s a reminder for us that no matter how bad a situation becomes God is greater than what we are going through and He is able to make something good, beautiful, wonderful and great out of it.  It’s also a reminder that God’s plans for the world are not limited to our own personal world.  What’s going on with us is part of bigger plans God has going on.  We are not the sum total of what God is doing.    

            Secondly, perhaps God allows people to commit a serious sin in order for them to develop a sense of guilt, and a recognition of their need for forgiveness.  Hang with me here a minute.  Many people don’t believe they’ve done anything very serious where they deserve God’s condemnation.  The Bible is clear that all are condemned as sinners whether all sense their guilt before God or not.  But, perhaps God out of grace lets someone commit a sin so that finally they see that they are sinners and finally sense guilt and that they too need God’s gracious gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  Onesimus may have been like this.  Perhaps he was so resentful of being a slave, blaming his master and even God for his lot in life, that he may have been completely deaf to any notion that he needed forgiveness.  Perhaps he was so obsessed with escaping slavery that he didn’t care about this Jesus his master kept talking about.  What I’m suggesting is that he needed to become a fugitive from men in order to recognize he was already a fugitive from God. 

            Application:  Are you deaf to the Gospel because you are so tuned in to something in this world?  Are you someone who thinks you have done nothing to deserve God’s condemnation?    

            Thirdly, we must never underestimate God.  We must expect the unexpected when you’re dealing with God.  You cannot anticipate Him.  Philemon never in a million years would have guessed things would have turned out the way they did.  His slave runs away and hundreds of miles away he “accidentally” runs into the Apostle Paul, the same man who led Philemon to Christ.  And in meeting Paul Onesimus trusts Christ as his Savior and returns to Philemon to make things right.  No way Philemon expected any of that.  But, when you are dealing with God, never underestimate Him.  You can’t anticipate what He is going to do, but, you have to anticipate Him.  In other words, expect the unexpected. 

I love how Abraham did that.  His expectation that God could do the unexpected reflected his faith.  In Hebrews 11:17-19 it explains Abraham’s reasoning behind his willingness to obey God and offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God.  It says “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead…”  In other words, it made no sense to kill Isaac since God promised that through Isaac Abraham would have many children.  So Abraham reasoned to himself that in order to fulfill that promise God would have to raise Isaac from the dead, was able to do it, and would do it to fulfill his promise to Abraham.  So Abraham did not underestimate God, but expected the unexpected.  When our God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and we are not, we should look for Him to do things we never would have thought. 

            How has God done things in your life you never thought He would have done?  What are you asking Him to do that you really can’t see how He’s going to do it?  What Red Sea are you not expecting?