Category: Forgiveness

Contains all posts related to forgiveness.

The True Power to Change

Posted on by Michael Wine

By Jim and Michael Wine

Would a man drowning in the ocean calmly get his cell phone, type in the screen lock password and call 911?

OR, would he scream as loud as he could for help every chance he could before he sunk down to death?

Would someone experiencing a heart attack proceed to give himself CPR? Or would he desperately call out for help?

As obvious as these questions seem, they highlight an important fact of life – physically helpless people need to depend on others.

No one denies that there are times in our lives when we are physically helpless. However, we resist the idea that we are mentally, morally or spiritually helpless. After all, the body may fail but the human mind and will remains under the sovereignty of the individual, right?

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl discovered this as he suffered in the camps of Nazi Germany. No matter what his captors did or said to him or forced him to do, he was free within his own mind. They could not take that away.

This idea is, in fact, the cornerstone of the massively popular ‘self help’ genre. How do we tap into that individual freedom of our minds, and use it to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps?

It gives a certain amount of hope to people because it is partly true. We are free within our own minds in the sense that no one else can control our minds if we don’t want them to.

However, are we free in our own minds from ourselves?

Here are some facts to consider:

  • “Suicide rates increased 33% between 1999 and 2019.”
  • “…there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.”
  • “Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year.”

But even without these statistics, we all feel deep down that there is a problem. We have to fight against our own demons constantly. We are not the men or women that we want to be. We aren’t the parents we feel our children deserve. We go into debt when we should save. We can’t stop eating things that are bad for us. We tell lies to our trusted friends. We don’t measure up to even our own standards of where we should be in life.

The fact is that we are physically helpless to some degree in every stage of life. We all know this and deal with it. That is why societies exist – so that we can help each other get through life.

But the truth is that we are also morally helpless as well. And while we are free (for the most part) from other people who try to control how we think, we are never free from ourselves.

We are constantly locked in a deadly battle with our own darker nature. And the darker nature is stronger. It always wins. It always drags us down into the depths of the ocean where we can no longer breathe.

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) There is no way that we can overcome our own sin. We must instead call out to another for salvation.

The Good News

The Bible says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Great! Problem solved, right? Simply place a call to God and you’re all set? Not exactly.

While it is good news that there is someone we can call out to for mercy, it has been misunderstood in our day. How?

First, it must be said that ONLY those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Second, the “call” we are speaking of is not like making a phone call, but rather an urgent and profound plea for mercy while hating the thing that is killing you. Third, when God grants us mercy, He changes our identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.

The exclusivity of the call for help.

Only those who call on God will be saved in the end. No one else.

The primary reason God has not wiped the human race off of the face of the earth is that He desires to show mercy (2 Pet 3:15). And He ONLY gives mercy to those who ASK. Those who will be saved are the ones who “call on the name of the Lord” and not those who refuse to call.

Important: If we refuse to ask God for mercy, then we are negating the basis of God’s provision of mercy. God loves truth! (Psalm 51:6) And what is the basic truth of the human race? Are you ready? Here it is: We are broken in such a way that it is impossible for us to fix ourselves; in fact, God Himself has determined that “fixing ourselves” will never work (Rom 11:32). FLASH: If you don’t get this, then you will NEVER understand the universe.

And you will never understand your own life with all its shortcomings and failures.

God is in control. He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isa 64:7). Why is this the BEST news you could ever hear? Answer: because it opens the possibility that you might tell God the truth, and ask Him for His mercy – which He ALWAYS grants! ONLY those who call for mercy are the ones who get it.

How should one ask God for mercy?

The plea for mercy, this “call” we are speaking of is not the casual call to your landlord that a drain is plugged. It is not a transaction, as though God were gaining the pleasure of your company through saving you.

The plea for mercy is not just a philosophical contemplation. It is the certain and clear understanding combined with a sense of urgency that if I don’t get help from outside myself, then I am doomed.

The picture of a drowning man is very helpful. The drowning man HATES the thing that is killing him and wants immediate deliverance. Knowing that he must be rescued or else perish, he wholeheartedly gives up any false notion that he can save himself and urgently and energetically devotes his whole person to crying for help – in other words, for mercy.

Mercy is not something you deserve. It is not something you can demand. You must ask for it, or you will not get it. If you ask for it, you will receive it. If you do not receive it, you are lost. So ask.

Can we say it any clearer? If you maintain any hope that you can make progress in life by “self-improvement” then you are a liar, and you are maintaining the very self-delusion that will PREVENT the God of the universe from helping you.

How the Mercy of God Changes Us

When we make this plea to God, and He graciously responds (as he promises to do), He changes our deepest identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.

The foundation for all personal growth is a call for mercy. “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

Only those who walk by the Spirit will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So I ask you: Will your fleshly lust for “self-improvement” be honored by God? OF COURSE NOT! Whenever we make an attempt at earning our own righteousness, we revert back to making ourselves an enemy of God! Such efforts guarantee that we will fail (Jas 4:6).

We cannot do a single thing to make ourselves better in anyway. In fact, the very desire to change can be the thing that keeps us from changing. The desire to improve can turn into what is most important to us, an idol, something that is more important than God. And when our personal growth takes God’s place, it actually becomes sin.

Imagine a man wants to go on a journey from his home to some destination on the other side of the country. But, to get there, he must travel through an impassible desert, save for the single train that snakes through it.

To cross the deadly sand, he must abandon the idea of attempting to cross the desert using his own two legs. That will never work. He will die without ever reaching the other side. Instead, he must get on a train, and sit still for hours, not moving a muscle (except perhaps to stretch his legs and admire the view from the window).

In fact, the only way to cross the desert is to stop trying to cross it on your own. You must give up on the idea of effortful change and sit down on the train.

The train is the mercy of God. The only real way through this life to the other side is through resting in that mercy.

Our sin makes us enemies of God. He will surely unleash his wrath against us unless we ask Him to show us mercy. If we ask, He will. Why? Because Jesus Christ, God’s perfect son, died on a cross, taking God’s wrath in our place. When we look to that sacrifice, and ask that God show us mercy, He will not refuse to do so.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Now we are forgiven of our sin. Now we are on the train. Our whole situation has changed. Our very identity has changed. (Colossians 3:1-4)

As we continue to look to Jesus and trust in the power of God, we receive the power to live life differently than we used to before. The word “receive” is important. Life is no longer about trying to change or “grow” or improve. It’s about resting in the mercy of God and receiving the grace that allows us to live in a way that pleases God.

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

So what is the path forward? It is simple. Ask God for mercy. Tell Him the truth about your situation, and delight in the fact that the very reason you are struggling is that God wants you to know (again) that you can only move forward by resting in His mercy.

Won’t you call out to God today?

Job’s Wish: Mankind’s Only Hope

Posted on by Michael Wine

It was long ago. Before Moses wrote the ten commands of God on stone, before (or perhaps while) Abraham lived, there was a man who wrestled with the core, foundational problems of existence. That man’s name was Job.

In a single day, perhaps in a single hour, Job lost everything. His wealth, his family, his reputation, all were destroyed by the ancient enemy of man – the devil; Satan.

Of course, Satan was authorized to do what he did by God Himself. And Satan was ever the con man. He destroyed Job’s life with such gusto and flare that it appeared to come directly from the hand of God Himself.

Job does not curse God, however, but worships instead. He praises the God who both “gives and takes away.” (Job 1:21)

However, as all great suffering does to each of us, the pain Job experiences launches him into a desperate quest to find answers to the ultimate questions of the universe.

Was catalyzing this questioning from Job the reason God allowed his suffering?

One thing is clear. The book of Job is not merely about suffering, or God’s sovereignty, or anything on the surface. It is about the fundamental problem of human existence. That is, how can sinful, wicked and unclean man be right with God?

Through looking at a key passage, we can catch a glimpse of Job’s dilemma of hopelessness as well as his wish that shines through the heavy fog; a beacon of hope.

Job, the first book in the timeline of Scripture shows us just how deeply in trouble we are. Yet, it also points to a slight chance, a glimmer of hope, a Hail Marry pass for humanity that rests fully on the willingness of an all-powerful enemy to be merciful.

Here is the passage I will be looking at. I am putting it all here for you to read first:

Man who is born of a woman
    is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers;
    he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
    and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
    and the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
look away from him and leave him alone,
    that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be roused out of his sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal should come.
You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.

Job 14:1-17 ESV

There is, first, a reality alluded to by Job – that of hostility between God and man. Job mentions that God sees him, judges him, and how he is unclean before God who is the standard of purity and holiness. This points to a broken relationship. Man’s sin, his uncleanness, puts him forever apart from God. God looks on man and judges his wickedness from on high.

There is a war between man and God. They are not on the same side.

Job’s first question, then, is why God continues to fight a defeated opponent. Why is God still sending the bombers of judgement to crush the sinful city which is already a smouldering ruin?

Job says that man is of no account – like flowers that come to life only to die in a blink. Man, says Job, is like a shadow that fades and vanishes away. So why does God care?

Could it be some form of fatherly discipline? Is God trying to punish the sin out of us before we die? Job rejects this idea saying, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” Mere discipline or pain cannot purify the heart of man. God is not changing sinful hearts through wrath and judgement. So why is God doing it? What hope is there in it?

He moves then, from this argument that God is waging a pointless war, to his proposal. Whether it is a genuine proposal or more of a hypothetical one given to promote his real agenda remains to be seen. It is this: God should let man live his transient life in peace and not constantly make him face the consequences of his sin.

His reasoning is that God is in total control and knows every detail of a man’s life. Man is a defeated foe, and he cannot live a single moment outside of God’s plan. These facts add to Job’s argument that God’s judgement of sin is of no use in changing our sinful hearts. And if God knows the future, as Job says, God also knows this to be true.

What comes next, I think, is where Job begins to hint at his real agenda. He starts talking about death.

He says first, that “there is hope for a tree.” The word hope is critical. Hope for what? For change. For growth even after being chopped down. For new life. Why does hope exist for the tree? Because even when it dies, it can grow back. In other words – it has time.

But time is not on man’s side. We live a fleeting number of years and are gone forever. we don’t get another chance to earn God’s favor, to live a better life, to make God happy with us enough to overlook our sin. Once we are in the ground that is it. No do overs. No second chances. Job says that, “till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.”

We now begin to understand the source of Job’s confusion. He faces, on one hand, the truth that sinful man is not right with almighty God, and that a holy God must judge sinners. Yet, on the other hand, he sees the hopelessness, the vanity of the entire situation. Who wins? Surely not man, who dies in his sin. But does God win when time after time his wrath toward sin never results in reconciliation, in change, in an end to the hostility between God and man? No.

If God were satisfied with wrath against sin, would he not simply wipe mankind out once and for all? Why allow us to continue to live and die and face judgement, with no hope or time to change?

There must be another way.

So Job, in a stunning display of hope in the middle of a hopeless dilemma, makes a wish. Here it is again in his own words.

Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity Job 14:13-17

Job’s wish is for death to not be the ultimate doom of man, but to be man’s ultimate salvation. He wishes for a resurrected life after death, one where his sin had already been dealt with and is no longer between him and his creator. He begs God to mercifully kill him, and hide him away in the earth, safe until the day when God is ready to make him new.

How amazing it is, that before a word of Scripture was penned, a man knew the truth. He knew that the only way to solve the problem of mankind’s war with holy God, was for God to be willing to forgive us, to offer us mercy, to kill us, and to use his infinite power – which sinful man so foolishly rebelled against – to give us all a new life. And not just a second chance to earn God’s approval, but a new life entirely. One in which our sins from the first life were already burned in the fires of God’s holy wrath.

“And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” Job 42:17

That’s the last verse in the book of Job. And how fitting an end to Job’s story it is.

Job died, just as he requested. And the reader is left wondering, will the second half of Job’s wish also come true? Will God do it? Will he save Job? Will he save the world?

That is what prequels are for. They show us the problem, so that we read the rest of the story.

So read Job. Ponder your dilemma along with him. Let the danger you are in wash over your consciousness as you face the fact that God hates your sin. His wrath burns against your rebellious heart. There is no escape from it.

Death is coming.

And then, don’t stop at Job! Read the rest of the story. But especially read about Jesus.

Fear and Faith

Posted on by Michael Wine

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7

What is fear without belief? If you don’t believe a dangerous lion is outside your door, you will not fear it.

On the other hand, if you fear something or someone, you believe there is something dangerous about that thing or person.

If you believe God is dangerous, if you are afraid, then you believe He is real.

And what is wiser than 1) believing God is real and 2) being afraid of an almighty God who also hates sin? Especially since that is the reality.

It is the beginning, because it is where you start. You start with fear because fear is a kind of faith. Then, from faith, you move ‘further up and further in.’ You get to know this God more deeply; His love, mercy, compassion, patience.

And the fear begins to fade as you are forgiven, cleansed, and welcomed into God’s family.

Dangerous Self Deception

Posted on by Michael Wine

...you say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’ Jeremian 2:35

God judged the nation of Israel more severely because they did not tell the truth about their sin. They not only disobeyed God. They disobeyed God while pretending to have been following Him the whole time.

It’s easy for our minds to produce all kinds of justifications, excuses, and explanations for how our sin is not really sin. But we forget that God will not judge us harshly for confessing sin honestly. There is no reason to hide our sin from God, who forgives generously.

The real danger lies is hiding it, lying to Him and to ourselves about it. That is when the hammer falls.

Who Sees the Real You

Posted on by Michael Wine

As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man. Proverbs 27:29

In a time with no videos, no photographs, not even crisp glass mirrors where one could see their reflection perfectly, imagine what it would be like to peer into a pool of water and see yourself for the first time.

Some would think it a kind of magic. “How is it that an image of myself appears to me in the depths of this pool?” They might think.

The water was the means by which they would know themselves on the outside.

And yet the outside is not he real you, is it? There is a real you, what you really believe, how you really think, that is hidden from prying eyes.

Just as the dark water holds your appearance within its depths, so your heart holds the real you. And who has access to this secret pool? Only two.

Only you and and the Lord can see your heart’s reflection.

We can share glimpses of it with others, close friends, loved ones, even strangers if we wish. But they only see the evidence of what kind of heart we have. They can’t see the real thing.

How terrifying it could be, to know that God can see that secret you in perfect clarity. How exposed one might feel at the thought of an omnipotent enemy knowing the deepest, darkest things about you.

And yet, how wonderful it might be if, instead of an enemy, God was our Father. If we could walk to the water’s edge with Him, and peer down into it while holding His hand, how different that would be.

The World’s Trap

Posted on by Michael Wine

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

This is the trap we fall into without the gospel:

  1. We see that we are not perfect, and make many mistakes.
  2. We try harder to do better.
  3. We fail, and make even more mistakes.
  4. We try even harder and do even better, but we still fail.
  5. Eventually, if we are lucky, we admit to ourselves that we are hopelessly lost.

And this is the point where the trap comes.

6. We begin to be content with our failures. We embrace the identity of a someone who can never reach the standard. We live with it.

This is the world’s message. “Live with your flaws and embrace them. You will never be perfect, so don’t even try. Be happy.”

But how can we be happy like this? How can we have meaning in life if we are less than we could be? How can we be content when the standard of perfection is dangled in front of us our whole life, and still not able to reach it? Trying to be content with our failures is like a drowning man trying to be content with the water in his lungs.

The gospel does things differently. Here is an alternate step 6.

6. Receive the perfection of Jesus, and keep trying to reach the standard!

It is so simple. If you lack righteousness, receive it from the righteous one who gives it. If you are a sinner, that is good. Admit it and receive pardon and a certificate from Jesus that says, “This sinner is declared righteous because of the death and resurrection of Christ!”

We don’t have to be content with our failures, because perfection is attainable now that it is a gift. And we don’t have to live defeated and ashamed either because we can never live up to the righteousness we have been given. Why? Because we have been declared righteous already, and can now live in that reality.

Receive Redemption

Posted on by Michael Wine

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

Don’t try to redeem yourself. You will just end up failing again, possibly in a worse way. Simply receive the redemption offered though Jesus. God’s grace is enough to redeem you, to buy you back from the bondage your sin has held you in. The Christian life is about living as someone who is already redeemed, not about redeeming oneself from past failures.

Going Humbly to Jesus

Posted on by Michael Wine

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14

It struck me today as I read the above passage that Jesus Himself was more like the tax collector who beat his breast than he was like the Pharisee. He was unlike both of them in one sense, being sinless.

But in another sense he was similar to the one who knew he was a sinner in the eyes of God. Why? Because of his humility. Notice Paul say in Philippians 2:8 that Jesus did the same thing that the tax collector did in the parable – He humbled Himself.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The cross that saves sinners requires sinners to come to it on their knees, humbled, just as the savior was humbled while hanging on it.

To draw near to Jesus, we must humble ourselves before Him, not because He is looking down on us from a position of judgement, distain, or disgust, but because He already humbled himself to draw near to us. We must go to him in humility, because He came to us in humility.

The only realm we will be able to find Him is in the realm of humility. For it was only through the humility of death that He was exalted in resurrection. And it is only through the humility of repentance and faith in Him, death to self, that we can join Him in is exaltation and life.

Around the Wicket Gate by Charles Spurgeon

Posted on by Michael Wine

If you would like a solid dose of pure gospel, I highly recommend Around the Wicket Gate by Charles Spurgeon. Find for free as an eBook here at Project Gutenberg.

To give you a taste of it, here is a quote:

To suppose that the Lord Jesus has only half saved men, and that there is needed some work or feeling of their own to finish his work, is wicked. What is there of ours that could be added to his blood and righteousness? “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Can these be patched on to the costly fabric of his divine righteousness? Rags and fine white linen! Our dross and his pure gold! It is an insult to the Saviour to dream of such a thing. We have sinned enough, without adding this to all our other offences.

Even if we had any righteousness in which we could boast; if our fig leaves were broader than usual, and were not so utterly fading, it would be wisdom to put them away, and accept that righteousness which must be far more pleasing to God than anything of our own. The Lord must see more that is acceptable in his Son than in the best of us. The best of us! The words seem satirical, though they were not so intended. What best is there about any of us? “There is none that deoth good; no, not one.” I who write these lines, would most freely confess that I have not a thread of goodness of my own. I could not make up so much as a rag, or a piece of a rag. I am utterly destitute. But if I had the fairest suit of good works which even pride can imagine, I would tear it up that I might put on nothing but the garment of salvation, which are freely given by the Lord Jesus, out of the heavenly wardrobe of his own merits.

It is most glorifying to our Lord Jesus Christ that we should hope for every good thing from him alone. This is to treat him as he deserves to be treated; for as he is God, and beside him there is none else, we are bound to look unto him and be saved.

Around the Wicket Gate, C.H. Spurgeon

I’ve never been more encouraged by someone telling me I have no shred of goodness in me!

The Way Back to God

Posted on by Michael Wine

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Isaiah 53:10

Our sin did not kill Christ. God killed Christ to save us from our sin.

When you read of Jesus dying on the cross, remember that your sin was not the primary cause of His death. He gave His life for us.

He does not look on us with anger because our sin caused His suffering. He is the man who leapt in front of the bullet aimed at us. The one who sacrifices His life does not hold a grudge against the ones He died for.

God, seeing our sin, turned the full force of the hammer blow of wrath onto Jesus. Why? Out of love for us.

The path to God has been laid wide open at the cross. Let not guilt or shame prevent you from accepting Christ’s sacrifice. For He has already laid down His life for yours. He has already risen to prove the justice of God is compatible with grace.

His blood opens the way back to the Heavenly Father who loves us.