WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Metamora Patter

This is my weekly Religion article that is in the Brookville papers every week.


FORGIVENESS IS FOR GIVING
BY PAT GULLEY

Acts 26:18

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

The Apostle Paul is on trial because the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were upset with him for preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Jews. In fact, they were furious at him and tried every way they could to kill him. (Ac 23:12-35) It was because of the prejudice against him in Jewish courts that the Roman Soldier Lysias had Paul taken under cover of night escorted by 470 soldiers to Caesarea to be tried under Roman law. Lysias discovered that Paul was a Roman citizen and was determined to get him out of Jerusalem before the Jews had him killed. (Acts 23: 20-35)

Paul himself had been very aggressive concerning Christians and their preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was furious that these heretics were teaching that Jesus was the Messiah. He was possessed with pursuing them and had them arrested, imprisoned, and even put to death under Jewish law and the Jewish courts. (Ac 26:9-11) It was during this activity that Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:1-9) Paul was forever changed and knew that his Messiah had come.

When Paul appeared before Festus, the Governor of Caesarea, and King Agrippa, he gives his testimony of this dramatic encounter and quotes what the Lord Jesus said to him at his conversion. Jesus told him that He was going to send Paul to be a minister and a witness of HIS RESURRECTION, and of all the other things that he would see and experience in his new life as a born again believer and as a minister of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus also told Paul that he would be protected and delivered from all the attacks and the plans of the enemy. (2 Co 11:22-33) But Paul understood his main mission was to preach the truth of Jesus’ Death, Burial, and Resurrection to both Jews and Gentiles. The faith that accompanies the preaching of the Gospel would open their eyes and would turn them from darkness to light. They could receive Jesus as Lord and would be delivered from the power of Satan unto God. The believers would receive forgiveness of sins and would inherit the benefits of being a child of God by their being born into the Kingdom of God. (Col 1:12-13)

Paul had himself received the FORGIVENESS OF SINS, and he realized that he was to use this forgiveness by giving forgiveness to others, friend and enemy alike. One of the main tenets of Christianity is the fact that having been forgiven of all our sins by a just and righteous God, we are to forgive others in like manner. Paul wrote to the Churches that any person who preaches anything should practice what he preaches. (Rom 2:21-23) Do we preach forgiveness? Then we must give forgiveness to others.

The ability to forgive is possible to all who have received forgiveness from God. This is a great gift and it is to be shared. We see Paul practice this sermon in his dealings with his tormenters, his thorns in the flesh, the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. They were driven to distraction with their hatred of Paul; but Paul was driven by Love and by his faith in Jesus Christ and the work He had given him to do. Paul never put himself back under the power of Satan by walking in unforgiveness. Neither should we. Amen