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The Amish Voice 14
weren’t sitting together somewhere, for
Paul was lying on the ground and Jesus
was in heaven. Years later, Paul told the
story of this conversation to a king
named Agrippa. He told the king that he
used to persecute Christians, but that
something had happened to him one day
on his way to another city to hunt down
more followers of Jesus. We’ll let Paul
take up the story from here.
And I punished them oft in every
synagogue, and compelled them to
blaspheme; and being exceedingly
mad against them, I persecuted them
even unto strange cities. Whereupon
as I went to Damascus with authority
and commission from the chief
priests, at midday, O king, I saw in
the way a light from heaven, above
the brightness of the sun, shining
round about me and them which
journeyed with me.
And when we were all fallen to the
earth, I heard a voice speaking unto
me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
it is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks. And I said, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest.
But rise, and stand
upon thy feet: for I
have appeared unto
thee
for
this
purpose, to make
thee a minister and
a witness both of
these things which
thou hast seen, and
of those things in
the which I will
appear unto thee;
delivering thee from
the people, and
from the Gentiles,
unto whom now I
send thee, 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
(Acts 26:11-18).
Here was Paul in an all-out war against
the Christians. Jesus took that personally,
yet He stopped Paul and talked to him
about turning people to God. Paul didn’t
have much to say in the conversation. He
said only four words! What is of interest
to us is what Jesus said about forgiveness
of sins. First, notice that nobody was
asking Jesus to forgive anybody. Paul
wasn’t begging and praying, “Oh God,
have mercy on us poor sinners!” Jesus
needed no persuasion to talk about the
subject. The second thing I want to point
out is that Jesus said nothing about giving
them forgiveness of sins. That’s right. He
did not say, “I will forgive them, if.…”
He said, “That they may receive
forgiveness of sins.”
Since He said nothing about giving
forgiveness, but only that they receive
forgiveness, we can see that the giving
part was already a done deal for Jesus.
The only thing required yet was getting
people to receive it.
Now back to my personal story. During
all the time I was asking and begging and
confessing to try to get God to forgive
me,
Jesus
had
already
provided
forgiveness for me.
When Jesus said,
“It
is finished”
(John
19:30), He meant it.
The
work
of
salvation was done.
There is nothing
more we can do or
add to it. It is
finished.
While people have
been
trying
to
persuade Jesus to
give
them
forgiveness of sins,
He has been trying to persuade them to
receive forgiveness of sins—to simply
trust in Him and in what He has done! As
you read this, know that God has already
loved you and put all your sins on His
innocent Son, the Lord Jesus (Isaiah
53:6). Since He has already done it, it
doesn’t take your faith to make Him do
it! He’s just been waiting on you to find
out what He did and to believe it.
I will give a true-life illustration that
might help to explain this. One day I
went to a restaurant and ordered a meal.
In doing so, I had a bill to pay. That bill
had to get paid or I would have owed a
debt to the restaurant; but before I was
done eating, the waitress came and
announced to me that someone else had
paid my bill for me! Another man’s
money made me right with the restaurant
before I was even aware of it. My faith
didn’t move him to pay. The
announcement of his payment moved me
to believe. This illustrates the gospel
quite accurately. While we were facing
death for our sins, God, out of His great
love for us, gave His Son to die in our
place. The Holy Spirit then comes and
announces to us through the gospel that
our sins have been paid for. We believe
in response to what has already been
done.
And, having made peace through the
blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by
him, I say, whether they be things in
earth, or things in heaven. And you,
that were sometime alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death,
to present you holy and unblameable
and unreproveable in his sight: if ye
continue in the faith grounded and
settled, and be not moved away from
the hope of the gospel, which ye have
heard, and which was preached to
every creature which is under
heaven; whereof I Paul
am made a minister
(Colossians 1:20-23).
Forgiveness,
cont. from back cover
Continued
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