If you were going to invent a religion, what would you include?
Probably you’d begin with devotion: we humans have a need to worship, pray, and maybe offer expressions of sacrifice to the deity.
Probably you would add some kind of divine revelation. A seer, sage, or prophet can speak on behalf of the deity, offering words of wisdom to address the human condition.
No doubt you would incorporate teachings about morals and ethics. Any decent religion requires its adherents to love one another, to promote justice for all, and to live their lives in the light of high standards embodied by the deity.
Would you also include the notion of the deity becoming human? Most religionists would think it outlandish to profane the life of the spirit like that.
Would you say that the divine-human was convicted of a crime–a capital crime–and sentenced to death? Would you allow that person to be executed? Would you envision such a one being buried in the ground, stone-cold dead?
Would you present such a drama, incorporating the divine-human person being raised from the dead, all for the purpose of bringing reconciliation between heaven and earth?
Throughout human history many earnest persons have imagined themselves into religious belief and devotion. Many have devoted themselves to such ideas and ideals. But one religious tradition has taken the story where virtually none of the others have gone: on a journey of reconciliation between heaven’s divinity and earth’s humanity, a journey led by a dying and resurrecting Savior.
When folks suggest to me, “All roads lead to heaven,” I can easily acknowledge the noble intentions and serious devotion of so many traveling those varying religious routes. But I also feel compelled to ask, “Who other than Jesus has built the forgiveness bridge from heaven to earth?”
Why do we confess sins and hear words of assurance in our worship services? Because on the one hand we are painfully honest with ourselves; we acknowledge our unworthiness to enter God’s presence. On the other hand we joyously proclaim the news that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2Cor. 5:19). That reconciliation entailed Jesus’ incarnation, his dying for our sins, and defeating both sin and death in his resurrection, and thereby extending forgiveness to us perpetrators.
The process of forgiveness is a complicated one, the crucifixion being exhibit one. While theories of the atonement abound, one thing is for sure: When Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing,” he was taking upon himself the suffering that his betrayers, deniers, and crucifiers were imposing by their evil actions. At minimum, forgiveness does that. It accepts the bad results that somebody else’s bad behavior has caused.
Having bestowed that saving forgiveness upon us, God continues to forgive others and invites us to participate with him as ambassadors of reconciliation, priests of pardon.
Every one needs to experience God’s forgiveness mission. Face it: we all hurt others, and others hurt us. How can we get past the hurt? God has given us the power to express an apology sincerely given. God has given us the power to declare the word of pardon.
Of course, the act of apologizing and forgiving can be done well or poorly. When a politician utters the words, “Mistakes were made,” or “I take full responsibility for the failure of my administration to …” we know we’ve heard a dodge around an apology. Our disappointment only increases.
Better to come clean: “I am sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me.” In many a wedding meditation, I have called those “the nine most important words in the English language” for the success of a marriage. They are the nine most important words for the success of all authentic relationships. I also add in those weddings that the six most beautiful words in a marriage are, “I forgive you” and “I love you.”
We too seldom use those nine most important words and six most beautiful words. When we do use these words, we are participating in God’s activity of forgiving us as well as others.
For the sake of the religion we didn’t create, for the sake of the God who in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, for the sake of practicing what we proclaim, and for the sake of the gospel of forgiveness, let’s practice using those nine words along with the other six. The true religion is all about forgiveness.
— JHH
