Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Let’s talk for a bit about Who Jesus is.
He is the Son of God—fully GOD. But He is also a direct descendant of King David and 100% man. When He was born of Mary, God became something He had never been before: Fully Human. He was now 100% God: 100% Man: the Perfect Man! And through both Mary and Joseph He has a double claim to David's throne. Through Solomon came Joseph and Nathan, another of David's sons, came Mary.
Jesus went about preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, as you read in part 6. What He meant was, "It's here now! It's coming now!" ...the VISIBLE Kingdom where He would sit on the throne of His father, David.
But wait a minute; isn't He already sitting on "THE" throne? Well, He is sitting on “A” throne; but if you read carefully, you'll see He is sitting on HIS FATHER'S THRONE. Nowhere does the scripture say that He is sitting on David's throne; not yet anyway. That will happen in the future. It could have happened back then when He first came if they had accepted Him.
How incredible would that have been?! That's why He preached that the "kingdom of heaven is at hand" because it was: the VISIBLE KINGDOM of David, His father. But sadly, that kingdom is now held in suspension, temporarily postponed.
Why is all this important? Because people are reading the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, but also John, and applying things to themselves and to the Church which were meant for Jewish people to prepare them for the setting up of that VISIBLE KINGDOM.
Why is all this important? Because people are reading the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, but also John, and applying things to themselves and to the Church which were meant for Jewish people to prepare them for the setting up of that VISIBLE KINGDOM.
Remember the synoptic gospels were written from a Jewish perspective? THAT was their perspective: THAT GOD WOULD RESTORE THE VISIBLE, EARTHLY KINGDOM TO THEM.
Let's look at the facts. Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, "Unless you forgive others their trespasses, God will not forgive you." Remember that? Yes, He did say that; but is it applicable to the Church? No. Most preachers today, however, will tell you that it is and go on and cite this scripture from the Sermon on the Mount.
According to the Apostle Paul, However, because ALL our sins of our entire life are cleansed from the moment of our new birth, we now forgive others AS WE HAVE BEEN (past tense) FORGIVEN. He talks about this very subject in both Ephesians and Colossians, "Forgive, because God HAS FORGIVEN YOU!"
So here we have Jesus Himself saying, "Forgive in order to be forgiven," but under grace Paul says, "Forgive, BECAUSE God HAS FORGIVEN You!" Past tense! Are they contradicting each other? No. What Jesus said was not the law of Moses nor was it the gospel which Paul preached. It was the Gospel of The Kingdom. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.
You see, when Jesus made that statement, He had not yet died. It was the best deal He could offer at the time. He was addressing His earthly family, the JEWISH PEOPLE, who were still under law. He was outlining the principles of the kingdom He had been sent to establish. It was the laws of THAT kingdom of which He spoke. It is not the Law of Moses nor is it the New Covenant but somewhere in between the two.
The visible Kingdom of David will only be in full demonstration during Jesus' millenial reign. But now, because He has already shed His blood, things will be a bit different than He described in the sermon on the mount.
Please don't get the wrong idea. I am not saying that the Sermon on the Mount, which also contains the Lord's Prayer, is not for the believer. There are principles in there that we can and, in fact, do both use and apply in our Christian walk such as "bless those who curse you; overcome evil with good; pray for those who despitefully use you.” All these are teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.
There are some things, however, that no one can do until He comes again like "give to anyone who asks you." Well what if they asked for a thousand dollars? I don't think you'd be either inclined or able, in many cases, to open up your wallet and hand it over. This is still a very dark and selfish world that is becoming darker by the minute. Right now is not the season for it...yet! Too many people would try to take advantage of you.
Only when THE KING is here, ruling the world with justice, righteousness, and equity, every wrong set right where no one would even think of taking advantage of another person, can many of those principles be implemented.
What about the Lord's Prayer. Is that for the believer?
As you now know, this is part of the Sermon on the Mount. It is not Old Covenant and it not a New Covenant prayer but a prayer of The Kingdom. You'll notice Jesus doesn't say anywhere in it, "Ask anything in My Name I will give it to you," did He? No. It also does not end "in Jesus' Name." It says, "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. THY KINGDOM COME...." It was a prayer that The VISIBLE Kingdom come where Jesus is here, ruling the whole world from Jerusalem.
Once again, the Jews would have seen that kingdom come if they had received Him back then. But they didn't.
Here's the big picture: In Matthew 5, 6&7 in the Sermon on the Mount He was outlining the principals of the VISIBLE kingdom. You might call it His "manufesto." Immediately afterward He turned away from the crowd, healed a leper and went about going good, healing ALL: not "some:" ALL who were oppressed of the devil. He did this to demonstrate what life would be like with Him in charge, ruling the world.
Then in Matthew 12, He revealed Himself to the Jewish leaders His 3-fold glory as the greatest prophet, priest and King of all. As you learned earlier, after that rejection, He began teaching in parables.
"If they had accepted Him then, how would He die for our sins?" you ask. Good question! But since they did not and Jesus died on the cross, I guess we'll never know.
So, instead of the visible Kingdom, Jesus went on to found the most successful organization the world has ever known: His Church, the kingdom INVISIBLE. We are not THE VISIBLE KINGDOM, but we are a big part of it.
Isn't it great? Today we don't have forgive in order to be forgiven! We HAVE BEEN forgiven, THEREFORE we forgive. That's our motivation.
Join me now for Part 9 of Rightly Dividing the Word of God. We’ll be discussing what happened after Jesus arose, the book of Acts and the beginning of the Church age, how it began "all Jewish" but ended up primarily Gentile.
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