The Word of Forgiveness - Seven sayings of the Saviour - 1

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus

Greetings to all faithful in the name of Lord the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This blog is in continuation of the blog that was posted on May 2014, with regards to the Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. You may refer to the previous blog by clicking on the link - Intro II. From this blog onward I will be focusing on the sayings of the Saviour. Praying that you all will be touched by the depth of the meaning of all the words said by Jesus even on the cross, on the verge of death.

We will now go to the site of the crucifixion of a person who was sinless and wrongly blamed. A death was given to a person who had done no wrong. Man had done his worst. The One by whom the world was made had come into it, but the world knew Him not. The God of Glory had resided among men, but He was not wanted. The eyes that sin had blinded saw in Him no beauty that He should be desired. At His birth there was no room in the inn, which foreshadowed the treatment He was to receive at the hands of men. Shortly after His birth, Herod sought to slay Him, and this intimated the hostility His person evoked and forecast the Cross as the climax of man's enmity. Again and again His enemies sought His destruction and now their vile desires were granted to them. The Son of God had yielded Himself up into their hands. A mock trial had been gone through, and through His judges found no fault in Him, nevertheless, they had yielded to the insistent clamoring of those who hated Him as they cried again and again, "Crucify him."

The worst deed had been done. No ordinary death would suffice His implacable foes. A death of intense suffering and shame was decided upon. A cross had been secured; the Saviour had been nailed to it. And there He hangs - silent. There we neither see any form of curse coming from the mouth of the Creator upon His creation. At the start of the suffering, we neither see any cries coming from His heart, asking Father God in heaven why He has left Him. But what are His lips saying while on the cross? He is praying, praying for His enemies... Praying for you and for me, for we continually crucify Him on that cross daily by rejecting Him and the eternal life He is offering - Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34.

The first of the seven cross sayings of our Lord presents Him in the attitude of prayer. How significant! How instructive! His public ministry had opened with prayer (Luke 3:21), and here we see it closing in prayer. Such a wonderful He has left for us to emulate! No longer might those hands minister to the sick, for they are nailed to the Cross; no longer may those feet carry Him on errands of mercy, for they are fastened to the cruel Tree; no longer may He engage in instructing the apostles, for they have forsaken Him and fled - how then does He occupy Himself? In the Ministry of Prayer! What a lesson for us.

Perhaps there may be among my readers who due to their age and sickness are no longer able to work actively in the Lord's vineyard. Probably, in the days gone by, you were a teacher, a Sunday school teacher, a preacher, or a person working in ministry; but now you are bedridden. Yet, you are still here on earth! I have seen people who are advanced in their age complain about how they are being treated, or their illness, but never consider why God has allowed them to live so long. Who knows but what is God is leaving you here a few more days? Why don't we try to emulate our Saviour in the Ministry of Prayer - and perhaps accomplish more by this than by all your past active service. If you are tempted to disparage such a ministry, remember your Saviour. He prayed, prayed for others, prayed for sinners, even in His last hours.

In praying for His enemies, not only did Christ set before us a perfect example of how we should treat those who wrong and hate us, but He also taught us never to regard any as beyond the reach of prayer. If Jesus prayed for His murderers, then surely we have been encouraged to pray now for the very chief of sinners! Dear brother and sister, never lose hope.

Another thing that we should remember about this prayer, is the efficiency of prayer. This cross intercession of Christ for His enemies met with a marked marked and definite answer. The answer is seen in the conversion of the three thousand souls on the Day of Pentecost. We can base this conclusion on Acts 3:17 where the Apostle Peter uses the word "ignorance" - our ignorance in putting Jesus to death, which corresponds with our Lord's "they know not what they do." Here, then, is the explanation of the three thousand being converted under a single sermon. It was not Peter's eloquence that was the cause, but the Saviour's prayer. And, dear reader, the same is true of us. Christ prayed for you and for me long before we believed in Him. Turn to John 17:20 for proof, "Neither pray I for these (the apostles) alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." Once more let us profit from the perfect Exemplar. Let us too make intercession for the enemies of God, and if we pray in faith, we also shall pray effectively unto the salvation of lost sinners.

From the next blog, in the series, I will be concentrating more directly on our text: Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Hope you all had a wonderful time reading. Please provide me your inputs as comments and please do keep me in your prayers.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin George

Do We All Worship The Same GOD??

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus

I know it has been a long time since I took up my laptop to write something. I was under some trials and was not in a right set of mind to write anything. But I would like to thank you all for all the prayers which has kept me going and to stand firm in the faith. I know I have left one series incomplete, I will take that up as early as possible.

Today, the question that I will be asking you all is a question which would term me do we as a radical for my thoughts. Many people, which includes Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and all the other religions say that everyone points to the same Heavenly Father. To increase the interactions between inter-Christian and inter-denominational factions, we say the we all are brothers and sisters. So the question is do we really believe in the same Heavenly Father? And are we all brothers and sisters?

In a country like India, where there are different religions and we have many non-Christian friends, including myself, it is difficult to be staunch in one's own faith and proclaim the faith to others. Proclaiming the stand, even in a loving manner, sets one apart from others. Even so, I do not want to hide the truth of the faith and the exclusivity of my faith from my Christian brothers and sisters and more so from my non-Christian friends, encouraging them to investigate the matter and come back with satisfactory answers.

Although the statements 'we all believe in the same God' and 'we are all His children' appear to be self-proclaimed truths, for us Orthodox Christians, they are full of error, outrageous and totally unacceptable.

Why do we say that our God is the only God and above all Gods? Because the Bible tells us so through the blessed Prophet Isaiah, "Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no Savior” (Is. 43:10b-11). What does it mean to us when we recite these words from the Holy Bible? Also in our divine liturgy, we pray along with the celebrant “You are our God, beside You we know of no other[God]” and in the final benediction, “May Christ our true God… save us…”?

Is it just a matter of name that we give to our God? Is it okay to call our God with any other name? Is it okay to associate our God with names of other gods as Allah, Supreme Being, Buddha, the Power and so on? NO! Our God is Christ and outside Christ all other gods are idols. "This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:20-21).

Why do we say that Christ is the only God? Because Christ claimed absolute exclusivity. Jesus said, "I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through ME." (John 14:6). No other teachings has proclaimed such. Christianity is also unique in other ways. The views of gods of other religions are very different to Christianity. The philosophical Hindu is either a monist (believing that ultimate reality is a oneness beyond differentiation) or a pantheist (believing that everything is God). The popular sects of Hinduism are polytheistic (worshipers of many gods).

Buddhist sects may hold a variety of views on God, including polytheism, pantheism, or usually, atheism. Classical Islam endorses the killing of infidels, but Christianity teaches to love your enemies. Islam also teaches that there is one unpardonable sin—to accept that God has a Son. Christianity teaches that one must accept Jesus as the Son of God to get to heaven.

As far as all of humanity being called the children of God... We are all His creation, His most loved creation at that. But God has only one Son and that is Jesus Christ. However, we have the potentiality to become His children - by adoption: "To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). Therefore, unless we belong to Christ’s family (cf. Heb. 3:6), the Church, we are not His children.

In the early Church the Lord’s Prayer was not revealed to the Catechumens until immediately before their baptism, because no one that was not baptized could presume to say, “our Father who art in heaven,” not having yet received the gift of adoption. The Lord’s Prayer is introduced in the Divine Liturgy with the words, “and make us worthy, Master, with boldness and without fear of condemnation, to dare call You, the heavenly God, Father, and to say, ‘Our Father…’” Only those who have been united with Christ, God’s only Son, can call God “Father.”

I am deeply sorry to have hurt anyone by my words, but yes this is what being a follower of Christ means. One is to be enemies with the ways of the world and be friends with Jesus Christ. With an earnest prayer to our Father in Heaven that He help us realize that He is jealous God and that He has sent His Son to this world to reach out to us and save us and help us to love Him more and more and there be a revival of the true Christian spirit across the world, I end my words.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin George

Source: http://www.orthodoxwitness.org/over-the-rooftops/do-all-religions-have-the-same-heavenly-father/

http://www.faithfacts.org/search-for-truth/questions-of-christians/arent-all-religions-the-same