Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus
Greetings to all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the previous blog, Part 1, we learnt that the first of the seven cross sayings of our Lord presents an attitude of prayer. Prayer not for ourselves, but for His enemies and through this prayer He taught us not to regard any as beyond the reach of prayer. Now, lets come directly to our text:
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34
- We see fulfillment of the prophetic word
How much God had made known beforehand of what should transpire on that day of all days! What a complete picture did the Holy Spirit furnish of our Lord's passion with all the attendant circumstances! Among other things it had been foretold that the Saviour should make "intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12).
That Christ should make intercession for His enemies was one of the items of the wonderful prophecy found in Isaiah 53. This chapter tells us at least ten things about the humiliation and suffering of the Redeemer. It declared that He should be despised and rejected by men; that He should be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; that He should be wounded, bruised, and chastised; that he should be led, unresistingly, to slaughter; that He should be dumb before His shearers; that He should not only suffer at the hands of man but also be bruised by the Lord; that He should pour out His soul unto death; that He should be buried in a rich man's tomb; and then it was added, that He would be numbered with transgressors; and finally, that He should make intercession for the transgressors. Here then was the prophecy - "and make intercession for the transgressors"; there was the fulfillment of it - "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
He thought of His murderers; He pleaded for His crucifiers; He made intercession for their forgiveness.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34
- We see Christ identified with His people
"Father, forgive them." On no other occasion did Christ make such a request of the Father. Never before had He involved the Father's forgiveness of others. Till now, He forgave others Himself. To the man sick of paralysis, He had said, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee" (Matt. 9:2). To the woman who washed His feet with her tears in the house of Simon, He said, "Thy sins are forgiven" (Luke 7:48). Why, then, should He now ask the Father to forgive, instead of directly pronouncing the forgiveness Himself?
Forgiveness of sin is a Divine prerogative. The Jewish scribes were right when they reasoned "Who can forgive sins but God only?" (Mark 2:7). But we say, Christ was God, true, but he was man also - the God-man. He was the Son of God who had become the Son of Man with the express purpose of offering Himself as a Sacrifice for sin. And when the Lord Jesus cried, "Father, forgive them," He was on the Cross, and there He might not exercise His divine prerogatives. How accurate were His words when He had said, "The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6). But He was no longer on earth! He had been "lifted up from the earth" (John 12:32).
Moreover, on the Cross He was acting as our substitute: the just was about to die for the unjust. Hence it was that hanging there as our representative, He was no longer in the place of authority where He might exercise His own prerogatives, therefore He takes the position of a supplicant before the Father. Thus we say that when the blessed Lord Jesus cried, "Father, forgive them", we see Him absolutely identified with His people. No longer was He in the position "on earth" where He had the "power" to forgive sins; instead, He intercedes for sinners - as we must.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. - Luke 23:34
- We see divine estimate of sin and its consequent guilt
Under the Levitical economy, God required that atonement should be made for sins of ignorance. "If a soul commits a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a rm without blemish out of the flocks,...and he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him" (Lev. 5: 15-16). We can also see in Num. 15:22-25 that even a sin in ignorance is displeasing to God and the Lord requires a sacrifice for the sin in ignorance. It is in view of such Scriptures that we find David praying, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults" (Ps. 19:12).
Sin is always sin in the sight of God, whether we are conscious of it or not. Sins of ignorance need atonement just as truly as do conscious sins. God is Holy, and He will not lower His standard of righteousness to the level of our ignorance. Ignorance is not innocence. As a matter of fact, ignorance is more culpable now than in the days of Moses. We have no excuse for our ignorance. God has clearly and fully revealed to us His will through the Bible. We can never plead ignorance of its contents except to condemn our laziness.
And yet the fact remains that we are ignorant of many things, and the fault and blame are ours alone. And this does not minimize the enormity of our guilt. Sins of ignorance need the divine forgiveness as our Lord's prayer here plainly shows. Learn, then, how high is God's standard, how great is our need, and praise Him for an atonement of infinite sufficiency, which cleanses all sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, please do uphold me in your prayers so that I could share these thoughts with you on a regular basis.
Your brother in Christ Jesus.
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