Human Nature in Its Third Estate

Forgiveness

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Christian Reconstruction

Lesson: 18 - 20

Genre: Lecture

Track: 38

Dictation Name: RR131V39

Location/Venue: Parkview Baptist Church

Year: 1960’s - 1970’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Let us worship God. O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. That Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offerings, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.

Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly Father, who according to Thy Word hast summoned us to come unto Thee, and to make known unto Thee all the desires of our hearts, all our needs. We come into Thy presence acknowledging that indeed Thou art God, ever gracious, ever merciful unto Thy people. Bless us Lord, this day and always, by Thy Spirit and by Thy presence, Thy guiding, prospering and providing hand. We commit unto Thee all those who are in need, in distress, broken of heart, that in this blessed season the joy of Jesus Christ may fill their hearts. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our scripture is Colossians 2, verses 13 through 15, and our subject, forgiveness. Closely related to our subject of last week, which was confession. Forgiveness. Colossians 2:13-15.

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The word forgiveness has reference to a court of law. God’s court. It means, very briefly, that the charges are dropped, because satisfaction has been rendered.

It can, on occasion, mean, as in Luke 23:34, where our Lord said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, charges deferred for the time being. In any case, in the Bible the word forgiveness always has reference to a court of law. And charges dropped, because satisfaction, that is restitution, has been made.

In greater detail, forgiveness means, specifically in the Bible, the remission of sins, of punishment due to sins, and man’s deliverance from the penalty imposed by God in His justice. It always refers, whenever it speaks of it religious rather than in terms of civil restitution in forgiveness, that such remission rests on the vicarious atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Moreover, as Vine in his dictionary of New Testament words has pointed out, quote, “Human forgiveness is to be strictly analogous to divine forgiveness. Matthew 6:12, if certain conditions are fulfilled, there’s no limitation to Christ’s law of forgiveness. Matthew 18:21 and 22, the conditions of repentance and confession. Matthew 18:15-17 and Luke 17:3.” Unquote.

Restitution thus is a central and necessary aspect of restitution. But however necessary, we must remember that restitution is secondary to the atoning work of Christ. It is his restitution that is primary. Christ makes restitution to God the Father, so that our restitution is a consequence of grace, never a cause of it. Very often in Scripture the word pardoned is used instead of forgiveness. They are the same word. Forgiveness is a crying need of man, a necessity.

The humanist however, does not want to include God into the fact of forgiveness and his need for forgiveness. Just as he wants to limit confession to a purely humanistic exchange, so to the sinner demands that other people play god at times, even as he in his sins, plays god, and so he wants to limit his confession to men, and he wants the forgiveness to be from man and purely verbal. Nothing of restitution to be included. This type of humanistic demand for forgiveness is very common in human relations. It’s very common, for example, in marriage very often there will be an endless nagging by one or another, for forgiveness, in a purely verbal fashion.

Sinners want to reduce their problem to a human level, that only man forgives, not God. And as a result, since they want forgiveness to be erased, or sin to be erased by a verbal forgiveness, they are resentful if anyone demands more than pure words in the way of confession and repentance.

I recall some years ago a man justifying his further act of adultery by saying it was his wife’s fault. He said, served her right. She was so stinky about forgiving me when I confessed to her. Now this is humanistic forgiveness. An exchange of words. Make me feel clean by telling me my sin does not mean anything. Absolution from sin thus, by the humanist, is reduced to a humanistic confession and forgiveness which is entirely of man and merely an exchange of words.

But it is more than a change of heart and restitution that are left out by humanists. God is entirely left out. The demand is for cleansing on man’s terms. But man still remains guilty when he indulges in this humanistic play of forgiveness. The effect of man’s heart is drastic. According to Scripture man was created good. It is basic to man’s nature to rest only in communion with God. In St. Augustine’s memorable words, “Our hearts are restless ‘til they rest in Thee.” And our hearts can only rest in God when we have forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

In sin man is at war with God. He is in flight from Him. He covers himself to hide from God. He claims to be righteous or makes his sin a pretended virtue. He can find no true forgiveness. No absolution, except in the atoning work of Christ.

This is what our text tells us. It says that men are dead in sins and trespasses, in the uncircumcision of their hearts. And this deadness saturates, permeates, vitiates their entire life. So that whatever they do, this deadness of guilt and of sin overwhelms them.

But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And God has quickened us together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Here is something very radical that is described. Not only are we forgiven, but we are resurrected, made alive in Christ, and the old indictment, the death penalty, the charge citing our sins and our guilt, is blotted out. It has been nailed to the cross, crucified. Destroyed. So that we are now reconciled to God, as St. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 5:19, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Communion is thus restored. Our sins are forgiven, the charge against us blotted out, we are regenerated, and we are reconciled to God, to the Father.

God declares through Isaiah’s mouth, in Isaiah 43:25, I, even I, am he that blotteth out Thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

This fact, again, is a very moving and a profound one. The memory of sin is painful, it is like a hidden cancer. And the release from this memory and from sin is a new life, it is a healing of our life. The memory, the mind, the heart of man, are purged, not only of sin, but of that tortured memory of sin. And we are made alive in Christ, and the tyranny of guilt is removed from us. This is the revitalization of man, the forgiveness of sin. This is an important fact, socially. This is why St. Paul over and over again in his epistles seeks out the forgiveness of sins and then the quickening, the making alive. Bringing those two facts together, because there is nothing new in history without the forgiveness of sins. This is a very important fact. And this is why whatever politicians may try to do in the way of saying they’re going to have a new deal, or like Wang Man a couple of thousand years ago in China, a new dynasty, a new order, there is nothing new in history without the forgiveness of sin. This is the fact that the Orient saw long ago.

Asia, in the years before Christ was far, far ahead of the West. It was the center of civilization. But it came to a halt because it pushed religion to the nth degree, it explored every possibility. And it came up finally with the disillusionment, as it faced the fact of cause and effect. The doctrine of karma was the result. Karma means the burden of sin and guilt working itself out, causes creating like effects. And we have to give credit to the Oriental religion that they did see the problem. They did see the fact that an olive tree will produce olives. Thistles will produce thistles. Figs, figs.

And man being a sinner, the doctrine of karma simply says that blight will produce blight, and therefore, they said, man is doomed by the endless cycle of karma, and all he can hope for, however often he is reincarnated, is ultimately to escape from karma into nirvana, oblivion, eternal death. And so for them history was the endless cycle of meaningless repetition, the repetition of sin, with the only hope of escape being death. They saw the problem, they had no answer to it, and the result was the stagnation of the Orient.

The last two weeks we saw the answer that Islam gave to the same problem. Mohammad said it’s impossible for man to be good, Christianity asks too much of him, therefore, as against St. Paul who says he is a Christian, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, Mohammad says he is a Moslem who is one outwardly. We will simply bypass this whole problem of cause and effect, of life creating life. And so he gave men a religion of externalism. And the result of this religion of externalism was again stagnation. The world of the Orient and the world of Islam became stagnant. No progress possible. Because there can be nothing new in history without the forgiveness of sin. This is why only where the Word of God has been, in ancient Israel and among the people of Christ in the Christian era, has progress been possible.

No progress possible apart from forgiveness of sins. Because only then is there escape from guilt. The energy of the West is not racial. This is where so many conservatives are altogether wrong, wickedly wrong, when they feel that western European man who is the reason for progress. The western European’s, before Christ’s word was proclaimed to them, were running around in England painted blue, naked, like savages, and in northern Europe and the Germanic countries, were eating each other. It’s a myth that they were an advanced people. They became the greatest peoples of history when the Word of God changed them. And they were able to produce cultures and civilizations and progress without any equal or rival in all the history of man. There was something new introduced, the forgiveness of sins. Man when he has forgiveness is able then, having been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, having been resurrected from the death of sin and the uncircumcision of the flesh, and being quickened, made alive in Jesus Christ, can then, through the Law Word of God, move forward in sanctification to introduce the new in history.

The word new is unique in religion, in the Bible. Other religions don’t talk about the new. Other cultures go for novelties, but not the new, the renewed, the changed. But look at a concordance and see how often the word new is in the Bible. Isaiah 62:2, thou shalt be called by a new name. Isaiah 65:17, for behold I a create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Galatians 6:15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation, or a new creature. Hebrew 10:20 tells us that Christ introduced a new and living way, and our Lord himself in Revelation 21:5 declares, behold I make all things new.

This is the difference, among other things, from all other religions. Not novelties, not change, not endless karma, not externalism, but fresh life, power, social energy, force, because of the forgiveness of sin. There is nothing new in history without forgiveness. And no politician can supply what God through Jesus Christ and his atoning blood has supplied. Newness in history. Forgiveness is the power of God unto salvation, working through the heart of man to transform all things. Behold, I make all things new.

Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that in Jesus Christ Thou art making all things new. We thank Thee that Thou hast come into our hearts to make us new, to cleanse us from the death of sin and to make us alive in Jesus Christ. And to give us the certainty that we move from glory to glory in him who shall create new heavens and a new earth. And who has given us the new name and a new life by his grace. Oh Lord our God how great and wonderful Thou art. And we praise Thee. In Jesus name, Amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all on our lesson. Yes.

[Audience]….{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes. Forgiveth our debts as we forgive our debtors. It can also be translated as forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Both are good translations. In fact, we need both of them to get at the fullness of the meaning.

First of all, we are the forgiven people of God. This is our status before God. Not our righteousness, but the righteousness of God in Christ. Forgiveness. And we have been forgiven because restitution has been made by God in Christ. This is the basis in terms of which we stand before God. Now, we are to come before God in terms of that same framework. Now it doesn’t mean we just forgive because we’re swapping forgiveness. That’s not it. Because then we tell the murderer, and we tell the adulterer, we tell the thief, we forgive you, God has forgiven us, we’re going to forgive because, everybody forgive everybody. This turns it into a mockery. We are to apply God’s Word concerning forgiveness, its meaning, to others. And to establish the godly basis of forgiveness in society. And as we apply God’s Word, He forgives us.

Now remember last week what confession was. Confession is always, not merely something between men and men, it’s between men and men and God. As we confess Christ before men, Christ is at the same time, to the extent that we are a confessing people, is a confessing Christ before God concerning us. So he pleads our case before God concerning our sins, and our needs, as we present Christ before men, in word, thought, and deed. Now forgiveness is to be the same thing, it’s never just man to man, it’s again the same thing. As we apply the Word of God concerning forgiveness among men, so we find continual cleansing, refreshing, renewing, before God.

Does that help explain it?

Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes. Confession is essentially between man and God, unless an individual is involved. And only then when there is an open offense, and some restitution must be made.

Now the question perhaps, if I understand it properly, means how do we confess to God? How specific are we? We have to avoid the extremes of being purely general. I mentioned last week I believe, that a priest had once said nobody had ever confessed to him that he’d been stingy, you see.

Now, it’s one thing to confess continually generally: ‘Lord be merciful unto me a sinner, I confess that I am a sinner and ever in need of Thy grace,’ or something like that, just keep it kind of a light touch, and you pass over some very real sin that you’ve had during the day, that maybe you’ve been cantankerous or stinky, a lot of very specific things. You see. It’s very easy to kind of gloss over your sins, but you’ve got to ask God’s forgiveness very specifically as you look over the day.

But on the other hand, you can’t go the extreme of sitting down and trying to scratch up every last thing, you see. So you have to face up to the fact of your sin specifically before God, but not dwell endless on them by trying to recall every possible word or thing or thought that may have been sinful. Does that help answer your question?

Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes. Christ is our only mediator. So that when we pray we pray, in Jesus name. Now there can be mediators between man and man, but not between man and God. Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] We con….

[Audience] {?}

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes. We confess to God in Jesus name. Since the forgiveness is through the work of Christ, and Christ is our mediator, we approach God the Father in Jesus name. We conclude our prayer in Jesus name, because he is the ground of our approach. And he prays in us, with us, for us.

Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] True. We cannot, with our minds, comprehend the Trinity, we can understand, to a degree, but no more than that. We by faith accept the fact that God is triune. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Any other questions? Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Psalm 19. Verse 13. Is that the one? Or, 12. Yes. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

Now, what David is saying is simply this. He’s dividing the sins into two categories here. Really from one perspective you could say three. The presumptuous sins of those where deliberately, highhandedly, we bend or set aside God’s law. So he says keep me back from these. It’s easy at times to feel, oh well, I’ve gone through so much I can afford to bend God’s law a little here, you see. That’s presumption. Then, he says, who can understand his errors? Since we are not sinless, we are blinded sometimes even to our sins.

So, he says, who can understand, fully, his heart? So, Lord you who understand me fully, preserve me. Cleanse thou me from secret faults, which can refer both to those that are a secret to him, and which he is keeping secret, or you can say it refers to both.

Does that help explain that? Yes.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] Yes but remember, he spent a good many years hunted like an animal in the wilderness before he was blessed, so some of these psalms reflect some of the very, very painful experiences of David when he was nothing but a fugitive.

[Audience]…{?}…

[Dr. Rushdoony] No, he was speaking of the rich who are wicked, who have prospered in their wickedness. And then said, when I consider their latter end, and I know that your judgment is sure, then I repent of my impatience, you see. Now David, like a lot of us, found it was hard sometimes to wait for heaven and the last judgment, he wanted everything settled now. Which is a great temptation.

If there are no further questions, I’d like to share something in a very vein with you.

I read this week a very hilarious book, in some respects very serious in its subject but amusing. It’s Irene Kampen’s book, Due to Lack of Interest, Tomorrow Has Been Cancelled. Now Irene Kampen was a woman of forty-five who returned to the university of Wisconsin where she had six units left to get her degree. And she had a problem because all the students looked at her, what are you doing here grandma? And she found she was asked questions that irritated her to no end, as though she knew all about William Jennings Bryans campaign, you know. And she’d keep repeating to them: “Look, I was a member of the class of ‘43, not ‘03.” And she found facilities in an apartment with another girl, young girl, but then she found she was in trouble with the administration, because she didn’t have permission from her mother to live off campus.

So she had to call up her elderly mother and ask her to send her a letter, air-mail, giving her permission to live off campus. And of course the campus was a shock to her, with all the hippy students and the flagrant immorality. So, until the mother’s permission came back, she had to move to a campus dormitory, into a room that was being vacated by a girl who was going home because she was pregnant. She found out that it was a co-educational dormitory. So that was where she was supposed to be under the supervision of the administration. Hardly as pleasant a place as where she had been. Then, after she gets settled, she decides to go to church. She was an Episcopalian and she decided to go back to the beautiful little chapel where she had worshiped back in her earlier student days. So this is her account of it.

“Where are you going, Mrs. Kampen? Frannie asked me, trailing into the (that’s her roommate) living room in her nice gown and wrapper just as I was sneaking out the front door. She yawned, “It’s only nine o’clock in the morning”, she said, “and it’s Sunday. Where on earth are you going?” “Well,” I said guiltily, “I thought maybe I would just sort of take a walk and look around and maybe drop into church.” “Which church?” Frannie asked, “Episcopal.” I said, and scuttled out the door and down the hall like a thief. The reason for all this furtiveness was because everybody had gotten into a big shouting discussion, a group of the hippy students congregating in the apartment, about organized religion and how terrible it is, and how the Church is perpetuating the establishment. And if Jesus came back to earth today he would be tossed immediately into jail. And Mexico is the most advanced country in the world because marijuana is legal there. And how the minister of a certain church in Baraboo had this affair with a married choir singer, which just goes to show, and so on, and on. After that, Morris got started on Buddhism, and metta and {Boxy?} and his own karma, which was in pretty bad shape according Morris’s description of it. On all there had been little if no opportunity for me to get in a good word for the High Meadow Connecticut Episcopal Church, Rector C. Lester Mitchell. The heavy blanket of guilt under which I slumbered restlessly the rest of the night had driven me out into the cold on Sunday morning to seek forgiveness and solace at the Episcopal church here on campus.

Alas, like everything else in the past quarter century, St. Joseph’s had moved itself from where it belonged, which was at the foot of {Bascon?} Hill, to the other end of University Avenue. It had also torn itself down and rebuilt itself into the shape of a fish. I finally located it and, half-frozen, stepped inside. A bulletin board in the vestry bore the information that the reverend Vernon {Troth?} Vanderbee would preach that day, and the sermon topic: was Jesus a dropout? Before I could retreat in the face of this alarming news and seek out some other house of worship, I was pounced upon by an usher who propelled me down the aisle to a pew directly in front of the altar, which was composed of two slabs of black marble and suitable in size for the sacrifice of an ox.

“Sister Kampen,” Dr. {?}, (a faculty member whom she met who had been a fraternity sister) said. And moved over to make room for me next to her in the pew. I sat down with some trepidation. On my way down the aisle I had caught a whiff of incense and heard the faint tinkle of a bell. Two signs that St. Joseph’s was now very high church. Very, very high, I feared, if that light burning over the altar meant what I thought it meant. “We are to have a great treat today, I understand,” Dr. {Holshatwatha?} told me, “Father Vanderbee is going to conduct the communion service with the accompaniment of a Folk Rock mass. The music will be supplied by our own beloved campus Folk Rock group, the Risen Dead.”

Before I could ask her what a Folk Rock mass was, a lot of bells began to tinkle and whoever was laying on the incense really came on strong. And then a whole bunch of acolytes in scarlet robes came swarming out of the wings and lit a whole bunch of candles. Everybody stood up. “I always enjoy this moment so much,” said Dr. {Holshatwatha?}, turning and gazing towards the back of the church. I peered in the same direction and saw through a cloud of incense, advancing down upon us such a procession of {curats?}, crucifers, tapers, choirboys, {?}, {?}, and acolytes, that I could only stare goggle-eyed.

“Doesn’t dear Father Vanderbee look impressive today?” Dr. {Holshatwatha?} whispered. Father Vanderbee himself was bringing up the rear in a white taffeta ensemble complete with hood, {?}, {?}, lace, {?} blond and velvet tippet. He rustled when he walked. As he passed me, I noticed that he was also wearing Hushpuppies, and had a peacenik button pinned to his cassock. “An announcement,” Father Vanderbee said. Everybody sat down. “Immediately following the service we will have our usual coffee hour in the lounge, where you are all invited to come back and talk to us about Jesus. This will be followed by what promises to be a most stimulating basket weaving workshop, conducted by Dr. {Ariad Nehoshtawatha?}.”

Dr. {Holshatwatha?} bestowed a royal smile on the congregation. I made a mental note to avoid at all costs the coffee hour and the basket weaving workshop.” (she didn’t get out of it) “Let us now stand and exchange the peace with one another,” said Father Vanderbee. Everybody stood up and turned to the person next to him and clasped his hand and said, “May the peace of the Lord be always with you,” and the other person answered, “And with thy spirit,” like at a {koanas?} meeting. It was terribly embarrassing, especially the way Dr. {Holshatwatha?} eyes bored into mine.

“Let us now sit down,” Father Vanderbee said. Everybody sat down. “Was Jesus a dropout?” Father Vanderbee demanded, plunging headlong into the sermon. “Did he blow his cool when the going got tough? Did he bag Z’s when the big shots closed in on his circuit? Was he a cop out?” Then he went on and on and on about Jesus, using so much slang that I was totally unable to follow him, even with the help of the dictionary in my purse.

“But our Lord came through,” Father Vanderbee cried, finishing at last about how Jesus was not a dork, and Jesus was not a nerd, “he cooled it brethren, he came through like a bird, may we do the same. Let us pray.” Everybody knelt down and prayed for awhile and then everybody got up again and watched like at a matinee in the Radio City Music Hall, while Father Vanderbee and his band of merry men got ready for the communion. This involved so much padding around and commotion of the water and the wine and the wafers and ewers and basins that I was convinced that Reverend Mitchell, had he been there to witness the goings on, would have instantly turned into a pillar of salt.” (That’s her pastor) “Let us pray,” Father Vanderbee said again, and so everybody had to get down on his knees once more and pray awhile. There was a piercing electronic shriek from the direction of the choir loft, and I looked up from my folded hands to see, arrayed in shocking pink cassocks, the same combo that had provided the music at the ill-fated Alpha Delta party.” (This had been raided)

“The Risen Dead,” Dr. {Holshatwatha?} informed me in a whisper, pointing at the loft. The shriek had been caused by the guitarist plugging himself into an electric socket. The drummer was idly combing his shoulder length locks, and the bass fiddler was absent mindedly picking his nose. “I believe,” Father Vanderbee shouted suddenly, clapping his hands like Al Jolson crying ‘Mammy,’ and at this signal the Risen Dead drummer gave a flourish on his drums and the trio crashed into the folk-rock mass. For those who have never heard the hallucinogenic spiritual experience of hearing a folk-rock mass, it goes approximately as follows. And I believe, *thump, thump* in one God *thump thump*, the Father Almighty *thump thumpity thump thump*. It goes on thumping all through the communion service, particularly the parts where prayers were asked for bishops and other ministers, especially the bishop of Milwaukee. Then the loud thumper, thumper thump fetches up with a last thunderous thump at the amen. After the final amen, everybody stood up and began moving toward the aisle. “I trust you are remaining for my basket weaving demonstration and workshop, Sister Kampen,” Dr. {Holshatwatha?} said, fixing me with the old burning cold gaze. I longed to say: “No I am not remaining for your basket weaving demonstration and workshop, do I look insane?” But the combination of the gaze and the sudden recollection that mid semester’s exams loomed on the horizon was too overpowering. “Why of course I am remaining, {Ariadnee?}, I said.”

Well, the picture she portrays of the school as a whole makes this look very calm and collected. Then, she tops it off, with an account of her class reunion. The class of ‘43. Their 25th anniversary reunion. And her account of the people who come, the parents of students, doesn’t make them look any the better, as far as any real substance and character is concerned. So, her title, taken from a billboard on campus, ‘Due to Lack of Interest, Tomorrow Has Been Canceled’, is a very fitting one.

And that’s the point of the book. What future is there, when people and priests, parents and children, are on that light weight level? It’s a very funny book; but with her humor, which is rich, she has given us a very grim picture. And it’s well worth reading.

We have a couple of announcements. Those of you who have tapes coming of the Senholdt Seminar, the tapes are here. Please see Mrs. Thurston after the service. And then we will conclude the Messiah, next Sunday morning at 9:30. Those of you who were here for the first half this morning know what a tremendous, unequalled rendition of it this is.

Let us bow our heads now for the benediction. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always. Amen.