Forgiveness, Session 3: The Politics of Salvation

 

Forgiveness, Session 3: The Politics of Salvation

Luke 19:1-10

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1. Review

   1. Session 1: Forgiveness is God’s Purpose – Luke 4: 14-30

      1. Recognize the complexity of forgiveness and aspects of its definition

      2. Define God’s forgiveness and identify some aspects of it in the Bible

      3. Better understand the role of Jesus Christ in God’s purpose

      4. Realize the universal scope of God’s forgiveness: it is initiated by God through Jesus as a gift to all mankind and is necessary to restore fellowship with Him.

   2. Session 2: Why Should We Forgive? - Colossians 1:13-14; 2:6-14; and 3:12-13

   3. Objectives of this lesson

      1. Clarify and prioritize three Christian motivations to forgive others

         1. Forgive for Christ’s sake – Luke 1:76-77

         2. Forgive for the sake of others – John 20:23

         3. Forgive for our own sake – Matthew 6:14-15

      2. Better understand the Christian obligation to forgive others – 2 Corinthians 2:9-11 (Obedience)

      3. Realize that true, Christ-like forgiveness is not possible. We are invited to participate in God’s forgiving activities – Matthew 26:40 (Flesh is weak), Romans 7:18-25

2. Session 3: The Politics of Salvation – Luke 19:1-10

   1. Objectives of this lesson:

      1. To appreciate the social and economic costs of repentance.

      2. To understand the relationship between repentance and God’s forgiveness

   2. The social and economic costs of repentance (Repentance leads to forgiveness)

      1. Forgiveness is solidarity with sinners. Luke 18:9-14

1. Luke 7:34

2. Luke 5:27-29,32

3. Luke 15:11-32

4. Luke 18:9-14

5. Luke 15:2

1. If Jesus flouted social convention and offended religious sensibilities at every turn, he did so neither by chance nor by malice, but because this is what it takes to engage in God’s politics of salvation.

1. Forgiveness is a call to costly repentance - Luke 3:11-14.

   1. Solidarity is God’s side of the forgiveness interaction. Repentance is the human side, and it has clear social and economic implications. It is no less than the call to

      1. Do justice in our relations with others.

      2. sharing our coat and food with folks who have none

      3. giving our possessions to the poor

      4. doing honest business with our clients

      5. refusing to extort money from the powerless

      6. repaying with interest those whom we have cheated (Luke 3:11-14 and 19:8)

   2. Repentance calls us to a profound reordering of human perspectives and priority

1. The relationship between repentance (and confession) and God’s forgiveness - repent

   1. We are called to repent to receive God’s forgiveness – Acts 2:38-39, 1 John 1:9

      1. All are called to repent – Acts 17:30-31

      2. Godly not worldly – 2 Corinthians 7;9-11

      3. Consequences of not repenting – 2 Peter 3:9, Romans 2:4-9

      4. To repent we need Jesus – Luke 24:46-47

   2. We are to emulate God’s grace/justice/mercy by forgiving others – Matthew 6:14-15

      1. Each other – Ephesians 4:32

      2. Forgive those who repent – Luke 17:3-4, Luke 11:4

      3. A truly repentant heart confesses and… - James 5:15-16

1. Questions:

   1. Consider the Prodigal Son. We notice immediately the father’s solidarity with his returning son; a servant offers the fine cloak signaling the father’s intention to celebration. The returning son’s kneeling posture suggests his remorse (repentance) and may reflect his proposal to return as a slave (14:21). The father refuses this costly offer, and welcomes him home as a son (14:22). Does this imply that the returning son’s repentance was not costly? How is the older son sinning as much as his sibling did? What does this story tell us about the two possible responses to our own sin?

   2. Zacchaeus was despised as a traitor for helping the occupying Roman army to collect taxes and as a cheat for over-collecting those taxes. What lifestyles do you despise (drug addiction, freeloading on government programs, lavish living with no concern for the poor, and so on) or occupations that you think is sinful or unworthy of a Christian (owning an adult book store, operating a gambling casino, or working for an abortion clinic, and so on). More exact parallels to the story of Zacchaeus might be people who profit from substandard apartments, disguise accounts to help the wealthy escape taxes, or hide their own business activities from taxation. What must you do about this?

   3. What does each of the following passages reveal about Forgiveness? Luke’s account of Jesus’ forgiveness from the cross (Luke 23:34) and Stephen’s forgiveness of his attackers as he is stoned (Acts 7:60).

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