The Master Key! (Continued)

The second passage wherein Jesus demonstrates the centrality of this command to forgive others is found in Mark 11. Just as in the Matthew 18 passage, Jesus stuns His hearers, because He begins with a “word of faith” teaching when He declares, in a very forceful manner: “Have faith in God! (Some have translated this as, “Have the faith of God!) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23).

If one read no further, the reaction would be, “Wow! If I have enough (quantity) of faith, I can do or have anything! I believe, however, that to do so would be a grave mistake. To me, this is, instead, a statement of “quality” of one’s faith, that is, of one’s life priorities. I have heard preachers and teachers speak of this mountain as if it were a literal mountain of granite rock and stones, a veritable Mt. Everest. No, I believe that Jesus was speaking of whatever “mountain” in your life iss blocking your progress in your spiritual walk – fears, cares and anxieties, relational conflicts, envy, anger, financial crises, health problems, et.al.

First of all, note that Jesus tells us that if we have “faith in God,” we can speak to our problems; we can take authority over them. This is because everything in our walk with God is based on the quality of our relationship with Him as our Father. When we began this series, we saw the beautiful balance of approaching God as the awe-inspiring Creator God, the God of all power, blessed be He! – and – approaching Him as our Father, our Abba, our precious “Daddy.”

However, our primary image of, our conception of God as our Father is formed by, and is greatly impacted by our earthly father and the role that he played (plays) in our life. It is sad to say that, unfortunately, many people have a very negative role model of “father-hood,” because their relationship with their earthly father has been one of many possible (even multiple) dysfunctions – abusive, absent, critical, controlling, neglectful, absent, weak, etc., etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum!

People who have not had a strong, caring, loving, nurturing relationship with their earthly father sometimes have an ominous task before them to ever believe that their heavenly Father is really and truly different – loving, protective, strong, nurturing, supportive, attentive, tender, giving, sustaining, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad Glorioso! Therefore, the first thing that many of us have to do is pray for the miracle-working presence of the Holy Spirit to be operative within us to help us "break through" to touch, and be touched by, the heart of our loving Father God in order for us to be able to trust Him.

(To Be Continued - our next Post will conlude this Series on "The Keys to the Kingdom as Revealed in The Lord's Prayer. I pray this series has been a blessing to you for your edification and to draw you ever closer to the Father's heart. ~ God Bless you!)

The Master Key (continued)

The two passages wherein Jesus most impacts us with the power and the importance of forgiveness are found in Matthew 18:21-35 and in Mark 11:22-26. Let us delve into these words of our Lord together!

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven time?” (Matt. 18: 21) This seems to be both an honest question in the first place: “How many times shall I forgive . . .?” and a most insightful response posed as a second question in response to the first inasmuch as seven is the number of spiritual perfection! (Seven – seven days of the creation account, seven Jacob’s years of service to Laban for his bride (twice!), seven lamps atop the Menorah in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle / Temple, seven weeks of Unleavened Bread between Passover and Pentecost, seven Spirits before the throne of God in Rev. 1:4, the seven golden lampstands in the midst of which walked one like the Son of Man of Revelation 1:12-13 which were the seven churches, and the seven stars in His right hand which were the angels (messengers) to whom the Ascended Christ addressed His seven exhortations in Revelation, chapter 2-3.

Surely, Peter was about to receive praise from his Master for this two-fold insightful and spiritual combination of the questions and the answers thereto. Instead, Peter must have been utterly stunned by Jesus’ response of, “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22)! Understand, please, that in the use of this numerical concept, Jesus was not stating that one must forgive his brother / sister 489 times + 1. The impact of this statement was clearly apparent to Peter and all others who heard the Master’s command: We are to live out a lifestyle of forgiveness!

Every decision in life is a “building block” for the creation of a habit. The habits we construct in life become our pattern of living – our lifestyle, and it is this, in turn, which builds our character! In this case, Jesus is exhorting us to systematically build the character within ourselves of one who is a Forgiver! There are so many rabbit trails of teachings on forgiveness that we could take off upon and pursue at this point, but we will resist the temptation and, instead, we will home in on that one key point that Jesus wanted us to understand which He makes abundantly clear in the parable He shared at this point. Please read Matt. 18:23-35; the parallels will become instantly clear. The king is God, who in His mercy and benevolence forgives the servant (that is, you, and me!) who is unable to pay the insurmountable sum of a “thousand talent.”

“For God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been save),” (Eph. 2:4-5, emphasis added). So it is with us, as it was with the servant, that we often then turn around and want to “throttle” a brother or sister in the Lord, who by comparison owes us a mere pittance! Get the point?

(to be Continued . . . in the next installment, we will look at one of the most powerful "Word of Fatith" statements Jesus ever uttered!)

The Master Key

This next series of posts will conclude "The Keys to the Kingdom As Revealed In The Lord's Prayer." This series is entitled "The Master Key." I pray that the Lord truly bless and edify you!

Let us now proceed to “The Master Key” that opens the very heart of the Father and is (a) the Key to maintaining the integrity of the Body of Christ, and also (b) the Secret Key to opening the hearts of the unsaved and is, therefore, the Key to expanding the Kingdom of God. We will deal with this Key, accordingly, in these two dimensions.

As we return to the couplet in The Lord’s Prayer that we momentarily skipped over, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12 NKJV),” we must first recognize why this is “The Master Key to the Kingdom.” We do so, because it is the very corner stone of the foundation of the Father’s Master Plan of Redemption. All of us know the most famous verse in the New Testament, “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

I say that this is “The Master Key” to the Kingdom, because immediately following the “Amen” of the prayer (Matt. 6:13), Jesus declares, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will you Father forgive your trespasses.” In two other instructional situations with His disciples, Jesus makes very clear that the willful act of forgiving others their sins (debts, trespasses) against us, and He does so with powerful impact.

Before we turn to those passages, let us handle a common objection that many verbalize: “Well how do I know when I have to forgive someone? Who determines what is a ‘trespass’ against me?” You do! As it is with so many areas of life in the spirit, there is no “wiggle room” here. When someone sins against me, I know it in the very core of my being. I feel the offense, the slight, the slap or the betrayal in every area of my being – emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, and relationally, and my first fleshly impulse is for revenge – to lash out and to strike back – to hurt as I have been hurt.

That is when I know that I have the choice to forgive, in obedience to my Lord’s command, and allow the spiritual man, the new man in Christ, to rise to the ascendency and to overcome the enemy, who is always the ultimate source of such pains of wounding, or to not forgive and give place to Satan to partner up with my flesh, and, in doing so to “stew in my own juices,” as it were!

(To be continued . . . . don’t miss our next installment!)