Luke 6:37-38 (2)
The Gospel of Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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Please turn back to Luke 6.
We’re going to be reading the same two verses again this morning (37-38).
Last week I introduced all four of these commands...
…but we spent most of our time on the first two...
…and largely omitted the last two.
I believe that they deserve a better treatment than that...
…and that you and I need to have them more firmly pressed into our hearts.
They:
Are weighty.
Are challenging.
Have a ton of attending passages that need to be considered.
-We want to know the heart of God about both of these subjects, amen?
And, we need to know how to properly align our hearts with His, amen?
Well, let’s read our two verses again...
…and ask for our Lord’s help.
Luke 6:37–38 (ESV)
37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
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Forgiveness:
-Last Week we saw that Jesus had commanded us...
…to have a disposition of heart toward our fellow man...
…that was the very opposite of the Religious Pharisee-ism...
…that was so rampant in the days of His incarnation.
We also saw, that, in addition to the commands...
....He had attached the warning...
…that we could expect to receive...
...a level of treatment commensurate to the degree of our obedience!
Now, that was scary enough for the first two commands:
Judge Not
Condemn Not
But, it’s all the more sobering when we consider...
The third command
The third commensurate warning.
Luke 6:37 (ESV)
37 . . . forgive, and you will be forgiven;
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Again, I ask you to consider the eternal importance...
…of our properly understanding what Jesus is saying.
So, what does He mean?
Well, the word that is translated as “forgive” by our English translators...
…literally means to:
“release”
“let go”
So, see the picture of a follower of Christ...
…that He is continuing to paint:
The Pharisee… Along with those who have a Pharisaical Spirit, are:
Quick to pass judgment
Quick to censure, and condemn
Quick to bind, and burden others with guilt...
(We saw that last week)
But the citizens of Christ’s theocratic kingdom...
…are being portrayed:
NOT as those who are quick to bind...
But as those who are quick to release!
Philip Ryken describes the juxtaposition like this:
Here Jesus draws a contrast between two attitudes of the heart. One is judging and condemning; the other is giving and forgiving — Philip Ryken
-The NASB translators help us to see the contrast more clearly.
Using more distinctly judicial language, they translate it:
Luke 6:37 (NASB95)
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.
That helps us to understand the sense of what’s being conveyed.
There’s:
Real and actual guilt involved
Real and actual transgression that has occured.
He’s going beyond telling them...
…not to be “fault-finders” . . .
…and telling them/us how to respond when we are...
really
truly
actually...
(Perhaps unjustly)...
…sinned against!
Elsewhere, Jesus said this:
Luke 17:1–4 (ESV)
1 . . . “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!
2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.
3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,
4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Now, if you take that to mean...
…that you’re only required to forgive...
…once he confesses and repents...
…then I fear that:
You may be missing the point entirely...
You may need to see a spiritual cardiologist!
The point is that you don’t...
...let a root of bitterness spring up in your heart toward your brother.
The point is that you don’t sin...
…as a result of being sinned against.
The point is that you pursue what makes for peace!
Here too, this is not a new precept.
Leviticus 19:17–19 (ESV)
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
19 “You shall keep my statutes...
Proverbs 27:5–6 (ESV)
5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
We saw these same principles last week:
Matthew 18:15 (ESV)
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
John wrote:
1 John 2:9–11 (ESV)
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
I point out these sobering words to prepare you for what’s coming!
As Evangelical Christians, we don’t tend to push back too much...
…against the fact of our obligation to forgive...
What we tend to struggle with more...
…is the condition that Christ puts on our being forgiven.
Look at verse 37 again:
Luke 6:37 (ESV)
37 ...forgive, and you will be forgiven;
Our gut reaction to this, tends to be...
…that this is somehow antithetical to:
The Gospel of Free Grace in Christ!
We take it to be saying that:
we earn our Justification...
…through our justification of others.
Our forgiveness isn’t full and free...
…but earned by measured obedience.
Because of these tensions...
(along with others in the S.O.M.)...
…some have surmised that these instructions:
Are only applicable to those under the Law
Will be applicable in a future Jewish Kingdom.
Now, these assessments do make the difficulties disappear...
…but are they accurate and faithful?
It’s a very dangerous thing to:
Tell the People of God...
To ignore commands given in the Word of God.
(You’d better have a really good reason for doing so!)
-The truth is, brethren, that this principle...
…is not delimited to our text.
For starters, It was one of the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5:7 (ESV)
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
(And remember what Luke 6:36 said)
Luke 6:36 (ESV)
36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
James elaborates on this principle...
…and makes absolutely clear...
…that it isn’t to be viewed as a part of the Jewish law...
…that was soon to disappear.
He includes it as a precept of the “Royal Law of Love”
James 2:12–13 (ESV)
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Augustine explains how:
The practice of mercy is twofold: when vengeance is sacrificed and when compassion is shown - Augustine
-Additionally, (but still included in the S.O.M.)...
…is this easily overlooked portion…
…of what we often refer to as “the Lord’s Prayer:”
Matthew’s account concludes like this:
Matthew 6:11–15 (ESV)
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors...
14 ...For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Now, some may say...
“Don’t you see that you’re still in the S.O.M.?”
“That’s not for us!”
“We’re “Grace-Age” gentiles!”
Well, Jesus taught the same thing on a separate occasion.
Luke 11:3–4 (ESV)
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us...
On yet another occasion he said this:
Mark 11:24–25 (ESV)
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Augustine, the father of reformed soteriology, again said this:
What do you want from the Lord? Mercy. Give, and it shall be given to you. What do you want from the Lord? Pardon. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. — Augustine
Do you see what he’s doing?
He’s seeing verse 38 as an extension of verse 37.
Most take it in isolation...
…and turn it into some formula for financial prosperity.
That doesn’t fit very well with the context.
When we read it in the context of the rebuke of the Pharisaical Spirit...
(found in verses 37-38)
…it fits quite nicely...
AND… It reinforces (and even accentuates)...
…that same troubling principle that we’re seeing throughout the NT.
Let’s read it together, again:
Luke 6:37–38 (ESV)
37 ...forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
-Now, Jesus gave a parable...
…that I think will help us to understand...
…why such conditions are placed on our forgiveness.
I could just say:
“The point is that forgiven sinners, forgive.”
And that would be a correct summation.
I could just say, as Sproul rightly says:
Unless we forgive others, we do not have genuine repentance and faith, and so we exclude ourselves from forgiveness. — R.C. Sproul
This too, would be an accurate assessment.
But, my fear is that we would all go home...
…having comforted ourselves with that...
…and unintentionally put this difficult verse...
...back into the closet of mystery from whence it came...
…and in so doing, prevent it from producing...
…its intended repentance in our lives.
-I think this parable will help us to avoid that error.
Matthew 18:21–35 (ESV)
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’
29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
James 2:13 (ESV)
13 ...judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy...
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this:
“What we have here is what we find so clearly taught in Matthew 18, in the parable of the steward who would not forgive his underling although he had been forgiven by his master.
If we think that our sins are forgiven by God and we refuse to forgive somebody else,
We are making a mistake;
We have never been forgiven.
The man who knows he has been forgiven … is a man who must forgive others.
He cannot help himself.
If we really know Christ as our Saviour (sic) our hearts are broken and cannot be hard, and we cannot refuse forgiveness.
If you are refusing forgiveness to anybody I suggest that you have never been forgiven.
…whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me,
I am ready to forgive anybody anything.
I cannot withhold it, I do not even want to withhold it.
That is what our Lord is saying here.
…True forgiveness breaks a man, and he must forgive. — D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
-Paul gives us this exhortation:
Colossians 3:12–13 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
There is a tension here, that I’m not sure we...
...can (or even should) resolve!
But, Eric Wright gives it a valiant effort:
“A forgiving person is one who, out of a profound sense of being personally forgiven a great debt by God, is quick to ask forgiveness from another, who repudiates anger, bitterness and a desire for revenge...
...to initiate a loving approach to whoever may have hurt him or her, and who offers to freely forgive and forget the injury caused, with the hope that reconciliation may be achieved.” — Eric Wright
Perhaps this passage will help us even more:
Ephesians 4:30–5:1 (ESV)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
We’re going to need our Father’s help...
…if we’re going to do that, aren’t we?
Let’s ask Him for it, together.
Pray