Luke 17 | His Name Is Jesus
Jesus says hard things, doesn’t He?
Sometimes they’re just plain hard to understand. Like the very last verse of chapter 17, the one about the vultures gathering. I'm still working on what that means!
Other times the meaning is plain, but oh so hard to execute.
Like in Luke 17:3-4, when Jesus said “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
The number seven in Scripture often means “completion.” So for Jesus to say to forgive someone seven times, He really means do it fully, and do it always (see also Matthew 18:22).
That’s a toughie, isn't it?
It hit me from a different angle today, though, when I remembered that Paul tells us in Colossians 3:13, “…as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
As the Lord has forgiven you.
Do you know what that means? It means that if Jesus says we are to forgive again and again, over and over, then He forgives again and again, over and over.
We can never out-sin the marvelous grace of God.
Now, this does not mean we are to go on willfully sinning in the same ways over and over because we know Jesus will forgive us over and over. “By no means!” (as Paul says in Romans 6:2). It is the repentant we are called to forgive, just as we are called to repent.
But it does mean that every time I sin, I know I can turn back to the One called Jesus, whose name literally means “Yahweh saves”. He is so committed to my forgiveness He came to earth to walk among us, be tempted as we are yet remain sinless, and then take our own punishment upon Himself.
Now there’s something that’s hard to understand.
But it’s true. And if we just have “faith as a mustard seed” (Luke 17:6), anything is possible. Like believing we are forgiven in Jesus. And forgiving others a million fold. Because that’s what God did for us when He came to earth all those years ago.
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
“If he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17:4