When Jesus Forgives But the World Doesn't

How can I be sure that God forgives me when society won't forgive me for my past mistakes? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Well, Pastor Adriel, how did your sermon go yesterday? I think it went pretty well.

I'm not sure. Usually I'll ask my wife afterwards and she'll say, yeah, that was okay. No, but it was nice. Got some encouragement. I'm preaching through the book of 1 John right now outside in San Diego, so that's kind of nice.

We're still able to meet outdoors under the San Diego sun. But I was talking about 1 John 5, where John says, this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. A really interesting passage of scripture. I think so many Christians, Bill, view God as Pharaoh, and the church sort of like Egypt. They're just sort of weighed down with guilt and shame. They view Jesus as this new Moses, basically a new lawgiver. We have to understand that Jesus came to lift the burden, to forgive our sins, to carry his people, and so really got to dig into that a little bit, and it was a wonderful time.

His yoke is light, right? His burden is easy on our... And what we have to do is understand that, because if we don't, we're going to live under this false assumption that God is just ready to strike us with a lightning bolt at any time. Yeah, and a lot of, I think, faithful Christians live with that fear.

They view God, like I was saying, sort of like Pharaoh. He's got the hammer. He's just waiting to crush them as soon as they fail.

And no, that's a wonderful passage to bring in the end of Matthew chapter 11 there, where Jesus says, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Really wonderful. Amen. Well, first up, today we have a voicemail we received from a listener named Kevin. Hi, Bill and Adriel. I just want to say thank you for what you all do. My name is Kevin.

I'm coming from a small town in Indiana called Petersburg. The reason for my call is I am saved in Jesus, but I'm also a convicted felon. And I battle with condemnation, because when I go out looking for work, criminal background, they end up denying you employment.

And so how does one live knowing in God's forgiveness while living in a society that constantly condemns them, keeping them trapped in an imaginary jail cell after they've paid their debt to society? Thank you and God bless. Bye. Well, Kevin, before I get to your question, I think we should just pray for our brother. I want to pray for you. And Lord, we come before you now, lift Kevin up to you. And thank you that he knows you, that he has a relationship with you through your son Jesus. And Father, I pray that you would help him to know and to rest in more and more each day his identity in Christ, that he belongs to you, that he's forgiven, that he's justified now through faith in Jesus Christ. And Lord, whatever the world says, whatever the people around him, Lord, put on him still, Lord, that he can rest in his relationship with you. And would you please provide for our brother? Lord, we know what a difficult thing it is to find work, and especially in particular circumstances like these.

Lord, would you please be with my brother and encourage him, sustain him, and provide for him in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Kevin, I'm going to tell you something that I think is really important for a lot of us to hear. It doesn't just apply to you, but I think it does specifically. And that's, you need to hear and rest and believe what Jesus says about you first and foremost. And the voice of Christ in your life has to drown out the voice of the world and what they're saying about you in your particular situation.

That doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. I've had conversations with dear brothers who are in a similar situation as you are, and actually this very same question has come up. How can I rest in what Jesus has done for me when every time I go to my parole officer I'm being reminded of what's happened in the past, or when I go to apply for a job and I have to share with them that I'm a convicted fellow? How can I rest in what Jesus has done? Well, you need to go to what the Word of God says, brother. And one passage of scripture that I think is really encouraging here is Colossians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 13, Paul said, You were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. That's true of you, brother. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have been forgiven and that record of debt that stood against you has been nailed to the cross. Now, other people might try to remind you of what it is that you've done and put that burden back on you, Kevin.

That's why you need to go back to the Word of God and what Christ has said. And I think another really important piece of the puzzle here is make sure you're a part of a good church, a faithful Bible preaching church that knows you, knows your situation, and also loves you. That's key, and I think that that can be a huge comfort for you as having a community of believers around you who are aware of your situation. That's also a way in which potentially you could get connected with work just through people in the church who know your situation and don't condemn you because you've been forgiven and you're a part of the family. And so I hope, Kevin, that you're in a local church and that you've been able to get plugged in somewhere so you can get that encouragement. You need that encouragement, especially when the world is telling you the opposite, that you're worthless, that you don't deserve a job, that kind of a thing.

None of those things are true. You belong to Jesus, you've been justified, and I would say continue to trust him as you press forward in doing the things that you know you need to do in order to find work. Continue to be diligent and to trust in the Lord. You know, Adriel, I was thinking of Kevin's situation just from a practical standpoint, and getting involved in a church is so critical, and yet he's in a small town in Indiana. He may need to drive a few minutes to a larger community where he can get plugged into a larger church where there are going to be people that can get to know him who might be able to provide job opportunities. Because I've found, and I'm sure you found this as well, if you're in a decent-sized church, there are going to be employers there.

And once they get to know Kevin, find out that his record is now clean, that he's cleaned up his act, and that he's ready to go to work and do a good job for them, they may be willing to look past that, you know, felon background and say, hey, I want to hire you to work in my company. Yeah, well first and foremost for you, Kevin, I mean what you're going to want to look for is a church that faithfully preaches the word of God, where there's a community of people who loves the scriptures. And that's key because that's where people from all different walks of life and backgrounds can come and be welcomed because we really believe that the power of the gospel is able to unite us together. The blood of Jesus makes us a family, and so you want to be a part of a church that believes that and acts like the family, and potentially there are opportunities there as well. And so may the Lord bless you, and we do pray that very soon you're able to find some some good employment.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone number is 833-THE-CORE. If you want to call right now and talk to Pastor Adriel live, 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Julie, who's calling in from San Diego, California. Hi Julie, welcome to Core Christianity. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Thanks for calling, Julie, what's your question? I was wondering if you could tell me more about what Lent is and why some Christians don't celebrate it.

Sure, I'd be happy to. Yeah, I mean there are different churches with different traditions in terms of how they think about things like the liturgical calendar, the church calendar. What I mean by that is, you know, there are events in the life of Jesus that many churches will celebrate throughout the year. Things like Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, or the passion of Jesus. Now, according to the Bible, in the New Testament in particular, you know, the New Testament church doesn't celebrate holy days. We don't have holy days like they did under the old covenant, but over time in the history of the church there were some churches that decided to focus on these events in the life of Christ and to celebrate them annually as a way of remembering essentially what Christ has accomplished in history for us.

And, you know, personally I actually appreciate that to some extent. You know, I like the idea of remembering the great acts of redemption, focusing on them throughout the year. You know, I think that's something, but there really is freedom for us to think through this. Now, Lent in the history of the church, one of the ways it sort of developed was there was a period of time early on where many Christians would be baptized around Easter, or what came to be celebrated as Easter, and leading up to that they would sort of prepare by fasting. And so that period of fasting morphed over time into what became Lent, and it was a sort of period of fasting, of denying oneself for 40 days, sort of an imitation of Christ. And again, I don't know that that's necessarily something that, well, I do know that it's something that the Bible doesn't command that we do. And so I think that that's key, and that's one of the reasons why many Christians don't celebrate Lent or go through that practice, but other church traditions do. You know, Jesus said something really interesting. He said it's not what goes into the body that defiles it, but what comes out of the heart.

And I think sometimes with some of these traditions where we have to be careful is we have to remember that it's not the sort of rituals that we do, even related to fasting, you know, what you eat or what you don't eat. It's what comes from your heart. And Jesus said from the heart, proceed all sorts of evil things.

What we need ultimately is the grace of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of Christ through faith. And so, you know, again, I don't think churches should bind the consciences of their members to get them to celebrate these kinds of things or to practice these kinds of things, because it's nowhere outlined in scripture. But different churches have sort of taken a different take on this, Julie. Does the church that you're a part of practice Lent or do the Lent thing?

Well, I'm actually pretty new there, so I'm not sure what their practice is, which is kind of why I was asking. Do you guys practice Lent at your church? No, we don't.

I like to eat too much, and so we don't know. But again, there's nothing in the New Testament that says that we have to. I mean, really, there's one day that the early church celebrated, and that was the Lord's Day. It was Sunday, where we remembered that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That was the day of worship. That's when we have our communion meal. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed, Paul said, to the Corinthians. And so that's the day of celebration for believers, and I think that's what we should highlight. Does that mean we ought not to focus on some of these other great acts in redemptive history throughout the rest of the year? No, I think that there's a moment for teaching there, and insofar as that's the case, that's the case.

I think it can be beneficial, but it really is up to each individual person. Julie, thanks so much for your call. This is Core Christianity. Here's the number if you want to connect with Pastor Adriel. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can listen to Core Christianity anytime and hear previous episodes by subscribing to our podcast. And if you subscribe and leave us a review, a five-star review, even more people will hear about the podcast and have a chance to learn about the core truths of Christianity.

So just look for the podcast on your podcast app. Make sure to give us that five-star review. Let's get to another call. This is Debbie from Fresno, California. Hi, Debbie. Welcome to Core Christianity. Hi.

Thank you very much for taking my call. What I am wondering is when did the term Hebrews and children of Israel or the Israelites transition to Jews? When did that take place? When did the term Hebrews our children of Israel? Well, I mean, when you're reading through the book of Genesis, you have basically the whole history of God's people there. And God called Israel there in the book of Genesis.

I mean, that's the place where I would go. I've been in my own personal devotions, Debbie, reading through the book of Genesis. And if you really want to sort of get a history there of the Israelites and of their history, that's where you want to go there. And then also in the book of Exodus as God called his people out of Egypt from slavery and then established them.

So yeah, I mean, that's where I would point you to. Was there something more specifically you were thinking of in terms of just the name there, Debbie? Yeah, it was just the name, just the name I was curious about, because they don't call it Israel. Well, maybe they do in the New Testament. They're referred to as the Jews in the New Testament. Yeah, and right there it's just referring to God's covenant people, the people that he called through Abraham and his offspring, his children. And ultimately, Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham, we're told in Galatians chapter three. And that's why believers today in Jesus Christ can refer to themselves as the children of Abraham. And so again, I would just encourage you to look at the book of Genesis. I mean, that's our family history as believers.

What a wonderful thing to be able to read. I mean, that's your family tree by faith in Jesus Christ. And that's going to give you all the background that you need, sister. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, if you have been helped by an answer that you heard on Core Christianity, and you want to share a previous episode with a friend or family member, you can send them a video of our episodes from our YouTube channel. Just make sure to click on the subscribe button while you're there, you can follow along for extra videos from Core Christianity. See Pastor Adriel right there in the studio, flipping through God's Word and answering your questions. Let's go to Adriana, who is calling in from, not exactly sure, where are you, Adriana?

Hi, I am from Maine in the USA. Hey, welcome to Core Christianity. What's your question?

Thank you. My question is, how do I handle the regret of sinning because I know that God forgives and wants me to turn back to Him? I just don't know how to keep shame and hiding from being my immediate response. Yeah, you know, Adriana, I think that there are really two pieces to repentance. There is a sense in which in repentance we recognize our sin for what it is, right?

It's an offense against God, it breaks us down, sin destroys us, it offends God. But the other piece of repentance there is not just recognizing the sort of negative aspect, but also having the hope that we have in the gospel, turning to Jesus, so away from ourselves, away from our sins, to the Lord. And I think that those two pieces are really, really important because a lot of times when we fail, we just have that first part, you know, we want to wallow in our sins, we feel so guilty. And I think there's a part of us that even though we might not put it this way, Adriana, we want to try to atone for our sins by feeling as bad as we can, and we think, oh, I just, you know, I can't go back to the Lord until I've done better, at least for a couple of days, and then I'll go back to Him in prayer, go back to church, that kind of a thing. But what you need to know is that through Jesus Christ, the moment you sin, you can turn to the Father, and you have hope, not because you're perfect, but because of what Jesus has accomplished for you. And so the more we realize, you know, how short we fall, the greater our appreciation of the cross becomes, because we flee to the cross, we flee to Jesus.

And so it's recognizing that we don't have to live anymore in the shame, in the regret. You know, we have remorse and repentance over our sin, but God doesn't want us to wallow in our sin anymore, because Jesus has paid for it, sister, and Jesus has paid for your sin. And we have this promise, this very clear promise in scripture, 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I love that verse, because so often when we confess our sins, we might still feel weighed down, wondering, does God really forgive me? I don't feel forgiven. Well, at the end of the day, don't rest in your feelings, rest, Adriana, in what God has said. You go to Him, even 70 times 7, you know, the same struggle. You go to Him by faith, clinging to Jesus, and He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you.

And so, you know, that's the hope, that's the hope that you have. And ultimately, it's recognizing, resting in the work of Jesus, instead of letting our sins keep us from drawing near to the Lord. Amen. What the great promise of the gospel for every one of us. This is Core Christianity with Peter and Mary. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and today we want to offer you a very special resource that Adriel produced himself. It's so cool, and it's called Seeing Jesus.

Yeah, Bill, thanks for saying it that way. It's so cool. I think it's a pretty cool resource. Yeah, Seeing Jesus, it's a devotional resource that really dives into four accounts in the gospels that give us sort of a different snapshot of Jesus in His ministry, in His offices, the offices of prophet, priest, and king, what He came to accomplish for us. There is just so much confusion in the world today about Jesus. Was He just a prophet? You know, is He really the way, the truth, and the life, the one through whom we have access to the Father?

Is He God, right? Well, this is a resource that's going to help you understand the teaching of the Bible related to the identity of Christ. It's one that I think you really need, and so get your hands on Seeing Jesus. It's free for you, and Bill, you can give them more information about that, right? Here's how to get one. Just sign up to receive your free copy of Seeing Jesus by heading over to corechristianity.com forward slash jesus.

You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting that offer or any one of our offers, and you can go to our show notes page for today's program, and you'll find that offer and any resources that we mention. Let's go to Drew, who's calling in from Kansas City. Hi, Drew. Hi, how are you doing today? Doing well, Drew. What's your question? Thank you for having me.

First of all, you guys are a blessing on the radio. I wanted to ask you, I've got a friend that I've been discussing biblical principles and issues with, if you will, and she comes more from along the lines of what a Messianic Jew might believe, and she's got issues with Christians slash believers going to church on Sundays because of the old covenant versus the new covenant, and she says that the old covenant can't be broken because it was a blood covenant, and you know, I've stated scriptures from Romans and Galatians and Ephesians about... Drew, is she saying that we need to, as Christians, live under the old covenant, sort of like they did? Well, she believes that as believers or Christians, we need to adhere to the Sabbath on the seventh, because God is never changing, and it kind of gets heated sometimes, and I try to stay as calm as I can, but... Well, good for you.

I mean, you definitely want to stay as calm as you can. We as Christians are under the new covenant, we're not under the old covenant anymore, and one of the concerns that I have, and I think that this is really important for us to understand, is naturally we sort of tend to go back to this sort of works mentality in the Christian life. We want a list of things to do whereby we can justify ourselves before God, and no one can be justified by the law, by obedience to the law. Paul makes this very clear in the book of Galatians, and he also says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16, as you were talking there, I'm thinking about this verse, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. The substance is here, brother. I mean, under the new covenant, all of those things that we had in the ceremonial law of the old testament, you know, the temple with its sacrifices, all of those things pointed forward to Jesus, the messiah, the substance of our faith, and we have to be really careful when people try to get us to go back to those things and to observe some of these rules.

We talked about it a little bit. This is one thing that may concern people. Earlier we were talking about Lent and Christians observing or celebrating Lent. It's one of the concerns that we can have is sort of creating these rules that look very much like the rules that they had under the old covenant and then telling people that they have to observe them if they want to be right with God. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches, and so we have to be very, very careful, brother, and I think you should continue to have conversations with your friend, but encourage her with the fact that, you know, that passage right there in Colossians chapter 2, 16 and following, but also you were talking about worshiping on Saturday. You have to understand even the apostles themselves began gathering together on the Lord's Day on Sunday because that was the day that Jesus rose again from the dead. You see this in Acts chapter 20 and 1 Corinthians chapter 16. The early Christian community gathered together on the first day of the week celebrating the resurrection, and so if what I always say is if the apostles themselves did this, the men who walked with Jesus, if it was good enough for them then it should be good enough for us as well, and it's a sign of the fact that we are the new covenant church, the new covenant community. Adriel, why do you think so many Christians want to go back to the Old Testament law and just burden themselves when they are free through God's grace to, you know, to celebrate their incredible gift, the gift that God has given them through the death of Christ on the cross?

Yeah, well, that is the case. We just we want something that we can do to justify ourselves, but that's not good news. At the end of the day, you know, that's going to exhaust you trying to obey the commandments in order for God to accept you. Nobody can obey the commandments perfectly. That's why we need the gospel.

Jesus obeyed, and we get His righteousness by faith. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.