Acts 13:38 Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:… To illustrate how the gospel message has ever borne on this "forgiveness of sins," compare for the teaching of John the Baptist, Mark 1:4; Luke 2:3: of our Lord himself, Matthew 9:2, 6; Luke 7:47; Luke 24:47: of St. Peter, Acts 2:38; Acts 5:31; Acts 10:43. See another instance of St. Paul's teaching on the subject (Acts 26:18). Taken with its context, the passage is a striking one, as showing how deeply St. Paul was, from the first, impressed by the fact that the Mosaic Law was inefficient as a guide to true righteousness; and by the fact that forgiveness, as an act of grace, and not bestowed on any form of human merit, was the very essence of the gospel announcement to men. This subject is, however, so familiar, that there seems little need for more than the suggestion of an order in which thought may hopefully be guided. I. DISTINGUISH SINS FROM CEREMONIAL OFFENCES. Observe the distinction so carefully made in Hebrews 9:9, 13, 14, 23; and note: 1. Ceremonial offences are limited by human regulations; sins are indicated by Divine Law. 2. Ceremonial offences concern only such persons as come under the ceremonial rules; sins attach to all mankind, because related to God's moral law for all his creatures. 3. Treatment of ceremonial offences may illustrate, but can only illustrate, Divine methods of dealing with sin. 4. Sins, and not ceremonial offences, are dealt with by the Heaven-sent Savior. The heinousness, hatefulness, and evil influences of men's sins may be shown, and the greatness of a redemptive scheme that can meet all the mischief caused by sin, should be explained. II. FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS MAN'S SUPREME WANT. Not man's only want, but the real root of all his wants, because other right relations can only follow on his right relations with God. Sin is, in essence, self-will, and finds expression in rebellious actions; therefore the way of the removal of sin must be repentance, which is the humbling of the self-will, and forgiveness, which removes the expressions and consequences of the self-wilt. It may be that man's sin was at first pressed home upon men by the apostles in its greatest manifestation - the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God; but this supreme act of iniquity did but reveal the utter baseness, badness, and corruption of the human heart and life. On this point see the teachings of St. Paul in Romans 3:9-19. III. SUCH FORGIVENESS IS ADMINISTERED BY THE RISEN CHRIST. Prospectively, he had power on earth to forgive sins, but in that he did but declare his right, and illustrate the power he now has to "give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins." Direct from the living Savior to the sinner's own soul must now come the message of Divine forgiveness. On the basis of his finished and accepted sacrifice, to our Lord Jesus Christ is now entrusted the power to grant absolution and remission of sins to all who "truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." And the declaration to men of a full and free forgiveness, actually now ministered to them by the living Savior, as the beginning of his proposed work of delivering them from all sin's power and thraldom, is the very point of the message which we must bear to men. Not men's frailties only, nor men's mistakes, nor men's intellectual errors, nor men's hereditary tendencies, nor men's faults in the eye of "class" or "society;" but distinctly men's sins, men's wilfulnesses, and wickednesses, and defiances of God, and breakings of law, and crucifying of God's Son, - these, the infinite love has found out how to reach; and it speaks from the lips of the "once dead, but now risen, living, and glorified Christ," free, full forgiveness of all, even the blotting out for ever of scarlet and crimson stains. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: |
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