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“Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”

᛭ INI ᛭

Jesus always preaches the forgiveness of sins. He doesn’t just preach the forgiveness of sins “purchased and won…with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” (SC II) Now, that forgiveness certainly does take up quite a bit of His preaching, but Jesus also preaches a lot about how that forgiveness is given out and manifested in the lives of believers.

This, of course, involves the Means of Grace that Christ Himself instituted. God’s Word and Sacraments deliver God’s grace in Christ. Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. (G.R.A.C.E.) God’s Riches, His favor, His mercy is revealed in the forgiveness of sins. God delivers this to His Children in the Word and Sacrament, but this mercy, this forgiveness is also delivered by God’s children, not by the Means of Grace but by them forgiving each other.

It doesn’t matter if the mercy is Christ’s death on the cross that earns forgiveness, if it’s the means of Grace (Christ’s Holy Word or Sermons or Baptism or Absolution or Communion) that deliver forgiveness, or if it’s God’s children who forgive each other. God’s mercy doesn’t change, because

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S MERCY IS THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

(I. This mercy is manifest in the Ministry of His Son.)

This mercy, that forgiveness is manifest in the Ministry of His Son, Jesus. You heard about that sort of mercy last week. That Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came into the world to save sinners, to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk 19), to be the Physician not of the healthy but of the sick (Lk 5).

The Father’s mercy is on full display at Calvary. There Jesus is God’s mercy itself, God’s Redemption, God’s forgiveness. Christ pays for all sins. He died for all sins. His blood—God’s blood!—is the ransom price for all sins, not ours only but the sins of the whole world. (1 Jn 2) “If One died for all, then all died.” (2 Cor 5) So, in effect, sin itself (original sin and guilt, and all the sins you do daily and much that make you guilty)—all of it died at Calvary when Christ became our sin and died as our sin offering! (2 Cor 5; Is 53)

A unbeliever’s problem is that he doesn’t believe it. Those who don’t believe don’t receive the benefits. Our problem with sin is that we think too little of our sins. We don’t judge our sins on how they affect our standing before an all-holy, perfect God. We don’t judge them based on God’s Word or on the fact that God had to die and shed His blood to pay for them. Instead, since we don’t think we’re all that bad, or not as bad as someone else we know, then we’re really not in that much need of the forgiveness of sins!

But Jesus’ continued ministry proves that YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S MERCY IS chiefly THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Because God’s Word, the preaching of the Gospel, and Christ’s Sacraments, each in their own way, all deliver the forgiveness of sins. Through the Word and Sacraments, Christ continues His ministry of mercy, because the Word and Sacraments deliver the Spirit who works faith by delivering the forgiveness of sins. “Faith is from hearing, and hearting by the Word of Christ.” (Rom 10)

Preaching saves those who believe for preaching is “for repentance and the forgiveness of sins.” So also, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Tit 3:4–8 NIV) We do “acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.” There’s also, of course, the Lord’s mercy Meal, the Feast of Forgiveness, the Supper for sinners—this bread is [His] body given for you and this cup is [His] blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

(Transition.)

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S MERCY IS THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

This mercy is manifest in the Ministry of His Son, whether that His Son shedding His blood and dying for forgiveness and Calvary or His Son delivering that forgiveness in the Word and the Sacrament. But your heavenly Father’s mercy is also manifest, or should be manifest, somewhere else. It’s not just with His only-begotten Son, Jesus. This mercy is also manifest in the ministry of His children.

(II. This mercy is also manifest in the ministry of His children.)

That’s what Jesus is preaching about today. He’s preaching about the Father’s mercy, His forgiveness that’s delivered by God’s children, not by the Means of Grace but by them forgiving each other. God’s children are not blind guides, living like they’re not forgiven. To live like you’re not forgiven is to live an unforgiving way of life. To live unforgiving is to fall into the ditch, to wind up unforgiven through unbelief. To live not forgiving is to live not as one of God’s children, as Christ says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Mt 5)

They make peace, or rather, they announce the peace and mercy of Christ. They declare the forgiveness of sins. The say, “Christ Himself is our peace” (Eph 2), “having made peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col 1) Believers “do [not] despise the riches of [God’s] goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.” (Rom 2) Christ opens our eyes not to see the how big other people’s sins are, but the size of our own sins so that we in turn know how to speak the very same forgiveness which comforts us.

Receiving God the Father’s mercy and forgiveness, we pass His mercy, His forgiveness on to other people. That’s the “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.” (Lk 6) “God’s” forgiveness, mercy, and “love [in Christ] has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us,” (Rom 5) first in Baptism, continually through the Word, and even at Communion. For there should be no “bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking” among us, because we are all one in the forgiveness of sins at Communion. Any grudge that continues to be a bad taste in our mouth after taking the Cup of the Lord, is a sign we have started to not discern our Lord’s Body given for you, and that other person, too!

If you believe and are baptized, if you are absolved and firmly believe that by it your sins are forgiven, if you believe that “in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are give us,” then “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” (Eph 4) “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4) “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6) Forgiving others doesn’t earn God’s forgiveness, but it is a sign that you believe that your sins are also forgiven before God in heaven. “To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” (Lk 7)

(Conclusion.)

“Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” This has everything to do with the forgiveness of sins.

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S MERCY IS THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

That mercy is manifest in the Ministry of His Son, both at Calvary and in the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments. But that mercy is also manifest in the ministry of all His baptized children.

That mercy is realized in your homes, as Christian husbands and wives, Christian parents and children forgive one another. Christian siblings forgive one another. We forgive one another as fellow congregation members. “Above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’” (1 Pet 4) But not just fellow Christians, all people. We manifest forgiving and covering up people’s sins to an unbelieving world. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” (Lk 6)

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER’S MERCY IS THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS,

the forgiveness of all your sins, here again for you to eat and to drink!

᛭ INI ᛭