A Study In Luke - Day 20
DAY 20 - Luke 7:48-50
8 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Finishing up this week is finishing up this story. The almost addendum to the story is that Jesus was interested in going further than simply appreciating what the woman was doing for him, but he wanted to forgive her sins himself, right there.
Of course, the men at the table were concerned because the forgiveness of sins is something that is only in God’s portfolio, and to have this man doing it in front of them meant that he was taking the role of “Forgiver” upon himself. And they were exactly correct, that was specifically what he was doing.
Jesus never shied away from accepting his role as the son of God and, as we understand the Trinity, his placement amongst the Godhead. We have to agree with this if we are to call ourselves Christians in the great tradition of Christianity. We don’t get to demote Jesus to a lesser status and think that we are still finding our way through our Christian walk.
If this sounds harsh, I do apologize, but there are some basic tenets of Christianity that even our forebearers in Adventism had to wrestle with in order to finally become clear. The idea of the Trinity was one of them. Initially, they did not think the Trinity was something to be believed in. However, they came to the conclusion that if we were to honor the Biblical understanding of who Christ was, then we would have to obtain an understanding of Jesus as part of that Godhead.
In order to understand a text like the one above, we also must have a clear understanding that Jesus is God and has the ability to forgive sins, just as the father has that ability. This is why the men at the table were so confused. They were being forced to make a choice about who Jesus was.
8 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Finishing up this week is finishing up this story. The almost addendum to the story is that Jesus was interested in going further than simply appreciating what the woman was doing for him, but he wanted to forgive her sins himself, right there.
Of course, the men at the table were concerned because the forgiveness of sins is something that is only in God’s portfolio, and to have this man doing it in front of them meant that he was taking the role of “Forgiver” upon himself. And they were exactly correct, that was specifically what he was doing.
Jesus never shied away from accepting his role as the son of God and, as we understand the Trinity, his placement amongst the Godhead. We have to agree with this if we are to call ourselves Christians in the great tradition of Christianity. We don’t get to demote Jesus to a lesser status and think that we are still finding our way through our Christian walk.
If this sounds harsh, I do apologize, but there are some basic tenets of Christianity that even our forebearers in Adventism had to wrestle with in order to finally become clear. The idea of the Trinity was one of them. Initially, they did not think the Trinity was something to be believed in. However, they came to the conclusion that if we were to honor the Biblical understanding of who Christ was, then we would have to obtain an understanding of Jesus as part of that Godhead.
In order to understand a text like the one above, we also must have a clear understanding that Jesus is God and has the ability to forgive sins, just as the father has that ability. This is why the men at the table were so confused. They were being forced to make a choice about who Jesus was.
- What is your understanding of Jesus and the Godhead?
- Does your understanding of the Trinity fall into the tradition of Christianity?
- How is the Trinity best described so that you might understand it?
By Pastor Timothy Gillespie
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