Forgiven

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

FORGIVEN

Luke 23:32-34

32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals — one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

NIV

The greatest crime here is crucifying an innocent man. These Romans who executed this horrible act knew Jesus was not a criminal by their commanders own words, yet because of the insistence of the Jews he was hanging on the cross until he was dead. Two types of transgressions here that Jesus is asking the Father to forgive. That of the Jews and that of the Romans. Yet in asking for their forgiveness, Jesus also says they did not know want they were doing. This has so much truth in the sense they had no idea they were fulfilling the will of God concerning his plan to redeem mankind, his plan to bring them salvation, his plan to allow them a path back to eternal life, which he took from Adam because of his disobedience. This moment in the course of time as defined by man, was the completion of Gods plan. There is nothing more God need to do in order for us to experience that which he created Adam to be, an eternal being. Could it be that Jesus was saying they simple did not know they were doing what God wanted them to do and this is why they needed to be forgiven? Not knowing the will of God is certainly something we need forgiveness from. The Jews had all they needed to know the will of God, yet they lived in their ignorance of it, or they ignored his will for the purpose of fulfilling their own will. Today all of mankind has everything they need to know the will of God concerning them. Many of us have his Holy Word, the bible so that all we need to do is read all about his will concerning us. Those who have never seen the bible, or know of its existence, still have all they need, for what may be known about God is plain to them, so that no man is without excuse. We have no excuse not to know the will of God. If then we know his will and forsake it for our own, then we are certainly in need of this prayer of Jesus. But would that prayer be enough to forgive those who persecute Christians? It seems there could be no worse persecution then what was being done to Jesus. Did God forgive them without any repentance on their part? We know there is no other way back to God then through Jesus, accepting him as the Son of God, as our Savior. Neither the Jews nor the Romans traveled that path, so it may well not have been an asking for forgiveness of their transgressions but rather the fact they were not aware of or refused to find out the will of God. We cannot afford to live in either ignorance of or refusal to seek the will of God concerning our life. First and foremost it is to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, to travel that path back to God and to eternal life. Anything else in life is simple icing on the cake. We talk about his will for our lives in regard to all sorts of daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and even lifetime activities. Where we live, work, worship and what type of service we are to perform within the body of Christ. We talk about his ordering our footsteps in that same sense for our lives. We talk about his sovereignty. But we still keep asking regarding all those things as to what is his will for us. Will he guide our daily lives? The answer to all that is yes, but the point here is that Jesus is the path back to God and that is the only true path we need to travel. Once we step onto that path, we are in fact already with God and he is with us. We have already accomplished his will for us and we have gained that eternal life Jesus died on the cross for. We have been forgiven. First for all our sin, but more importantly for not seeing the will of God concerning us.