God's Amnesty: Forgive as You Were Forgiven

Summary

This Wednesday service in the days before Christmas opened with the angel's announcement to the shepherds and Simeon's prophecy that God's salvation was prepared for all peoples, even those once far off. The first message urged believers not to neglect doing good. Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Hebrews 13:16, and Galatians 6:10, the preacher reminded the church that the priest and the Levite passed by, but the Samaritan finished the work: he bandaged the wounds, paid the cost, and promised to return. We are called to help personally and right now, not to excuse ourselves with busyness.

The central message was titled 'Amnesty.' Seven hundred years before His birth Isaiah foretold the time of salvation, and in the Nazareth synagogue Jesus opened that scroll and declared that the acceptable year of the Lord had come (Luke 4, Isaiah 61). Amnesty is God's full pardon: the Judge lifts the sentence and tells the guilty one to go home free. By the law of liberty (James 2) we have been released, and that grace must reshape how we speak and act.

But the warning is sharp: judgment without mercy awaits anyone who refuses to show mercy. Like the servant forgiven ten thousand talents who then choked a fellow servant over a hundred denarii (Matthew 18), we must grant personal amnesty to those who have wronged us. The best Christmas gift, the preacher said, is to forgive from the heart, and to remember the many still locked in the prison of sin who need to hear of God's free pardon.

Key Points

• Christmas means the acceptable year of the Lord has come, and the prisoner of sin is set free.
• God's amnesty is given to us free, but it cost Christ the cross.
• Living under the law of liberty must change the way we speak and act.
• Forgive from the heart those who have wronged you personally, as the king forgave the servant.
• Judgment without mercy awaits anyone who refuses to show mercy.
• Do not neglect to do good; help your neighbor personally and immediately, like the Samaritan.
• The finest gift this Christmas is to release a grudge and to remember the lost still bound in sin.