Let us now return to the types of forgiveness we listed earlier and begin to put some meat on the bones, to offer a few practical tips as we explore the principles of jubilee forgiveness. Here is a review of the four different types of forgiveness which we outlined previously.
1. There is conditional forgiveness.
2. There is distant forgiveness.
3. There is partial forgiveness.
4. There is what I call jubilee forgiveness.
Conditional forgiveness is self-explanatory. It is when we place conditions on forgiving someone. “I will forgive you when you…” (do this, that, or tell me you’re sorry, or…whatever conditions we put on the perceived offender).
Secondly, there is distant forgiveness. We are not referring to geographical distance. Here we are talking about emotional distance. In other words, there might be some degree of feeling less negative about a person, but there is no reconciliation or restoration of a relationship with the one who offended you. We are very distant emotionally from the offender.
Of course, that could include some physical distance as well, such as when a husband and wife separate. After a while of being separated, they might have less animosity towards one another, but that is about the extent of it. It is distant forgiveness.
Next is partial forgiveness. Here we find that there is a considerable lessening of negative emotions toward the offender. There is a partial restoration of a relationship. This might happen in a marriage where a spouse has been unfaithful.
They might work through it to a great extent, but in many (not all) cases like that, partial forgiveness is about as far as it goes. Consequently, the marriage relationship will never have the original innocence, the trust, and bond of intimacy that it once had.
Finally, there is “jubilee forgiveness.” We call it jubilee forgiveness because jubilee is a biblical term with which all Christians should become familiar. Other people use other terms for it which help us to define it. They might call it full forgiveness; or complete forgiveness; or total forgiveness.
Most importantly, it is unconditional forgiveness. This means that there is a complete cessation of negative feelings toward the offender and, when possible, the relationship is fully restored. Years ago, we presented a series of four parts where we studied in great detail the laws of jubilee.
We mentioned this earlier, so to repeat the offer, we have four lectures on CDs on the Laws of Jubilee. They are number CDs #271, 272, 275 & 276. You can obtain those for $20 + $7 s & h. Or you can obtain those four in an album which includes our two lectures concerning the doctrine of the eons, subtitled: How Long Is “Forever?”.
All six of the above lectures are available in album #A-101 The Doctrine of the Eons/Ages and The Laws of Jubilee 6-CD set. $26+ $7 s & h. The Doctrine of the Eons/Ages is likewise essential to understanding biblical universalism. Eventually we will also put them into blog-essays here; but we cannot give any time frame on that.
To summarize those four lectures jubilee lectures in a couple of sentences, it would be this: Our heavenly Father looks upon all sin as a debt. It is a debt that we cannot ever repay. But by His law of jubilee, there comes a time when Father declares a jubilee, which means that every person is unconditionally forgiven and returns to his inheritance.
In the Old Testament, this had direct reference to the land inheritance of each Israelite family, but as our veteran students understand, when viewed in its typological significance, it has far greater—indeed, cosmic and universal application.
Romans 10: 19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
By this series on forgiveness, it is my purpose to provoke you to jealousy. Of course, I do not mean that I am trying to provoke you to sin, but rather to strongly motivate you to become jubilee forgivers.
20 But Esaias [Isaiah] is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
You see, the secular world, the non-believers, non-Christian social scientists are discovering that complete forgiveness benefits the one doing the forgiving more than the one receiving the forgiveness. And so my purpose here is to say:
“Hey Christians, take notice, we have had these principles and instructions right here in our Bibles all along, and now the secular world is discovering godly principles.”
In other words, as God said: “I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.”
How much more, then, should we as Christians be regularly practicing these principles. Furthermore, as we have stated numerous times over many years, to be an overcomer, one must put into practice the law of jubilee, and so I hope that this series will provide us with some very practical advice on learning just how to do that, to be… jubilee forgivers.
From a practical standpoint, let us now define what jubilee forgiveness is not. So under the heading “Jubilee forgiveness is not,” you could make a note…
1. It is not condoning the wrong that has been done.
To be a jubilee forgiver in no way means that we ever approve of sin. God does not and neither did the Son of God. We have an example of this in the New Testament in the story in the gospel of John, chapter 8, of the woman caught in adultery. Did the woman commit sin? Absolutely.
We won’t take the time to explain here just how Jesus used the law itself to free her—we have discussed that in other messages—but the point here is that even though Jesus forgave her, He did not condone her sin. He asked her: Hath no man condemned thee?
John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
So God forgives us but He does not condone our sins. We should do likewise with those who sin against us. On a practical level, this is not much of a problem, because when we have been offended or injured, about the last thing most of us feel like doing is condoning their actions against us, true or false?
2. Jubilee forgiveness is not excusing what they did.
As we are attempting to be full forgivers, we do not make excuses for the sins of others. A family member or friend may have a problem with alcohol or drugs and while under the influence, they may have injured you.
We work to forgive them, but that does not mean that we excuse their behavior such as by saying to them or to ourselves that “Well, I know he can’t help it. I guess he just inherited the alcoholism gene from his dad.”
To use a Southern colloquialism, “that dog don’t hunt.” We know that the Bible says that the sins of the fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation and so it is quite possible that there may be some kind of genetic inheritance and/or disposition to certain sins.
But let me share this with you. In the world of biological science, there is a term called genetic determinism. For the past many decades it has been THE central dogma of biology that life is controlled by our genes. As Christians, we know or should have known that was bogus.
On the contrary and in fact, it is our faith, our beliefs determine our life-path. Now comes a Ph.D. biologist, who although in the past has been considered somewhat of a renegade or heretic in the scientific community, is now garnering much more respect.
He recently wrote that he was “exhilarated by a new realization that I could change the character of my life by changing my beliefs.” Well, what does the Bible say?
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…
This Ph.D. biologist is not a Christian—yet. But what he is discovering should again provoke Christians to jealousy. He also wrote “my research offers incontrovertible proof that biology’s most cherished tenets regarding genetic determinism are fundamentally flawed.”
Translation: the idea that we can blame our bad behavior on our genes is false. So whether we want to excuse a person’s behavior because of their genes or anything else, that dog don’t hunt. We can forgive at the highest level without excusing their behavior.
Now the scientist that made that statement then goes on in his book to demonstrate that his research is turning the world of cell biology upside down. Roxanne and I had met him on two occasions—in the late 1980s and again ca. 1991 when he was giving three-hour lectures to (very) small groups in Asheville. We had the lectures on VHS tapes, but the author finally self-published it in book form.
At this point, I am not even going to mention his name or the book title. Years ago, I briefly considered offering his book. Ultimately, I chose not to because along with some exciting insights into the world of cell biology as it relates to mind, matter, and consciousness, the book also contains some ideas diametrically opposed to the Scriptures.
So I don’t want to be providing the opportunity to overthrow the faith of some. Nor do we want Stone Kingdom Ministries to be accused of promoting some of his false ideas and theories. You do understand my dilemma, I trust.
(To be continued.)
