Monday, May 12, 2014

Son, Your Sins are Forgiven

I'm reading a wonderful book right now by Adyashanti called Resurrecting Jesus, Embodying the spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic.  Adiyashanti is himself a modern day mystic and his take on Jesus's life and teachings is fresh and beautiful.



This morning I was reading in Resurrecting Jesus about a healing Jesus performed in Mathew 2:5.  In it, a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus for healing.  Jesus simply said to him, "Son, your sins are forgiven." and the man was healed.



Adyshanti points out that the word sins, at that time, had simpler connotations than they have been given in the following 2,000 years.  The original Greek meaning for the word hamartia or sin, was to miss the mark. Another meaning is simply the word flaw.  Our current meaning of sin is so much darker and deeper.  We think of our sins as being evil and they are strongly attached to feelings of shame and guilt.

What if, instead of thinking of sin as the source of guilt and upset in our lives, we merely choose to see the ways we have missed the mark?  After all, we are simply trying to do what it takes to survive and find a few comforts here in our earthly reality, our space and time reality.  We all make mistakes here, we misjudge, we miss the mark.  We all have flaws.  Having a flaw is not inherently evil.

Adyashanti makes a second point; that the paralytic had to do nothing to be healed by Jesus.  He was merely brought into Jesus' presence.  "And this is really Jesus's greatest healing power, the power of his presence."

Jesus bestows his forgiveness on people as a kind of healing balm.  For a human being to receive true forgiveness is a potent thing.  When the forgiveness is authentic, it has a very deep and powerful effect.  Sometimes another forgives us, and sometimes we are called to forgive ourselves so that we can move on in a really heartful way.  When we repent (repent means to have a change of heart), our sin (missing the mark) is forgiven.  Then we are realigned with the wisdom of the unified heart.  --Adyashanti

Adyashanti goes on to say:

The healing balm is forgiveness; that's what heals the flaw.  That's what allows us to rebalance ourselves, to find our equilibrium-- psychic, emotional and spiritual.  That is really what Jesus does: he is righting the person,  helping them to quickly find internal balance.  When they find balance, when their inner state is unified, the healing takes place.

I really enjoy Adyashanti and I admire what he has to say here, but I think he misses one important point in what Jesus has to say.  The first word that Jesus says to this man is Son.  Jesus addresses him as Son, not as in "young man", after all, Jesus himself was only 30 at the time.  But rather as Son, Son of God, the Son of God, an essential member and vibrant part of the Sonship.

When Jesus uses the word Son, he is reminding the paralytic of his true identity, and Jesus is raising his own thinking.  He doesn't see a poor broken sinner in front of him.  Rather, he sees a true Son of God, one whom God created in his own image and whom is loved by God infinitely.  This man is just as God created him to be.  He is perfect, whole and complete.  He is eternal, everywhere and always, unchanging in his true state.

Let our own forgiveness be as Jesus's.  Let us know that everyone misses the mark sometimes.  We all have flaws.  Let us always be firmly anchored in the presence of the divine which resides in each of us.  And finally, let us look deep into the mind of our trespassers and know their deepest truth.  They are Sons of God.  

1 comment:

  1. INHERITED SIN (ORIGINAL SIN) BY STEVE FINNELL

    Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. Does all mankind inherit Adam's sin?

    The doctrine of "Inherited Sin" (Original Sin) is as follows: The guilt of Adam's sin is imputed to all men. Man is by nature totally depraved. Even infants in their mother's womb are infected, which produces in man all sorts of sin. Original sin is forgiven only by baptism, hence when an unbaptized baby dies it cannot enter the kingdom of God.


    Is inherited sin taught in Scripture or is it a man-made tradition?


    If all men are born sinners, that would make Jesus guilty of sin.


    WAS JESUS GUILTY OF SIN?


    Hebrews 2:9-17 .......17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.


    Jesus was made like us in all things. According to the advocates of inherited sin, that would make Jesus guilty of sin.


    Hebrews 7:24-26 but Jesus....26 For it was fitting for us to have a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;


    Jesus was not guilty of original sin or any other kind of sin.


    There are only two kinds of sin mentioned the Bible sins of omission and committed sins.


    SINS OF OMISSION


    James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
    Matthew 25:41-46 'Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared foe the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink..................


    Are infants guilty of the sin of omission? Obviously not.


    COMMITTED SINS


    1 John 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.


    Do babies, in their mother's womb, practice sin? I do not think so.


    John 3:19 This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.


    Do infants love the darkness because their deeds are evil? I know of not one infant committing evil deeds.


    John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.


    Are babies in the womb committing sins, therefore making themselves slaves to sin? No they are not.


    Colossians 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,


    Did the apostle Paul mean they were engaged in evil deeds when they were in the womb, infants, or small children? No.


    Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."


    It the proponents of inherited sin (original sin) are correct, Jesus was saying; the kingdom of heaven belongs to these totally depraved little sinners.


    When we all stand before Jesus on Judgment Day, if we are condemned, it will be because of our own unforgiven sins. We will not be sent to hell because of Adam's sin.


    INHERITED SIN (ORIGINAL SIN) IS MAN-MADE DOCTRINE.


    YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. http//:steve-finnell.blogspot.com

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