What Are You Mad About?

Titus 3:3-7

“Look at the way he’s parked! Somebody ought to slash his tires for parking like that.”

I was walking across a restaurant parking lot when I heard the above comments from a man about my age. Looking at the truck he was talking about, I realized it was parked with two wheels over the line of the parking space, but the vehicle beyond was also parked the same way. The driver probably had no choice. The parking lot was nearly empty, so it wouldn’t have mattered if the truck took up three or four spaces.

We constantly hear about instances of road rage, but that was probably as unfounded an attitude as I have heard. Only a person who has never made such a mistake has the right to get angry when someone else makes a mistake. I’ve made enough mistakes that I rarely have the right to get angry at someone else for their’s. To get angry about some one else making a mistake I’ve made is total hypocrisy. Romans 2:1-3 warns about such hypocrisy.

“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?”

It is essential that if we are going to train others to serve God, we be willing forgive the sins of others. Recognizing our own sin and understanding that Christ forgave us will make it much easier to forgive others. We need to be able to forgive ourselves, and to teach others to forgive. Christ forgave us for our sins, even though he had not committed any himself. Hebrews 4:15 is clear about this. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

Relating properly to other people, even errant government officials, and bad employers, is far easier if we realize our own sin. It was not our goodness that saved us, or even that caused Christ to do so.

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7)

Our sin made us God’s enemies, and deserved damnation. In mercy, God chose not to force the penalty on us. Instead he was willing to forgive us. By grace, he went beyond just forgiving us, and offered his love, and eternal life, even though it cost Christ’s life to do so. He paid our penalty, to the full extent. Romans 3:25 states, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”

Colossians 1:21-22 tells us he did this so we could come to him freely, with no enmity or guilt to separate us. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:”

If a sinless God could forgive us and love us despite our sin, we ought have the same kind of love for those he loves. I John 4:10-11 describes the attitude we ought to have. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

Recognizing what God has done for us ought to produce an attitude of forgiveness in us. I John 4:20 asks, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” He doesn’t understand or appreciate what God has done for him.