Christian Living

PART 2 FORGIVENESS

by james rondinone 
09/25/26
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When Unbelievers Mistreat Us, Should Our Response Reflect the Words Jesus and the Deacon Stephen Proclaimed to God the Father?

When I think of the ultimate example of forgiveness, I think of Jesus dying on the cross, paying the price for my sins through the sacrifice of His very life, while not expecting anything in return.

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

All humankind was considered criminal in the sense of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, having disobeyed God’s directive in the Garden of Eden by eating the prohibitive fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result was that humanity could no longer fellowship with God, having become self-centered and self-serving, thereby choosing to make decisions based on thoughts, words, and actions that were generated by themselves and not divinely initiated.

Before Christ’s death on the cross, heaven was closed to those who died a natural death, as did all people except two human beings, Enoch and Elijah. Let’s take a look at each of their lives.

ENOCH

Genesis 5:21-22

He was the great-grandson of Enos. Apparently, he was an unbeliever concerning his relationship with Yahweh for sixty-five years. And then, after the birth of his son Methuselah, who lived the longest of any human being, he walked with God for three hundred years and had more children.

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

Something significant happened in his life. What was it that changed his perception about himself and his witness before others? He had an encounter with God. This was not a short-term allegiance. He continued following Him until the day of his death. Scripture tells us thatsomething amazing happened to him, which is revealed in the book of Hebrews.

11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Because he lived a life of faith, he was translated (didn’t partake of physical death), and before he was removed from the earth, he had this testimony (witness) that he pleased God. The word pleased indicates a few things:

●his conduct was pleasing to God

●he caused God to be happy with him because of what he had done

●he pleased God's heart

ELIJAH

2 Kings 2:11

He was a prophet in the 9^th century B.C. during the reigns of King Ahab and King Ahaziah of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

While Elijah was talking to Elisha, his disciple, he went up into heaven by a whirlwind. The word whirlwind means a storm with lightning and thunder.

What we can deduce about both of them is that they escaped the curse of death.

What is the curse of death?

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of 2^nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

A payment was needed to address the sin issue so that the hostilities between mankind and God would be removed by the satisfying of His justice, whereby human beings would no longer be held accountable for the debt of sin that they owed. So, God had a plan to address the issue of sin. One of the Trinity members, Jesus Christ, would leave heaven and come to the earth, being born of a virgin and conceived by another member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This begs the question.

If heaven was closed, where did the spirits of those who died go?

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke.

Suggested Reading: Luke 16:19-26

22-23 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.                                                                   

Up to this time in human history, the destiny of the souls of the human race who died naturally would go to one of two places in hell following physical death. One of the compartments was described as a place of torments for those who didn’t believe in God as He revealed Himself to them during their existence on the earth. The other place was called Abraham’s bosom, where the souls of those who believed in Yahweh in their lifetime would go.

As this parable suggests, the rich man was an unbeliever, and the beggar, albeit living an impoverished life, evidently believed in Yahweh. Subsequently, the rich man resided in a place of excruciating physical pain while the beggar went to a confined, yet safer holding place, called Abraham’s bosom. This begs the question.

Did Jesus refer to either of these places when He was on the cross?

Please turn to the book of Luke.

Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Jesus, before He died on the cross by the giving up of His s  pirit, was asked by one of the two criminals who were also hanging on crosses to the left and right of Him, each being condemned to death, to remember him when He entered His kingdom. He responded by saying to the one on His right, named Dismas, that to day he would be with Him in paradise.

Where is paradise?

Luke 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

When the sacrifice for sin was finished, Christ gave up the ghost (human spirit) and preached (made an official announcement) to the spirits in prison.

Where is this prison located?

As indicated in Luke 16:23, in a compartment of hell.

Who are these spirits in prison?

There are at least two different opinions about this.

One inference is found in the book of 2 Peter.

●They could be fallen angels, angels who were cast down to hell (Tartaroosas) in a section known as Tartarus.

2 Peter 2:4-5 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Some commentators describe them as supernatural beings, i.e., fallen angels.

Genesis 6:1-2 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

They are denoted by the expression, the sons of God. The goal of whom was to make ineffectual the lineage from which the Messiah would come. Most commentators dismiss this rendering.

●Others suggest that the spirits (pneumasin) were the souls (disembodied spirits) of humans (unbelievers in Noah’s time) who rejected God’s message of deliverance over a period of 120 years by means of an ark that was being built as a refuge from the upcoming judgement of a cataclysmic flood because of the wickedness of mankind (of man’s total and universal depravity).

Some would disagree with this analysis, arguing that when the word spirits are used elsewhere in the New Testament, it refers to humans in a non-disembodied state, as indicated in Hebrews 12:9.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

This brings us to a question.

With that said, did Jesus go anywhere else when He went to hell?

Yes. He went to the place in hell where the righteous spirits of the dead dwelt, which was Abraham’s bosom or the name paradise that He proclaimed on the cross.

Some would argue that there’s no other scriptural proof that hell is comprised of two compartments, i.e., of the spirits of the righteous and unrighteous dead.

Is this true?

Please turn to the book of Psalms.

Psalms 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

This psalm was written by King David. The Hebrew word for hell is li-Sha^a,owl from She-hole, meaning Hades or the world of the dead. Evidently, he was aware that such a place existed. This verse was also mentioned in the New Testament book of Acts.

Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

In this context, one of the meanings of the word hell is the state of separate spirits, which might imply that there were two separate compartments containing the spirits of the dead.

So, there does appear to be scriptural proof that hell consisted of two separate compartments, one containing the spirits of the unrighteous dead and the other housing the spirits of the righteous dead.

This brings us to another question.      

What happened to the spirits of the Old Testament saints, who, before they died, believed in Yahweh or the non-risen Christ? Are they still in paradise or Abraham’s bosom?

Let’s take another look at 1 Peter 3:18-19.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

Being put to death in the flesh (in His physical body), Christ was quickened by the Spirit. The word quickened refers to bodily resurrection. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the agent of Christ’s resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.          

After three full days, Christ’s human spirit re-entered his physical body (bodily resurrection) at which time there occurred a physical change. It still had flesh and bones, and He was still able to eat food, but other than that, it was totally different from the original bodily form. The differences now are that it was no longer subject to decay and death. It was immortal, no longer subjected to earthly conditions.

Acts 1:1-5 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Jesus remained on the earth for forty more days, being witnessed by the apostles. One very important instruction that He gave to them was that they were to wait at Jerusalem for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

He was also witnessed by more than five hundred brethren.

Ephesians 4:8-9 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

After His time on the earth in His resurrected form, He ascended into heaven along with the release of the righteous spirits of the dead, the captivity (the body of captives) from paradise/Abraham’s Bosom, where Satan had held them captive.

By inference, we could conclude that every person in the Old Testament who died naturally and didn’t believe in Yahweh or Jesus during His incarnation went to a place of torments in hell, except Enoch and Elijah. Likewise, those who believed in Yahweh or Jesus had their disembodied spirits released from paradise/Abraham’s Bosom and entered heaven at some point in relation to Jesus’ ascension to the heavenly abode.

John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

During His public ministry, Jesus listened to and obeyed the directives of another member of the Trinity, God the Father.

Luke 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The teaching about a coming new kingdom, one which cometh not with observation but was to be resident within people, was declared. And miracles were performed, which evidenced that He was sent from His Father.

John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The initial perception of the Jews concerning His person and work was that He might be their Messiah, having been born of two parents just as other humans, who’d eventually become their earthly king that would engage and overthrow their enemies and set up an earthly kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. But they rejected Him because of blasphemy, i.e., His claim that God was his Father, thus putting Himself on an equal level with Him. To the Jews, their God had no equal. To be equal with God (Yahweh) suggested two Gods, i.e., polytheism. 

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.                                                                             

Jesus was condemned to death and eventually nailed to a cross to carry out this sentence. And while He hung there, during a three-hour period in which darkness pervaded the atmosphere, He was judged spiritually, receiving the punishment due to the debt of sin owed by mankind.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.                  

He was made to be sin for us, not in the sense that He was sin itself, but as a sacrifice, a sin offering. The debt was not only paid but forgiven.

With that in mind, here’s a question to consider.

What does it mean that all of humanity’s sins have been forgiven?

Please turn in your Bible to the book of Colossians.

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

And you, the believers at Colosse, who before salvation, were continually dead (spiritually dead) in your sins and the sinful nature of your flesh (body), of which uncircumcision is a sign. However, when you repented and believed in Christ, has he (God the Holy Spirit) quickened (made you alive) together with him (Christ), having already forgiven (wiped away; blotting out the record) you all trespasses (actual definite transgressions or deviations from truth or uprightness), when Christ paid the debt owed and canceled it on the cross. It’s clear from this passage that all of humanity’s sins were erased on the cross. Their record of them is no more.

And what was Christ’s response to those who rejected Him?

Please turn to the book of Luke.

Luke 23:34

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

Many Christians, when trying to determine how they should react to unbelievers who have rejected their presentation of the gospel and decided to persecute them for their faith, look to Jesus as to how He would respond and subsequently what their response should be like. Jesus prayed to the Father and said, forgive them. The word forgive in Koine Greek means to give up a debt. Barnes’ Notes says that this word implies that Jesus prays that God would pardon those who [injured Him] and save them from their sins.³This brings us to the following question.

Is there an example in Scripture of a believer responding similarly?

Please proceed to the book of Acts.

Suggested Reading: Acts 6:8-16; 7:1-60

Acts 6:8-10 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

This story was about a man named Stephen, who, along with six other men, was chosen by the church members at Jerusalem to assist in the daily administration of food and money to the widowed Grecian Jews (Jewish immigrants to Palestine - those who spoke Greek). As God enabled him to perform great wonders and miracles among the people, he became embroiled in an argument with certain synagogue members, known as the synagogue of the Libertines (free men), who were at one time enslaved people. They couldn’t resist (able to answer) the wisdom (the knowledge of the Scriptures) of which he spoke; the words of such were given to him by the Holy Spirit). So, they decided to bribe certain people to accuse him of speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. This caused such a stir among those in attendance that he was apprehended and brought before the Sanhedrin (the judicial court of the Jews).

Acts 7:59-60 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The council members asked him if he had spoken evil against Moses and God. While he was responding to these allegations, they became so incensed with what he was saying that they grabbed him, took him outside of Jerusalem, and stoned him to death. Before his demise, he knelt and cried with a loud voice, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. In Koine Greek, the words Lord, lay not this sin to their charge means that he was praying to God the Father while confirming the response of his mentor, Jesus, to Him, when He was on the cross, that He not exact punishment toward them or hold it against them regarding their actions with the view toward their salvation.

Jesus and Stephens’ responses are similar, if not identical. Both were condemned to death. And those in authority carried the sentence out.

What can we deduce from these situations?

Some would say that when we’re in a similar case, we should pray to God the Father that no harm should come to the perpetrators.

This is the DILEMMA in the Christian church regarding what it means to forgive others. If we follow the example of Jesus and Stephen, we should respond the way they did whenever someone injures us. Right? Forgive [give the matter (the debt owed to us) over to God the Father that He not require judgment with a view that they’ll witness a gracious reply to their indiscretions and respond to His invitation of salvation] and then forget about the incident. However, Scripture appears to indicate that forgiveness (the manner of such) depends on who the perpetrator is, whether they’re unbelievers or Christians, and the situation at hand.

When I was discussing this with my daughter, Renee, who’s a Christian, she responded with the thought that she didn’t know there was a difference as to whether the offender was unsaved or not. Is there? Let’s find out as we proceed to the following chapter and discuss how Christians should respond to unbelievers when they’ve been persecuted for their faith.

But before we do, I’d like to leave you with a story presented by someone in my youth, who was an incredible radio storyteller. He’d begin by telling the audience about a situation that appeared to have a certain ending. Then, a commercial would be brought forth, followed by an unexpected statement or outcome, and the famous expression, “And now you know the rest of the story!” Do you have any idea who I’m talking about? Let’s find out.

The name of this person is Paul Harvey. He was born in 1918 at Tulsa, Oklahoma. His radio newscasts began during WWII and continued for 50 years. Here’s one of the broadcast writings, a Christmas story that presents an unexpected analogy and assumed ending.

THE PARABLE OF THE BIRDS

The Christmas Story, the way it's usually told -- God, born a man in a manger, and all of that -- escapes some [moderns,] mostly, I think, because they seek complex answers to their questions, and this one is so utterly simple. So, for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced, I'd like to submit this modern parable.

The man I'm talking about was not a scrooge, now. He was a kind, [decent, mostly] good man; generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just did not believe in all of that Incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just did not make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He could not swallow the Jesus story about God coming to [earth] as a man.

He told his wife, “I’m truly sorry to distress you, but I’m just not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite, that he’d much rather just stay home, but that he would wait up for them. [So,] he stayed, and they went to the midnight service.

Now, shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier. Then he went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.

Minutes [later, he was startled by a thudding sound,] and then another; then, yet another. At [first,] he thought somebody must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled out there, miserably, in the snow. They had been caught in the storm. In a desperate search for shelter, they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. That was what had been making the sound.

Well, he couldn’t let those poor creatures just lie there and freeze. So, he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter. All he would have to do is direct the birds into that shelter. Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes, and he tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. And he opened the doors wide. And inside the barn, he turned on a light so the birds would know the way in.

But the birds did not come in.

So, he figured that food would entice them. He went back into the house and fetched bread crumbs and sprinkled those on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to the yellow-lighted, [wide-open] doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs. The birds just continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them -- he could not. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around [them,] waving his arms, but instead they scattered in every direction -- every direction except into the warm, lighted barn. And that's when he realized that they were afraid of him.

They were afraid of him.

To [them,] he reasoned, I'm a strange, terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to hurt them but to help them. But how? Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

And he thought to himself,

“If only I could be a bird now,” – “I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language and tell them not to be afraid, then I could show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them, wouldn't I? [So,] they could see, and hear, and understand.”

At that [moment,] the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.

And he sank to his knees in the snow.

Paul Harvey -- I hope for you and those you [love;] this will be a wonderfully Merry Christmas.⁴

Like this story, I hope this book brings about an unexpected ending, not in the sense of a person changing their perspective about God coming in the flesh, although that would be fantastic, but what it means to give up a debt.

Endnotes

³Barnes’ Notes. Pc Study Bible version 5, 2006. BIBLESOFT. WEB. 19 April 2023

˂http://www.biblesoft.com>.

⁴Paul Harvey. “The Parable of the Birds,” American Rhetoric 11/12/24

<https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/paulharveychristmasparable.htm>.