What are you doing when you ask God to forgive your sins and why do you seek forgiveness in the first place? The word in Greek that is used in this passage is aphes which means to leave alone, to send away, depart, or release. In Aramaic the word Jesus used when He asked the Father to forgive the soldiers who were torturing Him was shavaq which is an Aramaic word for divorce or ending a marriage. It is used to express the idea of annulment as well as to pardon. Both words have the idea of a pardon. A pardon relieves one from the consequences of their criminal act, but they still carry a criminal record. The president of the United States or a governor has the power to pardon a criminal to release him from the consequences of his crime, but not to remove the criminal record. That is a judiciary function. A judge needs to decide whether or not to expunge or purify his record.

 

When I was a child I recall my father had a close friend. They would minister together at the mission, pass out Gospel tracts and my father always talked about what a great Christian old Al was. They also shared a business in real estate together. I am not sure of the circumstances but one day Al and his wife packed up, sold everything purchased a house trailer and just traveled around the country, owing my father over $5,000 which in those days was a lot of money. My father never said anything but a couple years later Al showed up at our door. I overheard the conversation. Al was apologizing to my father and promised to make good on the money. My father’s reply was that money was never the issue, he forgave him long ago. He was only hurt that this money somehow destroyed their friendship and how he really missed their fellowship together. I learned that day that forgiveness is not enough, there must be a cleansing. I John 1:7 tells us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. The word used there in Aramaic is madaka which means to purge or expunge the sin from your life. My father forgave his old friend, but Al had to repent in order to have that offense cleansed from their relationship.

Tomorrow evening until Saturday evening the Jews will not just be asking God to forgive their sins but will be repenting when they do. Some say Jews do not believe in an afterlife. Well, they are wrong about that, they do but they do not focus on that, obtaining freedom from hell and gaining heaven is not why they are repenting and asking for cleansing on Yom Kippur. They do not even want to discuss the afterlife as they want their repentance to be solely on a restoration of their relationship with God.

 

Why do you seek forgiveness? To escape hell, hope God blesses you with a better life and gives you health and prosperity. Or do you take the Jewish approach seeking a total cleansing so you can enjoy a relationship with God?

 

On Yom Kippur, we will be posting our Torah Study on a Christian approach to Yom Kippur on our All Access site in both audio and printed form. Consider joining us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com