by Angus Harley

Here we see in live form what it is to love our enemies. Our Savior, crucified on the cross, calls upon the Father to forgive those who are in the process of murdering him. He does not pray to the Father for vengeance, nor call upon his disciples to take up arms. The cross of Jesus was the embodiment of the love of God to a rebellious world. Light in darkness, in itself a kind of proclamation to all to believe and repent.

The Romans, and most of the Jews, did not know what they were doing in crucifying Jesus. They did not understand who he was, nor comprehend his true mission as the Christ. They thought of him as nothing more than another Messianic fraud, yet another insurrectionist challenging Roman rule. So, he was arrested like a common robber, and crucified like a degenerate law-breaking murderer and agitator.

He who was pure love and light was effectively ‘made to be’ someone who was the incarnation of evil. Now, we know what the NT really teaches. Paul says that he who knew no sin “became sin on our behalf” (2 Cor.5:21). He was placed on the cross as if he were sin, as if he were a murderer, insurrectionist, and thief. But he was in actual fact none of those things. He bore our shame, our sin, taking upon him our status as evil ones. It is love for enemies that save souls!

Jesus did not, however, imply in his prayer that every single person was ignorant of God’s work through him. The Jews and Gentiles in general might have not understood who they were dealing with, and they did not bow down to his role as Savior, but a minority of Jews in particular despised and rejected the work of God through him in the Spirit. These Jews recast Jesus’ miraculous works as a Satanic operation. Jesus said of them that they will never be forgiven (Mark 3:28-30). They knew what they were doing, for they were blatantly rejecting the heavenly and divine work of God through his Spirit. They did so because they despised ‘the man’ and his message. On the cross, Jesus was not praying for those hardened Jews who blasphemed the Spirit, therefore.

It is important, too, that Jesus is understood to be praying, not pronouncing a benediction or blessing. It is the Father he prays to, interceding for his enemies to be forgiven. He is not by himself doing anything other than praying. It is the Father who, in this prayer, forgives, not the Son. However, Jesus’ prayer, here on the cross, is typically rendered to place Jesus first as the forgiver. And, by extension, the believer sees himself as the forgiving one, as if he were Jesus extending forgiveness. Neither scenario is present here, however. Forgiveness is from the Father through the Son. The Son was effectively saying, ‘Father, I have done your will. Now, glorify your name by forgiving sinners through my death.’

The text is also misunderstood to be a form of an appeal: ‘Father, please forgive them.’ Jesus is not making an appeal to the Father. As stated just before, the Son is calling upon the Father to execute the next stage in the plan of redemption: to forgive his enemies through the cross. This entails that Jesus’ intercession and prayer is not an appeal, but the execution of the will of God that will bring about what it calls for: the forgiveness of sins of God’s enemies. Jesus’ prayer is not a form of a football ‘Hail Mary’, a hopeful ‘throw of the ball’, nor a form of flinging his net into the sea in the hope of catching at least a few fish. For Jesus knew fine well that his death was the certainty of the salvation of his enemies!

Which brings us to the penultimate consideration. Forgiveness, contrary to much wishful thinking and sentimental practice, is not saying, ‘I forgive you’. Nowhere in the NT is anyone forgiven by you or I merely saying, ‘I forgive them.’ Jesus’ prayer was not a magical incantation that suddenly brought mystical forgiveness to his murderers. All of those that the Father will most certainly forgive must just as certainly repent and believe in Jesus. No confession of sin = no forgiveness! Once more, that is the purpose of Jesus’ prayer, for Jesus knows that his cross is the starting point of forgiveness of enemies, and there is, therefore, the certainty of many coming to faith in him.

On a very practical level, this is not only refreshing as a teaching, but is a huge relief to those who are oppressed. For, it is impossible for someone to forgive an enemy who has not repented. Or are the saints underneath heaven’s altar mistaken, even sinning, when they call out for vengeance (Rev.6:9-11)? Were John the Baptist, our Lord, and his apostles, wrong to call out sinners to repent? If forgiveness is accomplished by a mere verbal statement, then why did Jesus become sin on our behalf? Why the OT sacrificial system? As well-meaning as certain folks are, by insisting that forgiveness is essentially in their hands, by claiming a kind of divine authority for their own words, they have placed themselves into the role of Savior. Moreover, they have drowned the spiritual and primal instinct in the believer that recognizes the need for repentance. And, on a pastoral level, it crushes the grief and pain of someone who has suffered persecution, or whose loved one has died in the name of Christ, to suggest that forgiveness is possible without repentance.

So, by all means, let us have a forgiving spirit, knowing, as we do, that God’s forgiveness is not a possibility but a certainty in this world, yet, being humble enough to leave it to the Father himself to bring that forgiveness to those who truly repent.