3rd Person Reciprocity: A Christian Obligation

Matthew 18:32-33 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

Third person reciprocity became better known through the movie Pay It Forward which was based on a book of the same name. The movie poster has this sentence, “When someone does you a big favor, don’t pay it back… pay it forward.” This is third person reciprocity put in more simple terms.

Reciprocity in general is an ancient economic system. Simply put it means if someone does something for you then you are obligated to do something equally valuable for them. If a wheat farmer needs fruit he will give a fruit farmer wheat after harvest expecting the fruit farmer to reciprocate with an equal value of fruit after the fruit is harvested.

In the case of third person reciprocity the wheat farmer would freely give his wheat to the fruit farmer as a gift to help the fruit farmer. The fruit farmer would then give fruit to someone else who needed help. There is an understood obligation to help others when someone has helped us. 

This is the teaching in the passage above. Read the story surrounding these verses and remember that this is Jesus' illustration of the Christian practice of third person reciprocity. We are obligated to give what Jesus has so freely given to us to others who are in need as we once were.

In a broader sense third person reciprocity is required of all people by God, because He has showered us all with His gifts of grace. This teaching is not just in the New Testament, it is all through the Bible. Deuteronomy 24:17-22 and Exodus 22:21-27 detail this requirement in the Mosaic Covenant. We who have received benefit from God in the past, even in our ancestors, must return the same to people in our present who are in need of it.  

Mercy... It's In God's Hands

Psalm 94:18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.

In God’s justice there is no choice or liberty for the accused. There is no help for the condemned. God's Justice is solid, unquestionable, irreversible, unchangeable… absolute. A person is tried by a perfect law, and judgment flows from an absolute purity in God called Holiness.

But since God's Grace and Mercy entered the scenario of life nothing has been solid in this existence except God, His Word, and His Sovereignty over the affairs of life. Life's experiences under Mercy's rule are fluid, questionable, reversible, changeable… mysterious to us. We can be forgiven...

The first man Adam, who justice condemned to die the very day he broke God's law, was, by God's mercy, allowed to live… but... for how long, and to what extent would he now be punished while he lived? Who decided when the penalty would finally be executed, and what the quality of his life would be while he lived under this Mercy? God. He alone decides when mercy ends and justice begins. We are indeed “at His mercy”.

There are those who would like to concretely say of every matter in life, “If you do that God will do this!” But... we live lives overwhelmed by Mercy not Justice. If it were Justice that ruled... well... we wouldn't be here would we? While we are under the pleasant rule of Mercy we do not always or often receive the punishment we deserve. But don't let the joys of God's mercy lull you to an apathetic sleep, for without the promises found in Jesus and His Gospel, withheld Justice will pile up like storm-water behind a dam of Mercy, a dam which God will one day remove, and unrestrained justice will flow.

For Mercy to exist there must be a Being who has all authority over justice, and, therefore, authority over all the affairs of mankind. This authority extends to the powers of death, hell, and the grave, and liberty from the same.

Forgiveness Jesus Style

Mark 2:5b Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

It has been my experience when people discuss forgiveness that they generally speak about the personal forgiveness of someone who has wronged them. This type of forgiveness is often more beneficial to the offended than it is to the offender. In fact, the offender may experience no change in life whatsoever because there has been no penalty or effect caused by their offense. This type of forgiveness is important, but it is not the type of forgiveness recorded here, and it is important to see the difference. This person had committed no personal offense against the man Jesus Christ. As far as we know, until this moment, they had never met.

This man's offense was a legal offense against God. This type of offense or crime has three basic parts:

1. A crime had been committed. In this case it was a breach of God's covenant with Israel.
2. The person had been justly tried, found guilty, and convicted. The jurisdiction for this judgment is located in the founding documents of the Covenant, specifically Leviticus 26.
3. The sentence required by justice was executed. This man was under sentence from God's government based on a breach of covenant.

In a case of this sort the forgiver must have the legal authority to forgive.

We must be clear about our offenses against God: they are legal and personal. We tend to think of forgiveness only in a personal way because we, generally, don't have the standing to legally forgive anyone. But Jesus does have that legal power. In this case the man was guilty of breaking God’s covenant with Israel, and was being punished for his sin. But he was forgiven… this means he was immediately released from his legal and moral guilt with its consequences. This is the kind of forgiveness we receive freely through the Gospel. But Gospel forgiveness is comprehensive since it includes all our sin, and every aspect of our guilt. And... it is everlasting.

"remembrance" The Power Of Delayed Consequences

art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, 1 Kings 17:18b

One of the great lessons my stepdad (the man I was honored to call "Dad") taught me was that delaying the consequences for wrong-doing can be a powerful tool for real change.

One experience has woven itself deep into the fabric of who I am. Dad was always up by 5am. Uncharacteristically, on that day so was I. I had known for a few agonizing days that he knew I had done something very wrong. He said nothing, and that delay allowed my guilty conscience to do its work. Part of that work was to break down my teenage defense and excuse mechanisms. The depth of my struggle was in direct proportion to my love and respect for him... and my need to be respected by him.

My shame had mangled my self-confidence, but I knew I had to look him in the eye, because he was that kind of man. So I looked him square in the face (I see his eyes even now) and asked if I could speak with him. He said, “Ok,” and just looked into my eyes… waiting. My pulse raced as I confessed my deed. His eyes never moved from my face as he said, “I wondered when you would decide to speak to me about this.” Then he spoke to my guilt with wisdom and discipline. Strange... but when it was all over, somehow I felt a little older, a little stronger, a little taller. After that he never spoke of it again, or gave the slightest hint that he remembered my wrong. All sons should be so blessed to have a father who forgets.

This word remembrance carries the weight of delayed consequences. It is translated from a few Hebrew terms meaning a past sin that is now officially remembered for judgment and punishment. In the case mentioned in this verse the woman had not forgotten her sin… and she knew God had not fogotten either. In her mind there was nothing she could do about it except wait for judgment to fall. Unlike her, we Christians can rise up early, kneel before our Father, and confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us… and remember our sin no more. 1 John 1:9; Hebrews 10:17

Hope Restored

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, ... he hath sent me … to set at liberty them that are bruised, Luke 4:18

Jesus said that. The word translated “bruised” is a word full of emotion. It literally means to be broken to pieces…. Shattered. And in this verse it means broken completely. Like a piece of pottery thrown to the ground and shattered because it no longer has value. But it is not a piece of pottery Jesus is talking about… it is a person. A broken person. A person trapped by circumstances to the point that all seems irreparably lost.

Sometimes life turns a corner into a cul-de-sac of stress, and help seems to have disappeared. The greatest loss is hope. This word "bruised" describes a life so shattered that there seems to be no way to put all the pieces back together. The rest of life seems filled with struggle and darkness. Life becomes prison.

In this passage Jesus didn’t say he came to preach liberty to the bruised, He said He was sent “to set them at liberty.” Putting a life back together is a "hands on" ministry for Jesus. And His graceful skill can bring life from broken pieces. His hands of mercy tenderly form a new life after forgiveness has swept the old life away... and with His touch the prison door is opened... and the journey that never ends begins.

He didn’t come as a physician to the well… He came to the sick… the bruised… the broken. And He is still touching lives today!

Jurisdiction To Forgive

Mark 2:5b Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Forgiveness in this passage is a specific type of forgiveness which cannot be given by just anyone. It is legal forgiveness: the forgiver has jurisdiction to forgive. A mother may want her much beloved, but legally convicted, son to be lawfully forgiven of his crimes, but she has no jurisdiction to forgive. It would be a crime for her to set him free.

Sin is a departure from God’s legal standard of uprightness or covenant obligations, and carries legal penalties. In this case the man was guilty of breaking Israel's covenant with God, and was suffering lawful punishment. But he was forgiven… which means he was released from his legal punishment and the record of his crime was expunged. It was as if the sin had never been committed. “Forgiven” in v. 5 is a perfect indicative verb which is “an action as standing at the time of speaking complete.” Burton

Forgiveness in our common usage is generally personal, because that's the forgiveness that is under our jurisdiction. So we tend to think of God's forgiveness in warm personal terms... But the forgiveness we receive from God was won in a cold, hard legal battle for our souls. We believers, who were all convicted sinners waiting for our execution, are now justly allowed to walk free. Our legal debts have been permanently expunged by the gospel work of Jesus Christ. True lasting forgiveness...