36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
..............................................
In "trying to return to Christianity" I find myself struggling with many things. For one there seems a great deal of 'jumping to conclusions , 'reading between the lines', and everything being 'spiritual'.
To understand anything you must stay in context. Who, what, when and where.
In the passage I quoted above: Peter is talking to a crowd of people. The crowd is made up of a lot of people; more than just the particular group Peter is addressing. He tells them that all the bad things THEY did even the very murder of an innocent man was their fault. But (the innocent man was such a good guy that if alive he would have "forgiven" them their faults); and that is just what Peter tells then. If they would simply "admit they did wrong and change their ways" and then go and publicly "take a bath and wash that badness away" then they would be "forgiven".
*SIGH* REALLY?!!
So - you can kill some one, and because they were a great person in life; surely they would 'forgive' afterwards? - Don't get it?
THEN much later elsewhere I read various extrapolations by Paul; that REALLY it was not "just the crowd Peter was talking to" but Everyone is "forgiven their sins" just in believing Jesus was beat up and murdered in the first place, and that in life he was such a good person he would 'forgive you' - even though though YOU were not even there? By his stripes we were healed? How can someone else beating be okay for you? Because it wasn't you? Hummm...
I know people or should I say, I have watched on the News, like so many others; people would have lost loved ones to being murdered. Yet later they profess that they have 'forgiven' the killer. I suppose this is psychologically good in that the victims family members who profess this strive not to hold on to this extra bitterness of hatred along with dealing with the loss of their loved one.
Likewise, Jesus himself said, "Forgive them -------"
I know people or should I say, I have watched on the News, like so many others; people would have lost loved ones to being murdered. Yet later they profess that they have 'forgiven' the killer. I suppose this is psychologically good in that the victims family members who profess this strive not to hold on to this extra bitterness of hatred along with dealing with the loss of their loved one.
Likewise, Jesus himself said, "Forgive them -------"
But still I am trying to wrap my head around why and how - is this going to help me?
No comments:
Post a Comment