5 The Lord said to Moses, 6 “Say to the Israelites: ‘When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty 7 and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged...’”
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
In my two previous blog posts, I continued a new series of posts using these words:
Recently, on this blog site, I’ve written quite a bit about confession, repentance, restitution, and reconciliation. These four individual elements form an interdependent and interlocking, life-sustaining process that some have called “The Circle of Forgiveness.” This process becomes a very important part of the pathway for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is to say a “Christian” or “Christ-one”—to develop into a fully obedient citizen of the Kingdom of God.At the same time, each of these elements offers its own set of challenges to our normal understanding. While the basis for the fundamental morality of the United States has deep roots into the Judeo-Christian values, time has tended to soften or distort some of the directness of certain of those values. As a result, people end up with a skewed or distorted view of what these values really mean.
“Restitution” is another such value. It is also the least talked about and least recognized and least accepted element in the “Circle of Forgiveness.” While people will often consider the possibility that they may need to confess their sins, and will even contemplate the idea that they need to turn their backs on theirs sins in repentance, they simply cannot—or will not—consider the idea that when they have harmed someone they must make it right.
“Wait a minute!” you interrupt. “I read the Scripture passages at the beginning of your blog post. The first one comes from the Book of Numbers. It appears to me to be part of the Mosaic Law that God gave to His chosen people, Israel. I’m a New Testament Christian. I am not under the Law. I’m under grace. That Old Testament requirement regarding restitution certainly doesn’t apply to me.”
Let me see if I understand your position. Because the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law in our behalf and paid the penalty for our sins, we no longer need to direct any of our attention to the principles of righteousness that the Law contains. Is that what you’re saying? If so, I simply don’t agree.
Of course we are under grace and not under the penalty of the Law. But, when the Law gives us conceptual guidance regarding practices that help us perfect the righteousness imputed to us in Christ Jesus, we do well to heed what the Law has to say. Such is the case with “restitution.”
Think carefully about what I am saying. You commit a sin against someone. In so doing you harm that one in some way. Then the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin. In response, you confess your wrongdoing to God and to the one you have harmed. Then, you take the next step and turn your back on that sin, determining to avoid repeating it. The third step in the “Circle of Forgiveness” requires you to make right the harm you have done. Let me give you an example.
Let’s say that you have taken some action that has deprived someone of her employment. You didn’t necessarily intend to infllict harm. Rather, you followed someone else’s lead and took action based on erroneous information that other person gave you. You now understand that the information you acted on was a lie. And, you recognize that you failed in your fiduciary responsibility to more carefully review the information you were given.
You should have insisted to see proof of what you were being told. In this failure to be more careful, you sinned. You have confessed your sin and repented of it. Now, to take the next step, you must champion the cause of restoring the one your actions harmed to her job. You have participated in damaging her reputation. You must now do everything in your power to repair and restore her reputation.
Here’s another example. More than 40 years ago, when I served on the fire department in the southern tier of New York State, one of our fire police officers was also a New York State Conservation Officer. One evening, he told me a story of how he had received a telephone call from one of the professors at a nearby college. The professor was calling to report that the Holy Spirit had convicted him of a sin he had committed and prompted him to confess. The professor explained that he had shot a deer out of season. He was calling the Conservation Officer in order to confess.
As the conversation drew to a close, the Conservation Officer told the professor that he would meet him at the Justice of the Peace’s office in the morning to process the paperwork, so the professor could pay the several hundred dollar fine. Suddenly the professor seemed aghast. It seemed as if the professor thought that confession was all that he would need to do to clear his conscience. The Conservation Officer told him that he still had to make restitution to the State of New York for his crime.
You see restitution is part of the forgiveness process. If you ignore restitution, you can’t move on to the final step in the “Circle of Forgiveness.” Said another way, without following the pathway of confession, repentance, and restitution, you can’t receive restoration.
I urge you with every ounce of sincerity that I possess. If you desire to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit with regard to your sins, do not leave out the vital and necessary step of “restitution.”
Oh, I realize that sometimes you will not be able to provide restitution. Too much time may have passed. The person you sinned against may have moved away or even died.
Nevertheless, in every situation you need to very thoroughly and carefully consider the steps you might be able to take to bring restitution for the sins you have committed. Where you have harmed someone’s reputation, correct that error. If you have told ten people a lie about someone, you must go back to those ten people and correct the lie.
You won’t really have to think all that hard before God will reveal to you exactly what you need to do. After all, God wants you to receive “restoration.” So, He wants you to complete all the steps along the way around the “Circle of Forgiveness.”
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Thank you for giving us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
We ask Your Holy Spirit to help us understand the depth of harm our sins may have caused others. As we confess our sins to You, and as we repent of our sins—turning our backs on those sins—we ask You to guide us so we may provide restitution for our sins. We understand we will not always be able to make full and complete restitution because it is now far too late to correct the damage we have done. In those cases, help us have the courage to do everything we can do. And then, give us the grace to leave the matter completely under your care.
Keep us from complacency regarding our sins. Keep us from excusing our sins and failing to heed the need for confession, repentance, and restitution. We pray that You will continue to help us become faithful, obedient citizens of the Kingdom of God. Thank You for your mercy, grace, and love. And, thank you for hearing our prayer, in and through the precious Name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Copyright © 2011 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.
