Joy or offense
\n\u201cFree pardon is a comfort to a malefactor, but it implies guilt, and therefore they who have no apprehension that they have broken the laws, would be rather offended, than comforted, by an offer of pardon.\u201d John Newton<\/p>\n
This quote from John Newton describes exactly what happened when our Lord taught in John chapter 8 and made the glorious declaration in verse 32 \u201cand ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.\u201d What a wonderful statement this is to any poor prisoner who longs for freedom.
\nBut the Jews\u2019 reaction, rather than joy, was indignation. They said, \u201cwe were never in bondage . . .\u201d Thus the good news becomes an impertinence, and that which is, to one, the words of eternal life, is to another a bitter and unwelcome indictment.<\/p>\n
How sad that a condemned and sentenced felon, awaiting execution, would deny a declaration of free pardon rather than to admit guilt. How sad that a vanquished and helpless soldier would reject the proposal of unconditional amnesty, rather than confess defeat. How sad that an invitation to a bountiful banquet would cause one to bristle and be offended at the very suggestion that he cannot provide for himself.<\/p>\n
I, for one, am hungry, and am without money and without price, and so I am honored to be called and anxious to partake. It is because of God\u2019s distinguishing grace that it is so. Chris Cunningham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joy or offense \u201cFree pardon is a comfort to a malefactor, but it implies guilt, and therefore they who have no apprehension that they have broken the laws, would be rather offended, than comforted, by an offer of pardon.\u201d John Newton This quote from John Newton describes exactly what happened when our Lord taught in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-chris-cunningham","category-gospel-offence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3898,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897\/revisions\/3898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}