Seven Words From The Cross - Father Forgive Them

God in His mercy postpones His judgment because His Son prayed, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."

On the day that Karl Marx died, March 14, 1883, his housekeeper came to him and said, "Tell me your last words and I'll write them down." Marx replied, "Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough." Last words can be very revealing. P.T. Barnum said as he was dying, "What were today's receipts?" Napoleon said, "Army, head of the army." The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said as his last words, "Jesus died for me." And John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said, "The best of all is, God is with us."

During these days we're going to be considering the seven statements that our Lord made from the cross, His seven last words from the cross. These statements are very important to us, not only because of the person who spoke them, but because of the place where they were said. When our Lord was doing His greatest work on earth, He was uttering some of His greatest words. These seven last words from the cross are windows that enable us to look into eternity and see the heart of God.

Now the first of these seven statements is found in Luke 23. I'm going to begin at verse 33: "And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And then said Jesus: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Now this statement that our Lord made contains four wonders. I want us just to contemplate this statement, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and notice the wonders that are in this statement. You see, it's very difficult for us to forgive people, isn't it? I may be speaking to someone right now who is harboring an unforgiving spirit. Someone has hurt you; someone has said something against you; and in your heart, you cannot forgive that person. Well, if you listen to this prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and if you'll notice the wonders that are in this statement, I think it will enable you to forgive and to experience the joy that comes when we forgive.

First, there is the wonder of the address: "Father." Our Lord Jesus addressed God three times when He was there at the cross. His first statement, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," then the middle statement, the fourth statement, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and then that final statement, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." When our Lord entered into His suffering, when our Lord was enduring His suffering, and when our Lord emerged victoriously from His suffering, He spoke to His Father in heaven. You see, nothing threatened His relationship with His Father.

I hear Christians say, "I can't talk to God. I can't pray. I don't believe anymore, the way people have treated me." Now wait just a minute. Look at the way they treated the Lord Jesus. His nation sinned against Him. His own disciples failed Him and fled. The Father was willing for the Son to suffer. And yet Jesus was able to look up and say, "Father." You see, He lived in fellowship with His Father. When He began His ministry, the Father said, "This is my beloved Son," and Jesus never forgot that.

Someone listening right now may be suffering. You're saying, "I wonder if God really loves me." He does, He always will, and He's working out His purposes for you. You see, when you can pray, "Father," then you can take the power and the grace and all of the help the Father has for you when you're suffering. Now I know it's not easy to suffer. Pain hurts. A broken heart hurts even worse than a broken arm. But when you can say, "Father," then you are able to look up to heaven and know the smile of God is upon you. The wonder of the address: "Father." Now if you want to be able to forgive others, here's the place to start. Make sure you have a right relationship with your Father in heaven.

Then there's the wonder of the appeal: "Father, forgive them." In the Greek New Testament, it indicates that our Lord repeated this prayer. He said repeatedly, "Father, forgive them." As they laid Him on the cross on the ground, He said, "Father, forgive them." As they nailed His hands and His feet to that cross, He prayed again, "Father, forgive them." When they lifted that cross and placed it in the hole in the ground, our Lord prayed, "Father, forgive them." As He was hanging there between heaven and earth, He was repeatedly praying, "Father, forgive them."

Now He could have prayed, "Father, judge them. Father, bring punishment upon them." He could have called for legions of angels to deliver Him, but He didn't do it. Oh, how many times you and I have wanted to bring down fire from heaven on somebody, and we've prayed, "Oh, Father, judge them. Father, hurt them." But our Lord prays from a heart of love: "Father, forgive them."

Now why did He pray this prayer? Well, for one thing, He was fulfilling the Word of God. In Isaiah 53:12—and as you know, Isaiah 53 is the great Calvary chapter of the Old Testament—we read these words: "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Now our Lord Jesus Christ prayed for those who were sinning because He was fulfilling the Word of God.

Secondly, He was practicing the very message that He preached. He preached forgiveness. He told people in His messages, "Now if you don't forgive from your heart, God cannot forgive you." Now this does not mean that forgiveness is based upon our own good works. No, it does mean that if my heart is unwilling to forgive you, it's in no condition to come and ask God for forgiveness. You must remember that all of this happened during the reign of Caesar, during the time of the Roman Empire. Did you know that the Romans worshipped revenge? Revenge was one of their gods. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not worship revenge, nor should we. He prayed, "Father, forgive them," and in so doing, He fulfilled the Word and He practiced His own message of forgiveness.

And of course, this was the purpose of His death. Our Lord Jesus was on the cross because God does forgive sinners. That's the good news of the gospel: that you and I don't have to go around with the weight and the burden of sin. We don't have to carry the guilt of sin. We can be forgiven. In Luke 5:20, my Lord said to that paralytic, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." He said to that woman of the streets who came to Him in Luke 7:47, "Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace." Forgiveness is what the cross is all about. And of course, forgiveness is not cheap; it's very expensive. It cost Jesus Christ His life.

You and I would have no problem forgiving others if we are right in our relationship with our Father and if we'll just obey the Word of God and remember that we have been forgiven. Those who do not forgive others tear down the bridge on which they have to walk themselves. Now I know someone listens to me now and says, "But Pastor Wiersbe, you have no idea how those people treated me." Well, I have some idea of how they treated the Lord Jesus, and yet He was able to say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The wonder of the address and the wonder of the appeal.

There's a third wonder here, and that's the wonder of the argument: "For they know not what they do." Our Lord not only prays for forgiveness for His enemies, but our Lord argues in their behalf. It's as though He stands as a lawyer and says to His Father, "Let me give you a reason why you should forgive them." Now this statement has been greatly misunderstood. This statement does not mean that everybody is automatically forgiven. Nor does it mean that ignorance brings forgiveness. Ignorance is no excuse in the sight of the law. I recall one day driving in the city of Chicago and making a left turn, and before long, behind me was that flashing light, and the policeman pulled me over. And he said, "Sir, you made an illegal turn." Now I had made that turn many times, but they had changed the law; they had put up another sign I hadn't noticed. I said, "Well, officer, I'm sorry, I did not know." And you know what he said to me? "Sir, that doesn't make any difference." Ignorance is no excuse in the sight of the law.

Then what is He saying? Of what were they ignorant? Well, they were ignorant of His person. They mocked Him as the prophet. They said, "Prophesy, tell us who struck you." They mocked Him as the King, put a robe on Him, gave Him a scepter and a crown of thorns. They laughed at His claim that He was the Son of God, the Christ. "If you are the Christ, come down from the cross," they challenged Him. They were ignorant of His person. Now we know who Jesus is. We have a complete New Testament, we have 2,000 years of church history. We know who Jesus is: the very Son of God Himself.

They were ignorant of their own actions. They didn't realize that what they were doing was a fulfillment of the Word of God. They parted His garments, and that fulfilled Psalm 22. They gave Him vinegar to drink, that fulfilled Psalm 69. He was crucified with the transgressors, that fulfilled Isaiah 53. They mocked Him, that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Our Lord had cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" in the Aramaic, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" And they thought He was calling for Elijah. They were blind to their own Scriptures. Had they just remembered Psalm 22:1, they would have said, "This man is quoting the Old Testament Scriptures." Psalm 22 begins, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Had they read Psalm 22, they would have read an Old Testament prophecy of what they were watching as they stood there at Calvary.

They were blind to their Savior. They did not realize that this one hanging there on the tree was the Savior of the nation and the Savior of the world. But most of all, they were ignorant of the enormity of their own sins. They did not realize what great sinners they were. You see, in the Old Testament, the Jewish law states that for sins of ignorance, a sacrifice is available. The sin offering described in Leviticus 4 was for sins of ignorance that had been discovered. Now deliberate, high-handed, blatant sin had no sacrifice. But there is a sacrifice in the Old Testament for sins of ignorance. Now Jesus is saying, "Father, my people don't understand. They are ignorant. Therefore, I'm dying for them. They know not what they do. I know what I'm doing. I'm dying in their behalf. Now forgive them." The wonder of the argument.

What did this prayer bring about as far as God's will is concerned? Well, the wonder of the answer. What was God's answer? Judgment did not fall. God still sent His message of salvation to the Jews. In Acts 3:17, the Apostle Peter said to the Jewish leaders, "I know that through ignorance you did this." The Apostle Paul himself in 1 Timothy 1:13 says, "I did this ignorantly in unbelief." God was patient with Israel, and God was patient with Saul of Tarsus, and many Jews did come to know Christ, and of course, Saul was saved and he became the great Apostle Paul.

You see, God does not judge immediately. God in His mercy postpones His judgment because His Son prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And you and I are living in a day of grace, not a day of judgment. A day when God is seeking to reconcile lost sinners to Himself. Yes, this is a wonderful prayer, isn't it? And God answered that prayer, and God can answer this prayer for you. Believe Him, receive Him, and you can depend upon His Word because in His Word is everlasting life. Charles Wesley wrote in one of his hymns: "Five bleeding wounds He bears, received on Calvary; they pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me: Forgive him, oh, forgive, they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die." "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

[Interview]

Up next, Warren Wiersbe answers a few questions from Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole.

Arnie: Warren, if anyone ever had the excuse to turn inward and look only at themselves and their situation, it would be Jesus when He hung on the cross. But He didn't do that, did He?

Warren: No, He didn't. The most important word in our Lord's vocabulary, I think, was "others," which by the way is the keyword for the Salvation Army. Wherever you go, you'll see that word, "others." And the church needs that today. He suffered, He suffered for us. He wasn't suffering because He'd done something wrong; He was doing something right. But if we only look at ourselves, we're going to get tired of it. I had a friend who was in the hospital. He was destined to go to glory. But before he left, he had won four of the nurses to Christ. Wow. And I think that's what I need to think about: not how can I get out of this, but what can I get out of this. And Jesus is our supreme example. He prayed for the soldiers that nailed Him to the cross. He prayed for the Jewish people who had unlawfully condemned Him. He concerned Himself about Mary and John. He was thinking of others. And that's a good example for me to follow.

Arnie: When He had the power while on the cross to destroy, that always amazes me when I think of the cross.

Warren: Well, the test of maturity is how do you use power. You've noticed, I'm sure, that when children start walking and running, they're in control. But they don't know what to do with their power. The greatest power Jesus had was the power of love, and that's how He was able to stay on the cross. You know, they came and said, "You saved others, save yourself." But "self" was not in His vocabulary. It was "others."

Arnie: Wow, that's powerful. So Warren, we're used to celebrating Easter once a year. But how can we celebrate Jesus' resurrection on a daily basis?

Warren: Actually, the Lord's Day is the day of celebration. For centuries, our Jewish friends had been celebrating on Saturday. Saturday was their Sabbath. In other words, you had a week of work and then you rested. Well, that's salvation by law. We start the week with the Lord's Day. We rest first, worship first, then we go to work. I think that the important thing is that every day we walk in the power of the Lord. I think Galatians 2:20 fits in here. You know, "I'm crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live." I too have died and been resurrected through Jesus Christ. R.W. Dale, that great British preacher of a few years ago, was preparing an Easter sermon, and it suddenly hit him: "Jesus is alive." He jumped up from his desk and walked around the room saying aloud, "He's alive! He's alive!" It just hit him. And from that day on, they always sang one resurrection hymn at every Sunday service. Now, I could get up in the morning and sing a resurrection hymn; the neighbors might move, but what we need to do is every day realize Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20.

Arnie: Do you think it's more helpful to think of the resurrection versus the cross? Remember that song "The Old Rugged Cross"? I remember singing that as a kid. And then when I became a Christ-follower in later years, I had a pastor that was pretty adamant about thinking more about the resurrection because the cross was, in his mind, that's like wearing an electric chair, and that really we celebrate the resurrection much more than the cross. Would you agree with that?

Warren: Well, we need balance everywhere in the Christian life: faith, works, praise, pain. And the secret of the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. That's the secret of the whole thing. People say, "Well, I've never failed." Well, God bless you. I've failed many times, sometimes in public. The resurrection is important, but there could be no resurrection without a crucifixion. Very good point. And our Lord does not magnify one over the other. As you read Romans, for example, you've got the crucifixion and then—wham—you hit chapters 6, 7, and 8 and you've got the resurrection. It's a matter of balance. I am grateful that when Jesus died, I died with Him. And I'm grateful that when He arose, I arose with Him. If we would just lay hold of that, the Holy Spirit will do the rest.