I Am Free
By Terance Clark April 18, 2025 6 Minute Read
This week we take a pause in the study to celebrate Holy Week.
As I was thinking through what to write this week I was reading a passage that caught my attention until I read the Greek word aphesis and then I just got up and thought about quitting my writing altogether. You see I am not doing this to gain followers or earn more likes. I have a God given passion to help people learn about God and help them see the scriptures from a different perspective. There is so much more to the story if we can get past some of the things we hold on to as tradition. Not that our traditions are bad or wrong. It’s just that they often cloud the story and even hide what is the best part God is trying to teach us.
Falsely Accused
Today I spoke to a dear friend that I hadn’t spoken to in several months. We had planned to talk, but never were able to schedule it until today and then he told me what he had been going through these past few months. He had been falsely accused of a crime and as a result spent time in jail. His entire life has been turned upside down due to what looked like clear evidence against him. I don’t want to go into the details for obvious reasons. My friend is still walking out this process, but he’s unable to work and had been separated from his family due to what had looked like a clear case against him.
Out of the clear blue a dramatic change of events recently took place when some medical evidence was discovered that could explain everything that my friend had been accused of. It not only explains what happened, but also exonerates my friend as completely not guilty. He never committed the crime. There are still a lot of things to work through, but throughout this process my friend has never lost faith or given up hope that somehow there would be an explanation for the craziness he has had to live through. He completely believes that with this new evidence it will clear his name and allow him to get back to his life. But he recognizes there will still be a lot of healing to do.
Forgiveness Through Pardoning
What is interesting is how we met today on Good Friday where he told me the story and having it occur while I was in the middle of just thinking to myself to skip writing anything this week and that brings me back to my point about aphesis. The Greek word aphesis is translated as forgiveness in our Bibles. Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The problem is that the word doesn’t actually mean forgiveness like we think it does. It actually means pardon. There is another Greek word for absolute forgiveness, but since there have been numerous pardons happening lately we all have a clear picture of what it means.
When someone like my friend is jailed and loses his livelihood due to false claims, but he is actually innocent and someone else is completely guilty of a crime meaning they did it, and they were convicted and put away, but because someone with a lot of authority chooses to set them free it’s a completely different matter. They are not innocent and the crime doesn’t just go away. What they did happened, they just get a chance to re-live their life with the crime never to be brought up again.
“Jesus died on a cross not so you and I could
Act like we never did anything wrong”
The frustration on my part is because of the translations, we can easily think we are just forgiven. All the stuff we did just goes away and it never happened and that my friend is not the truth. The truth is that what Jesus did for you and me is he pardoned us. Our sins and crimes did not just go away. We did them and we are guilty as charged. Two thousand years ago Jesus died on a cross not so that you and I could act like we never did anything wrong, but that we would give our life completely over to the one who saw us in our condition and completely gave us a new life. He took us out of the prison and forgave us and erased the guilt of what we had done and then told us not to ever look back at the things we had done for His blood had covered them all. He who is forgiven much loves much because they remember what they really did and what has really been given to them. If you could really go back to anything that resembles what you were in the past then you have forgotten what He really did for you.
“We remember because in truth how could we ever forget“
Today is a day to remember what really happened that day. It doesn’t matter how the translators chose to say what was done. We all know that we were hopeless until Jesus came and changed it all. We are forgiven, but we remember because in truth how could we ever forget. The chains that once controlled me have been broken and now I am free!
