On the day that Karl Marx died in 1883, his housekeeper came to him and said: "Tell me your last words and I'll write them down." Marx replied: "Go on and get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!" Well, that is another thing that I disagree with Marx on. Last words are very important and can be very revealing. Here are just a few famous last words:
Max Baer, the one time heavyweight champion of the world, said, as he was having a heart attack: "Oh God, here I go!"
P. T. Barnham said: "How were the circus receipts today at Madison Square Garden?"
Douglas Fairbanks, the swash-buckling actor, said: "I've never felt better!"
Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "I have a terrific headache!"
George Washington said: "Doctor, I die hard, but I'm not afraid to go."[1]
John F. Kennedy said: "My God, I've been hit!"
Quite frankly, there have even been some humorous famous last words:
William Palmer, a person who murdered people by poisoning them, was about to be hung. They put the rope around his neck, and when he was told to step out on the trapdoor, he asked: "Are you sure it's safe?"
The famous movie maker, Samuel Goldwyn, lying on his deathbed, said just before he died: "I never thought I would live to see this day."[2]
I believe, without question, the most revealing last words ever spoken, and the most famous of all belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus was performing his greatest work, he was speaking his greatest words. Six hours passed between the first pound of the hammer, and the last breath of Jesus. During those six hours he spoke seven times.
Picture the scene: The cross has just been dropped into the ground; the windy draft of death will soon extinguish the flickering candle of his life, and it will be over. In that interim period of unparalleled agony and supernatural suffering, he gives us, on the cross, seven sayings.
It is interesting to note that the first saying and the last are directed to God the Father. The first is a request from the Father: "Father, forgive them." (Lk. 23:34) The last is a release to the Father: "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." (Lk. 23:46)
I don't believe anything is more revealing of the heart of a person than what he is saying as he knows he's going to die. These statements of our Lord, if understood properly, can become anchors of hope that can secure the ship of your life in the stormy seas of sin, sorrow, and death. Each one answers a question, meets a need, or solves a problem. This first statement deals with the problem of bitterness, and answers the question: How can sinful man have a relationship with Holy God?
I. The Sin That Is Exposed
His first words are "Father, forgive them." Normally, when a man was crucified he was expected to say: "May my death atone for my sins." The Lord Jesus was the only man ever crucified who said: "May my death atone for their sins."
When Jesus said, "Father, forgive" he exposed man's greatest problem, and his greatest need. His greatest problem is sin; his greatest need is forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the first step God must take toward you before you can take your first step toward God. The word forgive literally means "to send away." It was a word that was used to cancel a debt that could not be paid. If you've ever had to forgive a debt, you know that when you forgive a debt you really pay the debt yourself.
When Jesus died on the cross he paid our sin-debt, for "the wages of sin is death." I owed a debt I could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe. Because my sin-debt has been paid, I can receive God's forgiveness free of charge. However, let me add that forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap.
In a human court of law a judge has to choose between two alternatives. When a person has been proven guilty, the judge must either enforce the penalty of the law, or disregard the requirements of the law; one is justice, the other is mercy. But the only possible way by which the judge can both enforce the requirements of the law, and yet show mercy to the offender, is by a third party offering to suffer himself the penalty which the convicted person deserves.
When God forgives us, he does not do it by closing an eye to justice. He is both "the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom. 3:26) At the cross mercy met justice, and the result is grace. Here we see the truth "to err is human, but to forgive divine."
It is not coincidental that the first saying deals with forgiveness. Because until your sin-debt is paid, you can never have a relationship with God.
Speaking of last words, when Henry David Thoreau, the philosopher and writer, was lying on his deathbed, someone asked him: "Henry, have you made peace with God?" Thoreau sneered and said: "I was never aware that we had quarreled." Well, it's much worse than that. At the garden of Eden man declared war on God, and until we wave the white flag of surrender and receive his forgiveness, we can never be right with Him.
II. The Sympathy That Is Expressed
If anyone ever had a right to be bitter it was Jesus. He was crucified for something he did not do (sin) by the very ones who did it (sinners). Do you ever feel unappreciated? Do you ever feel like nobody cares about what you do for them? Well, think of this: The Lord Jesus was not only dying for those who were crucifying him, but there was no sympathy for him at all. Look at the crowd around the cross:
There were the skeptics who were saying: "Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God."
There were the self-righteous who were saying: "He saved others, but Himself he cannot save."
There were the soldiers who were saying: "If you are the King of the Jews, come down."
There was no sympathy for him, but there was sympathy for them. While the world was doing its worst to Him, He was giving his best to the world. Did you know that this is the only time Jesus ever asked his Father to forgive sinners? On every other occasion in the gospels, Jesus forgives sinners himself; but here he had to ask the Father to forgive them. Why?
Because forgiveness is a divine prerogative. Only God can forgive. The objection is raised Was not Jesus Christ God? Yes, but he was also man. On the cross He died not as God, for God cannot die; He died as man. Jesus died as one of us, for all of us. He died praying for God to forgive.
This prayer was a matter of prophecy. Over 700 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah had predicted this. "He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isa. 53:12)
This prayer was a matter of principle. Jesus said in Mt. 5:44: "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." As Jesus lived, He preached what He practiced. But as Jesus died, He practiced what He preached.
This prayer was also a matter of purpose. Jesus came to this earth to die on the cross, and the reason he came to die on the cross was for our forgiveness. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (Jn. 3:17)
Jesus did not come to harbor grudges, He came to give grace. He was not interested in retaliation, He was interested in reconciliation. He could have said, "You just wait until Judgment Day, I'll have the last laugh. You put me in the grave today, but I will put you in hell tomorrow." But, no, his only words were "Father, forgive them."
III. The Spirit That Is Expected
Jesus prayed "Father, forgive" not only that we might be forgiven, but that we might be forgiving. God forgives us because Jesus died for us. He expects us to forgive others because Jesus lives in us.
If you belong to Jesus, you need to be like Jesus. Someone has said that "we are most like beasts when we kill; we are most like men when we judge; we are most like God when we forgive."[3]
If you're going to be like Jesus you're going to have to forgive like Jesus. Eph. 4:32 says: "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you."
If you are holding a grudge, if your body contains the acid of bitterness toward someone who has done you wrong, I have a piece of advice to you: you need to go back to Calvary. The great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said: "Let us go to Calvary to learn how we may be forgiven, and then let us linger there to learn how to forgive."[4]
One of the marks of being forgiven is that you are forgiving. Because in the final analysis, God only forgives the forgiving. General James Oglethorpe once said to the great Methodist preacher, John Wesley: "I never forgive, and I never forget." To which John Wesley responded: "Then Sir, I hope you never sin." If the perfect Savior did not hold a grudge, how much less should an imperfect sinner hold one.
The great Methodist preacher, Sam Jones, said: "I haven't anything in this world to forgive. I will never get mad nor stay mad with any man unless he treats me worse than I have treated Jesus Christ."[5]
Now at this point, I want to raise a question. What if someone does us wrong, and they refuse to make it right? What if a person needs to be forgiven, but they don't want to be forgiven? What if they need forgiveness, but they refuse to repent and ask for forgiveness?
I Peter 2:23 is a great commentary on this verse. Speaking of Jesus, Peter said: "When He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously." The Lord Jesus committed Himself and his malefactors to His Heavenly Father.
So let me give you three practical pieces of advice on what to do with someone who has done you wrong, but refuses to repent and make it right:
- Lift him to God.
- Leave him with God.
- Love him through God.
I have a friend in Houston Texas, a prominent attorney, who, in fact, has tried more cases in the State of Texas than any attorney in modern day history. He is a wonderful man of God. He told me one of the most fascinating stories I have ever heard.
He had cosigned a note with a man on a piece of property for $1 million (he now knows he should never have cosigned the note to begin with), and he thought nothing about it. The man was a good friend of his. One day he got a call from a bank outside of Houston, and the banker said, "Are you Joe Reynolds?" He said, "Yes." The man said, "Are you partners with this man, and have you cosigned a note with him?" He said, "Yes."
The man said, "Well, Mr. Reynolds, your partner has defaulted on his loan, and you owe this bank $1 million, and we want our money in two days, or we are going to foreclose on the property and sue you for damages." My attorney friend was absolutely flabbergasted. He had even cosigned this note without the knowledge of his wife! He told the banker that there was no way he could come up with that kind of money. But the banker again reiterated he expected to hear back in two days.
Joe went home, sat down and told his wife, who, of course, was panic stricken. She said, "What are we going to do?" He said, "Well, we're going to have to sell our home." They live in a beautiful home on eleven acres of prime property in mid-town Houston; they had worked all of their lives to save up just to have this dream home. But now they were going to lose it.
He said not two hours after he told his wife the bad news, he was sitting in his chair so depressed and discouraged when the phone rang. On the other end of the line was a Real Estate Agent whom he had never met, and this lady said, "Are you Joe Reynolds?" He said, "Yes." She said, "Mr. Reynolds, I have a client who would like to buy two acres of your property." He said, "Well lady, I'm not interested in selling two acres, I need to sell my whole place, so thanks, but no thanks."
She said, "Mr. Reynolds, before you say no, would you at least let me come to your house and give you this proposal?" He said, "No, it would be a complete waste of time. But do keep me in mind if you have someone that would like to buy the entire property." She said, "Mr. Reynolds, please just let me run this proposal by. It won't take you two minutes to look at it, and I'll be out of your hair." He said, "It's a waste of time, but come on out."
This lady drove out to his home, sat down, and said, "Mr. Reynolds, my client would like to buy two acres, which is just on the fringe of your property." Well, with a half sneer and a half smirk, he said, "What is he offering?" She said, "A $1 million." (At this point, I would have given a million dollars to have seen the look on his face.)
Well, Joe could hardly believe it. Here God in the span of two hours had answered his prayer in a way he had never dreamed imaginable. Even though the story is great enough as it is, it doesn't end there.
Joe called the banker the next day and said, "I will have your money in the office to you tomorrow." The banker said, "I knew it, I just knew it!" Joe said, "You knew what?" He said, "When I met with our Board yesterday talking about your situation, one of the men said that you would not only not try to pay us, but that you would take us to court and sue us. I said, ‘I've heard of this Joe Reynolds, he is a man of his word, a godly man, and he will pay us the money.' The Board said to me that if I was right and you did agree to pay, that I could negotiate you with any sum I wanted to, and Joe, the Board agreed to cut the debt in half to $500,000!
Not only did Joe Reynolds come out $500,000 to the good, but he also wound up with the piece of property!
But that is still not the end of the story. He never heard again from his friend until about seven years later. They happened to run up on each other. His earth-wild friend, who claims to be a Christian, was talking as if nothing had happened, and Joe said, "I understand from reading in the paper you just cut a deal that netted you over $5 million." The man said, "That is true." Joe said, "Well, when are you going to pay me the $500,000 you owe me?" The man said, "Joe, I'm not going to pay you, and the statute of limitations has run out, and there's not a thing you can do about it."
Joe looked at him and said, "Yes, there is one thing I can do about it." He said, "What's that?" He said, "I can forgive you, and I do. You have to live with it, I don't. God has taken care of me, and God will take care of you."
I can tell you that Joe Reynolds has been to Calvary! Andrew Murray well said, "Learn that as forgiveness of your sins was one of the first things Jesus did for you; forgiveness of others is one of the first things that you can do for Him. Remember that to the new heart, there is a joy even sweeter than that of being forgiven, even the joy of forgiving others."[6]
IV. The Salvation That Is Extended
Jesus said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Now understand that ignorance is not innocence. Ignorance is no excuse with a policeman, and it is no excuse with God. They knew what they were doing, but they did not know to whom they were doing it. In fact, the Apostle Paul said, "Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (I Cor. 2:8)
Were they automatically forgiven just because Jesus asked the Father to forgive them? No. Forgiveness is not automatic. Jesus said in Lk. 17:3, "Take heed to yourselves, if your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents forgive him." Forgiveness is universally available, but it is not unconditionally accessible. You must repent, you must confess, you must accept Jesus' death and resurrection as payment for your sins before you can be forgiven.
You see, our problem is not ignorance, our problem is arrogance. They didn't have the Bible, we do. They did not know the tomb would be empty. We know that it was. They had never heard the gospel preached, but we have. How much more accountable are we knowing that God's dear Son died on that cross for us?
A little boy came to the Washington Monument and noticed a guard standing by it. He looked up at the guard and said: "Mister, I want to buy the Washington Monument." The guard stooped down and said: "Son, how much do you have?" The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter. The guard said: "I'm sorry, that's not enough." The boy said: "I thought you would say that."
So he reached into his pocket and pulled out one more dime. The guard looked down at the boy and said: "Son, you need to understand three things: First, 35 cents is not enough. In fact, $34 million is not enough to buy the Washington Monument. In fact, you don't have enough money to buy the Washington Monument. Secondly, the Washington Monument is not for sale. Thirdly, if you are an American citizen, the Washington Monument already belongs to you."
I want you to understand something about forgiveness. First of all, all of the righteousness, all of the religion you can muster, can't buy one ounce of forgiveness. Secondly, it's not for sale. Thirdly, if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ you already have it.
You can hold on to your grudges or you can have grace, but you cannot do both. The choice is up to you.
[1] Taken from Barnaby Conrad, Famous Last Words (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1961).
[2] Ibid.
[3] John Blanchard, Gathered Gold, (Great Britain: Evangelical Press, 1984), p. 108.
[4] Inspiring Quotations, compiled by Albert M. Wells, Jr., (Nashville: Thomas Nelson publishers, 1988), p. 74.
[5] Fundamentalist Journal, (March, 1985).
[6] Sammy Tippett, The Prayer Factor, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), p. 102.