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Transcript 305A — Theft and Restitution for Sin
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Mr. Camping, I know that many people take things. You know, when they work for someone, they may take small things like paper clips, or anything. They may pick up pencils and put them in their pockets. I really want you to clarify this over the radio, for people who do have this problem.
HC: All right. You've raised a very practical question. The question really is: What is this business of employees today that put in their pockets little things that belong to the company they're working for, and they take them home for their own use, kind of feeling in their hearts, "Well, after all, I don't get paid enough, anyway. I'm entitled to this." And yet if they would really stop to think, they are stealing. They are taking something that is not theirs. And over a period of time, actually this theft can be quite a large thing, if they would add together all that they had pilfered from their employer.
Now the Bible says, "Thou shalt not steal." And that is the Law of God. Whether we steal a little thing or a big thing, it is still stealing. It is sin, and it has to be answered to before God. Theft is one of the more common sins that God anticipates as we approach the end of time.
In Revelation 9 God speaks of five sins that are going to be particularly in evidence near the end of time. One is the worshipping of other gods, that is, the vast expansion that will occur of other gospels. The other four sins are murders, sorceries, fornication and thefts. In other words, stealing, fornication (living adulterously), sorceries (and the word that is used here really means enchantment with drugs, and it could be a reference to the drug culture), and murders are four common sins.
And so the question you raised, about pilfering from our employer, is just part of the whole picture, where man today first of all doesn't care about God at all, about living right before God. And secondly, he does not regard his fellow man. He takes whatever he thinks belongs to him, and could care less from whom he takes it.
CALLER: Well, I have a brother who stole several years ago, and I don't think he wanted to make any restitution. But if he comes to God, will he have to make restitution? Or will he just come to God and ask for forgiveness?
HC: The question is raised (and again it's a very practical question): When we finally get forgiveness for our sins from the Lord, whatever sins they are, must we make restitution? You remember when Zaccheus became a Christian. He was a tax collector, and undoubtedly he had stolen from this one or that one. And he said he would return four fold.
Now is this a command of God, that we are to return four fold? In the Old Testament, under certain circumstances they had to return four fold, or five fold. At other times they had to return one-fifth above, and so on. Do we have to make restitution?
Well, let's think about that for a moment . Suppose that when we got forgiveness for our sins we would have to make a list of every sin that we had ever committed, against whomever it was, and make restitution, insofar as we were able. This would really be something, wouldn't it? We'd have to think about every idle word we've spoken, every word of hatred, every sinful thought against someone, every theft from someone. We would have to try to make restitution.
Now wonderfully, the forgiveness that God provides does not call for that kind of restitution. The forgiveness that God provides us is that our sins are forgiven, and we stand right before God. Now we may have to make restitution insofar as the law is concerned, the law of the land. If we find, for example, that we have embezzled funds, and we've been discovered, and we agree with our employer that yes, we will make restitution, because we have done wrong, and this will be part of the agreement where they'll say, "Well, then we won't bring this to law," or whatever, that's a different matter. But insofar as trying to make a list of every sin that we've committed, and trying to make restitution, no, God does not call for that.
CALLER: I like to talk to him and others about these things. And I wanted to get a better clarification of it, since I saw on the TV about people stealing so much, so many billions of dollars worth of things during the Christmas holidays. So I thought about it, and I have a burden on my heart to go around to the apartments here where I live, and deliver tracts, and talk to people about different things that they may have on their minds. And I know it would be a burdensome thing to think that they could pay back all the guilt that they created.
HC: You see, actually, when we are saved we're saved to serve. Now before we're saved we live very selfishly. And because we live selfishly, we are taking wherever we can. We're stealing, we're taking advantage of people. This is the story of our life. But when we become saved, then our life is turned exactly around. And ideally and to a high degree this will be the case, we will live to serve our fellow man. We will do what we can on their behalf. And in so doing, in a sense we're making restitution. We're not making restitution to the very same person that we stole from before, or that we wronged in some way. But insofar as mankind is concerned, we are making restitution.
Let me, however, emphasize that God does not call for a literal one-to-one restitution. The thief on the cross was a robber, as well as a murderer. When he was saved, Jesus said to him, "Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Did he have to make any restitution, in order to be right with God? None whatsoever.
When we are saved, our sins are completely covered. The answer to life's problems is to find our rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are resting in Him, when we know our sins are covered, then we are beginning to live a more abundant life, then we know we can have a clear conscience, then we can know that we are right with our fellow man.
Marvelously, all the past is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's all forgotten and forgiven. Now we may have committed certain crimes in the past that we are still paying for. We may have abused our life through alcohol, and so we may die of cirrhosis of the liver. Or we may have committed a crime that has brought us to the judge, and we may have to spend a number of years in jail, or whatever. We may have done other things that have brought disease into our life, and now we have to live with this.
But insofar as looking around for restitution, insofar as trying to think of all the sins that I've ever committed, and trying to make amends, that is not called for. We make amends in another sense by simply being available to be used of the Lord in the service of mankind.
CALLER: Wonderful. Well, thank you very much.
HC: Thank you so much for calling and sharing.