The 3 Rs Of Accountability- Repentance, Restitution, and Personal Responsibility
Restitution: The act of making amends; the act of
returning or restoring to someone what is his; restoration of a thing to its
proper owner or its original state; reparation for injury or damage ;
a balancing of the accounts ; compensation for loss, damage or injury;
the act of returning or restoring to a person some thing or right of which he
has been unjustly deprived, restitution is made by restoring a specific thing
taken away or lost; the act of making good, or of giving an equivalent for any
loss, damage, or injury; indemnification.
There’s a passage in the Holy Bible
that goes thusly: “A thief must certainly make
restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft. If
the stolen animal is found alive in his possession—whether ox or donkey or
sheep—he must pay back double”.
What do we definitely
know about the above passage? What do we
think we know about the passage? Shall we study it together?
Biblical Fact:
In the Bible, the Lord instructs us to make restitution to those we have
wronged. The Biblical model for
restitution is returning what we have taken from another, and ADDING to it as
well. In Leviticus 6:1-7, we are taught: THE
LORD SAID TO MOSES: "if anyone sins and is unfaithful to the lord
by deceiving his neighbor about something entrusted to him or left in his care
or stolen, or if he cheats him, or if he finds lost property and lies about it,
or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do- when
he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by
extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, or
whatever it was he swore falsely about.
he must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it, and
give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. and as a penalty, he must bring to the
priest, that is, to the lord, his guilt offering…..and he will be forgiven for
any of these things that made him guilty."
We should also note that this passage specifies restitution not just for theft of material goods, but for offenses such as deception, swearing
falsely and any other such sins. So, we
thus far have learned that - -
- Restitution
is a biblical concept; and there are passages in both Old and New
Testaments that reveal the mind of God on this subject. In the Old
Testament, the Israelites were under the Law, which specified restitution
in a variety of circumstances: “If a
man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay
back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. . . . A
thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be
sold to pay for his theft. If the stolen animal is found alive in his
possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double. If a man
grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they
graze in another man's field, he must make restitution from the best of
his own field or vineyard. If a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes
so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the
one who started the fire must make restitution. . . If a man borrows an
animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies . . . he must make
restitution” (Exodus 22:1, 3-6, 14).
- Leviticus 6:2-5 covers other situations in which the stolen property is restored, plus one fifth of the value. Also of note in this passage, the restitution was made to the owner of the property (not to the government or any other third party), and the compensation was to be accompanied by a guilt offering to the Lord. The Mosaic Law, then, protected victims of theft, extortion, fraud, and negligence by requiring the offending parties to make restitution. The amount of remuneration varied anywhere from 100 to 500 percent of the loss. The restitution was to be made on the same day that the guilty one brought his sacrifice before the Lord, which implies that making amends with one’s neighbor is just as important as making peace with God.
And, if we were to look
further in the New Testament, we will find a magnificent example of Zacchaeus
in Luke 19. Jesus is visiting
Zacchaeus’s home, and the people who know the chief publican to be a wicked and
oppressive man are beginning to murmur about His associating with a sinner (verse 7). “But Zacchaeus stood up and
said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and
now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody
out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ Jesus said to him,
‘Today salvation has come to this house,
because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and
to save what was lost’” (verses
8-10).
From Zacchaeus’s words, we learn
that:
2. He
was remorseful over his past actions.
3. He
was committed to making restitution.
From Jesus’ words, we learn that:
1.
Zacchaeus was saved that day and his sin
was forgiven. The evidence of his salvation was both his public confession (Romans
10:10) and his relinquishing of all ill-gotten gains. Zacchaeus repented, and his sincerity was evident
in his immediate desire to make restitution.
Here was a man who was penitent and contrite, and the proof of his conversion
to Christ was his resolve to atone, as much as possible, for past sins.
Friends, the above continue to
hold true today for anyone who truly knows Christ. Sincere repentance leads to
a yearning to redress wrongs. When someone becomes a Christian, he will have a
desire born of deep conviction to do good, and that includes making restoration
whenever possible. The idea of “whenever possible” is crucially important to
remember. There are some crimes and sins for which there is no adequate
restitution. In such instances, a Christian should make some form of
restitution that demonstrates repentance, but at the same time, does not need
to feel guilty about the inability to make full restitution. Restitution is to
be a result of our salvation—it is not a requirement for salvation. If you have
received forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, all of your sins
are forgiven, whether or not you have been able to make restitution for them
I believe that restitution is an unfamiliar and often
uncomfortable concept to many of us. It
comes as quite a surprise to offenders to be told that they are expected to
undo the damage that they did. It often
comes as a surprise even to the victims, who for some reason don’t really
believe they have the right to expect someone who did them wrong to fix what he/she
did.
So, as we grow in Christ, it
‘must’ become an important part of our lives to be accountable and began the process of making amends. Making amends includes "making it up
to" the one who was hurt. It means
undoing as much of the damage that you did as possible. It means making every effort to make the
victim whole again, just like she was, mentally, physically, and emotionally,
before the offender did whatever he did to her.
It might include making her whole financially- the offender paying back
anything he borrowed, stole, or scammed the victim out of. It might include restoring the victim’s
reputation if he gossiped or lied about her, which would mean swallowing his
pride, personally going to each person he gossiped or lied to, and setting the
record straight. The idea is that the
victim should not have to suffer the consequences of the abuser’s actions. The abuser needs to be willing to suffer the
consequences of his own actions in order to make it right for the victim.
Friends, if we truly love the
Lord, then we hide in our hearts HIS WORD that we might not sin against
HIM. King David wrote in Psalms 91: “against
you only have I sinned”. When we sin against our brother and our sister, we
sin against God. When we repent and make restitution, we are being obedient to
God, pleasing God, and making right with our brother or sister. Isn’t it all
about GOD? When we begin walk in the
footsteps of Jesus, we walk righteous and holy in the sight of God, and the
Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance those things we have done to offend;
thus we seek out those person (s) and make restitution.
In closing, we see that a mere apology in not
sufficient. Making restitution is an
important part of God’s formula for restoration of relationships. If it is impossible to undo all the damage,
then we need to require to undo as much as possible. God’s justice is a perfect justice. He requires restitution, and so should we. Amen.
In Christ,
Playwright Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts
