For if you forgive others their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew
6:14-15 ESV)
The focus of
the present series addresses your greatest problem, the problem of sin. People
used to want a relationship with God to avoid a literal hell, divine judgment
and eternal damnation. Yet today they need a relationship with God to overcome
a present-day hell – anguish, unrest, fear, stress, anxiety, depression, mental
and emotional turmoil.
Thinking positive
will not anesthetize the guilt and shame that frequents the human soul. Convincing
yourself you have an ounce of good will not remove the tension created by the
seed of sin. You have a problem but God has a solution.
When people
are confronted with their rebellion and pride they usually respond in one of
three ways: justify themselves, blame others, or confess. Peace is only found
in confession. In confession there is forgiveness, and in forgiveness comes the
opportunity to be different.
Many attending
church live with a shallow love for God because they think they have not done
anything really bad. In reality, believers do what is forbidden, leave undone
what is required, pervert what is right, and project what is false every day. Attitude sins are just as hideous as action sins.
Some think the
problem only exists with those who do not attend church. The problem will never
be addressed with the unchurched until followers of Jesus face the problem
themselves and reveal to them a better way to live.
Consider 2
Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who
are called by my name humble
themselves, and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and heal their land.”
(2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)
The healing
of nations is contingent on God’s people
turning from their wicked ways. And the
future of every people group is contingent on the spiritual vitality of Christ
followers.
Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount gave an additional truth about experiencing divine
forgiveness. Your relationship with God is impacted when you refuse to forgive
others. The Lord’s Prayer includes the phrase, “Forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
All sins are moral debts to God. Believers are
debtors to God and cannot in themselves meet the obligation. They are forgiven
out of divine grace and should be able to understand the heart of every person
overextended with any form of debt. They too are overextended in an eternal debt
to God. Jesus challenges His followers to forgive others because they are in a
similar precarious condition.
Forgive
The Bible
provides a real life story expressing immeasurable forgiveness. (Genesis 37-50)
Joseph was
one of twelve sons born to Jacob. He was his father’s favorite child. To some
degree this had nothing to do with him. He was the firstborn of Jacob’s true
love. Whoever that child was, was going to have a special standing with dad.
Joseph
could and should have handled himself better. He unwarrantedly capitalized on
his favorable position. When the brothers could no longer take his behavior
they considered killing him but opted to sell him into slavery.
Joseph
ended up in a foreign country, a stranger and a slave on account of envious
family members. The enslavement turned to imprisonment.
The tragedy
was not some brief momentary experience. He spent thirteen years as a slave, three
of them in jail.
After his
imprisonment, nine more years would pass before he would see his brothers, a
total of approximately 22 years. Hatred should have ruled his heart after such
a prolonged episode.
He finally sees
his family while serving in a place of authority, a position of absolute control.
He could enslave, incarcerate, or worse yet, execute. There was no limit to
what he could do in revenge.
He revealed
himself to his brothers not with a sword but with a kiss, not with revenge but
with reconciliation. The relationship with his family was re-established through
forgiveness.
After their
father Jacob died, the brothers considered the roadblock to their execution as
removed. Yet Joseph demonstrated an accurate portrayal of forgiveness. He said
to them, “Don’t be afraid, I will provide for you and your children.” (Genesis
50:21)
Not only
did he continue having a relationship with his extended family but he took care
of them. This is the essence of forgiveness. Regardless of the sin, the
transgression, the iniquity, or the deception, unforgiveness should never be
allowed to destroy relationships.
Paul wrote
to the Romans these sentiments: “Love must be sincere…. Be devoted to one
another in brotherly love…. Live in harmony with one another…. If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone…. Accept one
another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (12:9,
10, 16-18; 15:7)
Peter wrote,
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one
another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not
repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this
you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8-9)
In this lifetime you will be ill-treated by every type of
person and in numerous ways – a relative, a parent, a spouse, a child, a boss,
a co-worker, a church member, a friend, an acquaintance, and even strangers.
The abuse normally happens by someone close to you or
someone you greatly admire, they are the ones truly able to hurt you because
you care about their opinions.
When you refuse to forgive, the transgressor rules your
life. Angry thoughts control your every move and jeopardize your relationship
with God. The offender’s position with God is
not necessarily jeopardized by your refusal to forgive, but your relationship
with God is in trouble by your feelings towards them. You have a heavenly mandate to forgive.
Forgiven
The measurement you use to forgive is the same one applied
to you. Your relationship with others affects your
relationship with God. A person cannot be
right with the Lord while having wrong attitudes toward others.
John wrote, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates
his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the
light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble…. Anyone who hates his
brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him….
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love…. If anyone says,
‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he
has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 2:9-10, 3:15, 4:8, 20-21)
The continued cleansing of salvation is connected to no
longer retaining malice, or harboring resentment and grudges. A refusal to forgive uncouples the link with God.
Amy Carmichael wrote, “If I say, ‘Yes, I forgive, but I
cannot forget as though God who twice a day washed all the sands on all the
shores of all the world could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know
nothing of Calvary love. If the living God who made the tide and washes the
shores daily cannot wash away from my mind the caustic remarks, the ugliness,
the wrongs in someone else, then I have not even entered into Calvary love.”
When Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Last Supper, he had
an intense and bitter argument with a fellow painter. He was so enraged that he
decided to paint the face of his enemy into the face of Judas. The hated face
would be preserved for ages in the face of the betraying disciple. When
he finished painting Judas everyone recognized the face of the one Leonardo
quarreled with.
Shortly
afterwards it became time to paint the face of Jesus, but something was holding
him back. He realized his hatred was the problem. He worked through the hatred
by repainting Judas’ face with the face of a stranger. Only then was he able to
paint Jesus’ face and complete the masterpiece.
You will
not be able to see the Savior’s face and there will be no ability for God to
complete His masterpiece in you as long as unforgiveness resides in your heart.
Does anyone
actually know how the offender feels about their actions? Could they be feeling
rotten inside? Could the Holy Spirit be bombarding them with conviction? Most
people live with various measures of regret for inappropriate behavior or scathing
remarks. Many people would love an occasional do over – “I wish I could do it over again.”
I gave
oversight to a church in Spearfish, South Dakota for a few years. They were
absolutely wonderful people. The assistant pastor was leading the
congregational sing but the people were not engaging in song. He was literally
working up a sweat and trying his best to gain participation yet they were not
responding to his leadership. For some unknown reason an old joke came to my
mind while observing what was happening:
A father restricted his family from any type
of playful activity on Sundays. On one occasion a son just could not sit still.
The dad said he could go outside for a walk but no running, jumping, skipping,
or playing – just walk.
While walking around the farm yard he
saw a little kitten bouncing around, playing with a piece of string and said
with a fright, “Oh, no! The cute little kitty is not going to make it to
heaven.”
He saw a baby calf in the corral
running and jumping and cried out, “Oh, no! The sweet little calf is not going
to make it either!”
He looked in a stall and saw an old
droopy-eyed jackass and thought, “Now that’s a good Christian.”
When the
song service concluded, I came to the pulpit and said without thinking, “My,
my, you look like a bunch of droopy-eyed jackasses.” The congregation looked
shocked, the assistant nearly fell out of his chair, and my wife had daggers in
her eyes. I wished like everything I could have caught those words and put them
back in my mouth but it was too late. As a side note, however, the members did
become livelier.
Yet the
damage was done. All I could do was ask for forgiveness. The matter was
completely out of my hands. I had no control over how the offended felt or what
they would do. The only thing I could hope for was mercy. The incident
eventually went down in the annals of time as the day the pastor told the truth, causing several laughing moments
by everyone.
A poem by
Chip Heim captures the essence of regret:
They laugh and smile and talk and
embrace and I do too.
But sometimes my smile covers a tear.
And no one knows.
Right now my tear is from an it.
I’m sorry, so very sorry I did it.
What would they think if they knew my
it?
Would the laughs vanish? The smiles
disappear?
Would the talk be hurled at me?
The embrace taken back?
Do they have an it?
What do they do with it?
Why do we act for each other when there
is no play?
There is only life,
And that life includes a lot of it.
The point is not to celebrate it but
only to admit to it.
I am told Jesus knows everything, which
means he knows about it.
And yet He whispers in words too good to
be true,
“I died for you – don’t worry about it.”
Let Jesus
cover the occasional it in your life
and the it in the lives of others.
Forgiven
The Greek
word translated forgive is rich in
meaning – to let go, disregard, dismiss, pardon, cancel. Have you taken steps
to discard the ills that others have done to you?
A person said
to John Wesley, “I never forgive and I never forget.” Wesley responded, “Then I hope you never
sin.”
Found in a
Hallmark card are these words: We have to
let go of the past in order to enjoy the present and be able to dream of the
future.
Forgive and be forgiven.
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