Week 11 - Forgiveness
This week in summary| Day 1 : Beautiful Forgiveness | Romans |
| Day 2 : Full Blown Forgiveness | Romans |
| Day 3 : Hold Nothing Back | Romans |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Romans |
| Day 5 : Planning | Romans |
| Day 1 : Beautiful Forgiveness | Romans |
| Day 2 : Full Blown Forgiveness | Romans |
| Day 3 : Hold Nothing Back | Romans |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Romans |
| Day 5 : Planning | Romans |
The story of mankind is marked with the ever present need for and consistent, loving provision of God's forgiveness. Rightly understanding this forgiveness does not merely supply a salve to our moments that fall short of perfection but properly orients our understanding of who God is, how we have been separated from Him, and the lengths He will go to reconcile us to Him. It also provides us an example of how our forgiveness of others should look.
God once sent a man named Jeremiah to speak to His people. These people had discarded God's laws and served other gods. Jeremiah had the unfortunate task of communicating to them the consequences of this behavior which included being taken captive by other nations, removed from the land that God promised them and restricted from worshiping God in the Temple that remained there because it too was to be destroyed. Jeremiah spoke for God in saying to them, "I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished." Their sin against God was great and it carried with it real consequences. To understand forgiveness it is necessary to acknowledge that our actions impact our relationships and right standings with people and God and that sometimes those impacts cannot be simply undone. To understand forgiveness we must first acknowledge that it is needed and that our actions have put us on the wrong side of justice.
However, as Jeremiah continues speaking to God's people, we see the message change. God understands the people grieving from His discipline and hears them, who he refers to as Ephraim, their family lineage, by saying:
I have heard Ephraim grieving, 'You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the LORD my God. For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.'
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD....I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah
And so we are introduced to His beautiful forgiveness. The offense has been committed and justice for the offense is due. And though that justice is righteous and fair, in His love God is willing to forgive what was done, removing the burden of justice and remembering the offense no more.
Forgiveness is not a fair deal or a compromise. It is a wronged party choosing to incur the cost of justice upon themselves, to forget the wrong that was done against them, and to restore the relationship and standing between themselves and the offender as if the offense never took place.
On the cross, we see Jesus, who is the wronged party, incur the cost of our offenses upon himself specifically so that the relationship between us and God can be restored and our standing as children to loving Father can be set right.
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:21-22
This question from Peter comes within a conversation between Jesus and his disciples about who is the greatest in the Kingdom. The answers Jesus provides points to a life that represents humbling themselves in the service of others (likely the exact opposite of what they thought would make them the greatest.) And here, Jesus addresses how His followers should forgive others.
In the Jewish mind, numbers were often used symbolically to demonstrate a bigger principle. The number 7 was used to represent a complete amount, referencing back to the number of days of Creation. So when Peter proposes this question to Jesus and offers his own answer, it appears like he has it nailed. However, even when the students of Jesus thought they knew the extreme nature of His heart, it generally turned out that they were just scratching the surface. Jesus' response here not only affirms the expectation of complete forgiveness but amplifies it to the extent that we should read it as forgiveness that cannot be tracked or counted.
In the Kingdom of God forgiveness is not only generous; it is by all reasonable means outrageous. As followers of Christ we are called to live a life of humility that has the will and strength to restore all relationships and to seek that restoration at our own cost. This often betrays our sense of fairness, our sense of justice. But justice only demands that the wrongs be made right; it is blind to which party covers the cost of doing so. In our forgiveness, we take stock of the ways we have been wronged so that we may measure the cost of righting the wrong and take the balance upon ourselves.
That said, our forgiveness, just like the forgiveness of God, is a willing response to a seeking party, not an open invitation to be taken advantage of. Our understanding of what Jesus says to Peter sometimes causes us to be surprised at the number of times within God's story that we find His forgiveness being contingent on how people respond to Him. Although it is true that the well of forgiveness does not run dry, it still requires the thirsty man to drop his bucket in.
The difference between Jesus' perspective of forgiveness and that of the world that surrounded him (and us today) is not a misunderstanding of the basic elements but a halfhearted commitment in seeing them through to completion. We want to "forgive" without the "forget". We want to see wrongs made right but only if the effort comes from the person that committed the offense. We want to see relationships restored once but retain the right to be weary the next time restoration is needed. We want to be credited with the graciousness of being humble but also the shrewdness of not being fooled a second time.
Most of these are rooted in the desire that our hurts be acknowledged. We want people to know that we have been wronged, that what they have done has hurt us, and that we won't be taken advantage of. This is understandable, of course, and God is often described in the Bible as a loving Father, comforting His children when they need it. But when we stop halfway through the process of forgiveness we may very well have our hurts acknowledged but we also suspend those hurts indefinitely in our lives. Wrongs will be identified but never rectified. If we "forgive" but don't "forget", relationships will never be fully restored because you will always be holding something back or over the person who wronged you. In this way, we get stuck in our hurts but never free of them.
Forgiveness in the Kingdom of Jesus, however, does all of these things. When we forgive someone completely, wrongs are righted and we are free of them. Relationships are restored and we once again are able to embrace them. And certainly our hurts are acknowledged, if not by the one that caused them, by our King who can provide peace in circumstances that could not be found regardless of the human effort. So we pursue forgiveness because forgiveness is concerned about justice, restoration and peace, all things that are tenets of the Kingdom we live in and of the aspects of the character of the King we serve.
Identify 3 opportunities facing you right now that may advance your purpose and vision
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Identify 3 threats facing you right that hinder your purpose and vision
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| Strengths | Weaknesses | |
| Strengths - Opportunities | Weaknesses - Opportunities | |
|---|---|---|
Opportunities | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |
| Strengths - Threates | Weaknesses - Threats | |
Threats | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |