We have a forgiving God. We receive His forgiveness purely on GRACE. We pay no penance; we did no work to justify forgiveness. In fact, we cannot promise we will always stay RIGHT. We are forgiven because of Christ.
We forgive because we have been forgiven.
So what does these verses mean? Matt 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Forgiveness is a matter of grace. If we persist in an unforgiving attitude towards others, we cannot fully experience God’s forgiveness for us. In order words, we are putting ourselves on the ground of condemnation, always feeling guilty, unworthy... How do I know? Because your unforgiving spirit is a sign that you have not fully receive forgiveness from God.
Remember the parable we read last month - Luke 7:41-43
41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Verse 47 "But He who has been forgiven little loves little."
If you’ve been forgiven, you’ll love much. You’ll be able by His grace, forgive others. If you can’t, then in actual fact, the Father has not forgiven you. If God has forgiven you (and you fully comprehend that), then you won’t be like that. If the Father has forgiven you, you’ll be very loving...
That’s why Jesus said - Matt 5:23-24
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer you
How can you be right with God when you’ve this grudge against a fellow brother?
How can I say "I love God and yet hates his brother? (1 John 4:20 says, he is a liar.)
20 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.
God’s forgiveness comes to those who are forgiving... If you’re not forgiving, He has not forgiven you. If you do not love, He has not loved you...
Saying: "One who will not forgive cannot receive forgiveness; mercy flows through the same channel, whether being given or received."
When you withhold forgiveness, you hurt the other person, but you hurt yourself more - much more! But when you forgive, you release peace and restoration to the forgiven - and also to yourself.
1. FORGIVENESS RELEASES YOU FROM BONDAGE
Forgiveness is not getting even, but releasing the charge.
In his book, Lee: The Last Years, Charles Flood writes about an incident that happened after the American Civil War. Brigadier General Robert E. Lee, The son of Revolutionary War hero, visited a woman from Kentucky after the War She took him to the remains of a huge, grand old tree in front of her house.
She stood there and wept - bitterly crying that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed the Federal artillery fire from the north. She looked to Lee, expecting him to say something condemning about the north or at least sympathizing with her loss.
After just a short silence, Lee said: "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.
We are nursing the grudges, bitterness if we refuse to forgive and it will eventually corrupt us. We become victims of bitterness.
• Chinese proverb: “Whoever opts for revenge should dig two graves.”
• “…not forgiving someone is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
Jesus says, in Luke 17:3-4
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,’ forgive him."
Paul says, Col 3:13
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
2. FORGIVENESS GIVES YOU THE FREEDOM TO GROW
In order words, it gives us room to make mistakes. No one is perfect and there will be times when we need to say, ‘Sorry’, probably many times. When mistakes or wrongs are committed, it need not be the end of the world for us, or the end of a relationship.
If God would have judged us for our sins, we would be condemned today. But He extended grace instead. Jesus pays the price. His blood was “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin” (Matt 26:28).
Jesus has the chance to choose a DREAM TEAM to be His disciples - the brightest and the best, the genius and the gifted. Yet we look at His team - people who kept missing the point of what He was saying, and eventually ran away from Him. Hardly the people we expect to be "successors" to His work. Yet He restores them... and builds them up.
God makes a way out for us and we experience GRACE. This forgiving grace must continue to flow, in our relationship with people.
One day two brothers went to their rabbi to settle a longstanding conflict. The rabbi got the two to reconcile their differences and shake hands. As they were about to leave, he asked each one to make a wish for the other in honor of the Jewish New Year.
The first brother turned to the other and said, "I wish you what you wish me."
At that, the second brother threw up his hands and said, "See, Rabbi, he’s starting up again!"
Can you tell who really the forgiving one is?
During college days, a man did a prank and accidentally took the life of a classmate. Although he had confessed his wrong to God and the case has been settled, he continued to be so torn up on the inside that he couldn’t keep a job or maintain a good relationship with his wife.
But one day the mother of the boy who had died stopped in to see him. She was astounded that he had been carrying this load of guilt. She assured him that she has forgiven him long ago and that none of her relatives held any ill feeling toward him. Furthermore, she reminded him that God had erased this unfortunate accident from the record.
Then she gently rebuked him, telling him it was wrong for him to be burdened with remorse.
When he finally came to accept the pardon being extended to him, he felt a new sense of freedom, was reunited with his wife, and settled down in a good job.
3. FORGIVENESS LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD’S WORK
Paul says in Romans 12:19-21 "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
The Bible tells us the story of Joseph whose 10 brothers first planned to kill him, and then because they lacked the fortitude to do that they sold him as a slave to traders, who sold him to an Egyptian. Joseph went from slavery to prison, and then to a place in Pharaoh’s court, and finally promoted to be second-in-command over Egypt, under Pharaoh himself.
When famine drives his brothers to Egypt, Joseph was given the chance to avenge himself. He did not but chose to forgive them. And then he said (Gen 50:19-20), “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
The truth here is that in all things, God works out His purposes. We are to forgive because God takes even the things that were meant to hurt us, and He uses them for good, to accomplish His purposes.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Maybe that wrong done to you was to develop your patience, stretch your love for the unlovable, to draw out that forgiving spirit in you... You become a better person through these pains. And God’s purpose is fulfilled. God is more concerned with your BEING than your DOING. He wants to mould you, to be like Jesus.
1 Peter 2:18-25
18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Albert Tomei is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. A young defendant was convicted in his court for gunning down another person, execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned its guilty verdict.
The victim’s family had attended every day of the 2-week trial. On the day of sentencing, the victim’s mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the murderer. They both forgave him.
"You broke the Golden Rule—loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law——loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor," the older of the two women told him, "so you have my address. If you want to write, I’ll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried to hate you. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice."
Judge Tomei writes: "For the first time since the trial began, the defendant’s eyes lost their laser
force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing, unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." [source: www.preachingtoday.com]
In choosing the path of forgiveness, that grandmother unleashed a power that could not be tapped in any other way. And that power was what caused the defendant to hang his head for the first time.
Is there someone who you need to forgive?
Is there someone who you haven’t talked to in a long time because of what they did?
Is there some one who you refuse to trust because of what they did?
Is there someone whom you are waiting for a confession from before you offer forgiveness?
What is our motivation for doing this? The Bible says, we’re just doing for them what God did for us. God could have simply seen our sin and said, “I’ve seen enough, let’s give it to them!” But God looked BEYOND OUR SINS and saw SOMETHING WORTH LOVING. And that’s what we’ve been called to do as well.
