It’s one of the very hardest things in the world for most of us to do – Forgive.
Yet, Jesus
commands us to forgive others, and not only to forgive them, but to forgive
them in the same way that we have been forgiven by God. That’s a lot of
forgiveness. In fact, it’s complete forgiveness that let’s go and forgets, as
if the wrong doing never even took place.
But that’s
not all that Jesus has to say about the topic. I hope you’re sitting down for
this.
Jesus
actually says that he won’t forgive us if we don’t forgive others.
Yes. He
really does. Right here:
"For
if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive
men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." - JESUS
(Matthew 6:14-15)
Whoa
Nelly. Is Jesus suggesting that his forgiveness to us is conditional? I’ve
never once heard a single sermon on such a thing in my entire life. How can
that be?
Perhaps Jesus
is forgetting that "if we confess
our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness"? (1 John 1:9)
And what
about the fact that the Psalms tell us that "as
far as the east is from the west, this is how far he has removed our sins from
us"?(Ps 103:12)
What’s
Jesus talking about here? How can he say that we can’t be forgiven of our sins
unless we first forgive others of their sins against us?
The reason
is very simple: Unforgivness is a sin.
So, if we
hold a grudge against someone, that is a sin. If we refuse to repent of our
sin, and if we do not stop practicing this sin of unforgiveness, we cannot be
forgiven of it.
In order
to receive forgiveness, we have to honestly confess our sins to God and we need
to repent of these actions which hurt our relationship with God - and which
also hurts us as well.
As hard,
or even as impossible, as forgiveness can sometimes be, we have to learn to
forgive anyway.
“There is someone that I love even
though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept though some
of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he
hurts the people I love the most. That person is me.” - C.S. Lewis
See, this
is why Jesus also commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Because we give ourselves permission to do horrible things and still consider
ourselves worthy of forgiveness and mercy. That means we need to love others
enough to consider that they, also, are worthy of being loved and forgiven and
shown mercy.
Now, the
truth is, we are no more “worthy” of forgiveness than anyone else is, including
the ones who have harmed us. But Jesus doesn’t give us any room to argue. Our
forgiveness is tied to our forgiveness of others.
Let’s
repent of the sin of unforgiveness and extend the same grace and mercy and love
that we want so much for ourselves.
Forgiving others unlocks you from the prison of bitterness. It also sets you free to receive God’s forgiveness.
-kg
When Jesus made that statement those folks were still under the law..he said it to convict..after his death and resurrection and gods spirit in dwelling true believers they will be under gods compulsion to forgive...it's a good way for you to check yourself out to see if your really saved or not.
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me the source of that quote from C. S. Lewis? I haven't been able to find it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen it quoted in several places, and in the book "unchristian" but I'm not sure the actual reference source.
ReplyDelete