FORGIVENESS PART 1

FORGIVENESS  PART 1

I John 1:9 “If we admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Ephesians 4:32 “And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another (readily and freely), as God in Christ forgave you.”

Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive people their trespasses (their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment), your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” But if you do not forgive others their trespasses (their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment), neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.” 

 

We know that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.  He died in our place.  He saved us from the jaws of death of eternal damnation.  Just as we accept God’s forgiveness, so we too must forgive others for their offenses against us. 

Forgiveness is so important that when the Apostles asked Jesus to show them how to pray, He prayed the “Our Father” which has “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In the parable of the two debtors in Luke Chapter 7, Jesus said that a lender had two debtors, one owed him a great amount of money and the other much less.  When the lender realized that they did not have any means to pay him back, he forgave them both.  Then Jesus asked Peter which one of them will love him more?  Peter then answered that the one with the greatest debt.  Jesus told this parable because of a reaction from a Pharisee of a woman, a well-known sinner, who had anointed Jesus with expensive perfume. 

At another time, Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother as many as seven times and Jesus answered him as many as seventy times seven!

Jesus then spoke a parable about an ungrateful servant who had a huge debt and could not pay his master back so the master ordered him to be sold as well as his wife and children and everything he possessed and payment to be made.  When the servant heard this he begged his master for pity and filled with compassion, the master released him and forgave him cancelling his debt.  But when this servant found out that his fellow servant owed him money and could not pay, he had him put in prison till the debt was paid.  When his fellow servants found out about this, they told their master and the master became angry  and told him that he forgave and cancelled all his debt and that he should have had mercy on his fellow servant and then turned him over to the jailers till he paid all of his debt back.  Matthew 18:35, “So also My heavenly Father will deal with every one of you, if you do not freely forgive your brother from your heart his offenses.” 

How many of us have carried around unforgiveness for a certain person or persons?  You have heard the old adage that unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to get sick?  Actually it is the person who has an unforgiving heart that can become sick, this is based on fact.  Unforgiveness can actually block our prayers for healing and other prayers because we are not in harmony with God.  We need to be in harmony with God and His Word if we expect our prayers to be answered.  

There is no other way to say it, but Jesus Himself said that if we do not forgive, then God will not forgive us.  It is very simple.  If this seems harsh, God is a just God.  There is a story of an African pastor who died in a car accident and was taken to hell by an angel.  He saw many people suffering in hell.  He saw people who had been Christians but had unconfessed sin in their lives like a pastor that had secretly stolen money from the Church.  The angel told him that this is where he would be because he had not forgiven his wife before he died.  He was shocked because he told the angel that he was a pastor preaching the Gospel.  Miraculously, he was resurrected from the dead and now lives to tell the story of the reality of hell and the lot for those who will not forgive.

Corrie ten Boom once said, “My name is Corrie ten Boom and I am a murderer.”  She went on to say that a certain prison guard in a concentration camp had mocked her and spit on her and others.  She hated him and she went on to say Jesus says when you hate someone you are guilty of murder.”  I John 3:15 “Anyone who hates (abominates, detests) his brother (in Christ) is (at heart) a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding (persevering) within him.”

As she continued with her speech about forgiveness, she noticed that that same prison guard was in the audience and it appeared that he had converted since the last time she had seen him.  After she spoke, he came up to her and said, “‘Ah, dear sister Corrie, isn’t it wonderful how God forgives?”  He then extended his hand towards her to shake it.  

Corrie said, that all she could feel was hate in her heart.  She silently told the Lord that there was nothing in her that could ever love that man. I hate him for what he did to me and my family.  But you tell us that we are to love our enemies.  This is impossible for me but nothing is impossible for you.  So if you expect me to love this man it’s going to have to come from you, because all I feel is hate.  

Corrie felt the Lord telling her to put out her hand to the man and as she put out her hand, she said, “It was only after my simple act of obedience that I felt something almost like warm oil was being poured over me.  And with it came the unmistakable message: Well done, Corrie.  That’s how my children behave. And the hate in my heart was absorbed and gone.  And so one murderer embraced another murderer, but in the love of Christ.”  (“Hope Has It’s Reasons,” Rebecca Manley Pippert)

So what about you?  Where do you need to extend forgiveness today?  Just like Corrie ten Boom said and quoted scripture that said that if we hate someone it is the same as murder because of what is in your heart.  I know it is very hard to forgive sometimes but the first step is to ask God to give you the strength to forgive and then say it even if it is out loud.  Just take the first step just like Corrie did.  I don’t believe that God expects you to forget but He will give you the strength once you take the first step to heal from that hurt or hurts that you have experienced.

This is the first part of a two program series about forgiveness.  Tune in next week for some of the prayers for healing the wounds in your life as well as prayers of forgiveness.