Forgiveness

I am going to preface this article by saying that we serve a perfect God who is incapable of sinning. God does not need our forgiveness, but we as sinners need to practice forgiveness so we can be released. If the word forgiveness here bothers you, try replacing it with the word “release”.

I took a lot of heat from my last post because of the healing prayer I shared. Many questioned the theological soundness of the prayer because of the following sentence: “Heavenly Father, I forgive you for permitting this to happen to me and please forgive me for any way that I have blamed you in this offense.” *insert screaming face emoji here*

I know what you are thinking, “Grey, how could you possibly imply that we can forgive God?! He has done nothing wrong!” To which I say, I agree, he has done nothing wrong. Friend, if you are offended by this sentence you may not truly understand what forgiveness is.

Matthew 18:21-35 tells the allegory of a king settling the debts of all his servants. One servant came before him whose debt was so great there was no way that he could ever repay it back. The king was going to have him and his family sold so the debt could be repaid, but when the servant pleaded with him the king forgave him. This same servant went and found someone who owed him a miniscule fraction of what he owed the king and demanded repayment immediately. He did not give the same mercy that had been given to him and the king found out and threw him in prison.

Forgiveness is a lot like settling a debt – especially one that can never be repaid. In this transaction though, two people were released: the servant who owed the debt, and the king who was counting it.

So how does this relate to forgiving God? When the king forgives the servant, he is releasing him from the expectation of repayment, by all metrics the account is settled. There was nothing the servant could do, he had no hope of ever being able to repay the debt. The extension of grace through the form of forgiveness saved the servant and his family’s lives. But lets pause here for a minute and look at this allegory from the other side:

The servant probably resented the king for letting him take on so much debt. He probably despised the king for his life circumstances, he probably blamed the king for all of the overtime that he had to work just to stay afloat to cover the stupid debt he took on. If this king was so good, then why wouldn’t he have ensured that his servant would have success? Because of the King’s position in his life, the servant probably resented the King for allowing him to take on the debt. The servant definitely needed forgiveness (freedom) for his debt, but he probably also needed to be freed from his own expectations as well – and this is ultimately what forgiveness is: releasing someone from your expectation and judgement of them, which by the way has to be done regardless of whether or not they even did anything wrong. Forgiveness releases the forgiver from the countenance of the debt (perceived or actual), because we are sinners, forgiveness releases us.

I’m going to harp on this a little more just to drive the point home: JESUS, who was perfect and blameless FORGAVE us. He died for us so that we might be reconciled to him. He expects the same from us: that we should die to ourselves so that our own relationships might be reconciled as well. Jesus sets the example that forgiveness is the key to reconciliation. Forgiveness is NOT an elective in following Jesus, it is a command.

Friend, if someone comes and asks you for forgiveness do you withold it? Is your forgiveness conditional on them meeting some expectation or demand you have? Is your forgiveness final when you give it or do you retract it the each time you remember the hurt?

When you hold someones debt against them, YOU are the one being held prisoner. You are holding onto the hurt, the pain, and the misery. The crazy part is, that person who hurt you so deeply may not even be aware and is off living their best life. The same way that we were never meant to be debtors, we are also not meant to be creditors. God gave up himself for us so that we might live in him, and this means being out of worksbased accounting – remember, our righteousness is but filthy rags before him.

Jesus has so much freedom he wants to extend to you. The only way to extend true forgiveness is you have to receive it first, and then you will be able extend that same forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is a fruit borne from abiding with Jesus in the secret place.

Podcast in the works, I am sure this will be something we cover.

Happy Thanksgiving!!