Daily Grace At Jesus` Feet

February 07, 2010

Forgiveness – A Forgiver’s Freedom!!

Forgive as the Lord forgave you – Colossians 3:13

For most of us forgiveness is a delicate subject to discuss and deal with yet in reality this has to be a subject of interest as Christians for a healthy Christian living. No one in the world can claim to have not committed any mistake/s or sin/s (except Jesus Christ). Due to the nature of the broken world everyone wrong one another only at different magnitudes. The lubricating oil helps car run smoothly against friction; like wise “forgiveness” helps us move forward and lead a life that will be pleasing to God. Forgiving someone who wronged gives freedom to the person who forgives.

The word, “forgive” means to “give up” resentment against one another and put aside the desire to punish at the least by withdrawing from the relationship. It also mean to stop being angry, holding-up grudge, and to pardon one another.  The Greek for “forgive” is “aphiaymi” occurs more than 100 times in the New Testament which literally means, allow, leave, left, let, let alone, and permission. The unforgiving Spirit could be very costly. It breaks the unity among brethren and divides Christians and families. That is why Apostle Paul reminds us in Colossians 3:12-14, the importance of forgiving one another and reasons out the need for forgiveness towards others. He says, “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Forgiveness is very hard to the standalone. The reason is it hurts, and it costs. Forgiveness is free to the recipient; but costly to the forgiver. Forgiveness happens when the injured person who justly angered absorb the anger and bear his own anger so “let go” the offender. This is a very difficult process because the absorbed anger cannot be overlooked. To clean-up the mess within the forgiver is very hard. That is why to vent the bitterness many handle the situation with unforgiveness toward other in retaliation, like taking the “hangman” role. It is like, “you offended me; now my retaliation is ‘I will not forgive.’”  The best alternate route Jesus Christ demonstrated us in Calvary where he was brutally crucified for our Himalayan sins and mistakes. Because of this an injured person may choose to accept and bear his angry feelings and burden of someone’s offenses personally, and find release through confession and prayer and let the offender go free. That is forgiveness! It takes so much heart-strength to forgive because the whole truckload of pains to bear and released from the heart in forgiveness. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Our Father, because of His grace on us, forgave us and sent His son who gave His life on the cross to forgive our debts otherwise we can never pay. His generosity in forgiveness should be the basis for our forgiveness toward one another.

Jesus Christ greatly emphasized “forgiveness” before he demonstrated forgiveness on the cross to enable the world see the great day of forgiveness and freedom to the mankind. That is why, He says forgiving others more important than a gift to me (Matthew 5:23-25), forgive others before you pray (Mark 11:24-26), He added the “forgiveness aspect” in the Lord’s prayer He taught us (Luke 11:4), He also asked His Father to forgive those crucified Him (Luke 23:34).

We read about the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-25 where Jesus talks about a servant who is unwilling to forgive his debtor $1000 (100 denari) when he was forgiven by his master for his own debt of $3 billion (10,000 talents). Though makes us think, how in the world a master can lend that humongous loan to a servant, Jesus says this point to indicate the greatness of God’s forgiveness and our total inability to pay back what we received from God. It is even humiliating to think that when I was forgiven a large magnitude of indebtedness, that I am unable to forgive others. Unforgiveness spirit costs the holder than the offender.  If we won't forgive, bitterness will become firmly engraved in our life and inner characters. The total trust is lost and we will not be able to maintain cordial relationship with one another. Besides, every health issue has its roots in the emotional stress and strain we go through due to the spirit of unforgiveness, anger, grudge, bitterness, and every evil thought. As we saw in the above parable, the unforgiving servant was handed over to the jailers for torturing, our unforgivness will torture us life time. On the other hand, forgiveness will free us to go on in peace, unhindered in our enjoyment of the Lord. Let's forgive. Let's let go of the past and leave all the paying back to Him.

Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You've probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That's true forgiveness (Credits: James Newton)

Author Roy L. Smith writes and suggests a great way to forgive others as below:

The art of forgiving is a spiritual grace every Christian should develop. Because this is so difficult to put into practice, he offers the following suggestions:

1. Begin by assuring yourself that compared to Christ's suffering you haven't been seriously wronged at all. 
2. Recall the many kind deeds that have been shown to you, perhaps even by the person who has harmed you. 
3. List the benefits you have received from the Lord. 
4. Thank Him for blessing you with His love and forgiveness each day. 
5. Make an honest effort to pray for the one who has injured you. 
6. Go even further by looking for an opportunity to help him. 
7. If the offense is especially hard to forget, try to erase the memory by thinking gracious and generous thoughts. 
8. Finally, before you fall asleep at night, repeat slowly and thoughtfully that phrase from the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

No doubt….Forgiveness offer a great freedom to the forgiver! Will you forgive? Let us do our best for God's glory!

Prayer: Father, Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Help me to constantly forgive other who offends me. In Jesus Name …Amen!

Have a Blessed Sunday!

“Daily Grace at Jesus` Feet,” - Devotionals written by Dr. Paul Joseph. Copyright 2010 - 2011  Dr. Paul Joseph; All rights reserved.

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