The world is filled with gruesome realities of hate, revenge and destruction. Disturbing regularities of the world and its hurtful wounds may resonate within our hearts, consequently; we may object to forgive people. Hatred and vengeance are a problem of the heart and as mentioned last week…the “heart is deceitful.” Jeremiah 17:9. You might say, “Philip, you just don’t understand, you don’t know what they did, you don’t understand that they are not even sorry for what they have done.” And you would be right… I don’t know or understand any of those things. Yet, when I look at scripture, I cannot find any of those conditions connected to forgiveness. When Christ died for us, we were not sorry for our sins on the contrary we were as depraved as we could be. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6 NIV
“All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:12 NIV
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 NIV
God forgave all our sins while we were not seeking forgiveness, we were still living in our sin and rejected God in our lives. He forgave even though there was nothing that we had done to merit any mercy, on the contrary we rejected His very Son and had chosen to remain in sin. If not for His love and calling of us, we would still be filled with broken lives and remain unforgiving sinners.
The heart certainly is a problem and in order to heal the brokenness it must start within ourselves. When we consider forgiving others, you must remember it is not about them. Instead, remember Christ’s words on the cross as his life excruciatingly ebbed away. It is more about the example that God has set for us to live up to. We forgive not because the other person deserves forgiveness but because God has forgiven us, we forgive totally, completely and as often as necessary for this is how love triumphs over hate.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 NIV
Anchor In The Storm 