Humanly speaking, forgiveness is a very difficult thing to do, especially if we have been hurt so badly. Do you remember the saying: “To err is human, but to forgive is divine”? If you do, then it is very understandable to know that we need divine grace, a force that surpasses our human emotions, will and all mind in order to forgive. If this is the case, then we must understand how God has forgiven us and how he expects us to forgive each other.
Every person is separated from God because of sin (Isaiah 59:1-15, Romans 3:9-20, Romans 5:12-21, Sirach 7:20, Romans 7:14-25)
Sirach 7:20 revealed that no one in this world always does what is right. So our imperfection is our greatest weakness. Since Adamic sin, everyone is condemned to be a sinner and that is why we all must die and that is why we are useless and unacceptable to God. Sin has prevented God from answering our prayers and we commit many actions that displease God. As mere humans we have been sold into slavery to sin, we want to do the right thing but end up doing the things we hate. How miserable is this situation.
God has always sought to form a close relationship with People. (Exodus 19:3b-8, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Isaiah 54:1-10, 1 Peter 1:1-10, 1 John 3:1-10)
In Exodus 19, the Lord brought the Israelites out of slavery. As such, he has “earned the right to be heard” when he offered to enter into this relationship with the Israelites in verses 5 and 6. Why did God choose Israel as his nation? It was not because Israel was perfect. In fact, he chose Israel despite many bad things they had said and done. Through Israel, God wants to carry out his plan for the entire world. On several occasions God has tried to create new covenants with them and in Jeremiah 31:33, He said: “Here is the new covenant that I, the Lord, will make with the people of Israel; I will write my laws on their hearts. and minds I will be their God and they will be my people”. Not forgetting His promises of protection in Isaiah 54:1-10, 1 Peter 1:1-10 and finally His love for us as His children in 1 John 3:1 – 10. All this was shown to us despite our great infidelity and sin.
God has come close to people in a personal way by sending Jesus Christ. (Col1:15-23, Romans 5:1-11, 1 Peter 2:10-25, John 3:1-21, 2 Timothy 1:3-10, Ephesians 2:1-10)
God hates sin so much that its only remission is bloodshed. In the days of old, animal blood was shed for temporary cleansing from sin. But it takes clean and blameless, perfect, sinless blood to bring permanent redemption to man once and for all. Since all humans have at least the Adamic sin in them, the best choice was a blameless, pure and clean being, to whom Jesus Christ volunteered. And God, in his infinite mercy and immersed love for Man, allowed his only begotten Son to come and die for mankind on the cross.
God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ is available to all people (Psalm 52:1-17, 1 John 1:5-10, Romans 10:5-13, Psalm 32:1-11, Romans 8:31-39, Romans 3:21-26)
Now that Christ has died for us, redemption from sin has been accomplished. But only if we accept him and appreciate his forgiveness, we will not be forgiven. Romans 3:21-24 makes this point quite explicit. “Now we see how God makes us acceptable, and it is not by obeying the Law of Moses. God treats everyone equally. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Jesus Christ, he freely accepts us and frees us from our sins. New Life in Christ calls a person to live Christ’s way (Romans 6:1-14, Matthew 20:20-28, Ephesians 4:17-32, Galatians 5:16-26, 1 John 4:7 -21, Romans 12:1-21)
One of the characteristics of Christ is Love, and from Him flows abundant Love. There are some people we know who are full of hate. They hate because they have never accepted love for themselves. God pours out his love on us, but we expect to accept it. When we do, then our response is to Love Him in return and to Love others as well. Love overcomes hate and one of the main ways it does this is through forgiveness. Remember that in another time we were very bad and while we were like that, Christ died for us. So how can we explain why we don’t forgive each other? If this is the case, we will be like the parable of the Officer Who Refused to Forgive in Matthew 18:21-35. This official owed his king 50 million silver coins but he was forgiven after begging. But he could not forgive another man who owed him only a hundred pieces of silver, putting him in jail until he could pay what he owed. Of course! The king was so angry that he ordered the wicked official to be tortured in jail until he paid. If God can forgive the 50 million silver coins we owe him, we are expected to forgive the 100 silver coins our neighbor owes us, no matter how much that debt hurts us. In essence, not forgiving each other nullifies our salvation, and if we meet the Lord in such a way, He will surely deny us in Heaven.
It is reasonable to admit that as humans we can be hurt by the actions of others and therefore feel pain. But Jesus Christ has given us an example, suffering the greatest torture that ever existed, from the very people he came to save. Can you believe it?! If He has gone through so much for us, then we have no excuse not to forgive one another.