“How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.” Psalm 32
“Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Yeshua *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:21-35
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:27-31
When we forgive, it may incur a cost to us; we should realize and even welcome that cost. This may go against our natural inclination and will but remember, vengeance belongs to the Lord. We are to never forget the cost our Lord paid on our behalf. No cost we could ever incur could compare with the cost He paid for us. When we forgive, we will be refocusing our plans of revenge into God’s plan and God’s ways. After that, our pain is relieved and our life can go on in a better direction!
When we forgive one another, we actively improve our lives; our relationships can grow and we can become more useful to others, especially to God. When we realize that forgiveness involves cost, we can gain the right mindset. Scripture teaches us not to base our forgiveness on feelings and desires, but that it should resemble what Christ gave us, as He was our example. John 3:16 succinctly explains what forgiveness cost our Lord. His undeserved, painful death and separation from the Father was a substitution for what we deserved; this was our Lord’s suffering and cost.
As a result of what Christ did for us on the cross, the cost for us to receive forgiveness from God is very minimal and limited. We must keep this in mind, using it as our strength to get through the difficulty of forgiving others. We need to accept the consequences of wrong choices, such as a parent forgiving a child for breaking a priceless object. The parent bears the cost to either replace it or suffer without it, and the child gets off free; well, with some sort of punishment to discourage the same action in the future. This is the cost of suffering. In the case of a man who lost his wife to murder, his suffering is that he cannot be with his wife anymore. When we forgive another person, we choose to permanently accept the suffering that will take place because of the wrong that occurred. It is very hard to make that voluntary choice to take on the suffering, even when we do not deserve it; yet, we must make it so as to grow in our walk with our Lord and to grow toward our full potential.
Humanity owes a great deal to the Creator of the universe, our willful disobedience to Him is a slap in His face. We owe a debt we could never conceive or pay. Most people live their lives as an insult to what Christ has done. Yet, Christ still pursues them with ultimate love! Christ did not owe our debt, yet He paid it!
Forgiveness involves a substitution, since it requires a penalty to be paid; the victim who forgives will pay that penalty. Christ was the substitute for a punishment that we deserved. We may not understand the mystery behind this but we can trust in our Lord, who will carry us through it. The relation between what Christ went through and the call for us to take on the responsibility for a sin we did not commit, will give us a deeper understanding into the character and nature of God.
From this, we should mature to a deeper level and be used in a greater way to further the cause of Christ. The result is that we take our response to evil and redirect it for good, and to a point, take the evil on ourselves. The result is that Satan is defeated and prevented from receiving a prize, the reward that he desired to gain from our refusal to forgive. This is why the cost accepted by our Lord is the greatest cost of all. We need to realize this and respond accordingly to one another.
Forgiveness is worth the agony we may go through because it will heal our wounds and relieve the pain. Perhaps a scar will remain but take it to heart and recognize that scar as a badge of honor to help us grow and mature, to redirect our wrong path onto the right direction. Be the person who forgives, do not be the person who refuses to!
Questions
- Do you believe that you can live a more improved quality life when you forgive? Elaborate on your opinion.
- Do you believe that forgiveness is worth the agony we may go through? Elaborate on your opinion.
- When you’ve forgiven others in the past, has it incurred a cost to you? How so? Was there anything you can have done better?
- What needs to take place in the lives of most Christians, to be able to welcome the cost of forgiveness?
- What does it mean to accept the suffering of a wrong?
- How can forgiveness help your relationships grow and become more useful to others, especially God?
- What can you do to better understand what Christ has done for you so you can do your best to be faithful, even in times of pressure, waiting and uncertainty?
- What needs to take place in some people for them to be rescued out of their distorted thinking that “because we have grace we do not have to forgive”?
- Why must we keep ourselves tuned into God constantly and continually, allowing Him to carry us through every situation?
- How can you better understand that forgiving others is worth the distress you may feel?