Forgiveness
Have you ever wandered if there is a limit to forgiveness? Some of us may have that one person who just doesn’t “get it” and continually walks all over our good graces. Do we continue to accept an apology? Is there a point of no return for anyone? We know the story about Peter asking Jesus about how many times he should forgive his brother…”up to seven times?” On Peter’s part this was very generous, but Jesus’ answer “not seven times, but seventy-seven times” points out Peter’s misunderstanding of the topic. In God’s economy forgiveness has no limits.
But how does forgiveness apply to those cases in which a terrible offense or injustice has occurred? Is forgiveness even fair? Take for example the Holocaust. Wow…where do you start with this one? Can true forgiveness occur? In the book “The Sunflower” by Simon Wiesenthal a dying SS soldier has Wiesenthal brought into his hospital room so that he could confess his offenses against the Jews to this lowly Jewish prisoner. Wiesenthal, questioning whether or not he could forgive someone on another person’s behalf, did not know how to respond and simply walked out of the room. This SS soldier died without forgiveness. Can you blame Wiesenthal? What would you have done? I encourage you to get a copy of this book and wrestle through this very, very important issue.
Another book that I want to recommend that deals with forgiving a terrible offense is called “Forgiving the Dead Man Walking.” In it Debbie Morris tells of an event in her life when she and her boyfriend were kidnapped by two men. Debbie was raped and her boyfriend beat up and shot (not killed). Eventually the men released her and she tells her story of the process of forgiving these “unforgivable” men. Please read this book and allow the power of Debbie’s story to teach you about the power of forgiveness.
I leave you with these two thoughts on forgiveness. (1) The Bible points out that our being forgiven by God is, in part, connected to the measure by which we forgive others. “For when you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Mt. 6:14). (2) “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We have done nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. No matter how many times we fail or how grievous our offense, Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is sufficient to cleanse us completely of our sin.
May God bless us in our journey to understand and apply forgiveness.
Great topic! I know for me that there have been times when I have forgiven people who have hurt me deeply but the storm in my stomach persisted even though I told them and God that I forgave them. So I persisted in bringing it to God and praying about it and ultimately God did take that storm away. It’s not always that way for me but I learned a lot through my struggle to forgive and was glad for the process and glad to still the storm!
Hi, Christopher–read your blog today–would like to borrow that book if you have it; Forgiveness for me is a perspective issue-it is choosing to turn the boat out of the harbor of why & revenge (huge rocks) and rowing back out into the huge Sea of Trust–the rocks are remembered but become smaller and smaller the further into the open sea you get; the key is the turning (repenting). Love you and Brooke and so glad you are part of the EBC family!