Forgiveness
For many of us, it is difficult to comprehend forgiveness because we have not seen it very often. Almost every relationship-at home, at school, at work-is based on performance: you get what you deserve. But forgiveness is based on two revolutionary concepts: mercy and grace. Mercy means “you don’t get what you deserve.” And grace means “you get what you don’t deserve.” As sinners, we deserve eternal condemnation for our sins; we don’t deserve for our sins to be forgiven and for God to make us his dear children. But that’s what has happened!
Let me share two passages of Scripture with you. The first one is in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. He wrote to them:
When you were dead in your sins . . . , God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
Paul is referring to a Roman debtor’s prison. In those days, if your credit card was overdrawn, they’d arrest you and throw you in jail. Then above the door they’d post a list of all the debts you owed. You stayed there until the debts were paid. Your sins and mine put us in debt. We were in jail, with the list of “written codes” of all our sins posted on our jail cell. But Jesus didn’t leave us there. He took that list off our door and nailed them to his jail cell, the cross, where he paid for them himself. Our cell was opened, and we were set free. Did we deserve that? Of course not! That’s mercy and grace.
A second passage is in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He made an incredible statement:
God made [Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Cor 5:21)
When we trust Christ as our Savior, he takes all our sin and we are declared “righteous.” What a swap! That’s incredible!
Some people have asked me, “What is the ‘unpardonable sin’?” That term refers to a person rejecting Christ over the entire course of his life. It isn’t a single sin like murder or lying or cheating. Those are sins, but God is willing to forgive those if we trust him. The only sin that isn’t forgivable is a lifelong rejection of Christ.
Many Christians don’t grasp the reality of forgiveness. When they sin, they think they have to “feel bad enough long enough” to make up for their sins. But this is penance, not forgiveness. There’s a big difference. Penance is our effort to overcome our sin. Forgiveness is what Jesus did for us. Don’t get caught up in a guilt trip to somehow pay for your sins on your own. Understanding and experiencing forgiveness brings joy and the determination not to sin again.
And a few people think, “Well, hey, if I can be forgiven for any sin, then I’m going to sin all I want!” This is, to use a biblical term, stupid! If we have even the most basic understanding that Jesus gave his life to pay for our sins, we will do ANYTHING we can do to please him by doing what’s right. One of my favorite passages of Scripture says:
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (II Cor 5:14-15)
Forgiveness is a free gift to you and me, but it cost Christ his life to give it to us. That helps us appreciate it even more.
